As with yesterday’s Brendan in the Guardian, I downloaded this one on my way to bed. The difference was that I was able to solve several clues whilst it was printing out and so the grid wasn’t empty when I retired for the night.
Completing the grid this morning wasn’t quite as straightforward as it might have been with other setters because Dogberry only appears once every three months so it is difficult to remember his style and to get on his wavelength. However, everything fell into place eventually so thanks Dogberry for the mental workout.
Across
1 Keeps going with old excuse for arresting people without blemish (8)
SUSTAINS – SUS (old excuse for arresting people) around (without) STAIN (blemish)
5 Vehicle in which very old frolic (6)
CAVORT – CART (vehicle) around (in which) V (very) O (old)
9 Tense emailer confused by true duration (4,4)
REAL TIME – an anagram (confused) of T EMAILER
10 Abstemious Jew in East German city, formerly (6)
ESSENE – ESSEN (German city) E (east)
11 Target met by flirtatious cow? (8)
BULLSEYE – def. & cryptic indicator
12 Buy shares in underwear (6)
INVEST – IN VEST (underwear)
14 Safely drops content of guts, gripped by normal pains (10)
PARACHUTES – [g]UT[s] (content of guts) in (gripped by) PAR (normal) ACHES (pains)
18 Fairy ring’s to meddle ineffectually first (10)
TINKERBELL – TINKER (meddle ineffectually) BELL (ring)
22 First mate crosses border (6)
PRIMAL – PAL (mate) around (crosses) RIM (border)
23 Point to popular pet in cube (8)
INDICATE – IN (popular) plus CAT (pet) in DIE (cube)
24 Songs by Queen formerly gave false impression (6)
LIEDER – LIED (gave false impression) ER (Queen)
25, 1 down Watt replaces joule in Jumbo Crossword compiled in prison (8,6)
WORMWOOD SCRUBS – an anagram (compiled) of W [j]UMBO CROSSWORD
26 Herdsman to doctor end of message (6)
DROVER – DR (doctor) OVER (end of message)
27 Very old and wise, apprehending timbre (5-3)
STONE-AGE – SAGE (wise) around (apprehending) TONE (timbre)
Down
2 Rice, possibly past its sell-by date, containing source of protein (6)
STAPLE – STALE (past its sell-by date) around (containing) P[rotein] (source of protein)
3 Model turned into painting, perhaps, by painter (6)
ARTIST – SIT (model) reversed (turned) in (into) ART (painting, perhaps)
4 Ineffectual new prime minister, May, baby-changing? (5-5)
NAMBY-PAMBY – an anagram (changing) of N PM MAY BABY
6 Muscles in the 25 (8)
ABSINTHE – ABS (muscles) IN THE
7 Poorly rate poet’s musical production (8)
OPERETTA – an anagram (poorly) of RATE POET
8 Study Indian instrument endlessly picked up by large plant (8)
TREATISE – SITA[r] (Indian instrument endlessly) reversed in (picked up by) TREE (large plant)
13 Contretemps resulting in reduced incidence of foot problem? (7,3)
FALLING OUT – FALLIN[g] FALL IN (reduced incidence of) GOUT (foot problem) Edit: thanks Alastair @2 for the correction
15 Dotty spinster’s starting to hit the booze (8)
STIPPLED – S[pinster] (spinster’s starting) TIPPLED (hit the booze)
16 A tyrant keeping up success with unremarkable protagonist (4-4)
ANTI-HERO – A NERO (a tyrant) around (keeping) HIT (success) reversed (up)
17 Himalayan born to carry stakes (8)
NEPALESE – NEE (born) around (to carry) PALES (stakes)
19 War writer turned refuse collector (6)
BINMAN – NAM (war) NIB (writer) reversed (turned)
20 Daddy admitting a deity to temple (6)
PAGODA – PA (daddy) around (admitting) A GOD (a deity)
21 Hawk’s to ride bike, reportedly (6)
PEDDLE – sounds like (reportedly) ‘pedal’ (to ride bike)
Thanks Gaufrid and Dogberry. As usual with this setter, very precise clueing and a good variety of devices (with a sprinkling of humour). As a sometime sufferer, 13D appealed particularly.
For 13D, I worked it out slightly differently.
A “reduced incidence” is a “fall in”
Thanks, Gaufrid.
I agree with MikeC’s assessment of the puzzle – and I hope the reduced incidence continues!
I laughed at the dotty spinster – lovely clue – and I also had ticks for WORMWOOD SCRUBS and NAMBY-PAMBY – great surfaces!
Many thanks to Dogberry for the fun and welcome back – we don’t see you often enough!
Lovely surfaces, lots to laugh out and loads of ‘favourites’ so a big thank you to Dogberry and to Gaufrid too.
Thanks Gaufrid and Dogberry!
Lovely puzzle with accurate cluing, as always. Loved 13 16 and 17. 15 was new but gettable.
Imho, Dogberry/Shed and Crucible/Redshank are two under-appreciated setters.
Clueing 🙁 sorry
Anyone notice the repeat of Operetta and Lied(er) from yesterday? I always wonder whether this is complete chance. It feels like too much of a coincidence.
Thanks Dogberry and Gaufrid
DominicD @ 7
On numerous occasions I’ve spotted similarities between adjacent or near-adjacent puzzles (for instance, in the graun we’ve had instances of versiosn of KAYO within the last month).
But I do believe it is true coincidence. Setters work in a sort-of bubble, and there’s no consistency of time between setting and publication (Tramp often posts on the graun that he wrote a puzzle 2 or 3 years ago).
I think it’s more that the editor, for whatever reason, hasn’t spotted the similarities. It may be that (s)he has a sheaf of puzzles and allocates them to publication dates based on relative difficulty, without looking at the individual clues. I assume that somewhere along the way a puzzle has been test-solved and passed to the editor with a comment along the lines of “The puzzle works and its difficulty level is **”, and the editor then allocates accordingly.
I may be completely wrong of course, but it seems valid to me.
ilippu @5
Not here they’re not – both among my top favourite setters!!!
Completely agree with Eileen. Loved FALLING OUT. Thanks Dogberry & Gaufrid.
Eileen@9
Sure, I meant generally and not here particularly…also, yes, I have noticed your preferences…
Thanks Dogberry and Gaufrid
Just recently completed a Dogberry (#9940) from some old puzzles that I’d photocopied way back in the 1990’s. It was interesting to compare the two crosswords spanning that amount of time. Generally, I find that today’s puzzles are harder than they were back then, but these two were pretty close in the difficulty rating with plenty of charades in both which is one of his trademark clue devices.
Didn’t have too many issues with this one, finishing in just under the hour with it fully parsed – except for FALLING OUT (cos I just forgot to). It worked out in basically four mini-puzzles with the grid and was able to solve them in an anticlockwise direction starting from the SE through to the SW.
Had to check on the prison at 15, 1d – hardly know the names of all the ones over here, let alone those in Britain.
Finished with ANTI-HERO and LIEDER (which I had thought of earlier but couldn’t see why and then with all of the crossers wrote it in, tried harder and saw it)