Fine work from Julius as we have come to expect. Thank you Julius.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SCARFACE | Nothing whatsoever in 1 down. suggests Cuban character (8) |
| FA (nothing whatsoever) in SCARCE (1 down) – Tony Montana, Cuban refugee and gangster in the film Scarface | ||
| 5 | REVAMP | Modernise the vicar’s sermon distribution system (6) |
| REV (the vicar) has AMP (distribution system, of a sound system) | ||
| 10 | ACTOR | One playing for a measure of gold (5) |
| A CT (carat, measure) OR (golden, of gold) | ||
| 11 | POLITBURO | Wretched poor built dachas for them? (9) |
| anagram (wretched) of POOR BUILT | ||
| 12 | STRUTTING | Cocky-looking prop can be the nucleus of rugby (9) |
| STRUT (prop) then TIN (can) and ruGby (middle letter, be the nucleus of) | ||
| 13 | ADAGE | Similar to “Gadzooks!”, a revolting saying (5) |
| EGAD (similar to gadzooks) then A all reversed (revolting) | ||
| 14 | PLAINT | Beef dish from Paris fed One Direction (6) |
| PLAT (dish in French, from Paris) contains (is fed) I (one) N (north, direction) | ||
| 15 | LATE CUT | The unions and others rejected last-minute strike at Old Trafford (4,3) |
| TUC (Trade Union Congress) and ET AL (the rest) reversed (rejected) – a cricket shot played behind the body, Old Trafford is a cricket ground | ||
| 18 | LOW GEAR | Premiere of Whisky Galore! broadcast first or second (3,4) |
| anagram (broadcast) of W (whisky, phonetic alphabet) and GALORE | ||
| 0 | COOMBE | Chancellor of the Exchequer defends boom/bust as a “natural feature” (6) |
| CE (Chancellor of the Exchequer) contains (defends) anagram (bust) of BOOM – this clue is misnumbered in the PDF version as 0 across | ||
| 22 | CORFU | Blimey! Phew! I gather summer’s hot here! (5) |
| COR (blimey) and FU sounds like (I gather) “phew” – cue cor-fu or cor-few debate… | ||
| 24 | SHANGRI-LA | Creation of Hilton hotel, drizzled with fruity Spanish wine, containing hint of limoncello (7-2) |
| H (hotel) inside (drizzled with) SANGRIA (fruity Spanish wine) containing Limoncello (first letter, hint of) – a fictional place in the novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton | ||
| 25 | MONTEZUMA | “He inspired the Aztec two-step” (Graun piece) (9) |
| double definition – Montezuma’s Revenge and opera by Carl Graun | ||
| 26 | IDLED | Moved off slowly, though not at first; the engine wasn’t in gear! (5) |
| sIDLED (moved off slowly) missing first letter | ||
| 27 | THEISM | Protected by Christ; He is my religion (6) |
| found inside (protected by) chrisT HE IS My | ||
| 28 | DICTATOR | Despot finally read out riot act (8) |
| reaD (final letter) and anagram (out) of RIOT ACT | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SPARSE | Pretty thin odds on The Gunners losing their last three (6) |
| SP (starting price, odd) on ARSEnal (The Gunners) losing last three letters | ||
| 2 | AFTERGLOW | In which to bask where H comes down? (9) |
| AFTER G (where H comes) then LOW (down) | ||
| 3 | FIRST-TIME BUYERS | Jiggling my bust terrifies those trying to get on board the 8 21 (5-4,6) |
| anagram (jiggling) of MY BUST TERRIFIES | ||
| 4 | COPYIST | One imitating policeman is detained by Yard team leader (7) |
| COP (policeman) then IS inside Y (yard) and Team (leading letter of) | ||
| 6 | EXTRA STRONG MINT | Mouth-watering titbit for former Time, Morning Star foreign correspondent finally! (5,6,4) |
| EX (former) T (time) then anagram (foreign) of MORNING STAR and correspondenT (finally) | ||
| 7 | ARUBA | Caribbean island where the visitors go Dutch? (5) |
| could be a cryptic definition? – Aruba is part of the Dutch Caribbean. The locals would be Dutch but not the visitors. Perhaps I am missing something here. | ||
| 8, 21 | PROPERTY LADDER | For many, it leads to castles in the air! (8,6) |
| cryptic definition – if you can’t afford to buy you have only a dream, and you will need a ladder to get to your floating property | ||
| 9 | FLUGEL | In Liechtenstein, winter sport’s grand for Germans (6) |
| LUGE (winter sport) in FL (Liechenstein IVR) – “grand piano” in German | ||
| 16 | CABRIOLET | Convertible taxi hired to take in the city (9) |
| CAB (taxi) LET (hired) contains RIO (city) | ||
| 17 | PLACE MAT | Flatfish sounds dull – I’ll leave that on the table (5,3) |
| PLACE sounds like “plaice” (flatfish) then MAT (dull) | ||
| 19 | RESCUE | Free delivery? (6) |
| double definition – the two meanings are close but it provides an excellent surface reading so fair enough | ||
| 20 | CHAPATI | Tea featuring some butter and bread (7) |
| CHAI (tea) contains PAT (some butter) | ||
| 21 | See 8 | |
| 23 | RANGE | Unusual route off the mountains (5) |
| stRANGE (unusual) missing ST (street, a way) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Great stuff- is that opera any good? Thanks for the parse- otherwise it was a CD
I found this to be just on the right side of being too tough, but I failed on 1a, 1d and 19 and couldn’t parse a few others including 25 and 9. Still it was fun trying to work it all out along the way. Liked both of the clues referring to PROPERTY and AFTERGLOW. Sorry, just bunged in ARUBA so can’t help with the parsing.
Thank you to Julius and PeeDee
compus – I am a bit of an opera fan but I have to admit that I had not heard of Graun or his opera. According to Wikipedia it does not get performed very often, only a handful of productions worldwide in the last century. It did come to Edinburgh a few years ago so maybe I should have noticed that.
Thanks to setter and blogger
7d no explanation comes to mind
20d I think you need Chai for tea
Stephen – quite so. Coincidentally I had made myself a chai tea while doing the puzzle so I should at least have got that bit right.
I was almost there. Failed to get Plaint, which is a new word for me. In 20d I think the tea is CHAI.
Thank you PeeDee and Julius.
Nice puzzle (once again)!
I think we shouldn’t think too deeply about 7d (ARUBA).
When I saw the U in the middle and ‘go Dutch’, it was bingo.
If a visitor comes to Aruba (s)he may ‘go Dutch’.
Like ‘go ape’ or ‘go karting’.
Julius is probably just punning on the expression ‘to go Dutch’.
BTW, as someone from The Netherlands I was always puzzled by that expression as at parties ‘we’ never shared the costs.
For example, at my birthday parties it was me who provided the drinks (and the food).
All welcome to join in!
Never known anything else.
Funny, innit?
Cracking puzzle – every egg a bird.
I threw in HOME instead of TIME for 3d without checking the letters, that being the terminology in the real estate profession (sic) here, so that held me up with 14a which, having correctly guessed PLAT just had to be what it is.
FLUGEL was a guess from the brass band instrument the flugelhorn – I just assumed it must be saying something good about it – didn’t know it was German for grand piano – do now – which takes me back to estate agents. I play a bit of piano still myself – hardly know anyone else who does – yet every second “home” for sale here over about $800.000 (they then become abodes/residences) has a grand piano in it. I know estate agents keep a stock of furniture and scatter cushions with which to decorate empty houses – maybe they also have inflatable grand pianos on hand – who knows?
Many thanks S&B both – a great workout. Very proud that I got there in the end.
PS
@Sil re Dutch – agree I think that’s all there is to it.
Re your next birthady party – free booze, we’re all invited and we don’t need to bring anything. So what’s the address?
Meant to comment on this last night – found it a little trickier than most of Julius/Knut’s puzzles, and I must admit Graun was new to me, as was FLUGEL.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
Sil – I have never heard the expression “go Dutch” used in relation to a party. In British English it would typically be used between two individuals splitting the costs half-and-half on an evening out, probably of a dinner in a restaurant or something where traditionally the man or senior party would have been expected to pay the bill.
OK, PeeDee, but even so, in your more intimate example of two people having an evening out, my experience in the Netherlands is that costs are usually not split!
And therefore the expression ‘do Dutch’ keeps on puzzling me.
Don’t know where it comes from, that term, surely from somewhere.
So it must contain some kind of truth, even if I cannot relate to it.
Oh, and a thank you to Julius for the puzzle!
Sil, as usual English usage does not stand up to much scrutiny – try finding anyone in France who knows anything about French cricket! This may help, but may raise more questions than answers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_Dutch
Thanks, bh.
Isn’t it funny that Holland doesn’t get a mention in the European section of this article?
But at least, it is clear now where ‘Dutch’ may have come from.
More or less.
Sil, ‘going Dutch’ (sharing costs for a meal, etc)’ may originate from some notion that Dutch people are a little tight with their money and therefore reluctant to pay for another person.
19Down has been labelled as double definition (dd). I once tried to define another type of clue as “duplicate definition” (dud) where the two words are like water from the same well. Taking the word SPRING – Season well (6) would be a dd whereas Bound to jump (6) would be a dud. As PeeDee said, the surface of Free delivery is excellent. Thank you, PD and Julius.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
Found this quite tough taking, a number of sittings over a couple of days. Found that there was a fair bit of general knowledge required – the SCARFACE character, the FL abbreviation of Liechtenstein, the German FUEGEL, the former Dutch island of ARUBA, the James Hilton reference to SHANGRI LA in his “Lost Horizon” and Old Trafford for non-cricket folk. COOMBE, the ‘Aztec two-step’ (did know MONTEZUMA’s revenge) and the PROPERTY LADDER term were all new terms for me.
A good mix of word play together with the challenges above made for an entertaining solve.
Missed the parsing of RANGE – had gone more for a double definition where it could mean to wander around – quite a tricky piece of unravelling to find what was really required.
Finished over on the right hand side with that PROPERTY LADDER, ARUBA and ADAGE the last few in.