A familiar face on Friday serves up a nice entertaining puzzle. Thanks to Bradman for a gentle solve to end the work week with!!
FF: 8 DD: 7
| Across | ||
| 1 | COUNTERARGUMENT | Rebuttal arising from dispute at shop till? (15) |
| COUNTER (shop till) ARGUMENT (dispute) | ||
| 9 | RELOADS | Once again puts goods on highways, railway being limited (7) |
| ROADS (highways) containing EL (railway, east lancashire) | ||
| 10 | FAILURE | Female an attraction, one hugged miss (7) |
| F (female) [ A LURE (an attraction) around I (one) ] | ||
| 11 | ELOPE | Penny, a writer needing to get away, to escape romantically (5) |
| penELOPE (penny, with writer = pen going away) | ||
| 12 | TSAREVICH | Chav tries to rattle ruler’s son (9) |
| CHAV TRIES* | ||
| 13 | THE WARDEN | Literary manner, endlessly passionate, in novel (3,6) |
| THEW (literary manner, from chambers) ARDENt (passionate, endlessly) | ||
| 15 | CHESS | Revolutionary ship that ends with mate on board (5) |
| CHE (revolutionary) SS (ship) | ||
| 16 | COPSE | Police start to explore wooded area (5) |
| COPS (police) E (start to Explore) | ||
| 18 | SEDUCTION | Society learning to avoid a temptation (9) |
| S (society) EDUCaTION (learning, avoiding ‘A’) | ||
| 20 | ON THE MEND | Joining cricket side, those people finish getting better (2,3,4) |
| ON (cricket side) THEM (those people) END (finish) | ||
| 23 | ALFIE | A story about Fellini’s first film (5) |
| A [LIE (story) around F (Fellini’s first)] | ||
| 24 | NEEDLES | Not totally unnecessary items for the drug addict? (7) |
| NEEDLESs (unnecessary, not complete) | ||
| 25 | EGO TRIP | For example, religious books with a final message that may boost self-esteem (3,4) |
| EG (for example) OT (religious books, old testament) RIP (final message, rest in peace) | ||
| 26 | SUBSTRATOSPHERE | Awkward breaths, so rest up where the air has become thinner (15) |
| BREATHS SO REST UP* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CURRENT ACCOUNTS | What we are now hearing – banks will offer these (7,8) |
| cryptic clue | ||
| 2 | UNLOOSE | Release ladies and gentlemen held by a French female (7) |
| LOOS (ladies and gentlemen) in UNE (a in french, feminine gender) | ||
| 3 | TRADE NAME | Artist with studio limited by feeble brand identity (5,4) |
| [RA (artist) DEN (studio) ] in TAME (feeble) | ||
| 4 | RESET | Engineers to get TV adjusted again (5) |
| RE (engineers) SET (tv) | ||
| 5 | REFRAINED | Oppressed by burden, editor held back (9) |
| REFRAIN (burden, in music nomenclature) ED (editor) – not sure how to weave in ‘oppressed’. | ||
| 6 | URINE | Water from river surrounding home (5) |
| URE (river) around IN (home) | ||
| 7 | ELUSIVE | Use evil in a nasty way, being slippery (7) |
| USE EVIL* | ||
| 8 | THE CHOSEN PEOPLE | Elite group open hotel with speech in new development (3,6,6) |
| OPEN HOTEL SPEECH* | ||
| 14 | DYSPEPSIA | Stomach problem could be brought by what’s sipped, say (9) |
| SIPPED SAY* – nice clue! | ||
| 15 | COCK-A-HOOP | Exultant cook, chap that’s scrambled egg to be eaten (4-1- 4) |
| COOK CHAP* containing O (egg) | ||
| 17 | POTHERB | Plant giving fuss – hint of blight (7) |
| POTHER (fuss) B (hint of Blight) | ||
| 19 | IN FORCE | Effective as a policeman (2,5) |
| cryptic clue | ||
| 21 | ECLAT | Worry about class with idiot lacking style (5) |
| EAT (worry) around CLass (without letters of ASS – idiot lacking) | ||
| 22 | DIEGO | One was a famous footballer to lose power and energy (5) |
| DIE (lose power) GO (energy) – maradona | ||
*anagram
Thanks Don and TL. Very straightforwad as you say.
For 9 across I believe ‘EL’ refers to the Elevated railways in a number of US cities.
For those interested the novel in 13 across is by Anthony Trollope and is the first in the Chronicles of Basrsteshire series.
As for 5 down I suspect ‘Oppressed’ is indicating that the Editor (‘Ed’) is under the ‘Refrain’.
Very pleasant but lacking the super-obscure answers that we expect in a Don puzzle.
As already said, a very pleasant exercise. Thank you for for the blog, Turbolegs; I parsed 5d as you did, but wondered too about the link between to oppress and to refrain. Chambers gives various archaic definitions for the latter, but none seem to match exactly the former,in my eyes at least!
Thank you Bradman.
Thanks TL and of course Bradman. I’m in Steven’s camp re the parsing of 9ac & 5dn.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
One of those puzzles that felt more straightforward than normal from the Don that normal – after it was finished ! It still took more than an hour to do, so it couldn’t have been too easy !
I didn’t know the name of the Trollope novel until looking it up after figuring the word play. THEW was also new as a part of that wordplay.
Agree that Steven nails the parsing of EL and ‘oppressed’.
Finished in the NW with RELOADS (which took a while to parse), ELOPE (which took even longer) and that book, THE WARDEN, as the last few in.