Very good stuff from Radian, although I found it hard to finish this off. There were some words that I didn’t know.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
Id is CHEKHOV, who amongst other things wrote ‘The 1ac Orchard”, and there are lots of trees here, either in the answers or somewhere in the clues. I think there are connections in 1, 4, 9, 13, 15, 16, 21, 24, 25, 26 across, and 6, 7, 8, 14, 16, 19 and 23 down. Many, and quite an achievement to fit them all in and hardly deviate from 50%+ checking. No wonder some of it was so difficult.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CHERRY | Call to collect lady’s tree (6) |
| c(her)ry | ||
| 4 | BAOBAB | Indian holy man with book hugs old tree (6) |
| (Ba(o)ba b) — I was quite unaware that a baba was an Indian holy man, and neither Chambers nor Collins tell you this, but apparently it’s in the OED | ||
| 9 | YEWS | Employ so-called traditional churchyard residents (4) |
| “use” | ||
| 10 | MY FAIR LADY | Show writer’s Just a Boy alongside Journey’s End (2,4,4) |
| my [= writer’s] fair [= just] lad {journe}y | ||
| 11 | CHISEL | Cut and slice bananas round tip of branch (6) |
| (slice)* round {branc}h, bananas the anagram indicator | ||
| 12 | OUTLAWED | Public backing agreement to import whiskey that’s banned (8) |
| out [= public] (deal)rev. round w | ||
| 13 | EVERGREEN | Little work on in flat that’s always fresh (9) |
| ev(erg re)en | ||
| 15 | LOGS | Pines losing needles primarily get turned into these? (4) |
| lo{n}gs — &lit. — for a while I thought it was just a remarkably feeble clue where the n of pines is taken away and the answer is pies, but I didn’t actually hold this thought for very long since it’s such an absurd idea | ||
| 16 | ACAI | Tree in Maracaibo yielding saccharin now and then (4) |
| Hidden in MarACAIbo, also {s}a{c}c{h}a{r}i{n} | ||
| 17 | ATTENDERS | People present decorated stand with tree (9) |
| (stand tree)* — with decorated the anagram indicator | ||
| 21 | CHESTNUT | Chaffinch initially rebuilt nest in shed for horse (8) |
| c{haffinch} h((nest)*)ut | ||
| 22 | OTTAWA | Ordinary power returns to a capital (6) |
| O (watt)rev. a | ||
| 24 | DENDROLOGY | Study old diary as part of basic thematic study (10) |
| den dr(o log)y — thematic in this crossword | ||
| 25 | ILEX | Tree oil extracted, not all of it (4) |
| Hidden in oIL EXtracted | ||
| 26 | SASHES | Special trees make containers for glass (6) |
| s ashes — sash windows contain glass and sash = sash window | ||
| 27 | DETAIL | Minor item ideal for twisting round top of tree (6) |
| (ideal)* round t{ree} | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CHEKHOV | Writer caught King Henry visiting windy Hove (7) |
| c (Hove)* round K H | ||
| 2 | EASES | Carefully moves and stands out of line (5) |
| {l}eases — there was no question at the time but I now have doubts about stands = leases Yes of course it isn’t {l}eases but ease{l}s, thanks Duncan and Eileen | ||
| 3 | RAMBLER | Rose and Mabel nervously welcomed by bishop (7) |
| R((Mabel)*)R | ||
| 5 | AVIATE | Fly polished off by means of pins (6) |
| a(via)te — via is pinning ate, is stuck inside it | ||
| 6 | BALSAWOOD | Cut holes in plain material for models (9) |
| bal(saw o o)d | ||
| 7 | BODGERS | Manager mainly recruiting Dutch and German woodworkers (7) |
| bo(D Ger)s{s} — another one that my lack of vocabulary made difficult or impossible until I cheated: I’d always thought that a bodger was someone who makes a botched job of something, but it’s also a practitioner of a traditional woodturning craft | ||
| 8 | AFFORESTATION | A loud warning by driver: “Halt! Tree planting here!” (13) |
| a f fore! [= warning by driving golfers] station [= halt] | ||
| 14 | ROADSIDES | Hedges here, heading off fierce attacks (9) |
| {b}roadsides | ||
| 16 | ASHKEYS | Fruit shakes managed to impress youth leader (7) |
| y{outh} in (shakes)* — yet another where I had to cheat since an ash-key (yes, it’s hyphenated in Chambers although no doubt somewhere else it isn’t) was beyond my ken — yes, now I see, Collins calls it an ashkey and the winged fruit of the ash | ||
| 18 | ECOTYPE | Firm invested in fast car for special race (7) |
| E-(co)type | ||
| 19 | RAW DEAL | Green planks, not Fair Trade (3,4) |
| raw [= green] deal [= planks] | ||
| 20 | ANYONE | Nobody in particular is fit to tour city (6) |
| A(NY)one — A1 | ||
| 23 | TAIGA | Vast expanse of 8 and one of its denizens, say? (5) |
| 8 being AFFORESTATION, the definition is ‘Vast expanse of afforestation’, which is what a taiga is — “tiger” | ||
*anagram
I think 2 down is referring to EASELS for stands
Thanks, John.
I agree with Duncan re EASE[l]S, I originally wanted to enter [l]EDGES for this but the unequivocal YEWS at 9ac made it impossible.
I was very pleased to see ATTENDERS at 17ac, rather than the nowadays more usual but, to me, inexplicable ‘attendees’.
Lovely puzzle – many thanks, Radian.
Enjoyable challenge with the theme helping me get within a whisker of completing, but unknown words at 23d and 24a beat me (was damn close to solving 24a, but didn’t get the ‘dry’ component). No particular COD today, my honours go to the theme and its implementation. Many thanks to John for the blog, and the enlightenment of the afforementioned clues, and to Radian for the puzzle.
An excellent achievement from Radian. One or two unfamiliar words but easily gettable. I didn’t know that meaning of ‘baba’ in 4ac, but confirmed it here. Hadn’t encountered ACAI before, either; it’s not in Chambers (1998), but a quick google tells me its berries are widely available in health food shops.
Just one niggle – I wasn’t happy with the clue for AVIATE. If ‘via’ is stuck inside, or even just held by, ‘ate’ then to me it’s ‘ate’ which is pinning ‘via’, not the other way round.
Difficult to nominate a CoD, but TAIGA gets it by a whisker (no pun intended – not).
Thanks, Radian and John.
Good theme and some new words/meanings to add to the enjoyment – I’d never heard of ‘baba’ as a holy man, BODGERS or ASHKEYS either. Ended up missing out on ANYONE. I liked the &lit LOGS once I had twigged to the theme and corrected my original ‘pies’ answer – sucked in as I was probably meant to be. .
Thanks to Radian and John
Found this very tough and pleased to have got over the finish line. Great puzzle and blog, thanks to both. And yes I thought it was PIES too, for far too long.
I knew “Baba” from Meyer Baba, who was minorly famous for being an Indian spiritual leader and majorly famous for being the “Baba” in The Who’s “Baba O’Riley”.
Thanks Radian and John. Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle.
My cod was LOGS at15a but my partner in solving favoured TAIGA. Fortunately I remembered the name from a documentary on Siberian Tigers. We both failed on AVIATE at 5d having otherwise chugged along quite smoothly !
Yes of course it isn’t leases but easels at 2dn, thanks Duncan and Eileen. No wonder I was puzzled, since I actually had it right when solving, but then forgot when I did the blog.
Many thanks Radian and congratulations on a fun puzzle,
Favourites were LOGS and BODGERS – the latter a new word for me but it’s a lovely word.
I struggled with one or two of the definitions but many thanks John: I hadn’t progressed to relating “thematic study” to the theme!
Many thanks Radian and John
Tremendous achievement to fit so many themers in the grid and clue them so fairly.
allan_c @ 4: in less enlightened times, butterflies, for example, were pinned to a display board, ie the pin went through the butterfly. So VIA going through ATE seems to me perfectly fair for VIA to be pinning ATE.
In my opinion, by far the most enjoyable crossword I did today (FT, Indy, Guardian – in that order).
Also the only one I couldn’t finish (without cheating).
I failed on YEWS (9ac) and TAIGA (23d).
In the former I wasn’t sure which was the definition as the indicator was in the middle.
Normally not something I am very keen on but here the enumeration left no doubt.
Mea culpa.
‘Taiga’ is a word I know pretty well and with hindsight this must be one of the best clues in this lovely puzzle.
Let’s all hug trees today! [not: let’s hug all trees today! – ah, the English language]
Many thanks to John and the incomparable Radian.
1 across has another possible solution: ca(she)w