Found this pretty tricky, with a few going in without parsing for a while. Favourites were 1ac, 5ac, 18ac and 27ac – thanks, Vlad.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SNAFFLE | Bit of a setback for brownie lovers (7) |
| =a “Bit” for horses. Reversal/”setback” of ELF FANS=”brownie lovers”, with “brownie” as in a spirit creature from folk tales | ||
| 5 | CLAUSES | Parts of contract present man with insoluble problems, ultimately (7) |
| [Santa] CLAUS=”present man” with the ultimate letters of [insolubl]E [problem]S | ||
| 9 | TOTAL | Wipe out a future gangster? (5) |
| TOT AL=>a young Al Capone=”future gangster” | ||
| 10 | WINNEBAGO | Get Bill back to motorhome (9) |
| =a make of motorhome. WIN=”Get”; plus NEB=the “Bill” of a bird”; plus AGO=”back” e.g. ‘three years back’/’three years ago’ | ||
| 11 | CITY CENTRE | It’s at the heart of the community (4,6) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 12 | THAI | Asian Cup game being broadcast (4) |
| Homophone/”broadcast” of ‘tie’=”Cup game” | ||
| 14 | TICKLED PINK | Delighted to have aroused singer … (7,4) |
| TICKLED=”aroused” plus PINK=pop “singer” [wiki] | ||
| 18 | OVER THE MOON | . . . and recovered from exposure (4,3,4) |
| taking the definition “Delighted” from 14ac. OVER=”recovered from” THE MOON=”exposure” of buttocks | ||
| 21 | REEF | Bank right to reject payment (4) |
| R[ight] plus reversal/”reject” of FEE=”payment” | ||
| 22 | APHORISTIC | Pair in dispute over house mostly keep to the point (10) |
| (pair)*, with “dispute” as the anagrind, around/”over” HO[use]; plus most of STIC[k]=”keep” | ||
| 25 | STOMACHED | Most upset having hurt bore (9) |
| =”bore” as in the past tense of ‘bear’, put up with. (Most)*, plus ACHED=”hurt” | ||
| 26 | IMAGO | Perfect stage villain accepting money (5) |
| =the last stage of an insect’s development. IAGO is the [stage] “villain” from Shakespeare’s Othello, around M[oney] | ||
| 27 | NOSIEST | Lack of rest breaks when leaving — most curious (7) |
| NO SIEST[as]=”Lack of rest breaks”, with as=”when” leaving | ||
| 28 | RESENTS | Isn’t happy about hosts — quietly gets off (7) |
| [p]RESENTS=”hosts” e.g. a TV show, with p[iano]=”quietly” getting taken off | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SHTICK | Comic’s customary performance gets criticism from drunk (6) |
| sounds like a drunken slurring of ‘stick’=”criticism’ | ||
| 2 | ASTUTE | Statue’s awful cute (6) |
| (Statue)* | ||
| 3 | FELICITATE | Compliment allowed — great achievement without drugs (10) |
| LICIT=”allowed”, with FEAT=”great achievement” around/”without” it; plus E[cstasy]=”drugs” | ||
| 4 | EDWIN | This man‘s Merlot perhaps lacking body? On the contrary (5) |
| [r]ED WIN[e]=”Merlot perhaps”, keeping [contrary to “lacking”] the “body” of its letters while losing the outer ones | ||
| 5 | CONTRALTO | Love to replace East in a key part of singer (9) |
| C[e]NTRAL TO=”a key part of”, with O=”love” replacing the E[ast] | ||
| 6 | AVER | Claim a minister’s coming round (4) |
| A; plus REV[erend]=”minister” reversed/”coming round” | ||
| 7 | SMASH HIT | Great success — army programme stops this getting out of hand (5,3) |
| M*A*S*H*=TV series=”army programme”, inside (this)* | ||
| 8 | STOTINKA | Decline to accept drink? A change for Sofia (8) |
| =a Bulgarian coin – Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria. SINK=fall=”Decline”, around TOT=”drink”, plus A | ||
| 13 | IDENTIFIES | Recognises doctor is definite (10) |
| (is definite)* | ||
| 15 | CHEAP SHOT | Unfair criticism of happy hour feature? (5,4) |
| you could buy a CHEAP SHOT of alcohol during happy hour | ||
| 16 | MORRISON | Van driver’s back? One’s been blocked in by idiot (8) |
| =Van MORRISON the singer [wiki]. The back letter of [drive]R plus I’S=”One’s”; all inside MORON=”idiot” | ||
| 17 | HERE GOES | Said try, try and try again — I’m going to do it now (4,4) |
| Homophone/”Said” of ‘hear’=”try” a court case; plus GOES=more than one go/try=”try and try again” | ||
| 19 | STRAIN | Second series for Melody (6) |
| S[econd]; plus TRAIN=a “series” of things in succession | ||
| 20 | ACTORS | Agents not female — they’re just pretending (6) |
| [f]ACTORS=”Agents”, minus f[emale] | ||
| 23 | ORDER | Command group (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 24 | TALE | Lie shown up by relative (4) |
| Hidden reversed in/”shown up by”: [r]ELAT[ive] | ||
Thanks Manehi and Vlad.
Great puzzle..liked almost all down clues, 14a, 18a and 25a to 28a. Didn’t know Van, singer, though wordplay was clear to reach Morrison. The same was true for 8d as well.
This was a very difficult puzzle for me!
I solved/guessed 10a, 22a, 27a, 1d, 8d, 16d, but could not parse them.
My favourites were SMASH HIT, SNAFFLE and HERE GOES.
ELF=brownie was new for me.
Thanks manehi and Vlad.
This was difficult and rewarding at the same time. SNAFFLE, CLAUSES and TALE all went in unparsed and the neb in WINNEBAGO was new to me. But there were also some wonderful penny drop moments – especially 14ac and 18ac which were simply divine. I also liked the nod, though doubtless unintentional, to the singer Nick Drake who wrote and sang “Pink Moon”.
I was a little confused, however, by EDWIN being defined as “this man” where “this” took me off track for awhile. The clue would work just as well without “this” – is it simply there for misdirection?
Thanks to Manehi for the explanations and Vlad for the puzzle!
Found this hard, but very enjoyable. I parsed 26a slightly differently. I took imago to mean perfect in its second meaning as an idealised image and imago to be stage villain. Thanks to Vlad and Manehi.
This took some doing, mainly because of my typos (I’ve a wrist injury!). Enjoyed it though – good surfaces with clever misdirection; favourites were 14 & 18ac.
Thanks to Vlad & manehi.
Thanks Vlad and manehi
I found this easier to fill in than most Vlads, though I didn’t parse WINNEBAGO, APHORISTIC or NOSIEST. Lots to like, especially SNAFFLE and MORRISON.
The clueing for EDWIN rang a bell, and a site search found this Arachne clue for REGALE from February
Generously provide claret, perhaps leaving Edwin with wind (6)
This was okay. I’m just wondering whether 11a might be a bit more than just a cryptic definition inasmuch as “it” is at the heart of “city”.
Thanks to both Vlad and manehi.
A bit of a struggle, and I had to resort to the dictionary to check STOTINKA (though it was well-indicated in the clue).
Thanks, Vlad and manehi.
This would have made a good prize puzzle – mostly straightforward but a few where the parsing was very difficult to see, and it would have been nice not to have the temptation of the Check button. The SW corner held out longest with the relatively simple TALE last in. Easier than some previous Vlad puzzles but a fine challenge.
Thanks to Vlad and Andrew
Incidentally STOTINKA/STOTINKI seems to have become a setters’ favourite, no doubt because of helpful crossers. It was new to me when Paul used it in 2012 (25667), Picaroon got a lot of criticism for using it in 2013 (25980) but appeared three times in 2016 (26858, 26894 and 27066)…
There may be more to 11a than you suggest: I was assuming the wordplay was that “It’s at the heart” means “it” is the centre of city.
Another all but one! And should have had Stotinka as it came up recently. Don’t understand elf in 1ac
Thanks to Vlad and Manehi. The idea at 1a was used last week in a Times puzzle, with the reference being to Tolkien rather than brownies. But why did it takes me so long to see it then? Old age, I guess. Still I know I’ve been vladded all right. 🙂
Never head of the singer Pink, though she was guessable. Luckily I had heard of Van Morrison though.
Jason @14: I’d never heard of Pink either, but took the singer to mean a bird. Looked it up in Chambers, and found “chaffinch” hidden among the definitions for “pink”.
Thanks, manehi, especially for the parsing of 1ac.
I’m another who didn’t know Pink – but I did know MORRISON: great clue, among many others!
Many thanks for the challenge, Vlad – most enjoyable and satisfying to finish.
Thank you Vlad and manehi.
Enjoyable, but hard going for me, especially trying to get WINNEBAGO, I may have seen this motorhome on visits to the States in the late 60s, early 70s, but the first model was produced in 1966.
Like Louise @11, I assumed “It’s at the heart” meant IT is at the CITY CENTRE – my captcha is 3 – three = ?, not very promising…
I thought this was a really great puzzle, and about Vlad’s usual level of difficulty (i.e. tough). Loved MORRISON, SNAFFLE, HERE GOES, STOMACHED . . . Hadn’t heard of Pink the singer, but guess that Van Morrison is probably more up my street! Many thanks to Vlad and manehi.
Same here with IT at the centre of cITy. Did know Morrison and Pink which helped. And having been a brownie too. TICKLED PINK about OVER THE MOON, and STOMACHED CHEAP SHOT CLAUSES. Got stuck on the drug free (not) compliment. Thanks manehi for the excellent explication, and Vlad for the tantalising humour.
Like Conrad Cork @13, I took far too long to get 1a despite having seen the similar clue in The Times last week. Also held up by WINNEBAGO as I presumed wrongly it was a word that a predominantly UK readership wouldn’t be familiar with. Quite challenging but very enjoyable puzzle with the almost-cryptic -chestnut STOTINKA, the ‘Van’ def and ‘future gangster’ my highlights.
Thanks to Vlad and manehi.
Thanks to manehi for a reassuring blog and the redoubtable Vlad for a couple of chuckles.
Enjoyed many, including CHEAP SHOT, CONTRALTO and OVER THE MOON. Had to come here for the parsing of HERE GOES and SMASH HIT (although I thought I had the latter with [out of hand] = [“really bad”], but I couldn’t believe my eyebrows; should have known better).
Just got MORRISON after ages of staring. Saw him a couple of years ago too, but got misled by van = forefront. Well, that’s the name of the game.
Never heard of NEB as back of a bird or anything else, so parsing of 10a passed me by. But after a tricky start with his first few puzzles, I’m beginning to have a good deal of respect for Vlad.
Where we come from, having a neb means being nosy! This was a tough one today but we got there. Thanks to everyone.
Thanks to Vlad and manehi. Like berry hiker@9 I found this easier than previous Vlad puzzles, though I did not know PINK, had to check the spelling of STOTINKA (though I did remember it from previous puzzles, along with Lev), and needed help parsing CONTRALTO. LOI was TALE where I took a long time spotting the reversal. Very enjoyable.
I had an American friend who used to refer to a very nosey colleague as a nebs**t.
Very tough, but got there in the end! Thanks Vlad…
All been said,really. I found this hard but very enjoyable. OVER THE MOON was fabulous. I found the SW corner by far the most difficult with TALE being LOI and that was probably the easiest in the puzzle! I dimly remember a singer called PINK and assumed that she was the singer in 14 ac.
Thanks for the workout Vlad.
In these parts, “neb” refers to the peak of a cap (maybe deriving from a bird’s beak?)
Oh, and I only knew WINNEBAGO from Mel Brooks’s “Spaceballs”. Lone Starr’s “spaceship” is one!
Lovely puzzle. Particularly loved MORRISON.
Thanks to manehi for the blog and to others who commented.
Re 11ac, as some have pointed out, ‘it’ was intended to suggest the middle of ‘city’.
I came here for relief having failed to get 6 solutions at all and failed to parse another 4, so thanks for bringing me down to earth Vlad, and to manehi for helping me back up. 5a was my favourite – because it raised a smile and I got it early on.
Brilliant fun – as always with this setter; seeing Vlad’s name on the day’s puzzle is a definite smile-bringer for me (à la Arachne, Tramp, Screw, Paul, Boatman etc…..)
(I’d have been happier had the E in 3dn been clued by ‘drug’ rather than ‘drugs’ but perhaps that’s just me?)
Huge thanks Vlad (and to manehi for continued kindness to this site – and helping out those more lost than I)
A mighty struggle, but got there in the end. It. Took me a long time to get past Morris vans and then Morrison’s the supermarket before remembering the musician.
I only know about the Winnebago from the one possessed by Marty Crane in several very funny episodes of Frasier.
I seem to be the only person who thinks this was a stinker for the commuter and unfair for a weekday puzzle which I found impossible without recourse to reference apps. Far too many professional cruciverbalist tricks. Stotinki , neb
Etc
finished it but without pleasure.
Tc@35
You are not alone.