Sorry for the late blog. I solved the crossword before breakfast, but the blogging package was unavailable until after I got into work, so this will be a quick one.
I liked most of this puzzle, with some of the surfaces raising a smile (14ac, 19ac, 2dn, 7dn being my favourites)
However, there were a few minor niggles.
The letter I was indicated by “one” in three separate clues; V for “very” twice, and you had to have a basic understanding of French for three clues. None of these alone is an issue, but to have all three of these in the same crossword is a bit clumsy, and detracts from what was an otherwise excellent puzzle.
I’m not sure that 18dn works properly either.
Thanks, Redshank.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MOVABLE FEAST | Eg Easter eggs served in stewed lamb’s feet (7,5) |
| OVA (eggs) “served in” *(lambs feet) | ||
| 8 | OCTOBER | 31 days to be included in ordinary credit (7) |
| TO BE “included in” O(rdinary) Cr(edit) | ||
| 9 | PLACEBO | One born into Middle East group gets sham therapy (7) |
| ACE (one) + B “into” PLO (“Palestine Liberation Organization”, so Middle East group) | ||
| 11 | FORWARD | Impudent hooker is one (7) |
| In riugby union, a hooker is one of the forwards. | ||
| 12 | TOOTLES | Drives ducks in races against the French (7) |
| OO (ducks – think cricket) in TT (“Tourist Trophy”, so races) + LES (“the” in French) | ||
| 13 | HEDGE | Guard “hard” border (5) |
| H(ard) + EDGE (border) | ||
| 14 | NUMERICAL | Heath left behind miners dealing with figures (9) |
| ERICA (heath) + L(eft) “behind” N.U.M. (National Union of Miners) | ||
| 16 | SEX APPEAL | It chops round apple in bits (3,6) |
| <=AXES (chops) + *(apple) | ||
| 19 | PUBES | Bar art in Paris for privates (5) |
| PUB (bar) + ES (second person singular of “etre” the French for to be, so “art” (as in “thou art”) in Paris) | ||
| 21 | LEAD OFF | Start to remove grassy area at the front (4,3) |
| DOFF (remove) with LEA (grassy area) “at the front” | ||
| 23 | SELVAGE | Coach leaves around midnight for border (7) |
| *(leaves) “around (ni)G(ht) | ||
| 24 | SIT-DOWN | Broadcast defending one Irish MP’s demo (3-4) |
| SOWN (broadcast) “defending 1 T.D. (Irish equivalent of an M.P.) | ||
| 25 | VOCALIC | Very old material briefly to do with vowels (7) |
| V(ery) + O(ld) + CALIC(o) (material, “briefly”) | ||
| 26 | FRANKINCENSE | Anger follows sincere Christmas gift (12) |
|
INCENSE (anger) “follows” FRANK (“sincere”) |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MOTORED | Moved on, having anchored outside mouth of Tyne (7) |
| MOORED (anchored) “outside” T(yne) | ||
| 2 | VIBRATE | Rattle’s very angry about Brahms overture (7) |
| V(ery) + IRATE (angry) “about” B(rahms) | ||
| 3 | BARN DANCE | Hay maybe spoils a brand new church (4,5) |
| *(a brand) + N(ew) + C.E. (“Church of England”, so church) | ||
| 4 | EXPAT | Essex pathologist welcomes exile (5) |
|
Hidden in “essEX PAThologist” |
||
| 5 | ENAMOUR | Charm upright old guy in the French way (7) |
| <= O(ld) MAN (guy) in RUE (French for street, so French way) | ||
| 6 | SHELLAC | He rings up about old record (7) |
| HE with <+CALLS (rings) “about”
Old gramophone records were made with shellac compounds |
||
| 7 | WOLF WHISTLES | Approving noises from crude fellows with spades? (4,8) |
|
*(fellows with) + S(pades) |
||
| 10 | OBSOLESCENCE | In declining state, old boy, alone on site, catches cold (12) |
| O(ld) B(oy) + SOLE (alone) “on” SCENE (site) “catching” C(old) | ||
| 15 | MILOSEVIC | One loves rambling into microphone for warlord (9) |
| 1 +*(loves) “into MIC(rophone)
Dragomir Milosevic is currently serving a prison sentence for war crimes perpetrated by Bosnian Serbs following the break-up of Yugoslavia. |
||
| 17 | X-FACTOR | Mother quits cosmetics firm for talent show (1,6) |
| (ma)X FACTOR | ||
| 18 | PRONOUN | She, for one, is articulate next to this Parisian (7) |
| PRONOUN(ce) (articulate) where CE is “this” in French.
Interested in people’s opinions on this clue? |
||
| 19 | PELICAN | Bird, large one, cracking nut (7) |
| L(arge) 1 “cracking” PECAN (nut) | ||
| 20 | BRAILLE | Sort of liberal, proud characters (7) |
| *(braille) | ||
| 22 | FUNGI | Parasols possibly amusing Joe (5) |
| FUN (amusing) + G.I. (Joe)
A parasol is a type of mushroom. |
||
*anagram
I thought 18d was a good clue. My favourite was 2d. SELVAGE was new to me and I have never seen fungi called parasols. Come to that, I’ve only seen sit-ins for demos rather than sit-down, but that’s probably from a sheltered existence. A good crossword imo but by no means his best. Thanks all.
Thanks, loonapick.
I had exactly the same favourites as you [plus 1ac] – the top one being the &lit 7dn. 2dn is very neat, too.
I enjoyed this puzzle so much that, although I noted the two instances of V = very, since they were quite close together, they didn’t irritate me – and I didn’t even notice the triple I = one. LES [Le, La] for French ‘the’ is commonplace in crosswords and I’ve seen the ‘French art’ device a number of times and still like it. I don’t see anything wrong with 18dn, either – in fact, I gave it a tick.
Many thanks, as ever, to Redshank for brightening up a dull day.
Agree with Eileen on this one. Super puzzle and thought 18dn was very neat. Thanks S & B
Thanksloonapick and Redshank.
Very late to post.
Good puzzle.
2 ‘verys’ and 3 ‘ones’ didn’t bother me as much as lack of knowledge of French for parsing 19a and 18d correctly, though I got the answers. My inadequacy.
SELVAGE is new.
Thanks for parsing NUM and I TD, again, got the answers from definitions and crossers.
I do like Redshank. His clues are always accurate and his puzzles are fair.
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
Tackled this late in the day, enjoyed it a lot, and the repetitions didn’t worry me.
Hovis @ 1: a sit-down demo is used (eg) to block a road, as opposed to the sit-in occupation you refer to.
hth
Simon S @5 re SIT-DOWN –
Quite right – my immediate thought was sit-down strikes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitdown_strike
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
Completed this over three shortish sessions on Thursday – mopping it up on the train ride home. Failed to see the clever anagram of WOLF WHISTLES at 7d – thinking that it was merely a cryptic clue rather than the much better &lit that it was. Couldn’t parse PRONOUN properly – not seeing the PRONOUNCE part – it does read OK to me now that it has been explained and my brain has read it over a couple of times.
I hadn’t seen ‘Parasol mushrooms’ before and was working around Slobodan Milosevic rather than Dragomir (both of them very unpleasant individuals !!)
Finished in the SE corner with VOCALIC (hard word but pretty easy word play), those MILOSEVICs and SELVAGE the last few in.
I thought 18dn was rather good.
I don’t understand why ‘Erica’ = Heath nor why ‘Hay maybe’ = ‘Barn Dance’.
I’ve never heard of selvage.
I’ve never heard of parasol mushrooms.
Privates are genitalia and not the hair which surrounds them.
‘It’ only means ‘sex appeal’ in the minds of cryptic setters. It is a tired old cryptic crossword cliche.
I give this 6/10.