I made something of a slowish start here for some reason, but got into the flow of things soon enough.
The main holdups were in the top right, with 5 and 11 across putting up a fight. Last of all to yield was 7 down where neither EATER nor the actual entry EATERY came to mind. They all seem perfectly reasonable in retrospect, needless to say.
You probably wouldn’t call it a theme, but it’s perhaps interesting to note a relatively large number of names and proper nouns (Brandreth, Edberg, Andorra etc) in the finished grid.
If I were to pick a favourite it might be 16 down, where I enjoyed how well the “enchant” meaning of “transport” was sneaked in.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HUNT DOWN | Pursue avidly old motor racing ace, Hill? (4,4) |
| James HUNT + DOWN (hill). There’s a nice extra reference to either Graham or Damon Hill, too. I’m presumably too young (my excuse and I’m sticking to it) to have heard of James Hunt, but the name seemed plausible and the internet confirms it. | ||
| 5 | OBJECT | End part of a sentence (6) |
| Double definition: and end or aim, and then part of a sentence, as in subject, verb, object etc. With a degree in Linguistics I should have spotted this sooner. | ||
| 9 | NIGHTCLUB | Man by bishop, we’re told, driver, maybe, in party venue (9) |
| Homophone of knight (which stands next to the bishop on a chess board, I think) + CLUB, as in golf. | ||
| 11 | ACTOR | Perhaps, an extra consideration when leaving France (5) |
| [f]ACTOR. | ||
| 12 | RATCHET | Odd chatter to progress steadily (7) |
| Anagram of CHATTER. | ||
| 13 | ANDORRA | Group in band or racket in principality (7) |
| Hidden in [b]AND OR RA[cket]. | ||
| 14 | DAVID HOCKNEY | Noted Yorkshireman departs with keen longing on way back to consume wine (5,7) |
| HOCK in (D + AVID + YEN<). | ||
| 18 | SLUGGISHNESS | Sign she’s drunk after a dram is inactivity (12) |
| SLUG + (SIGN SHES)*. | ||
| 21 | DEFUNCT | Enjoyment in degree etc possibly finished (7) |
| FUN in (D + ETC)*. | ||
| 22 | CURACOA | Posh artist in cricket club with a love for liqueur (7) |
| ((U + RA) in CC) + A + 0. | ||
| 24 | EVITA | Some tentatively recalled musical (5) |
| Hidden and reversed in [tent]ATIVE[ly]. | ||
| 25 | FLIP CHART | Frivolous talk about Republican in part of presentation? (4,5) |
| R in (FLIP + CHAT). | ||
| 26 | GIMLET | Frenchman wearing waistcoat gets cocktail (6) |
| M in GILET. | ||
| 27 | AFFECTED | Pretentious fellow in exotic cafe, male with quiff? (8) |
| (F in CAFE) + TED, as in teddy boy. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HUNDREDS | Shed tears about a French medic tons! (8) |
| (UN + DR) in SHED*. | ||
| 2 | NEGATIVE | Veto say kept by long-time resident (8) |
| EG in NATIVE. | ||
| 3 | DITCH | Get rid of slight problem with daughter supplanting husband (5) |
| From [h]ITCH (slight problem) with D supplanting H. | ||
| 4 | WELL-THOUGHT-OF | Source admitting wealthy figure mostly gets esteemed (4-7-2) |
| WELL + THOUGH + TOF[f]. | ||
| 6 | BRANDRETH | Comedienne with savage heart but not a versatile entertainer (9) |
| Jo BRAND + HE[a]RT*. Gyles, of course. | ||
| 7 | EATERY | Apple technology’s latest found in place for courses? (6) |
| EATER (eating apple) + [technolog]Y. | ||
| 8 | THREAD | Continuous theme in set of online postings (6) |
| Double definition: continuous theme/set of online postings. | ||
| 10 | BLACK MISCHIEF | Novel Noir film curtailed by principal (5,8) |
| BLACK + MIS[t]+ CHIEF. An Evelyn Waugh novel from 1932. | ||
| 15 | DELINEATE | Mark out European policy in time (9) |
| (E + LINE) in DATE. | ||
| 16 | PENCHANT | First sign of public transport bias (8) |
| P[ublic] + ENCHANT. Nicely done. | ||
| 17 | ASSORTED | Star does become volatile in varied fashion (8) |
| Anagram of (STAR DOES). | ||
| 19 | EDBERG | Measure of work defending titled figure, one noted in court (6) |
| ERG (measure of work) around DBE. It’s Stefan Edberg of course, so it’s a tennis court we need. | ||
| 20 | AFFIRM | Declare commitment to a business, we hear (6) |
| Homophone of “a firm” (business). | ||
| 23 | RECCE | Scout in park emptied crate (5) |
| REC (recreation ground) + C[rat]E. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
One proper noun too many for me today. BRANDRETH is a familiar enough face to ABC viewers in my part of the world, but hardly a household name.
Typo in parsing of 1 down: SHED*, not SHRED*
I also struggled with this but, on retrospect cannot really see why. Not helped by tentatively pencilling in some wrong answers. Thought at first that 5a was a cryptic definition for ‘period’; put down ‘flow chart’ for 25a, hoping that ‘flow’ could somehow mean frivolous. My initial reading of 21a was an anagram of detc containing FUN and still couldn’t see it for quite some time. Sheesh! I’ve never been too keen on clues like 11a where it seems to mean France leaving rather than leaving France but I’m sure some will disagree. Thanks to Hypnos for a challenging end to the week (or beginning as some would have it) and to Simon for the blog.
Goodness me, too young to have heard of James Hunt. He’s a very familiar name to an old petrol-headed crock like me.
Got off to a bad start by entering 1a and d the wrong way round and also made the ‘flow’ for FLIP CHART error which held me up in the SE. After mentally going through every conceivable form of ‘public transport’ the switch eventually flicked for PENCHANT which was my favourite.
This was challenging enough, but after Enigmatist’s offering in the Guardian on Friday it was a welcome way to restore my somewhat battered confidence.
Thanks to Hypnos and Simon.
Many thanks Hypnos and Simon
I needed Simons help for 19d. Managed the rest, though I had to check some of the names ( I did know Hunt).
I thought ACTOR was beautifully smooth.
Good fun, thanks again
Thanks all. Typo corrected.
Further research tells me that Mr. Hunt raced the British GP the day before I was born, so I’m sticking to my “it was before my time” disclaimer!
Enjoyable medium-level crossie. I started off brightly (going the same pencil route as Hovis @2 on both occasions) and completed all but the two I didn’t get – 19d & 26a – in 45mins. Lots of nice smooth stuff here as you’d expect so thanks to The Mesmeriser for a nice puzzle and also to Simon ‘who Hunt’ Harding for the blog.
This took me an age to get into, then it was a slow and steady one. Got there in the end, and am pleased not to have needed any cheats. Managed to hunt out Hunt from the dark recesses of what remains of my mind.
Many thanks to Hypnos and Simon.
We struggled with some of this, but got everything in the end without help. EATERY was our LOI, too and we spent too long trying to think of cricket extras for 11ac.
Must take issue, though, with “long-term resident” for “native” in 2dn. A native (from Latin natus, born) of a place or country is a person born there, regardless of how long he/she has lived there. For example, I am a native of Yorkshire but left there by the time I was two – hardly a long-term resident! But having lived in Derby for the past fifty years I think I qualify as a long-term resident there, but no way can I be called a native.
But thanks, Hypnos (sorry about the rant!) and Simon.
Very late to the party – first chance I’ve had to get to this one. Found it quite tough in places although fairly clued as ever.
25a was COTD for me.
Thanks to the twinkly-eyed one and to Simon for the blog.