A tough challenge from Neo this morning.
I took a while to get into this puzzle, as my first pass of the ACROSS clues only yielded two answers. THankfully, the DOWN clues were a but easier, and I eventually had enough crossing letters to work out the rest of the puzzle, with SLICED being the last one in.
I don’t think there’s a theme or a NINA, but a fair amount of general knowledge may be required to complete the puzzle (eg WHISTLER as a bird, and ART ROCK were new to me).
Thanks Neo
| Across | ||
| 1 | BASH UP | Do over (4,2) |
| BASH (“do”) + UP (“over”, as in “time’s up”) and an &lit. | ||
| 5 | ASSASSIN | Repeatedly Charlie at the crease sees bumper off (8) |
| ASS + ASS (“Charlie”, repeatedly) + IN (“at the crease”, in cricket) | ||
| 9 | CROWFOOT | Brave infantry gets flower (8) |
| CROW (a North-American native tribe, so “brave”) + FOOT (“infantry”)
(For an alternative parsing, see comment 2 below) |
||
| 10 | ODESSA | Horatian work as retrospective in seaport (6) |
| ODES (a series of works by Roman poet, Horace) + <=AS (“as”, retrospective) | ||
| 11 | GIGOLO | Escort boat taking line between ducks (6) |
| GIG (“boat”) + L(ine) between 0 + 0 (“ducks”, in cricket) | ||
| 12 | ON THE SLY | Honestly, deviously or secretively? (2,3,3) |
| *(honestly) | ||
| 14 | SHOCKING PINK | Electric blue’s feminine counterpart? (8,4) |
| A nice play on words | ||
| 18 | PRETTY-PRETTY | Too charming to be doubly mean about Romeo (6-6) |
| PETTY (mean) about R(omeo), doubly | ||
| 22 | SCHUMANN | Romantic composer has girl join second friend (8) |
| ANN (“girl”) joining S(econd) + CHUM (“friend”) | ||
| 25 | ABACUS | Count on this as Cuba undergoes reform (6) |
| *(as cuba) | ||
| 26 | SLICED | How driver went wrong helping daughter (6) |
| SLICE (“helping”) + D(aughter) | ||
| 27 | WHISTLER | Flyer ultimately heartless gets in with fascist leader (8) |
| (heartles)S gets in W(ith) HITLER (“fascist leader”)
A whistler is either a duck or a Eurasian bird with a whistle-like call. |
||
| 28 | WEAPONRY | Arms tired keeping pressure on (8) |
| WEARY (“tired”) keeping P(ressure) + ON, so WEA(P-ON)RY | ||
| 29 | LYRIST | Catalogue includes your classical musician (6) |
| LIST (“catalogue”) includes Yr. (“your”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ADROIT | Neat vermouth taken after a short dram (6) |
| IT (“vermouth”, as in “gin and it”) taken after A DRO(p) (short “dram”) | ||
| 3 | HOW GOES IT | Are you all right with goose being cooked? (3,4,2) |
| *(with goose) | ||
| 4 | PHOTOCOPY | Sweltering in Post Office, seize unknown document (9) |
| HOT (“sweltering”) in P.O. + COP (“seize”) + Y (“unknown”, as in algebra) | ||
| 5 | ART ROCK | Cultured sounds by Peter to involve guitar at the end (3,4) |
| AT (“by”) + ROCK (“Peter”) to involve (guita)R | ||
| 6 | STOUT | Good man determined to find beer (5) |
| St. (saint, so “good man”) + OUT (“determined”, as in “out to get someone”) | ||
| 7 | SWEDE | Garbo for one married in south-east (5) |
| WED (“married”) in S.E. | ||
| 8 | INSOLENT | Certainly too fresh in Hampshire strait (8) |
| IN + SOLENT (“Hampshire strait”) | ||
| 13 | HOG | Here’s one glutton for starters (3) |
| Take the first letters (starters) of Here’s One Glutton. The clue is an &lit. | ||
| 15 | NATHANIEL | Chap lean and thin wandering round area (9) |
| *(lean thin) round A(rea) | ||
| 16 | PAYMASTER | Money manager rates may vary by penny (9) |
| P(enny) + *(rates may) | ||
| 17 | BRUCE LEE | Spooner’s cheese unwrapped for martial artist (5,3) |
| Spoonerism of LOOSE BRIE (“cheese unwrapped”) | ||
| 19 | TOM | Cat giving Tantomile heart (3) |
| The heart of “TanTOMile” | ||
| 20 | RUNAWAY | One taking flight out of control (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | RUBENS | Painter gets redness occasionally after massage (6) |
| rEdNeSs after RUB (“massage”) | ||
| 23 | UNCAP | Cask not opening? Better remove lid! (5) |
| (t)UN (“cask”, not opening) + CAP (“better”, as in “cap that, then”) | ||
| 24 | AUDEN | Writer initially unappreciated in old British colony (5) |
| U(nappreciated) in ADEN (“old British colony”) | ||
*anagram
Thanks loonapick for the explanations. Wrote WASH UP for 1a without being able to parse. Never thought of BASH, D’Oh. Didn’t get ART ROCK, failing to think of ROCK for Peter. Also guessed WHISTLER but idiotically didn’t think of Hitler (typo in blog – says Histler). Thought ON THE SLY and SHOCKING PINK were great clues. Thanks to Neo and loonapick.
Yes, a few difficult ones and ended up missing ART ROCK, a term I’d never heard of, though in retrospect the wordplay made the answer gettable. I liked the two &lits, the surface for ON THE SLY and the original clueing for ASSASSIN.
For 9a, I parsed the def as ‘Brave’ with ‘infantry’ (FOOT) and ‘flower’ (CROW) as the wordplay. Looking up Wikipedia, the Crow River is a tributary of the Mississippi in Minnesota (there are a few other Crow River(s) as well apparently) and CROWFOOT was “a chief of the Siksika First Nation”. Very interesting if you want to look it up. I’m now an instant Wikipedia expert on the subject, and crowfoot or crow’s foot can also be a plant, so looks like either def will do.
Thank you to loonapick and Neo.
Thanks, Hovis – misprint corrected.
A grid that links up well with all areas, and probably needed for this fiendish puzzle, which has 2x &lits! Loved the cooked goose and loose brie, among others.
Wordplodder: I’d say the CROWFOOT is the flower, because of the ‘gets’ being where it is.
Thanks both.
Thanks Neo and loonapick
Have always liked this setter’s puzzles but got to say that he has raised the bar significantly with his last 2-3 FT efforts.
Have a strange feeling that he drew an error from me recently and has done so again here with his ART ROCK (had a not fully parsed ART WORK). Didn’t know that the name Peter actually meant ‘rock’, so don’t know whether I’d ever had got it – really neat clue though !
Lots of interesting clues throughout – BASH UP and SHOCKING PINK were the cream on very rich milk! SLICED was my last in to finish a very enjoyable solve.