Pretty straightforward, although a couple of sneaky ones in the S.E. corner slowed the old gallop for a bit…
Apologies for late blog, technical probs which I was ill-qualified to sort out. Thanks to Crux for the puzzle and to PeeDee and my son Jake for the hand-holding.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DEVASTATED | The French of Virginia said to be heartbroken (10) |
| DE (‘of’ in French) + VA (‘Virginia’) + STATED (‘said’). | ||
| 6 | I SPY | What Mole might say is child’s play (1,3) |
| Confession of a secret agent. | ||
| 9 | DIMINISHED | Little lost after 50% diet? Cut down! (10) |
| DIet (½ of ‘diet’) + MINI (‘little’) + SHED (‘lost’). | ||
| 10 | BAGS | Lots of old trousers (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 12 | HAUTE CUISINE | Kind of menu for high table at the Sorbonne? (5,7) |
| Cryptic definition, literally ‘high cooking’ being yer French for posh nosh. | ||
| 15 | INCIDENTS | Episodes in The Detectives, ten maybe, starting Sunday (9) |
| IN + CID (‘detectives’) + anagram (‘maybe’) of TEN + S[unday]. | ||
| 17 | CANED | Get beaten in the dance-off (5) |
| Anagram (‘off’) of CANED. Rare example of def not being first, last or all words of clue. | ||
| 18 | SANTA | Kiddies love a bit of that Parmesan taste (5) |
| Inclusion in ‘parmeSAN TAste, Santa being ‘children’s favourite’, we take it. | ||
| 19 | RASPBERRY | The coarse sound of a fruit (9) |
| Two defs, ‘raspberry tart’ being the rude, rhyming slang one. | ||
| 20 | MUSIC THERAPY | Treatment for the tone-deaf, perhaps (5,7) |
| Cryptic def. | ||
| 24 | NIGH | Almost dark, almost (4) |
| NIGHt. | ||
| 25 | DOUBLE TIME | What fast-moving troops do, seen briefly in battle (6-4) |
| T[ime] & T[ime] again are seen in ‘baTTle’. Sneaky, and my last one in. | ||
| 26 | AWRY | Starting arguments without reason you become twisted (4) |
| First (‘starting’) letters of 2nd 4 words. | ||
| 27 | SETTLEMENT | What Bill required for the colony (10) |
| Another double def. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DODOS | Parties no longer in existence, proverbially (4) |
| 2x DOs (‘parties’). “Dead as a dodo”, of course. | ||
| 2 | VAMP | A femme fatale against a politician (4) |
| V[ersus] + A + MP. | ||
| 3 | SONG-AND-DANCE | A lot of fuss for such an act (4-3-5) |
| Double def. | ||
| 4 | ASSET | The advantage of raising a girl (5) |
| TESSA, reversed. | ||
| 5 | EXERCISES | Works out name of river with right dimensions, we hear (9) |
| EXE (a river) + homphone of ‘sizes’ (‘dimensions’). | ||
| 7, 22 | STATIONARY BIKE | Taking 5 on this gets you nowhere! (10,4) |
| I.e., ‘exercises’ which consume calories and not miles. | ||
| 8 | YESTERDAYS | Recent past is OK, with steady changes involving little resistance (10) |
| YES (‘OK’) + anagram (‘changes’) of STEADY, to include R[esistance]. | ||
| 11 | PIECE BY PIECE | Gradually shows how to score at Scrabble (5,2,5) |
| Double def, one cryptic. | ||
| 13 | DIPSOMANIA | Swims with topless female, one with a drink problem (10) |
| DIPS (‘swims’) + wOMAN + 1 + A. | ||
| 14 | ICING SUGAR | Fine white powder causing rig to collapse (5,5) |
| Anagram (‘to collapse’) of CAUSING RIG. | ||
| 16 | NORTH POLE | A house here would have an all-round southern aspect! (5,4) |
| A thought experiment. From the exact North Pole, all directions are southward. | ||
| 21 | REBUT | Prove wrong about King Edward? (5) |
| TUBER (King Edward spud being an example), reversed. | ||
| 22 | See 7 | |
| 23 | NEWT | Latest model with a distinctive crest, possibly (4) |
| NEW (‘latest’) + T (old ‘model’ Ford car). Ref the Great Crested Newt. I used to own one. He was called ‘Tiny’. | ||
*anagram
Quite enjoyed this. A moderate rate solve with a few sneaky ones thrown in for good measure. A couple of typos in blog: in 17a, it should say anagram of DANCE and in 5d, the R for ‘right’ is missing. Thanks to all.
Thanks Crux & GB
23: OK, old ‘uns are good ‘uns… ? ?
Sorry, keyboard-generated smileys etc don’t work, then…
Thanks Crux and Grant
Interesting puzzle with a couple of the long ones putting the brakes on too quick a solve. Hastily wrote in CARTE as the first word of 12a for a start which caused a bit of a hold up there. Never heard of the term STATIONARY BICYCLE (BIKE) before and although being able to work out the first bit – would never have guessed the second bit without the help of a dictionary that provided suggestions after writing in ‘stationary’.
BAGS was the last one in and needed a word search to generate a squillion options to try to make some sense of – had only vaguely heard of the answer in respect to either of those Brit slang terms.
That eagle-eyed hovis has prolonged your ‘perfect blog’ for yet one more week !!! 🙂
Not a great crossword.
I thought 6ac rather silly. If a Mole were to say “I spy” then they’d be blowing their cover!
Surely the clue should be “What a Mole will deny..”?
To Salty@5
Not if he’s a double agent.