Alberich was on top form when he compiled this. There are many great clues in here, too many to even think of picking a favourite. Thank you Alberich.
| Across | ||
| 1 | LOHENGRIN | Possibly the best part of Rheingold? Note, Wagner wrote it (9) |
| anagram (possibly) of RHEINGOLd (nearly all, the best part of) then N (note). Noting this clue comes at 1-across I am curious to know whether the near-anagram of Rheingold and Lohengrin was Alberich’s starting point for this puzzle or if it came by chance during the grid-fill and clue writing process. | ||
| 6 | GECKO | Lizard Point’s 100 kilometres into journey (5) |
| E (East, point of compass) C (100) K (kilometres) in GO (journey) | ||
| 9 | APPLE | Remove skin from mottled fruit (5) |
| dAPPLEd (mottles) missing outer letters (remove skin from). A fine surface for the clue. | ||
| 10 | GUITARIST | Gut clenching one gets close to terror – it’s a mad axeman! (9) |
| GUT contains (clenching) I (one) then anagram (mad) of terroR (closing letter) with IT’S A | ||
| 11 | OCCIDENTAL | Chance to receive Oscar for a Western (10) |
| aCCIDENTAL (chance) with O (Oscar, phonetic alphabet) replacing (for) A | ||
| 12 | DORK | Choice of extremes for drunk idiot (4) |
| D OR K offers a choice of the first or last letters (extremes) of drunk | ||
| 14 | RAILWAY | Revile women having vacated assembly line (7) |
| RAIL (revile) W (women) and AssemblY (vacated, no middle letters) | ||
| 15 | LEANDER | Hero’s beloved captain conceals name (7) |
| LEADER (captain) contains (conceals) N (name) – Leander was the lover of Hero in classical mythology | ||
| 17 | DUELLED | Owed a couple of pounds, journalist fought for honour (7) |
| DUE (owed) L (pound, twice) then ED (editor, journalist) | ||
| 19 | SIDINGS | Does the vocals for around 501 short tracks (7) |
| SINGS (does the vocals for) containing (around) DI (501 in Roman numerals) | ||
| 20 | AMID | Surrounded by bedlam, I distract guards (4) |
| found inside (guarded by) bedlAM I Distract | ||
| 22 | SCHOOLMARM | Prim woman is indifferent about husband wearing fawn (10) |
| COOL (indiferent) containing (about) H (husband) all inside (wearing) SMARM (fawn) | ||
| 25 | PHALANGER | Australian native in rage after very hot curry (9) |
| ANGER (rage) following PHAL (very hot curry). Both Phalanger and Phal were new words to me. | ||
| 26 | BAKER | With Charlie gone, angel cakes are made by him (5) |
| BAcKER (angel) missing C (charlie, phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 27 | TROVE | Heading off, endeavoured to find some treasure (5) |
| sTROVE (endeavoured) missing first letter (heading off) | ||
| 28 | NONPAREIL | Confectionery that’s modelled on praline (9) |
| anagram (modelled) of ON PRALINE – a chocolate button covered in sugar | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LLANO | Upset about everything, that’s plain (5) |
| ON (about) ALL (everything) all reversed (upset) – one of the vast plains forming Los LLanos in South America | ||
| 2 | HYPOCRITE | False piety or holiness common primarily for him? (9) |
| anagram (false) of PIETY OR and Common Primarily (first letters of, primarily) | ||
| 3 | NE’ER-DO-WELL | Holding pin, René repaired left loafer (4-2-4) |
| anagram (repaired) of RENE then DOWEL (pin) and L (left) | ||
| 4 | REGENCY | Rule in operation without a monarch ascending, previously? (7) |
| I’m not sure how to categorise this one. It is a long and literal definition of “regency” that disguises itself as a cryptic clue. It fooled me for a while. UPDATE: aGENCY (operation) missing A following ER (Elizabeth Regina, monarch) reversed (ascending) – definition is rule. Thanks to Hovis for this improved explanation. | ||
| 5 | NAIPAUL | Chap turns up with another writer (7) |
| IAN (man’s name, chap) reversed (turns up) with PAUL (another chap) | ||
| 6 | GOAT | Attack a lecherous person (4) |
| GO AT (attack) | ||
| 7 | CHINO | Henry’s popular, cracking officer material (5) |
| H (Henry) IN (popular) inside (cracking) CO (commanding officer) | ||
| 8 | OUTSKIRTS | More than others, avoids suburbs? (9) |
| one who OUTSKIRTS will skirt (avoid) more than others | ||
| 13 | CANDELABRA | Let off a ballet dancer breaking lampholders (10) |
| anagram (breaking) of A BALlet DANCER missing (off) LET | ||
| 14 | RED CARPET | Racecourse favourite gets VIP treatment (3,6) |
| REDCAR (racecourse) thn PET (favourite) | ||
| 16 | DONT ASK ME | Head accepts new job? I haven’t the foggiest! (4,3,2) |
| DOME (head) contains (accepts) N (new) TASK (job) | ||
| 18 | DECAGON | Figure suffering not unknown after Christmas period (7) |
| AGONy (suffering) missing Y (unknown, maths equations) following DEC (December, the Christmas period) | ||
| 19 | SPORRAN | Artist stuffs dirty pictures under small pouch (7) |
| RA (Royal Academician) inside (stuffs) PORN (dirty pictures) following (under) S (small) | ||
| 21 | IMAGO | Setter’s gone for adult version of cricket? (5) |
| I’M (setter is) AGO (gone) – in an insect the adult form, following metamorhosis | ||
| 23 | MOREL | Rather large mushroom (5) |
| MORE (rather) L (large) | ||
| 24 | SAFE | Alfred regularly follows Saint Peter (4) |
| AlFrEd (regular selection from) following S (saint) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks for a great blog, PeeDee. I’m in total agreement with your preamble – a super puzzle, full of absolute gems. I did start ticking [at 1ac!] but had to give up.
Regarding 1ac, Alberich used this happy coincidence in reverse, as it were, as his alter ego Klingsor in the Indy: ‘Director’s sad most of Lohengrin cast ruined Wagner work [3,9]’ – very clever stuff all round!
I’m with you re both parts of PHALANGER and I didn’t know that meaning of NONPAREIL, either. I also puzzled over REGENCY.
Huge thanks to Alberich – I loved it!
For 4d, I took definition as Rule with AGENCY (operation) without A following ER< (monarch rising). Pleased to spot NONPAREIL but, as a confectionery, my Collins lists it as American but not clued as such. Had to cheat to get NAIPAUL. Unknown to me and my first guess was NAICARL. Also guessed PHALANGER but did know PHAL. Fantastic clues and a great workout. Thanks to all.
How does Peter mean “safe”? The surface is clear enough.
Coby @3 – a slang name for a safe: a crossword favourite, which crops up quite often, so worth filing away. If you google it, you’ll find various possible explanations.
Thanks Alberich, Peedee
Great stuff, as usual.
Didn’t know phalanger, but knew phal from having eaten one (never to be forgotten), despite never having come across any evidence outside curry lore that it’s actually a word. Agree about multiple ticks, but to pick a few favourites: redcar pet, morel, outskirts, sporran, occidental
Nice puzzle here too. Guardian, not so sure!
Thanks Alberich and PeeDee
Agree that this was a cracker puzzle with quite a number of clues that I had to go back later to fully parse. Knew the PHALANGER (called possums down here for most parts and not good to have around if one is a gardener!) but hadn’t heard of the PHAL part.
Had to guess NONPAREIL as the sweet and look it up to confirm. REGENCY and CANDELABRA were the most difficult to parse.
Finished down the bottom with SPORRAN (another challenging parse), PHALANGER and SCHOOLMARM (where I initially had SCHOOLMAAM until it wouldn’t fully parse) as the last few in.