A good challenge from Tees today
There was a certain amount of General Knowledge needed for this – nothing too obscure though, and all gettable from the wordplay and /or crossing letters. Some crafty definitions, too – 14ac in particular.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9/7 | Sick as the DA’s wayward wife with weapon raised (4,5,6,2) | |
| LIKE DEATH WARMED UP | LIKE (as) + an anagram of THE DA (anagrind is ‘wayward’) + W (wife) + ARMED (with weapon) + UP (raised) | |
| 10 | Not the time before Christ in traditional saying (5) | |
| ADAGE | The AD AGE, being the ‘time after Christ’, could be described as ‘not the time before Christ’ | |
| 11 | Carnivore‘s length added to value (5) | |
| RATEL | L (length) ‘added to’ RATE (value) | |
| 12 | Three notes — the last penned by my entrant after deadline (9) | |
| LATECOMER | LA, TE and ME (three notes) with ‘me’ in or ‘penned by’ COR (‘my’ – as an exclamation) | |
| 13 | Boy consuming egg and bones (7) | |
| SURGEON | SON (boy) round or ‘consuming’ URGE (egg) | |
| 14 | An adolescent male dressed finally in rubber (7) | |
| ALADDIN | A LAD (an adolescent male) + D (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘dressed’) + IN – the definition referring to Aladdin’s need to rub his lamp to summon up the genie | |
| 15 | Love excellent final letter (5) | |
| OMEGA | O (love) MEGA (excellent) | |
| 18 | Shot in Florida (3) | |
| RID | Hidden in FloRIDa | |
| 19 | Home supporter on course for keeping record (5) | |
| TEPEE | TEE (‘supporter on (golf) course’) round or ‘keeping’ EP (record) | |
| 21 | Pressure on nurse to present claim (7) | |
| PRETEND | P (pressure) RE (on) TEND (nurse) | |
| 22 | Doctor boarding for South Africa’s historic island (7) | |
| FORMOSA | MO (doctor) in or ‘boarding’ FOR SA (South Africa) – the ‘historic’ name for Taiwan | |
| 24 | His curate prepared bread and wine (9) | |
| EUCHARIST | An anagram of HIS CURATE – anagrind is ‘prepared’ | |
| 26 | Republic had at first two small islands (5) | |
| HAITI | H (first letter of ‘had’) AIT (small island) and I (another small island) | |
| 27 | Class answer godly person sitting in church (5) | |
| CASTE | A (answer) ST (saint – ‘godly person’) ‘sitting’ in CE (church) | |
| 28 | Architect perhaps critical about very English country home (9) | |
| NASHVILLE | NASH (Georgian architect John Nash) ILL (critical) round V (very) + E (English) – Nashville being considered the home of country music | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | One burning them shortly takes half of cakes outside (8) | |
| ALFRESCO | ALFRE |
|
| 2 | Curry maybe using fish and horse’s heart (6) | |
| SKATER | SKATE (fish) R (middle letter or ‘heart’ of ‘horse’) – a reference to John Curry, the British figure skater who was Olympic and World Champion in 1976 | |
| 3 | Debase theory regularly employed in praise (10) | |
| ADULTERATE | ThEoRy (alternate or ‘regular letters) ’employed’ in ADULATE (praise) | |
| 4 | Each in Slough having sunk in reputation (6) | |
| FALLEN | ALL (each) in FEN (slough) | |
| 5 | Man replacing firm in Caledonia’s island group (8) | |
| SHETLAND | HE (man) replacing ‘co’ (company – ‘firm’) in S |
|
| 6 | Nearly thirty-one days needed to make this brandy (4) | |
| MARC | MARC |
|
| 7 | See 9 Across | |
| 8 | Coin squeezed between two notes in cell (6) | |
| NEURON | EURO (coin) between N and N (two notes) | |
| 15 | Searching for peace, hail soothing application (10) | |
| AFTERSHAVE | AFTER (searching for) SH (peace) AVE (hail) | |
| 17 | River to surge up — that involves constant worry (8) | |
| EXERCISE | EXE (river) RISE (surge up) round or ‘involving’ C (constant) | |
| 18 | Massive star made by two different pandas (3,5) | |
| RED GIANT | RED and GIANT are two species of panda, although apparently they are not closely related | |
| 20 | Divorcee and excitable maiden investigated (8) | |
| EXAMINED | EX (divorcee) + an anagram of MAIDEN – anagrind is ‘excitable’ | |
| 21 | Romeo in drama’s Brosnan? (6) | |
| PIERCE | R (Romeo in the phonetic alphabet) in PIECE (drama) – a reference to actor Pierce Brosnan. Thanks Eileen – we’ve corrected predictive text error and our poor proof-reading! | |
| 22 | Female is into the kinky behaviour (6) | |
| FETISH | F (female) + IS in an anagram of THE – anagrind is ‘kinky’ – is ‘kinky also part of the definition? | |
| 23 | Bird heading for oven — one having stuffed part (6) | |
| ORIOLE | O (first letter or ‘heading’ of ‘oven’) + I (one) in or ‘stuffing’ ROLE (part). At the risk of another court action from Pierre’s solicitor we are including another ‘obligatory bird link’. The bird is just too beautiful to ignore – have a look at THIS. | |
| 25 | God shows an interest? Not initially! (4) | |
| ARES | |
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Took a while to get going, but then all went in steadily without too many hold-ups. As usual, fooled by ‘bones’ and started going through the skeleton from head to toe before I finally saw what was meant (geddit). I liked the ‘country home’ and ‘rubber’ defs. and the wordplay for 4d.
Thank you to Tees and B&J.
Finished reasonably quickly with several clues needing a bit of thought. 21d was perhaps a little weak but plenty of good clues. I particularly liked ALADDIN and FETISH. Thanks to S&B.
Thanks for a great blog, B and J and Tees for a very enjoyable puzzle.
Favourite clues: EUCHARIST and SHETLAND. And Aladdin was a real pdm.
I liked the poetic alphabet. 😉
Thanks Eileen@3 – hopefully everything is now correct!
I always look forward to the Indy puzzle when I see Tees’ name on it, because he constructs crosswords that are generally just outside of my comfort zone. Here the GK was a bit of a stretch for me (ARES, FORMOSA) and the misdirection with ‘rubber’ and ‘country home’ took a bit of teesing out.
But a very pleasing puzzle and an informative blog, in which I especially enjoyed the bird link. Take no notice of Pierre’s legal team.
Thanks all three.
A nice steady solve with a bit of thought needed here and there – certainly not many write-ins. ALADDIN was our LOI; for a while all the crossing letters suggested was ‘abandon’ and the bit about ‘dressed … in rubber’ might at a stretch (sorry!) suggest having a band on (geddit?) – an intriguing thought, but of course the rest wouldn’t parse, and then it clicked.
Plenty of others to like, as well. ALFRESCO raised a smile for two reasons; the reference to Alfred and the cakes reminded us that there was (maybe still is) a King Alfred Bakery in Winchester – not a very appropriate name it seems to us; and then there’s an amusing collection in Gowers’ Complete Plain Words of things that could be better phrased, including reference to an emperor “putting on his grand alfresco spectacles”!
Thanks, Tees and B&J
Late to the party again (chess club is the reason, though I’m obviously not allowed to talk about chess club), but enjoyed this Tees as I do all his puzzles. Fave clue, though I missed it, was 25d – great stuff! Cheers to setter and blogger.