Traditional Sunday fare from the Independent. A roast and two veg crossword, nothing fancy but fits the occasion perfectly. Thank you to Peter.
| Across | ||
| 1 | INDICES | Hands pointing to text in square after cubes (7) |
| IN then S (Square) following DICE (cubes) | ||
| 5 | PYRAMID | Ancient building may drip fluid (7) |
| anagram (fluid) of MAY DRIP | ||
| 9 | GROOM | Grand space for curry? (5) |
| G (grand) and ROOM (space) | ||
| 10 | ICELANDER | European slipping spirit into fermented cider (9) |
| ELAN (spirit) inside (slipping into) anagram (fermented) of CIDER | ||
| 11 | SUSPENSION | Head of state visiting America given funds for stay (10) |
| State (head of, first letter) with US (America) with PENSION (funds) | ||
| 12 | SEWN | Old nurse squeezing opening of wound to be stitched (4) |
| SEN (State Enrolled Nurse, former qualification) contains (squeezing) Wound (opening letter of) | ||
| 14 | SHAKESPEARE | Writer drinks fruit smoothie at last (11) |
| SHAKES (drinks) PEAR (fruit) then smoothiE (last letter of) | ||
| 18 | KILIMANJARO | Brief dispatch by independent fellow before clash on old mountain (11) |
| KILL (dispatch) missing last letter (brief) then I (independent) MAN (fellow) JAR (clash) on O (old) | ||
| 21 | PIED | Colourful mixed type (4) |
| double definition. I always thought pied meant patched rather than colourful, indicating the presence of patches rather than the presence of colours. | ||
| 22 | ASSESSMENT | Blockheads dispatched to take first part of maths test (10) |
| ASSES (blockheads) SENT (dispatched) containing (to take) Maths (first letter, first part of) | ||
| 25 | ARMADILLO | Animal and a plant enveloped by strange aroma (9) |
| DILL (plant) in anagram (strange) of AROMA | ||
| 26 | LEVEL | Uniform that’s reversible? (5) |
| LEVEL, a palindrome (reversible) | ||
| 27 | KENNEDY | Clue about points awarded to Democratic president (7) |
| KEY (clue) containing (about) N NE (points of the compass) with (awarded to) D (democratic | ||
| 28 | EPSILON | Letter from Poles in translation (7) |
| anagram (translation) of POLES IN | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | INGEST | Swallow nesting in charming estuary (6) |
| found inside (nesting in) charmING ESTuary | ||
| 2 | DROPSY | Medic leading operation on extremely squidgy swelling (6) |
| DR (medic) then OP (operation) in SqudgY (extreme letters of) | ||
| 3 | CUMBERSOME | Come across mineral with spiky tip that’s awkward to handle (10) |
| COME containing (across) UMBER (mineral) with Spiky (tip, first letter of) | ||
| 4 | SHIPS | Small fruit on small vessels (5) |
| S (small) HIP (fruit) in S (small) | ||
| 5 | PHENOMENA | Heads of physics turned sea creature into remarkable things (9) |
| PHysics (heads of, first two letters) then ANEMONE (sea creature) reversed (turned) | ||
| 6 | READ | Bachelor leaving food in study (4) |
| bREAD (food) missing B (bachelor) | ||
| 7 | MEDIEVAL | Very old stamp given to five tucking into food (8) |
| DIE (stamp) with V (five) inside MEAL (food) | ||
| 8 | DERANGED | Cuckoo seen in borders of desolate wild garden (8) |
| DesolatE (borders, outside letters of) the anagram (wild) of GARDEN | ||
| 13 | EPSOM SALTS | Purgatives sorted out males with spots (5,5) |
| anagram (sorted out) of MALES with SPOTS | ||
| 15 | AUNT SALLY | Target for abuse torments topless partner (4,5) |
| tAUNTS (torments, topless) then ALLY (partner) | ||
| 16 | SKIPJACK | Fish with small sharp extremity almost turned on sailor (8) |
| S (small) PIKe (sharp extremity, almost) reversed (turned) on JACK (sailor) | ||
| 17 | ALDERMAN | Suspect alarmed by new public official (8) |
| anagram (suspect) of ALARMED then N (new) | ||
| 19 | WEEVIL | Whale gutted by nasty insect (6) |
| WhalE (gutted, no middle letters) then EVIL (nasty) | ||
| 20 | STOLEN | Lecturer stopping scruffy notes being plagiarised (6) |
| L (lecturer) inside anagram (scruffy) of NOTES | ||
| 23 | EMOTE | English book about a way to show one’s feelings (5) |
| E (English) then TOME (book) reversed (about) | ||
| 24 | IDLE | Lazy brother abandoning check (4) |
| brIDLE (check) missing (abandoned by) BR (brother) | ||
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.
Might have been half asleep, but after going through A clues initially had almost nothing. After that, rapidly fell into place.
21A Think “Pied Piper of Hamlin” – I think his multicoloured garb may have been one of his attractions.
22A It is just DILL in AROMA* – can understand the typo as as the indefinite article seems unnecessary, clue would have read OK without it.
24D had to be IDLE, though I couldn’t think, or didn’t bother to try to work out, from what word the “b” or “br” or “bro” had been dropped.
Thanks to Peter and PeeDee.
gwep – you are kind to describe 22A as a typo but it is in fact my parsing mistake. I took a glance at A DILL and AROMA and assumed it was going to be an anagram of ARMADILLO. I should check.
Enjoyable easy-end crossword, though I did slow up a bit in the SW. Fave was 10a, natch, so thanks to God’s Bouncer for the pleasant Sunday puzz and to P of the D for the blog.
Just hit the right note for a Sunday solve – gentle and enjoyable.
Wondered briefly whether I would have been right first time with the spelling of 18a without the wordplay!
Top two for me were 5&13d.
Thanks to Peter and to Peedee for the blog.
By the way, Peter, I understand that you are a member of our ‘gentle’ sex – is your full name Petronella by any chance. I’ve always thought that is a lovely name.
A nice gentle steady solve, though we hesitated about PIED, thinking it means simply black and white, as in ‘pied wagtail’ – we’d forgotten the Pied Piper dressed, according to Browning, in red and yellow. We did wonder if there was such a word as PYET (an anagram of ‘type’) – and found it in Chambers as a variant of a Scots word ‘pyot’ which – surprise, surprise – means PIED!
For the rest, all very good so no real favourites.
Thanks, Peter and PeeDee.