A super fun puzzle from WANDERER today .. with some excellent surfaces and witty cluing.
FF: 10 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | MONARCHY | Working during month near start of year in UK? (8) |
| [ ON (working) in MARCH (month) ] Y (start of Year) | ||
| 5 | MOPPET | Sweet child taking second university course ahead of time (6) |
| MO (second) PPE (philosophy, politics, economics; university course) T (time) | ||
| 8, 9 | NEW SOUTH WALES | State some answers in full (3,5,5) |
| expansion of NSW (some aNSWers) | ||
| 10 | COMANCHE | American Indian from Taco? Manchester, apparently (8) |
| hidden in “..taCO MANCHEster..” | ||
| 11 | IN GEAR | Gloomy Dean meets Arab, dressed and ready to go (2,4) |
| INGE (gloomy dean, referring to william inge, because of his pessimistic views in his romanes lecture from 1920, from wiki) AR (arab) | ||
| 12, 14 | RING THE CHANGES | Use a variety of approaches, making hen grit? (4,3,7) |
| cryptic clue; HEN GRIT could be clued as an anagram of RING THE (~CHANGES) | ||
| 17, 20 | DOWN MEMORY LANE | A place to walk when depressed, with note nearly composed (4,6,4) |
| semi &lit; [DOWN (depressed) MEMO (note)] NEARLY* | ||
| 23 | ASLEEP | A PM’s turned out (6) |
| A [reverse of PEEL’S (robert peel – PM) ] | ||
| 24 | SELF-HELP | Keep quiet about fairy on front of rock band’s Book of Smiles? (4-4) |
| [SH (keep quite) around ELF (fairy) ] ELP (rock band, emerson, lake and palmer) | ||
| 25, 26 | AGAINST THE LAW | Wealth produced going after profit in a way that’s criminal (7,3,3) |
| WEALTH* after [A GAIN (profit) ST (way) ] – beautiful surface ! | ||
| 27 | SEVERE | Hard cut to point (6) |
| SEVER (cut) E (point) | ||
| 28 | GREENERY | Writer with tips for really decorative stuff that needs to be cut (8) |
| GREENE (writer) RY (tips for ReallY) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MANICURED | How GP might refer to successful case with treated hand? (9) |
| cryptic clue; read as MAN I CURED (how gp might refer to successful case) – loved it ! 🙂 | ||
| 2 | NEWSMAN | Actor/director entertains Sun journalist (7) |
| NEWMAN (actor, paul) containing S (sun) | ||
| 3 | RISING | Approaching the age of rebellion (6) |
| double def | ||
| 4 | HOUYHNHNM | You foolishly got on horse with name twice held by the Queen’s horse (9) |
| [ OUY (YOU*) {H (horse) N (name) – twice } ] in HM (queen, her majesty) – horse in gulliver’s travel. i didnt know this. | ||
| 5 | MAWKISH | Sentimental single initially released by US band – covered by Wham, surprisingly (7) |
| WHAM* around KISs (us band, without ‘S’ – Single initially) | ||
| 6 | POLYGONAL | A long lost former college, previously having properties found in a square (9) |
| POLY (former college) [ A LONG ]* | ||
| 7 | ENSLAVE | Finding Lee Evans a little pointless becomes awful bind (7) |
| LEe EVANS* (without E – pointless) | ||
| 13 | GINGER ALE | Blow, that’s hard, keeping 11 without a drink (6,3) |
| GALE (blow, that’s hard) containing [ IN GEaR (answer to 11a, without A) ] | ||
| 15 | CARPENTER | Go in after fish and chips (9) |
| ENTER (go in) after CARP (fish) | ||
| 16 | SWEEP AWAY | Swiftly and suddenly remove little old man in authority (5,4) |
| [WEE (little) PA (old woman)] in SWAY (authority) | ||
| 18 | ONSTAGE | Visibly performing number about men only (7) |
| ONE (number) around STAG (men only) | ||
| 19 | EXPANSE | Vessels in river area (7) |
| PANS (vessels) in EXE (river) | ||
| 21 | AREOLAE | In A&E, a role involved nipple rings (7) |
| AE A ROLE* | ||
| 22 | EFFETE | Spent summer in France just south of its capital, we hear (6) |
| ETE (french for summer) after EFF (sounds like F, capital in France) | ||
*anagram
Thanks, Turbolegs, for a great blog of, as you say, a super fun puzzle.
Just a couple of things: I think there are two meanings of ‘in gear’ in 11ac – ‘dressed’ and ‘ready to go’ and perhaps 24ac needs some explanation; see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Help_(book) [I’m not sure I knew this – but I did know the horse [not how to spell it, though 😉 ].
Huge thanks to Wanderer – I just loved it!
Forgot to say there’s a wee typo in 16dn.
I was in need of a challenge today and Wanderer seems good at that. Thanks for blog, turbolegs-I had no idea on PPE and INGE which may not have appeared in Graun puzzle.
I still have to get used to Wanderer but Graun puzzles have bben a tad gentle this week so it was welcome.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Great crossword from this setter again with a mix of interesting devices and some brilliant surfaces to boot. Nice to see the Aussie state get into play and am sad to say that I didn’t see the NSW hidden away.
Only ever remember about that weirdly spelt horse after the fact and usually need a word finder (strangely enough that they even have it listed) to get the actual word.
Needed comments to get the SELF HELP book of Samuel Smiles, even though it was one of the early entries into the grid.
SWEEP AWAY was the last one in.