I enjoyed this. Not too desperately difficult but there were some tricky bits. For example I only just realised about 26ac and was searching vainly on Google for some song that she performed.
The theme is cycling, specifically the Tour de France, as at 14ac. There were several references to this noble activity, which suffers — in the public eye, at any rate — from drug-related suspicions. Certainly there have been problems in the past, but an enthusiast was recently trying to convince me that no, they’re tested properly nowadays and it’s all clean. Well yes. Perhaps.
Anyway your job is to find all those references.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TEST TUBE | Technical equipment to probe underground (4,4) |
| test [= probe] tube [as in Tube, the London Underground] | ||
| 5 | AMAZED | Bill touring Long Kesh, gobsmacked (6) |
| a(Maze)d | ||
| 10/11 | BRADLEY WIGGINS | Belgian’s wry dig wound up mounted knight (7,7) |
| (Belgian’s wry dig)* — mounted on a bicycle | ||
| 12 | EVENS | The odds of Boris never making a U-turn? (5) |
| Reverse hidden in BoriS NEVEr, the hidden indicator simply ‘of’ | ||
| 13 | NILE GREEN | Shade of African flower, but not The Purple Rose of Cairo! (4,5) |
| CD relying on the fact that the river Nile is an African flower | ||
| 14 | TOUR DE FRANCE | In a daze, old Freud traduced the Gallic race (4,2,6) |
| t(ouredf)rance, the ourdef being (o Freud)* | ||
| 18 | IN THE OPEN AIR | Out and about, trying to get a claret jug to display (2,3,4,3) |
| (in The Open) air — Knut evidently follows golf, but I can see our non-golfing readers being bewildered by this: the Claret Jug is the trophy presented to the winner of golf’s Open Championship (not the British Open, and not to be confused with the US Open) | ||
| 21 | ENDEAVOUR | Morse code manoeuvred, unopened (9) |
| ({m}anoeuvred)*, the anagram indicated by the imperative ‘code’ — Endeavour Morse was the full name of the character in those books by Colin Dexter, for some reason a regular appearer in crosswords, perhaps because Colin Dexter himself was quite something in crosswords, particularly the Azed clue-setting competition | ||
| 23 | BREVE | Bishop, head of episcopate, penning vicar a longish note (5) |
| B (rev.) e{piscopate} | ||
| 24 | ANAEMIC | Adult cinema production not gory enough (7) |
| A (cinema)* — excellent surface with a clever definition, ‘production’ to be read in two ways | ||
| 25 | MARBLES | The Stones; men embracing R&B (7) |
| ma(RB)les | ||
| 26 | KIMONO | Japanese cover for Yoko’s follow-up to Rocket Man (6) |
| Kim (Kim Jong-un, rocket man) Ono (Yoko Ono) | ||
| 27 | UNDER WAY | In train in tunnel? (5,3) |
| If you are in a tunnel you may be under the road, or under the way | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TABLET | Brittle Scottish favourite fit to enter motorbike races (6) |
| T(able)T — the type of biscuit was confirmed by Chambers and Collins | ||
| 2 | SHAMED | Embarrassed fake news boss (6) |
| sham [= fake] ed. [= news boss] | ||
| 3 | TELESCOPE | It’s used to observe select abuse, given the rise of EPO (9) |
| (select)* (EPO)rev. — another cycling reference | ||
| 4 | BEYOND REPROACH | Hope dear Corbyn turns out to be squeaky clean! (6,8) |
| (Hope dear Corbyn)* | ||
| 6 | MAGOG | Mike really excited to see bloke from Genesis (5) |
| M agog — M as in the NATO alphabet — Magog from the Bible | ||
| 7 | ZAIREANS | South Africa anger as Nigerian leader imprisoned old Congolese people (8) |
| ZA ire a(N{igerian})s | ||
| 8 | DISINTER | Order to remove body from graveyard is interrupted (8) |
| Hidden in graveyarD IS INTERrupted — with some sort of &littish quality, to use against those who would say that parts of this clue are doing double duty and the definition should really go on to the end of ‘graveyard’ | ||
| 9 | TWELVE ANGRY MEN | Reels in courtroom: midnight, 3rd. of June, Germany, arrested, drunk (6,5,3) |
| 15 | REIMBURSE | Refund Earl following massage upset in bubbly French spa (9) |
| Reims round (rub)rev. e [= Earl] — Reims is the French spa, celebrated for its champagne (bubbly) | ||
| 16 | BIKE RACK | Told to purchase drug for use between legs of 14 (4,4) |
| “buy crack” — a bike rack is for use in between the legs of the Tour de France, nothing scurrillous here, as a first reading might lead you to suspect | ||
| 17 | STUD-FARM | Breeding ground for storm in Berlin about rise of right-wing party (4-4) |
| stü(DFA)rm, DFA being AFD reversed; the AFD is Alternative for Germany, a right-wing party | ||
| 19/20 | YELLOW JERSEY | Prize top chicken, cow (6,6) |
| yellow [= chicken] jersey [a Jersey is a type of cow], as worn by leaders in the Tour de France | ||
| 22 | ADMIN | A row about money management (5) |
| a d(m)in | ||
*anagram
Thanks Knut, John
BIKE RACK, KIMONO favourites. ENDEAVOUR had me bamboozled for ages. Also liked YELLOW JERSEY, MAGOG and others.
I had TWELVE ANGRY MEN as TWELVE (midnight) N (third of june) with (GERMANY)*drunk contained(arrested).
Thanks James, of course you’re right. Blog amended.
A gem. I’ve been watching the series on the young Endeavour which I have enjoyed immensely what with opera and crosswords.
Many thanks to John and Knut.
Most enjoyable solve, though faster than usual. Must be one of his more lenient ones. Faves were REIMBURSE and BIKE RACK.
@John. Pace Chambers and Collins, the Scottish word TABLET is not a biscuit, but an item of fudge-like confectionery that comes in bars, or as we say ‘cakes’. Confusing, isn’t it?
Thanks for an excellent blog. And to Knut…..Klasse!
Managed to find time to fit this into a busy day and I’m glad I did.
Thanks to Knut and John
Fascinating stuff. For some reason ADMIN was my LOI.
17D the German word for storm, Sturm, does not have an umlaut, though it takes one in its plural forms.
Thanks to Knut and John.
@6 that should read gwep.
Thanks, John.
Like crypticsue, I’ve a busy day [and off to RSC Stratford soon] but very glad to have found time for this.
Favourites: BRADLEY WIGGINS, TOUR DE FRANCE, ENDEAVOUR and ANAEMIC – but not a dud clue to be seen.
Many thanks to Knut for another great puzzle.
Very good, with lots to enjoy.
I’m a little ‘on the fence’ with regard to CODE as anagrind. If you code, you put something into a form other than the originally intended one, whereas here you really want to ‘decode’. Not sure, and I do realise it wrecks the surface!
Many thanks both players.
Thanks Knut, lots of fun as always.
Rocket man made me laugh out loud. Also like Breve, marbles, and many others
Thanks John as well
We enjoyed the cycling theme, only slightly marred by the intrusion of golf. All pretty straightforward with only occasional recourse to Chambers for confirmation of what we were 99% certain of anyway.
Regarding TABLET, our copy of Chambers (13th ed) has ‘a brittle confection of sugar, butter and condensed milk, made in slabs (Scot)’ – no mention of ‘biscuit’. Incidentally, TT can also refer to a leg of Le Tour – when it’s a Time Trial or “Contre le Montre“.
Too many great clues to name a favourite.
Thanks, Knut and John.
Lots to like in this puzzle, KIMONO, ENDEAVOUR, Sir Brad to name but a few. BIKE RACK was my last one in, with a chuckle.
Thanks Knut and John
I am running out of new things to say about Knut. This was up to the usual high standards, entertaining, inventive and quite tricky to finish. TABLET was my last in.
Thanks to Knut and John
I found this quite tricky but definitely worth it – wonderful fun. Did I use any cheats? Well, I’ve been tested and found clean, and will ask that we leave the matter there.
Unusually I did pick up on the theme but didn’t delve into it. Thought I’d leave it to the blogger, only for John to tell me it’s my job. Oops! Consider me suitably SHAMED.
That kind of TABLET was new to me and thought I might be missing something in NILE GREEN.
It might be a bit futile to ENDEAVOUR to list favourites, but if pushed I’d award the chicken cow to the wonderful KIMONO.
Thanks to Knut and John.
Many thanks for the blog John, and thanks to those who have commented.
It was especially nice to see a couple of regulars during my annual visit to the UK at the weekend, for which I had temporarily granted myself a Therapeutic Use Exemption