Apologies for the late blog this morning – blame staying up listening to England lose the Ashes and sleeping in. A fine start to the Indy week from Peter. All meticulously clued and no obscurities; many good surfaces. What’s not to like (apart from England underperforming massively)?
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Priest cutting Flake with large knife
SCALPEL
An insertion of P for ‘priest’ in SCALE followed by L gives you the surgeon’s knife.
5 Delivery for club employee
BOUNCER
A dd. Don’t mention the cricket.
9 Huge amount of ordinary drug stashed in toilet
OCEAN
A charade of O and E inserted in CAN for a slang word for ‘toilet’.
10 Cheat oddballs with instrument
CARD SHARP
A charade of CARDS and HARP.
11 Get a pot with ice, bananas and a meat dish
COTTAGE PIE
(GET A POT ICE)*
12 Library welcoming male member
LIMB
An insertion of M in LIB.
14 Nasty rent man after agricultural worker
TENANT FARMER
(RENT MAN AFTER)*
18 Bird with wings on centre of pipes in farm machinery
HEDGE SPARROW
An insertion of EDGES and P for the middle letter of ‘pipes’ inserted into HARROW. And a chance for the obligatory Pierre bird link. Also known as the Hedge Accentor, or more commonly the Dunnock. I often see them creeping about under my garden hedging looking for food. Related to the common spuggie, but a slightly squatter shape.
_lge.JPG){kind=link}
21 Nasty woman hiding husband’s food
CHOW
An insertion of H in COW.
22 Type of evidence gathered by fussy American meeting setter in scruffy cafe
PRIMA FACIE
A charade of PRIM A followed by I for the ‘setter’ in (CAFE)*
25 China on replica bust
PORCELAIN
(ON REPLICA)*
26 Delia finally in favour of new item for cooks?
APRON
Nice surface reading. A charade of A for the last letter of ‘Delia’, PRO and N.
27 Artist returned fabric to cabinet
ARMOIRE
A charade of RA reversed followed by MOIRE for the ‘fabric’. A clue where speaking a bit of French helped with the solution.
28 Papers given to editor that’s short of money
PRESSED
A charade of PRESS and ED.
Down
1 Stop for a drink
SCOTCH
A dd. ‘The rumours that England would have a hope in were quickly scotched.’
2 Silver sent abroad for spies
AGENTS
A charade of AG and (SENT)*
3 Criminal meant to crack safe with line of verse
PENTAMETER
An insertion of (MEANT)* in PETER for ‘safe’. Not everyone knows or remembers the latter bit, but the setter and I have no such problems.
4 Clubs entering draw with proceeds of crime?
LUCRE
An insertion of C in LURE, and a noun usually preceded by ‘filthy’, hence the ‘proceeds of crime’ allusion.
5 Lawyer for king tries cocktail in watering hole
BARRISTER
An insertion of R and (TRIES)* in BAR.
6 Language expert leaving heather in part of Scotland
UIST
‘Heather’ is usually LING or ERICA in Crosswordland. Here it’s the former, so it’s [LING]UIST.
7 Tenor leaving old political movement given alto’s charm
CHARISMA
Another removal: CHAR[T]ISM plus A.
8 Skin problem caused by phosphorus found in eggs next to stream
ROPE BURN
An insertion of P in ROE for the first bit and a simple synonym for the second.
13 Cloak arrived bearing old university colours
CAMOUFLAGE
An insertion of O, U and FLAG in CAME.
15 Sweetener for a name-dropping simple setter
ASPARTAME
Peter is asking you to drop the N from SPARTA[N] and make a charade with A at the front and ME for ‘setter’ at the end.
16 Vegetable grown by yokel in strange cape
CHICKPEA
An insertion of HICK in (CAPE)*
17 Symbol of one animal eating tail of white sheep
IDEOGRAM
A charade of I, E in DOG and RAM.
19 Ulcers covering top of cuts and scratches
SCORES
An insertion of C for the first letter of ‘cuts’ in SORES.
20 Case containing most of bird’s drink
PERNOD
An insertion of ERN[E] in POD. The ERNE is a sea eagle and you know why you can’t have a bird link.
23 Get tough with footballers at top of Premiership
MAN UP
Sadly for MAN U fans, it’s the blue side of Manchester that’s running away with the Premiership at the minute, but that’s by-the-by. A charade of MAN U and P for the first letter of ‘Premiership’.
24 Dutch priest found in shop
DELI
A charade of D and ELI for the biblical ‘priest’.
Many thanks to my namesake for this morning’s puzzle.
We enjoyed this – an easy-ish puzzle for Monday but some thought needed along the way. For instance in deciding which clues needed one to lift and separate (‘large knife’, ‘male member’) and which didn’t (agricultural worker, farm machinery). And we saw two possible parsings for 20dn – P[t]ERNOD as well as PERN[e]OD.
Lots of great clues: favourites included PORCELAIN and UIST (North or South, we wonder?)
Thanks, Peter and merci, Pierre.
You are right, Allan – TERN or ERNE would work. TERN is more common, I suppose, so probably that’s what Peter had in mind; but it doesn’t really matter.
I would stick to ERNE.
‘Most of’ usually means that the fodder is cut off at the end.
For ‘head deletion’ there are other indicators.
I found this one a little more challenging than Peter’s last puzzle and had to ask Google about the sweetener and the required symbol.
Still very much enjoyed it – 10a was my favourite.
Many thanks to Peter and to Pierre for the blog.
PS I parsed 20d with ERNE.
Well, this was a bit of a challenge for a Monday.
No complaints though as everything was fair once we had sorted out the more obscure definitions.
Thanks to the Pedros.