A challenging Monday morning offering from Jason.
We found this more challenging than we have come to expect on a Monday! A few we were less confident about, for example the use of “C” for “cloudy” in 23D, and ambler / scrambler in 20D. No less enjoyable though! Thank you Jason.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MUSTER | What’s not to be missed? The Queen’s troops’ gathering (6) |
| MUST (what’s not to be missed) + ER (the Queen) | ||
| 4 | EPISTLES | PS set lie out in these (8) |
| *(PS SET LIE) (*out) &lit | ||
| 9 | SULTAN | American-backed Left beat ruler (6) |
| US< (American, backed) + L (left) + TAN (beat) | ||
| 10 | SCIMITAR | Wound round one with German weapon (8) |
| SCAR (wound) round I (one) + MIT (with in German) | ||
| 12 | TEAR | RIP should be black with English included (4) |
| TAR (black) around E (English, included) | ||
| 13 | MANAGEMENT | Provide staff, mature chaps, with time for administration (10) |
| MAN (provide staff) + AGE (mature) + MEN (chaps) + T (time) | ||
| 15 | TRAVEL AGENCY | Who arranges Calgary event in resort? (6,6) |
| *(CALGARY EVENT) (*arranges) &lit | ||
| 18 | ICECREAMSODA | Drink which is bottled America does cold also (3-5,4) |
| *(AMERICA DOES C[old]) (*bottled) | ||
| 21 | JUMBLESALE | Charity event mixes up beer (6,4) |
| JUMBLES (mixes up) + ALE (beer) | ||
| 22 | SARI | Dress from Kashmir a shopper’s returned (4) |
| kashm[IR A S]<hopper’s (returned, from) | ||
| 24 | RELEASED | Grass surrounding meadows is made public (8) |
| REED (grass) surrounding LEAS (meadows) | ||
| 25 | DARING | Impulsive sweetheart concealing onset of love (6) |
| DAR[l]ING (sweetheart without L (onset of love)) | ||
| 26 | SERPENTS | President, being set back, dispatched head to back traitors (8) |
| PRES< (president, set back) + ENTS (“sent” (dispatched) with head (S) to the back) | ||
| 27 | TEETER | Online poster wife leaves in lurch (6) |
| T[w]EETER (tweeter, wife leaves) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MISSTATE | An art gallery’s pin-up, I suppose, to lie (8) |
| MISS TATE (art gallery) (pin-up, like in a calendar – Miss January, etc) | ||
| 2 | SALT AWAY | Wit with a plan for store (4,4) |
| SALT (wit) + A WAY (a plan) | ||
| 3 | EXAM | Test marks split up (4) |
| (M (marks) + AXE (split))< (up) | ||
| 5 | PACKAGE DEALS | Terms (all or nothing) for pine boxes outside (7,5) |
| PACKAGES (boxes) outside DEAL (pine) | ||
| 6 | SUMMER CAMP | She adds theatrical holiday (6,4) |
| SUMMER (she adds) + CAMP (theatrical) | ||
| 7 | LITTER | In which kitties come and go? (6) |
| CD (kitties are born in a litter, and “go” in a litter tray) | ||
| 8 | SPRITE | Spirit put out with a dash of Ribena added (6) |
| SPITE (put out) with R (dash of Ribena) added | ||
| 11 | BALANCE SHEET | Even up some rigging of books (7,5) |
| BALANCE (even up) + SHEET (rigging, sail on boat) | ||
| 14 | PENCIL CASE | New place’s nice where writers congregate (6,4) |
| *(PLACES NICE) (*new) | ||
| 16 | ROYALIST | Cavalier Rovers player? Top celeb (8) |
| ROY (Rovers player, Roy of the Rovers) + A-LIST (top celeb) | ||
| 17 | MALINGER | Parent to stick around for loaf (8) |
| MA (parent) + LINGER (to stick around) | ||
| 19 | FJORDS | Jack seen in places for crossing steep rocky inlets (6) |
| J (jack) seen in FORDS (places for crossing) | ||
| 20 | AMBLER | Climber short of summit is one having a stroll (6) |
| [scr]AMBLER (climber, short of summit) | ||
| 23 | CAPE | Clumsy clot under cloudy peninsula (4) |
| APE (clumsy clot) under C (cloudy) | ||
I had rAMBLER for 20d with ‘climber’ referring to plants. Also had CAPE parsed as you did but wasn’t entirely convinced. The NW quadrant was very tough. Ended up using a thesaurus on ‘store’ to get SALT AWAY, a phrase that doesn’t ring any bells. This then allowed me to complete. Thanks to Jason and Teacow.
Thanks Jason and Teacow
Agree that this was certainly non-trivial for both the Monday spot and for this setter – taking about twice as long as my usual solve for any FT puzzle. I knew of the term SALT AWAY to mean ‘save’ but had not heard of SAVE to mean ‘wit’. Also did not know of the comic strip “Roy of the Rovers”. Parsed 20d the same as Hovis@1
I was held up with both the NW and SE corners, possibly because of the grid construction where there was only that one long word to gain entry and particularly in the SE where there were no starting letters to be found. Finished up with CAPE (after thinking that it may be one of those multi-definitional clues, and also struggling to find the C abbreviation of ‘cloudy’) and TEETER as the last one in.
Thanks Hovis & Bruce. We had considered rambler and thought it was too close to meaning ambler, however we now agree with the rambling rose parsing. Roy of the Rovers was slightly before my (Phil) time, but my brothers used to read it. Megan had no idea who Roy was! Our LOI also CAPE.
Thanks for the blog, Teacow.
I didn’t like this.
Marks = M?
I wasn’t aware that tar is a colour.
I wasn’t aware that salt means wit.
I wouldn’t define camp as theatrical.
Marks = M is fine. But I too did not fully identify with this puzzle.
The grid is appalling.
Grumpy@4. I didn’t take ‘tar’ to refer to the colour. I think ‘tar’ and ‘black’ as verbs both can refer to ‘defame’ although now that I check in Chambers I cannot find such a meaning for ‘tar’. I feel I have heard of people talking about tarring somebody’s reputation for example. Anybody else out there heard this or am I just making it up? Salt can refer to a dry wit. I’ve seen M for ‘mark’ several times but I’m not sure about the plural.
Thanks Jason and Teacow
M = MARKS is fine. Think currencies, eg Deutschmarks, Ostmarks, Finnmarks et al.
I’m glad I didn’t have to blog this one. So, well done, Teacow!
No problem with M = marks, and, yes, C = cloudy is in Chambers. Bit of an odd clue though, 23d (my last one in).
In 15ac I took ‘[in] resort’ as the anagram indicator and ‘Who arranges ++’ as the definition. For me not an &lit.
What is ‘also’ doing in 18ac apart from being there?
Not that much wrong with the puzzle but did I like it? Not fully.
Thanks to Jason and Teacow. Busy day and a tough puzzle for me. I failed on CAPE and TEETER and took a long time piecing out the longer answers
Thanks Sil@9, we agree that “resort” is the anagram indicator, but do think that it is &lit; “Who arranges” seems too weak on its own as a definition. We also feel that “also” is a tad superfluous!
Tar and feather certainly means to damage one’s reputation. Tarnish and blacken also quite common in that context.
Does cold also could also be ‘codes’.
by ‘America codes’.