A typical Friday workout from Bradman. Unfortunately, the grid has an error in the NW corner that makes it impossible to fit one of 9ac or 2dn. To the folks ushering in the lunar new year, Gong Xi Fa Cai. Have a great year of the Dog.
FF: 8 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | PRO FORMA | Document from academic men with an arts degree (3,5) |
| PROF (academic) OR (men) MA (arts degree) | ||
| 6 | SOLACE | Comfort sun’s brought to celebrity (6) |
| SOL (sun) ACE (celebrity) | ||
| 9 | RUBRIC | Instructions irritate (having lots hard to get rid of) (6) |
| RUB (irritate) RICh (having lots, without H – hard) – | ||
| 10 | TEAHOUSE | Sitting by river, hate horrible restaurant (8) |
| HATE* OUSE (river) | ||
| 11 | YETI | Something distinctly elusive? It comes back to you (4) |
| TI (reverse of IT) after YE (you, old english) | ||
| 12 | AIR MARSHAL | Officer in a lair, having gone astray across boggy land (3,7) |
| A LAIR* around MARSH (boggy land) | ||
| 14 | TRADE GAP | Traffic in front of clothes store – a matter of concern to business (5,3) |
| TRADE (traffic) GAP (clothes store) | ||
| 16 | FLIP | Loud impertinence making one go mad (4) |
| F (loud) LIP (impertinence) | ||
| 18 | OPEN | Frank reveals love, something put down on paper (4) |
| O (love) PEN (somethin put down on paper) | ||
| 19 | LAUNCHER | Rocket from restaurant critic maybe, penning article (8) |
| LUNCHER (restaurant critic, may be) around A (article) | ||
| 21 | SOVEREIGNS | Sing ever so badly to get coins (10) |
| SING EVER SO* | ||
| 22 | ALLY | Sarah heading off to see friend (4) |
| sALLY (sarah, without first letter) | ||
| 24 | HUNTRESS | Member of old tribe with long hair, a predatory type (8) |
| HUN (memory of old tribe) TRESS (long hair) | ||
| 26 | ANKARA | Paul, the American singer and artist, in a foreign city (6) |
| ANKA (paul, american singer) RA (artist) | ||
| 27 | REGENT | Fellow to come on scene after monarch’s suffered setback? (6) |
| &lit, RE (monarch = ER, reversed) GENT (fellow) | ||
| 28 | SATIRISE | Ridicule? See it as retrograde and rebel (8) |
| SATI (reverse of IT AS) RISE (rebel) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ROGUE | Rascal with sort of accent that’s not British (5) |
| bROGUE (sort of accent, without B for british) | ||
| 3 | FORBIDDANCE | In favour of offer, European accommodates Conservative interdiction (11) |
| FOR (in favour of) BID (offer) [ DANE (european) containing C (conservative) ] | ||
| 4 | RECHARGE | Once again load up, having moved car here outside front of garage (8) |
| CAR HERE* after G (front of Garage) | ||
| 5 | ANTHROPOLOGISTS | They observe people in unexpected short stop in gaol (15) |
| SHORT STOP IN GOAL* | ||
| 6 | SHAMAN | Quack gaining a name as bogus healer? (6) |
| SHAM (bogus healer) A N (name) | ||
| 7 | LOO | Left pair of spectacles in room (3) |
| L (left) OO (pair of spectacles) | ||
| 8 | CAST ASIDE | Discarded, apart from actors on stage? (4,5) |
| CAST (actors on stage) ASIDE (apart) | ||
| 13 | SAFECRACKER | Crook offering item that poses no danger at Christmas (11) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 15 | REPRODUCE | Copy procedure as rejigged (9) |
| PROCEDURE* | ||
| 17 | PURSUANT | Turn up as loony in agreement (8) |
| TURN UP AS* | ||
| 20 | DEFEAT | Brilliant to start with, then have failure (6) |
| DEF (brilliant) EAT (have) – didnt know DEF meant this | ||
| 23 | LORDS | Location with pavilion and house (5) |
| double def | ||
| 25 | TOE | Member’s book – first thing member has discarded (3) |
| TOmE (book, without M – first letter of Member) | ||
*anagram
Thanks , that’s why I was struggling with 9ac!
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs.
Thanks too for pointing out the error in the grid. For 9ac the only word that would fit was AGARIC which of course wouldn’t parse. A shame that it spoilt an otherwise good crossword.
Shame about ROUGE/ROGUE but enjoyable nonetheless. AGARIC would worked th other way, of course. I’m always amazed at the rigour of crossword setting & editing which makes it (almost) a pleasure to find those chaps can be human after all.
Defeated by DEFEAT, appropriately.
Thanks to all.
Thanks Bradman & Turbolegs.
I had more trouble with the SW corner than the NW.
In 6 down I think that the definition is simply “healer”; “bogus” equates to “sham”.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. I too was defeated by DEF-DEFEAT and had trouble seeing just how REGENT works, but, except for the problems in the NW, I did enjoy this puzzle.
Or, if the definition is “bogus healer”, the parsing should be SHAM (Quack) + A + N[ame].
Oh dear — what a ROUGE I am — sorry!
2d made sense to me!
ROUGE the cosmetic can be used as an accent, or to accentuate someone’s face. And it is a non-British (French) word
Rascal with sort = rogue -> rouge
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
This was a stinker for me … which the 2d / 9a thing didn’t help. Ended up getting the two correct answers that wouldn’t fit in.
The SW was also a pain point where it took a very long to get the last three – was very close to giving up and just looking up the answer over the weekend but eventually found DEFEAT (a tough clue – hadn’t seen that meaning of DEF) which led to REGENT (tricky &lit) and even still some time after to get TOE (made harder by the slightly unfair use of the ‘s in the definition for mine).
Some enjoyable parts in the RHS but overall in the TL rating system: FF- 5 DD – 9