A gentle start to the week with this offering from ARMONIE.
Teacow is split between London and Cape Town this week, so our mutual solve was not quite so straightforward.
21d proved the most tricky, and we’d not seen REME as engineer before, but otherwise no problems.
Thanks ARMONIE!
Across
1 Ridicule mounted print layout (4-2)
MOCK-UP
MOCK (ridicule) + UP (mounted)
4 Bachelors take drug for disease (8)
SHINGLES
SINGLES (bachelors) around (take) H (drug, heroin)
9 Is inclined to look after son (5)
TENDS
TEND (look after) + S (son)
10 Considered capturing soldier who resisted (9)
COUNTERED
COUNTED (considered) around (capturing) RE (soldier, Royal Engineers)
11 Prevaricated to have a rest (3-4)
LIE-DOWN
LIED (prevaricated) + OWN (have)
12 Evacuate from island (7)
EXCRETE
EX CRETE (from island)
13 Time to question assignment (4)
TASK
T (time) + ASK (question)
14 Chopin pieces repulsed doctor (8)
PRELUDES
(REPULSED*) (*doctor)
17 Engineer’s call up is therapeutic (8)
REMEDIAL
REME (engineer, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) + DIAL (call up)
19 Barbarian gained height (4)
GOTH
GOT (gained) + H (height)
22 Lycra manufactured with one coloured synthetic fibre (7)
ACRYLIC
(LYCRA)* (*manufactued) + I (one) + C (coloured)
24 Energy breaks items up (7)
IMPETUS
(ITEMS UP)* (*breaks)
25 Died in employment while celebrating (9)
OBSERVING
OB (died, obit) + SERVING (in employment)
26 Embellish trouble with the navy (5)
ADORN
ADO (trouble) + RN (navy, Royal Navy)
27 Susanna accepts stigma that keeps on going (8)
SUSTAINS
SUS (Susanna) around (accepts) STAIN (stigma)
28 Space traveller has a way into port (6)
PLANET
LANE (way) in PT (port)
Down
1 Change overwhelms the Italian butcher (8)
MUTILATE
MUTATE (change) around (overwhelms) IL (the in Italian)
2 Study more compact distillery equipment (9)
CONDENSER
CON (study) + DENSER (more compact)
3 Finished attempt? That’s the outcome! (6)
UPSHOT
UP (finished) + SHOT (attempt)
5 Glue one’s china broken in domestic chores (13)
HOUSECLEANING
(GLUE ONES CHINA)* (*broken)
6 Saw edict on reformation (7)
NOTICED
(EDICT ON)* (*reformation)
7 Wide-ranging section of molecular genetics (5)
LARGE
[molecu]LAR GE[netics] (section)
8 Strange to be caught by nurse and drenched (6)
SODDEN
ODD (strange) in (caught by) SEN (nurse, State Enrolled Nurse)
10 Detective involved in throttling gives denial (13)
CONTRADICTION
DI (detective, Detective Inspector) in CONTRACTION (throttling)
15 Film sad defeat (5,4)
SHOOT DOWN
SHOOT (film) + DOWN (sad)
16 Horse box needs fastening (8)
CHESTNUT
CHEST (box) + NUT (fastening, on a bolt)
18 Girl touring US city becomes ill (7)
MALARIA
MARIA (girl) around (touring) LA (US city, Los Angeles)
20 Airline has lots of clubs (6)
BATONS
BA (airline, British Airways) + TONS (lots)
21 Student twists around in lounge (6)
SPRAWL
(L (student) + WARPS (twists))< (around)
23 King employs tricks (5)
RUSES
R (king) + USES (employs)
Nicely Mondayish, thank you Armonie and teacow
REME turns up quite often as ‘engineer’ so one to remember for the future. My problem is remembering OB for died – must try harder
Thanks to both. My only problem was justifying “SEN” for nurse. It must be a UK thing. Haven’t lived there for over 40 years!
Surely the solution to 18d is wrong. Although Malaria was the obvious answer, it is an illness, not ill.
Or maybe I’m missing something. Not for the first time.
Hi Tilloubill. I think this is ill as a noun. An ill is an illness.
Tilloubill @3, ‘ill’ can be a noun meaning ‘disease’.
Typical Armonie puzzle, all fairly clued. Well, perhaps, except 14ac (PRELUDES) in which the anagram indicator (‘doctor’) is in the wrong place i.e. behind the fodder. It only works, more or less, if you see ‘doctor’ as an imperative.
By the way, funny that no-one so far mentioned C for ‘coloured’ (22ac). It is in Chambers but not so long ago we had a discussion about it on the Guardian thread. Don’t know anymore who the setter was then.
Thanks Teacow and Armonie.
Thanks to Armonie and Teacow. I too had trouble with MALARIA and “becomes ill” and REME was new to me (I at first tried to justify MEDIAL as somehow “dial me) as was Sus for Susanna. I had come across SEN in a previous puzzle. Lots of fun.
Thanks Armonie and Teacow
Typical puzzle from this setter – reasonably straightforward with the sharp wordplay for which he is known.
Finished with MALARIA (that I struggled to equate to just ‘ill’), OBSERVING (after remembering that OB abbreviation) and SUSTAINS (after having to check SUS. as an abbreviation for the OT book of Susannah).
Thanks to Armonie and Teacow. Special thanks for explaining 28a. I solved it, but with ET as a ‘space traveller’ having a ‘plan’ (way), which left me with a planet as an ET’s ‘port’. Clearly far too elaborate.