Excellent crossword from Morph today. It took me a long time, but that was because it was good and difficult, and the delay was almost entirely the result of my own incompetence. Where I have cast doubt on the setter I shall probably be shown to be wrong. There are lots of very nice clues here.
Definitions underlined in maroon and anagram indicators in italics.
As always happens when the crossword takes a long time I’m so relieved to finish that the hunt for a Nina is hardly a consideration. Just a few unchecked letters, and nothing that I can see.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CONTROLLED | Repressed Tory provoked online controversy (10) |
| Con. trolled | ||
| 6 | AS IF | A catch for angler thrown back, not there in the end – a likely story! (2,2) |
| a (fis{h})rev. | ||
| 9 | TUSSLES | Scraps ties right away after intervention by league (7) |
| t{r}uss(L)es | ||
| 10 | REGULAR | Soldier returning artillery piece (7) |
| (RA luger)rev. | ||
| 12 | CURRENT ACCOUNTS | Sources of useful notes from topical stories (7,8) |
| current [= topical] accounts [= stories] — the useful notes are banknotes | ||
| 13 | EUNUCH | Falsetto‘s first number in French in Brussels church (6) |
| E(un)U ch. — un [= one] is the first number in French — I wasn’t so sure about the definition, which seems a bit odd to me: surely being falsetto is just a characteristic of eunuchs? | ||
| 14 | CAFFEINE | Drug gets boss out of his box during film (8) |
| {g}affe{r} in cine — ‘out of his box’ is a way of saying ‘remove the outer letters’ | ||
| 17 | WASHABLE | Ahab’s lost heart, surrounded by thrashing whales, adapted to foaming water? (8) |
| A{ha}b in (whales)* — Ahab was the captain in Moby Dick | ||
| 18 | RHYTHM | Beat marines to capture Cinque Port, driving English out (6) |
| R(Hyth{e})M | ||
| 20 | RAZE TO THE GROUND | Make flat, picking up lift from basement? (4,2,3,6) |
| “raise to the ground” — but I suspect I’m being a bit dim here: if you’re picking up (ie catching) the elevator type of lift which has come from the basement, then how are you raising it to the ground? Perhaps it’s not that type of lift and lift is a verb, but in any case I’m bewildered | ||
| 23 | AT LARGE | Free titfer? That’s generous (2,5) |
| ‘at [CRS for hat; a Cockney would pronounce it ‘at] large [= generous] | ||
| 24 | DEICIDE | Resolve to secure independence, resulting in destruction of creator (7) |
| de(I)cide | ||
| 25 | ECHO | Repeat starter of greens hotel’s brought in (4) |
| ec(H)o — but I’m not quite sure of the definition here: is it Repeat or Repeat starter? Eco = of greens seems a bit more likely than Eco = starter of greens but either way … | ||
| 26 | STRESS TEST | Special lock setter’s cracked without hesitation in search for breaking point (6,4) |
| S tress (sett{er})* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CUTICLE | Mentioned child’s dainty little bit of toe? (7) |
| “cute ickle” | ||
| 2 | NO STRINGS | Facial jewellery earl’s got time to replace free of obligation (2,7) |
| nose rings with the e replaced by t — very clever, nice clue | ||
| 3 | ROLLERCOASTER | One of Stones perhaps, takes boat for a ride (13) |
| Roller [Rolling Stones] coaster [a type of boat] | ||
| 4 | LISZT | Line-up featuring unknown composer (5) |
| lis(z)t | ||
| 5 | EUROCRAT | Commission official perhaps put up name of street in French with Croat in translation (8) |
| (rue)rev. (Croat)* | ||
| 7 | SALON | No money in fish shop (5) |
| sal{m}on | ||
| 8 | FORESEE | Anticipate the third option for the fourth question in oral? (7) |
| “four c)” — the homophone indicated by “in oral” | ||
| 11 | GO OFF THE RAILS | Flip the bird after turn ending in boos (2,3,3,5) |
| go off [= turn] the rail {boo}s — Morph’s intention is to mislead by go = turn, which in another sense it is | ||
| 15 | INTRUSIVE | I ruin vest, clumsily shoving nose in? (9) |
| (I ruin vest)* | ||
| 16 | ILL-TREAT | Morph is going to deal with abuse (3-5) |
| I’ll treat — abuse a verb | ||
| 17 | WARFARE | Yorkshire waterways reported as source of conflict (7) |
| “Wharf, Aire” — I was fixated on Wye, which isn’t even in Yorkshire. unless the smaller version of this does touch Yorkshire | ||
| 19 | MIDWEST | We’d shot parting film in central American region (7) |
| (We’d)* in mist — notice ‘central’ not Central’ | ||
| 21 | ZILCH | Last character to pilfer heading off, getting nothing (5) |
| z {f}ilch | ||
| 22 | ENDUE | Top layer expected to provide (5) |
| {h}en due — ‘Top’ the unusual but perfectly OK indication of removal of the first letter | ||
*anagram
20a ‘picking up’ is surely a homophone indicator with RAZE sounding like RAISE
I always enjoy Morph puzzles and this was no exception. Thank you to him and to John
Agree with crypticsue@1. A lift from basement would ‘raise to the ground’ and ‘picking up’ denotes the homonym. Wasn’t sure I had parsed 17d correctly but had wharf Aire also.
Hard but thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks to Morph and John.
Unsurprisingly, I agree with crypticsue on all counts.
I knew 18ac had to be RHYTHM but parsing took longer than it should have, because I was fixated on RYE being the Cinque Port.
[For the record, the beautiful Yorkshire waterway is the River Wharfe. I remember learning Swale Ure Nidd Wharfe Aire Calder Don as the main tributaries of the Yorkshire Ouse in O Level Geography.]
Lovely puzzle – thanks again, Morph.
I agree with crypticsue and Hovis and Eileen.
Delightful puzzle, in which I particularly like WARFARE and MIDWEST.
Thanks to S&B.
Tough but all gettable. But in 13ac we disagree with a eunuch being falsetto. According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music falsetto is a “singing method used by males, particularly tenors, to achieve a note or notes higher than comes within the normal range of their voice.” Chambers defines it similarly. Nothing to do with being, so to speak, cut out for the job.
Otherwise all fine, although we couldn’t see the parsing of CAFFEINE. We thought of “boss out of his box” might be ‘os’ so were somewhat mystified when that wasn’t part of the answer.
Thanks, Morph and John.
Thanks Eileen for the Wharfe/wharf correction.
A convivial joint solve, making the normally fun Morph even funner than normal.
I don’t know many Yorkshire waterways so wouldn’t have parsed WARFARE on my ownsome. I wasn’t the one who deciphered the baby talk in CUTICLE either.
Frowned a bit at the EUNUCH but he looked hurt so I apologised and bought him a drink.
Thanks Morph and John.
Like others, I was a little doubtful about the eunuch and I also found the parsing of 1d hard to come to terms with!
Lovely puzzle and a couple of new words for me in DEICIDE and ENDUE.
Thanks to Morph for the challenge and to John for the blog.
Thought this great. Not fooled as some but thanks Mick. Can we have a limerick xword soon?