A rather tricker Monday morning puzzle than we’ve become used to…
It might be the jetlag, but this seemed significantly more taxing than usual for a Monday! The SW corner in particular – though this was not helped by writing in TIME OFF, then YEAR OFF before finally getting to YEAR OUT. 15a, 26a, 29a and 22d were not things we’d come across before. Some nice clues – 18a and 23a in particular. Thought 11a was a bit clunky though.
Anyway, ’twas fun – Thanks GAFF!
Across
1 Longing in the main to return dropped letters (7)
AITCHES
ITCH (longing) in SEA< (the main, to return)
5 Live deer with tails (7)
BEHINDS
BE (live) + HINDS (deer)
10 Clearly discern deal could be on the boil (3,3,4)
SEE THE WOOD
WOOD (deal, a type of wood) on SEETHE (boil)
11 6th of June or 4th of July – a couple of days left (1-3)
D-DAY
(Y (4th letter of July) + A D D (a couple of days))< (left)
12 Consumers see art nouveau (6)
EATERS
(SEE ART)* (*nouveau)
13 Many words defy nuclear coalition (8)
EFFUSION
[d]EF[y] (nuclear) + FUSION (coalition)
14 Derision takes toll on large car lacking finish (7)
JEERING
RING (toll) on JEE[p] (large car, lacking finish)
15 Old secretary Dean chose with an aberration (7)
ACHESON
(CHOSE AN)* (*aberration)
Dean Acheson was US Secretary of State
18 Batted in advance? (7)
EYELASH
Cryptic Definition
20 German agreed to perform in Born A Woman (4,3)
JANE DOE
JA (yes in German) + (DO (perfom) in NEE (born))
23 Singer could possibly busk at openings of Heathcliffe (4,4)
KATE BUSH
(BUSK AT HE[athcliffe] (openings))* (*possibly)
26 Part of stately rialto in Ohio (6)
ELYRIA
[stat]ELY RIA[lto] (part of)
27 Tests of foreign words (4)
MOTS
Double Definition
UK motor vehicle tests and “words” in French
28 I want money made over directly (3,4,3)
ANY TIME NOW
(I WANT MONEY)* (*made over)
29 Trying drum left soldier with a round of thanks at first (7)
OTALGIA
O (round) + TA (thanks) before (at first) L (left) + GI (soldier) + A
Otalgia means earache
30 Lady champion loses first lap (7)
PEERESS
PEER[l]ESS (champion, losing first letter of lap)
Down
2 State again takes the lead from the well-educated (7)
ITERATE
[l]ITERATE (well-educated, missing the lead)
3 Disgraceful cheat turned fat at Westminster, perhaps (9)
CATHEDRAL
(CHEAT)* (*disgraceful) + LARD< (fat, turned)
4 Equalises supported by good second services (9)
EVENSONGS
EVENS (equalises) + ON (supported by) + G (good) + S (second)
6 Basic command upsets fiend (5)
ENDIF
(FIEND)* (*upsets)
A command in some Basic programming languages
7 Content to find use for banker (5)
INDUS
[f]IND US[e] (content)
8 Nothing for one hundred in infernal game (7)
DIABOLO
O (nothing) replacing IC (one hundred) in DIABLOLIC (infernal)
9 Gaff’s unique sliced bread (5)
MONEY
ONE (unique) in (sliced) MY (Gaff’s)
16 A halt to fighting fierce sea action (9)
CEASEFIRE
(FIERCE SEA)* (*action)
17 Genuine solvers featured in The Listener annually (5,4)
EVERY YEAR
(VERY (genuine) + YE (solvers, you)) in EAR (The Listener)
19 Incorrect date may be for sabbatical (4,3)
YEAR OUT
Double Definition
21 Lowering piece of onion ring into take-away (7)
OMINOUS
O[nion] (piece) + O (ring) in MINUS (take-away)
From the verb lour
22 Fodder on board carriages (5)
SHAYS
HAY (fodder) in SS (on board)
Shay is an informal term for chaise, a horse drawn carriage
24 Let header finally stand (5)
EASEL
LEASE (let) with first letter moved to end
25 Traces of unidentified mammals are masked in taste of meat (5)
UMAMI
U[nidentified] M[ammals] A[re] M[asked] I[n] (traces)
*anagram
Yes, not exactly a gentle introduction to the week, with a couple of new words (UMAMI & SHAYS) and others unparsed including D-DAY. Ended up missing out on PEERESS for which I guessed ‘heiress’.
Became stuck a few times, but worth it in the end with the surface for KATE BUSH, ‘Trying drum…’ and especially ‘Batted in advance?’ being particular favourites.
Thanks to Gaff and Teacow
Definitely the most difficult of all today’s cryptic offerings (and yes I am that sad person who has solved them all)
Lots to enjoy and new things to learn so thank you to Gaff and Teacow
Ooph, failed badly. Saw ENDIF but didn’t believe it. OTALGIA, ACHESON well missed. Amazed I got ELYRIA, SHAYS, UMAMI. DDAY first one in.
I liked INDUS EATERS SEE THE WOOD. might have liked EYELASH but I missed it.
Many thanks GAFF for the challenge and thank you Teacow for much needed elucidation
Thanks to Gaff and Teacow. I too failed with several items. I did know UMAMI but putting in YEAR off, not OUT I never got OTALGIA (which I did know) and was stumped by EFFUSION, JANE DOE, and the wood in SEE THE WOOD.
Gaff normally is a “special occasion” setter but I couldn’t see any theme with this one. Have I missed anything ?
Did wonder about dropped aitches… [h]eaters, [h]indus … but couldn’t think of any others
Thanks Gaff and Teacow
Found this pretty hard going, taking a couple of hours to get it out !
I also started off with D-DAY although it took a long time to unravel the proper parsing of it. Found that each clue after that needed to be worked through with effort with a couple of new terms (Secretary of State ACHESON and the Ohio city ELYRIA). Smiled when I saw the BASIC ENDIF command – not expecting to find such a term in a crossword.
Finally finished in the SW corner with the very clever EYELASH and the tricky YEAR OUT.
I came to this a week late because I was travelling. It was hard and not at all fast going. Thank you to Gaff for the challenge and Teacow for the illumination. I usually don’t spot themes or ninas till I’m on the staircase, but I was surprised no one has mentioned the alphabetical sequence in the across solutions: the initial letter or a homophone thereof gives the letters of the alphabet from A to P. Neat. What impressive skill. It jumped out at me when I saw the completed grid in the next day’s paper. Spotting it at the time would have helped me get some of the across solutions I was flummoxed by for a while. I suppose that’s why some of the puzzle is a bit contorted.
Wow, well spotted Peter!!! Don’t think we’d ever have noticed that!