The puzzle can be printed off here
This was one of those puzzles where, for some clues at least, you write in the answer, then work out the parsing, the prime example being 8dn, where the only possible solution is ALL FOURS (card game), but I’m not sure of the parsing. (Edit: thanks to muffyword for providing me with a passable explanation, and to Hovis for pointing out my “typo of the day”)
There were some more unusual anagram indicators in here, but none that made me cry foul, and I think the surface for 14ac was a bit awkward, but overall I enjoyed the experience, with my favourite clues being the two long down anagrams.
Thanks, Peto.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BLUE MOON | Wander about listlessly after depressing astronomical event (4,4) |
| MOON (“wander about listlessly”) after BLUE (“depressing”) | ||
| 5 | EMBARK | Board’s academic qualification obtained by queen before king (6) |
| MBA (“academic qualification”) obtained by E.R. (“queen”) before K(ing) | ||
| 10 | ATTEMPT | Try crack (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 11 | RATTLER | Repelled at first by toy snake (7) |
| R(epelled) by RATTLE (“toy”) | ||
| 12 | ERROR | Trapped inside after Rory’s blunder (5) |
| Hidden in (trapped inside) “aftER RORy” | ||
| 13 | FLIP-FLOPS | Goes crazy over failure caused by reversals of policy in Washington (4-5) |
| FLIPS (“goes crazy”) over FLOP (“failure”) | ||
| 14 | IN THE LONG RUN | Eventually becoming fashionable at that time to admit covering a great distance before game (2,3,4,3) |
| IN (“fashionable”) + THEN (“at that time”) to admit LONG (“covering a great distance) before R.U. (rugby union, so “game”), thus IN THE (LONG R.U.)N | ||
| 18 | COMPASS POINT | Bed broken by politician finding passion out east for instance (7,5) |
| COT (“bed”) broken by M.P. (“politician”) +*(passion) | ||
| 21 | BETTER OFF | Gambler leaving richer (6,3) |
| BETTER (“gambler”) + OFF (“leaving”) | ||
| 23 | ADAGE | Saw letters from Mossad agents (5) |
| Hidden in (letters from) “mossAD AGEnts” | ||
| 24 | ON TRIAL | Being tested by Repton’s head in translation of Old Latin (2,5) |
| R(epton) in *(o latin), where O = “old” | ||
| 25 | ITERATE | Repeat it time after time before start of Eid (7) |
| IT + T(ime) after ERA (“time”) before E(id) | ||
| 26 | SEDATE | Dignified in court after witness falls short (6) |
| DATE (“court”) after SE(e) (“witness”, short) | ||
| 27 | CHILL OUT | Revealed after letter gets students to calm down (5,3) |
| OUT (“revealed”) after CHI (“letter” of the Greek alphabet) gets LL (“students”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BEAVER | Take responsibility for catching extremely valuable animal (6) |
| BEAR (“take responsibility for”) catching V(aluabl)E | ||
| 2 | UPTURN | Shot over earlier disturbance (6) |
| TURN (“shot”) with UP (“over”) earlier | ||
| 3 | MEMORANDA | Norm made off before first of appointment reminders (9) |
| *(norm made) before A(ppointment) | ||
| 4 | OUT OF THIS WORLD | Wonderful without folds or flounces (3,2,4,5) |
| *(without folds or) | ||
| 6 | MOTIF | Recurrent theme of uncertainty associated with Mailer’s earliest books (5) |
| IF (“uncertainty”) associated with M(ailer) + O.T. (“books” of the Bible) | ||
| 7 | ALL FOURS | In spite of retaining you it’s mentioned seconds after each game (3,5) |
| FOR (“in spite of”) retaining U (homophone of YOU) (it’s mentioned), with S(econds) after ALL (“each”) | ||
| 8 | KEROSENE | Fuel rumours of subterfuge initially swallowed by enthusiastic European (8) |
| R(umours) O(f) S(ubterfuge) swallowed by KEEN (“enthusiastic) E(uropean) | ||
| 9 | ARTICLE OF FAITH | Official threat shaped by a firmly held belief (7,2,5) |
| *(official threat) | ||
| 15 | NONPAREIL | Open-air buffet in the centre of Henley is without equal (9) |
| *(open air) in (he)NL(ey) | ||
| 16 | SCABROUS | Proust edges away after strikebreaker becomes unpleasant (8) |
| (p)ROUS(t) after SCAB (“strikebreaker”) | ||
| 17 | IMITATED | Made a copy of papers including note to gallery (8) |
| I.D. (“papers”) including MI (“note”) + TATE (“gallery”) | ||
| 19 | NAVAJO | Language of denial gripping island in recession (6) |
| NO (“denial”) gripping <=JAVA (“island”, in recession) | ||
| 20 | SELECT | Odd characters from Leek involved in cult by choice (6) |
| L(e)E(k) involved in SECT (“cult”) | ||
| 22 | ELIOT | Priest turning against poet (5) |
| ELI (“priest”) + <=TO (“against”, turning) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Peto and loonapick,
I had a similar battle with ALL FOURS (never heard of the card game). I decided it might be (FOR (in spite of??) around U +S) following ALL = each.
I think muffyword has it. A quick look in my Chambers thesaurus lists ‘for’ as a synonym for ‘in spite of’. I failed on this one, having never heard of the game. Note that the academic qualification in 5a should be MBA not BAR. Thanks to S&B.
Thanks Peto & loonapick.
I enjoyed the puzzle but had the same difficulty with 7 down, misidentified as 8 down in another typo in your introduction!
Having seen the previous comments I now think that in spite of corresponds to FOR ALL (as in the expression “in spite of that” = “for all that”) and each is just a link word for surface, since each and all are not synonyms. The clue does not indicate that FOR and ALL have to be interchanged, but my parsing would be:
ALL FOR (“in spite of”) retaining U (homophone of YOU) (it’s mentioned), + S(econds)
Thanks to Peto and loonapick. ALL FOURS defeated me (I kept trying to squeeze in “all yours,” and for a while I was misspelling NAVAJO (with an h, not a j (so missing Java). LOI was UPTURN. Still, an enjoyable solve.
Psmith @3, Collins and Oxford have ‘all’ as an acceptable synonym for ‘each’.
Thanks Peto and loonapick
Interesting puzzle that I was able to squeeze into a very busy day. Found the NE corner particularly challenging and finished with MOTIF (held up by initially writing in FLIP ABOUT at 13), that tricky ALL FOURS (a new word and some tricky parsing) and KEROSENE (where I was fixated on only having the S as the initial letter for too long – all made sense when the R and O were brought in).
Lots of good clues and also liked the two long down anagrams.