Punk? On a Sunday?
Not that I’m complaining, but a scroll through the archives suggests that if this has ever happened at all, it hasn’t for a good few years.
I don’t see any particular reason for it in terms of themes etc. but then I’m quite capable of missing them.
Perhaps not surprisingly, this seemed jolly hard for a Sunday, although a couple of slapdash early mistakes on my part didn’t help.
Good stuff all the same, and so thanks to Punk. It’ll be interesting to hear how readers adapted!
| Across | ||
| 1 | PROSAIC | Pedestrian is for it, I see (7) |
| PRO + SA + I C. | ||
| 5 | GLANCED | Poking prostate, perhaps, the Church had a look (7) |
| CE + GLAND. | ||
| 9 | UNUTTERABLE | A turbulent, catastrophic life ultimately too much to explain (11) |
| (A TURBULENT)* + [lif]E. | ||
| 10 | TUM | Corporation tax unwarranted methinks, initially (3) |
| Initial letters of T[ax] U[nwarranted] M[ethinks]. | ||
| 11 | MUESLI | Breakfast – inspiration in general, might you say? (6) |
| Homophone of “muse lee”. As in General Lee, the guy from crosswords. | ||
| 12 | DRAIN | Fall onto bed finally, as weary (5) |
| [be]D + RAIN. | ||
| 15 | HONESTY | Saint punching angel, the recommended policy? (7) |
| ST in HONEY. “Angel” and “honey” as terms of endearment here. | ||
| 16 | SINLESS | Good to get out more then, after a touch of solitude (7) |
| S[olituce] + IN LESS. | ||
| 17 | MAE WEST | Support outstanding female actress (3,4) |
| EWE in MAST. | ||
| 19 | ALEWIFE | Fish‘s bitter partner (7) |
| ALE + WIFE. | ||
| 20 | POINT | Matter at home filling sink (5) |
| IN in POT. | ||
| 21 | IN TIME | Keeping rhythm, eventually (2,4) |
| Two definitions. | ||
| 24 | ELI | Priest the typical rabbi backs (3) |
| Last letters of [th]E [typica]L [rabb]I. | ||
| 25 | MAGIC BULLET | Ugly cut hampering big cat, almost desperate for perfect cure (5,6) |
| (BIG CA[t])* in MULLET. | ||
| 27 | ETERNAL | Enduring bird in duck, dropping head (7) |
| TERN in [t]EAL. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PLUM | Pick fruit (4) |
| Two definitions. | ||
| 2 | ONUS | Duty in paper round to turn up (4) |
| (O + SUN)<. | ||
| 3 | ARTHUR’S SEAT | Day on the water in craft, to reach peak in Scotland (7,4) |
| (THURS + SEA) in ART. That big hill in Edinburgh. Went up there a few times as a student, typically after a pint or two of McEwan’s 80/- Ale too many. | ||
| 4 | CURTSEY | Short lift certainly in slight bend (7) |
| CURT + SEY<. | ||
| 5 | GUBBINS | Food not right, throws away rubbish (7) |
| G[r]UB + BINS. | ||
| 6 | AVE | Prayer kept up by the Vatican (3) |
| Hidden and reversed in [th]E VA[tican]. | ||
| 7 | COTTAGE PIE | Stuffing mushroom too much, a gargantuan starter, that is, for dish (7,3) |
| ((OTT + A + G[argantuan]) stuffing CEP) + IE. | ||
| 8 | DIMINISHED | Cut, little girl fixed bandages (10) |
| Took a while to see it, but it’s MINI-SHE in DID. | ||
| 12 | DANGER MOUSE | Put out about an agent causing disorder, spy screened (6,5) |
| (AN + GERM) in DOUSE. | ||
| 13 | THE MUPPETS | Animal with others, those commonly happy hamsters, say? (3,7) |
| THEM + UP + PETS. | ||
| 14/19 | INDEFINITE ARTICLE | Possibly an electrified train, not having run off the rails, getting in earlier (10,7) |
| IN + (ELECTRIFIED T[r]AIN)*. | ||
| 18 | TRIGGER | Astride horse, judge set off (7) |
| GG in TRIER. | ||
| 22/26 | ALAN SHEARER | Lazy Arsenal about to pick up old footballer (4,7) |
| HEAR in ARSENAL*. | ||
| 23 | ET AL | Every other character into meatballs – and the rest (2,2) |
| Alternating letters in [m]E[a]T[b]A[l]L[s]. | ||
| 25 | MAR | Taken from the bottom, butt stain (3) |
| RAM<. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations; BOLD = letters forming part of entries.
Couldn’t complete this without recourse to a few word fits. Lots of tricky-to-see definitions, such as in 13d, 14/19d, 4d and 12d. Others, such as TRIGGER for ‘set off’, as in an alarm and POT for ‘sink’, as in snooker, were also quite tricky to spot. No complaints from me: enjoyable despite the need to cheat a little. Thanks to Punk and Simon.
Yes, a bit tougher than usual for a Sunday, but no complaints and I really enjoyed this. Some top clues, especially the ‘Poking prostate’ (no comment), the ‘slight bend’ and best of the lot, DANGER MOUSE as the ‘spy screened’. Unfortunately I missed the parsing of MAGIC BULLET which was excellent. If you haven’t seen it already, have a look at Chambers for another gently pejorative take on the subject.
I thought MAE WEST could also be parsed with ‘Support’ as the def. (think WWII pilots) and with a slightly different sense to the term ‘outstanding’.
Thanks very much to Punk and Simon
Definitely tougher than you’d expect on a Sunday, and for a Punk too. An enjoyable time was had so thank you to Punk and Simon
Very welcome on a Sunday and surprisingly “straight” for this setter.
But all very correct and present.
Old footballer? How time flies. I remember when Ronaldo was a Brazilian.
Thanks Simon and Punk.
Struggled to parse 8&12d so thank you for those, Simon.
Thought ‘then’ was possibly redundant in 16a – reads better without it.
Amazed that I remembered the ALEWIFE and the old footballer!
Thanks to Punk and Simon.
This took me a few sittings as I hit a couple of brick walls along the way.
Didn’t parse MAE WEST – after the solve I consulted a dictionary and decided that it was a double definition.
My choice of clues has to be UNUTTERABLE (No, I’m not talking about GLANCED!) but I also was rather taken by the Animal with others, and the image of happy hamsters.
Thanks to Punk and Simon.
P.S. I wanted to ask about the “into” in the clue for ET AL: I can’t make that indicate quite what it’s supposed to. Can anyone shed any light?
Kitty @8, it seems to be the only synonym of ‘in’ or ‘inside’ or ‘within’ (all in more than one thesaurus) that fits the surface. Correct on paper, but to me ‘into’ requires a progressive action and doesn’t seem quite right to describe letters already in situ. I could well be wrong though and I probably haven’t told you anything you don’t already know!
GLANCED is an odd one. What is going on in the surface? Alternatives such as ‘screw (or ‘Cher’) regularly’ wouldn’t be any better, but I don’t get why it has to be the Church.
Belated thanks Nila for the reply – yes, my thoughts on the “into” were along the same lines, but it’s nice to have confirmation that I’ve not gone totally meowing.