A well-constructed puzzle in the inimitable Tees’ style.
Tees makes quite an art of using slang terms in puzzles to hide meanings and this contained a good number of examples. The most impressive clue was probably the long anagram, which sufficiently well written that it fooled me for quite a while into thinking it was a CD of some sort.
| Across | ||
| 9 | BACKWATER | Second note stops war in isolated place (9) |
| Back(=second) + te in war | ||
| 10 | ACUTE | Mischievous goddess keeps copper keen (5) |
| Ate around Cu (Ate was a Greek goddess) | ||
| 11 | ETERNAL | Relentless non-resident wanting vote (7) |
| E[x]ternal | ||
| 12 | TUMBLER | Glass that’s falling? (7) |
| DD | ||
| 13 | CHIP | Counter happening to pass 100 (4) |
| C + hip (=happening, both slang terms for popular) | ||
| 14 | DISABUSING | Setting right wrong good after USA bid fixed (10) |
| Sin g(ood) after (USA bid)* | ||
| 15 | MEGATON | Something without sparkle sent back with great force (7) |
| (Not a gem)< | ||
| 17 | OTHELLO | Alternative short lines added to old drama (7) |
| Othe[r] + l(ine) + l(ine)+ o(ld) | ||
| 19 | KENSINGTON | Twitter plugs county working for London Region (10) |
| Sing(=twitter as a verb) in Kent + on (=working) | ||
| 22 | CLEF | Character on staff nearly broken (4) |
| Clef[t] | ||
| 23 | SOMEONE | An individual just like the writer, taking ecstasy (7) |
| So me + on E(cstasy) | ||
| 24 | AUCTION | Public sale brings university into court case (7) |
| U(niversity) in action | ||
| 26 | HOUSE | Tidy garden accommodates American family (5) |
| Hoe around US (house would be family as in House Stark, for the Game of Thrones fans) | ||
| 27 | TRANSPOSE | One leaving prepares model to make switch (9) |
| Tra[i]ns + pose | ||
| Down | ||
| 1/8 | ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER | Great shower of endearment, he backs fallacious truism (7,5,3,5,4,6) |
| (Great shower of endearment he backs)* | ||
| 2 | SCHEMING | Sly society tops revolutionary dynasty (8) |
| S(ociety) + Che + Ming | ||
| 3 | SWAN | Bird‘s impressive display cut short (4) |
| Swan[k] | ||
| 4 | STALLION | Swiss town stables incredible horse (8) |
| Sion around tall (as in tall tales) | ||
| 5 | PROTEA | Not entirely versatile shrub (6) |
| Protea[n] | ||
| 6 | BADMOUTH | Mad moves in match — Hearts rubbish! (8) |
| Mad* in bout + h(earts) (rubbish used as a verb) | ||
| 7 | NUCLEI | Central parts in clue reworked (6) |
| (In clue)* – plural of nucleus | ||
| 8 | See 1 | |
| 16 | TAILORED | Followed men inside, made to fit (8) |
| Tailed around OR | ||
| 17 | OPOPANAX | Tree needs repeated work with an American chopper (8) |
| Op + op + an ax (American spelling of axe) | ||
| 18 | LOLLIPOP | Run with bounce to grab one-penny sweet (8) |
| Lollop around I p | ||
| 20 | NIMBUS | Summit avoided, wing enters warmer rising cloud (6) |
| [L]imb in sun< | ||
| 21 | GHETTO | Bug going round hospital in poor quarter (6) |
| Get to(=bug as a verb) around h(ospital) | ||
| 25 | CASH | Rhino in Africa’s heavier (4) |
| Hidden in afriCA’S Heavier – rhino is slang for cash | ||
*anagram
CBA parsing the long one-easy to suss without wasting time.
Things got easier once I finally had enough checkers to brave the long anagram. A couple of less familiar things but it was only PROTEA which I eventually had to cheat. Apart from that I much enjoyed this. Thanks Tees and NealH.
Life would have been made so much easier if I’d realised earlier on that the 1/8 combo was an anagram! As it was, I got the essential ‘G’ and ‘F’ checkers in 8d, guessed the answer and only then did the penny drop. Great relief as I was greatly in need of assistance with the left hand side of the puzzle.
I did know the shrub but sadly not the required definition of variable – I certainly didn’t know the tree and couldn’t believe my luck when Google verified it for me.
3d appealed the most.
Thanks to Tees and to NealH for the blog.
Is opopanax a tree?
Dicho@4 – only in Crosswordland by the look of it. I’ve seen it before as a tree so didn’t think twice during the solve. Took far too long to spot the long ones despite twigging that it was an anagram, then wondered how many 30-character phrases there might be that split neatly in the middle. Thanks to S&B.
A nice steady solve, helped by 1/8. We got several across answers on the right hand side and with ‘endearment’ in the clue we suddenly thought of ‘heart grow fonder’ and the answer was then obvious – we didn’t bother to parse it.
Dicho/Paul A @ 4/5: A bit of delving via Google and elswhere leads to the conclusion that opopanax is also the name of a resin obtained not only from the opopanax plant but from other plants as well, including a number of trees. So it could be called (inaccurately) a tree.
No real CoD – they were all good.
Thanks, Tees and NealH
Like jane I had guessed PROTEA but didn’t know the versatile word. Had to look up the tree. Got the long one from the checkers in fonder, and was happy to believe it was an anagram.
For eternal I was hung up on the non-resident being ET, so thanks NealH.
And of course thanks Tees, liked CASH, KENSINGTON, HOUSE, and many more
A good meaty crossword for a welcome change on a Monday. I loved working out the long anagram as it slowly revealed itself. Glad we are seeing Tees/Neo more often. Thanks S & B.
Hear hear.
[I actually agree with everything you said, jmac]
Impressive stuff, agree Nealh, jmac, Sil.
The long one functions like a Nina, I’m pleased to say, as I twigged it fairly early.
Thank you Tees & Neal.