A nicely constructed and pleasing puzzle from Tees, who has become a Monday regular in the Indy.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Important food, not fresh, saves little money
STAPLE
An insertion of P for pence or ‘little money’ in STALE.
5 Spar on ship bends right into abyss
BOWSPRIT
A charade of BOWS and R inserted into PIT.
9 Cover beans — or serve bacon — in mess tradition
OBSERVANCE
A double anagram: (COVER BEANS)* and (SERVE BACON)*. There is only one anagrind: ‘in mess’.
10 Swell to fortissimo
TOFF
A charade of TO and FF for the musical very loud.
11 Record breaking tax results in vice
DEPUTY
An insertion of EP for ‘record’ in DUTY.
12 Place for sick old hawk prince reserves
HOSPITAL
An insertion of O and SPIT in HAL for the Shakespearean prince.
13 Crackers — or what you need them for
NUTS
A dd cum cd: one version is a synonym of ‘crackers’ and you’d also need a pair of crackers to open your Christmas nuts.
14 Small number perished outside, ignored
DISCOUNTED
An insertion of S and COUNT in DIED.
16 Doctor, month back, meeting family in secure building
GUARDHOUSE
A reversal of DR and AUG followed by HOUSE. ‘Family’ in the sense of Hannover, Windsor or Stuart.
19 Mike’s misery over Abyssinian’s remark?
MEOW
A charade of M for the phonetic alphabet ‘Mike’ and WOE reversed. An Abyssinian is a type of puddy tat.
21 Bloomer as Democrat, rotten, flipped in parliament
DAFFODIL
An insertion of D and OFF reversed in DAIL, the Irish ‘parliament’.
23 Suspicion bug’s first about at 12
BREATH
A charade of B for the first letter of ‘bug’, RE, AT and H. The solution to 12ac, HOSPITAL, is abbreviated to H.
24 Response from congregation almost put right
AMEN
AMEN[D]
25 Cat kept by defendant as familiar
ACCUSTOMED
More puddy tats. An insertion of TOM in ACCUSED.
26 Cheating of French Lieutenant visionary accepts
ADULTERY
An insertion of DU and LT in AERY. For the last part, Collins has ‘lofty, insubstantial or visionary’. I’m not convinced you can have DU just for ‘of’. In its possessive usage, it’s a contraction of DE+LE so would be ‘of the’.
27 Get to the point
NEEDLE
A dd, with the word in its verbal and nounal senses.
Down
2 Gold under counter in frozen moment
TABLEAU
A charade of TABLE and AU for the chemical symbol for ‘gold’.
3 Herald procures cracking editor at last
PRECURSOR
A charade of (PROCURES)* and R for the last letter of ‘editor’.
4 Covetousness secures nothing for diplomat
ENVOY
An insertion of O in ENVY.
5 Sets of keys in locks arrangement?
BUNCHES
Another dd cum cd. The ‘locks’ part is referring to hair, not doors.
6 It gives edge to the news broadcast
WHETSTONE
(TO THE NEWS)*
7 Bacteriologist favourite with Royal Institution
PETRI
A charade of PET and RI gives you the dish beloved of scientists and named after the German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri.
8 Put air into smart apartment close to Aldgate
INFLATE
A charade of IN for ‘smart’, FLAT and E for the last letter of ‘Aldgate’.
14 Lose water that’s heated, and dry out
DEHYDRATE
(HEATED DRY)*
15 Second-in-command finds leak
NUMBER ONE
A dd. NUMBER ONE is child-speak for a wee.
17 Defenceless but intact in Albert Square?
UNARMED
For overseas solvers, Albert Square is in the fictional EastEnders, and hence would be a place to hear dropped aitches. So if you were ‘intact’ you’d be UN[H]ARMED. A type of dd.
18 One French girl covering kilometres without a break
UNLUCKY
You can’t argue with UN for ‘one French’, so it’s that plus K in LUCY.
20 Porridge-maker round at breakfast?
OATMEAL
A charade of O AT MEAL.
22 Decisive force in Argyll content to leave
FINAL
A charade of F, IN and AL for the outside letters of ‘Argyll’.
23 Initially blue, in the sense of depression
BASIN
A charade of B for the first letter of ‘blue’, and AS IN.
Many thanks to the Teeser for the start to the Indy week.
Agree with your criticism of 26a. I suspect it was supposed to read ‘of the French Lieutenant’.
Missed the cooking fat at 19a, if you’ll pardon the Spoonerism.
Thanks to Tees and Pierre.
The trickiest of the crosswords (three) I’ve solved so far this morning but still in the ‘early-week’ difficulty spectrum
The usual ‘make you smile’ clues so thank you to Tees and Pierre
That’s a good call on 26ac, Hovis. It would read perfectly with ‘the’ inserted.
Spent far too long finding the correct Abyssinian but rather liked him when I got there, unlike 15d which didn’t hold any appeal.
6d was my favourite, nice surface read.
Thanks to Tees and to Pierre for the blog.
Can anyone explain the “Note from the puzzle’s creator” which came with this crossword, and which consisted of a single lowercase “e”?
Tom_I
The software that setters use when compiling a crossword has the option of adding a descriptive note, which is useful if a comment such as ‘This is an anniversary puzzle’ is required. Normally this field is left empty (if there isn’t a need for a comment) but in the source file for this Tees puzzle there is an extraneous ‘e’ in the field which has been automatically displayed by the online software.
Thanks Gaufrid – I certainly couldn’t make any sense of it.
Not too difficult to start the week, I thought. I saw the ‘e’ message and I wondered if every answer was going to have an ‘e’ in it, or none of the answers, but I quickly realised neither was the case. Maybe the ratio of consonants to vowels in the completed grid was 2.71828…
I think you’ll find that ‘of French’ is absolutely fine for DU. There are different contexts of course, but The Indy is on safe ground here.