Alchemi gets our week off in the so called “easy” spot.
A speedy recovery to Alchemi after his heart operation, I’ve got an operation today on my elbow but that’s not exactly as life threatening.
A mostly easy with some very easy clues by Indy standards.
Thanks Michael*
Across
1 Old transport group getting in the way fall down (5,5)
STEAM TRAIN
TEAM for group inside ST(reet) for way & RAIN – to fall down
6 Put away some headers to win (4)
STOW
Hidden indicated by “some” in headerS TO Win
9 Ammunition about to be replaced by quiet birds (10)
PARTRIDGES
C(irca) – about replaced by P for quiet in CARTRIDGES for ammo
10 Close new organ (4)
NEAR
N(ew) & EAR for organ. Now look at this clue again and then the answer to 12A. The setter is trying to say something
12 Suit to press against railway by-pass? (5,7)
HEART SURGERY
HEARTS – suit in cards & URGE – to press & R(ailwa)Y. In Thursday’s FT blog last week Alchemi – or rather one of his anagram namesakes said he was recovering from heart surgery.
15 Erdogan possibly breaking into party (9)
RECEPTION
RECEP is the first name of President Erdogan & a broken INTO*
17 Reminder for one horse to move back (5)
NUDGE
E.G. “for one” & DUN for a horse all reversed – back
18 Game run in closed city (5)
TRURO
R(ugby) U(nion) for gane & R(un) inside TO for closed – think “it’s stuck to“. I wasn’t entirely sure TRURO was a city mind you,
19 Fast runner uses drug mixed with honey (9)
GREYHOUND
A mixture of [DRUG HONEY]*
20 Suit, sick in WC, had substantial snack (4,8)
CLUB SANDWICH
CLUBS for suit (see 12A I thought spades and diamonds would appear but no) & a sick [IN WC HAD]*. Probably not the most pleasant imagery in a surface reading.
24 Old friend, product of Australian mine? (4)
OPAL
Well they certain do mine opal in Oz, O(ld) & PAL for friend
25 Phone man taking order for caravan (6,4)
MOBILE HOME
MOBILE – phone & O(rder of) M(erit) inside HE for man
26 Bring forth back-to-front 23 (4)
SPEW
23 is PEWS so bring the last letter to the front
27 Claims saints rose up (10)
ASSERTIONS
[SAINTS ROSE]* up
Down
1 Drains in Sweden well up (4)
SAPS
S for Sweden – think International Car plates & SPA for well reversed -“up”
2 Deserve attention, beginning now (4)
EARN
EAR for attention & the beginning of N(ow)
3 Writer could become Trump’s oracle (6,6)
MARCEL PROUST
Lovely anagram spot of [TRUMPS ORACLE]*
4 Clear hesitation – one up! (5)
RIDER
RID to clear & ER for hesitation
5 Niceness enough to start riot, basically (2,7)
IN ESSENCE
A rioting [NICENESS E(nough)]*
7 Huge change in monstrous battle lost (10)
TREMENDOUS
EMEND for change inside (mons)TROUS – the battle of MONS is lost from the word
8 Stress-reduction gadget boy’s reward for getting upset (5,5)
WORRY BEADS
An upset [BOYS REWARD]*
11 Possibly grave, what 3 probably had (6,6)
FRENCH ACCENT
Well Proust was french so one would assume he had a French accent
13 Chalky resolved English court case (10)
CRETACEOUS
A resolved [E(nglish) COURT CASE]*
14 Pile up current cloud mostly consumed (10)
ACCUMULATE
A/C for alternating current & most of the CUMULU(s) cloud type & ATE for consumed
16 Clever satellite in ensuing row (9)
INGENIOUS
IO – moon of Jupiter inside a rowing ENSUING*
21 Compose introduction for wedding ceremony (5)
WRITE
W(edding) & RITE for ceremony
22 Colossus holds up part of musician’s performance (4)
SOLO
Hidden reversed in cOLOSsus
23 Polite waiters cleared places to sit (4)
PEWS
A cleared out P(olit)E W(aiter)S
Lovely puzzle and let’s hope Alchemi can bin his 8.
Great clue for TRURO (my dad always used to ask me to “pull the door to”). Thanks to flashling and once again best wishes to Alchemi
Thanks, Phil. I too looked for the other two suits, but I couldn’t find any phrases which made any sense and could fit into the grid, so I just did the two.
I continue to recover well, although I’m still not about to recommend it as a fun way to spend a week in hoapital.
What Baerchen said. I always enjoy a good anagram and so WORRY BEADS was my fave.
An enjoyable puzzle, as was Thursday’s in the FT (which didn’t get tackled till late on Saturday) so double thanks to Alchemi/Chalmie, and hoping recovery from 12 is going well.
Couldn’t parse TREMENDOUS but everything else was fine. Nice topical reference in 15.
Thanks, too, to flashling – and hope your op goes OK.
Having read the review again, NEAR went in so I could do something similar with EARN to what I did with SPEW/PEWS, but I later thought that would be too silly, soI didn’t. And Truro has a bishop and a cathedral.
Victoria indeed granted Truro city status shortly after it acquired its cathedral (and thus its bishop), but the link between citiy status and cathedrals is only customary, not automatic. And of course, we’re only discussing the UK. There are lots of “cities” in the US that are barely more than crossroads. See here, if you’re stuck with nothing better to do.
Thanks, flashling and Alchemi (ans=d speedy recovery).
Curiously, the whole thing about city status came up in conversation just now. I was giving my address to an American and I pointed out that Guildford is not a city. “It doesn’t have a cathedral, then?” he asked. It does. I live right next to it.
Now all I have to do is remember to point him toward that Wikipedia article when I next see him.
… and not all cities have cathedrals, or Anglican ones at least. Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent come to mind, although the former has a Catholic cathedral. Derby, on the other hand has had a cathedral since 1927 but only gained city status in 1977 to celebrate the Queen’s silver jubilee. But back to Truro; has no-one ever heard of this locomotive, allegedly the first to achieve 100 mph?