A straightforward puzzle, but not an easy one. Thank you Poins.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CHESS | County side’s opening game (5) |
| CHES (abbreviation for Cheshire, a county) then Side (opening letter of) | ||
| 4 | MAELSTROM | Initially misleading Poor Tom with Lear’s confused state (9) |
| Misleading (initially, first letter of) then anagram (poor) of TOM with LEAR’S | ||
| 9 | LIE DOWN | Accept without protest and remain in adversity (3,4) |
| LIE (remain) and DOWN (in adversity) | ||
| 10 | GROTTOS | Caves in over occupying the centre of Abbotsford following something very unpleasant (7) |
| O (over) inside (occupying) abboTSford (centre of) following GROT (something very unpleasant) | ||
| 11 | INDEFATIGABLE | Untiring when debating life travelling round America (13) |
| anagram (travelling) of DEBATING LIFE contains A (America) | ||
| 14 | SAGE | Idle talk about head of engineering plant (4) |
| GAS (idle talk) reversed (about) then Engineering (first letter, head of) | ||
| 15 | SUGARPLUM | We object over having fish with fruit for sweet (9) |
| US (we, as the object of a sentence) reversed (over) with GAR (a fish) and PLUM (fruit) | ||
| 18 | ON THE NOSE | Win only against those without a goal? Not quite (2,3,4) |
| ON (against) then THOSE containing (without) ENd (a goal, not quite finished) – a horse racing term for a bet to win only | ||
| 19 | MIEN | Look for ‘ROAD’ in French (4) |
| MI (M1 motorway, a road) and EN (in, French) | ||
| 21 | TURN A BLIND EYE | Deliberately disregard innately rude bishop’s rambling (4,1,5,3) |
| anagram (rambling) of INNATELY RUDE and B (bishop) | ||
| 24 | EARSHOT | Within which one may be heard having a go on an organ (7) |
| SHOT (a go) following (on) EAR (an organ) | ||
| 26 | AUSTERE | Extremely rare to have name removed from novelist’s grave (7) |
| RarE (outer letters, extremely) following (to have) AUSTEn (novelist) missing N (name) | ||
| 27 | TOTEM POLE | Tribal symbol of tailless cat encountered on the way back by European (5,4) |
| TOm (cat, tailless) then MET (encountered) reversed (on the way back) by POLE (a European) | ||
| 28 | NITRE | Explosive constituent found in container brought back by soldiers (5) |
| TIN (container) reversed (brought back) then RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | COLD | Was able to dismiss unionist as indifferent (4) |
| COuLD (was able to) missing (to dismiss) U (unionist) | ||
| 2 | EVENING STAR | Venus Williams finally overwhelmed by German veteran in Split (7,4) |
| williamS (final letter) in (overcome by) anagram (split) of G (German) and VETERAN IN | ||
| 3 | SHODDY | Warily reluctant to drink rum of poor quality (6) |
| SHY (warily reluctant) contains (to drink) ODD (rum) | ||
| 4 | MANIFESTO | Plain old declaration of intent (9) |
| MANIFEST (plain) O (old) | ||
| 5 | EIGHT | A struggle with English for fellow in crew (5) |
| fIGHT (a struggle) with E (English) replacing F (fellow) – the crew of a rowing boat | ||
| 6 | SHOP GIRL | Work gear brought up on line by quiet retail assistant (4,4) |
| OP (opus, work) RIG (gear) reversed (brought up) on L (line) all following (by) SH (quiet) | ||
| 7 | RUT | It’s difficult to get out of game against Thailand (3) |
| RU (Rugby Union, game) with (against) T (Thailand) | ||
| 8 | MASTERMIND | Monty’s first thoughts about a flower show on TV (10) |
| Monty (first letter of) and MIND (thoughts) contain (about) ASTER (a flower) | ||
| 12 | BELLIGERENT | Aggressive tendency to grab before taking a breather on the way up (11) |
| BENT (tendency) contains (to grab) ERE (before) and GILL (a breather) reversed (on the way up) | ||
| 13 | ASSORTMENT | A variety of omens? Start worrying! (10) |
| anagram (worrying) of OMENS START | ||
| 16 | GREENGAGE | German book about packing fruit (9) |
| G German) ENGAGE (book) contains (with…packing) RE (about) | ||
| 17 | SERAPHIM | Film oddly ignored pursuing charge admitted by London area leader of Hell’s Angels (8) |
| fIlM (ignoring odd letters) follows (pursuing)RAP (charge) inside (admitted by) SE (London postal area) then Hell (fist letter, leader of) | ||
| 20 | PEPSIN | Writer includes an afterthought on current digestive aid (6) |
| PEN (writer) contains PS (an afterthought) on I (current) | ||
| 22 | LOTTO | Place to go to suppress tension before start of the game (5) |
| LOO (a place to go, to the toilet) contains (to suppress) T (tension) and (before) The (first letter, start of) | ||
| 23 | CEDE | Give way in the beginning by the sound of it (4) |
| sounds like “seed” (the beginning) | ||
| 25 | ROT | Nonsense coming from revolutionary needing no introduction (3) |
| tROT revolutionary) missing first letter (needing no introduction) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Found this OK, but not great.
A couple of typos in blog. In 4a need LEAR’S not just LEAR and in 12d it is ERE not EER.
I have my doubts about 9a. I thought “Accept without protest” is “lay down”, not “lie down”. I looked in my Chambers and it seems to agree with me. I was also not mad keen on “mind” for “thoughts” in 8d.
Hovis, you let Points know your mind on 8dn.
PeeDee@2. Fair point (or fair Poins).
Ha! I can’t type for toffee.
Thanks Poins and PeeDee
26 was the one that held me up. I can see ‘to have’ as indicating containg or preceding, but I struggle to see it meaning following, unless there’s an additional indication given.
Hi Simon S – my personal take is that ‘to have’ indicates one thing with another; no specific order is implied so one can take whichever order one chooses. I write “following” in the blog to make it simple and clear for beginners and improvers how to interpret the clue.
PeeDee @ 6
Thanks, point taken completely. As with so much in cruciverbaland, opinions vary. I wasn’t trying to imply that Poins was wrong, simply that it’s a technique that i often fail to spot.
Not too difficult; we completed it without aids though it took us some time to see ON THE NOSE, or at least how to parse it.
Regarding 9ac, Collins has “accept without protest” as one meaning for LIE DOWN but not for ‘lay down’. We can’t find that meaning in Chambers (13th edn) under either ‘lie down’ or ‘lay down’.
Thanks, Poins and PeeDee
Allan@8. Yes, I should have checked my Collins. The first definition of ‘lay down’ in Chambers is ‘give up’, which was the closest I could find.