Moley’s turn in the Quiptic slot this week.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EXPERTS | Those who know of former spouse’s impudent son (7) |
| EX (former spouse) plus (‘s = has) PERT (impudent) S (son) | ||
| 5 | DORMICE | Boarding school bedroom is considered excellent to begin with for sleepy little creatures (7) |
| DORM (boarding school bedroom) ICE (first letters, i.e. to begin with, of is considered excellent) | ||
| 9 | SHORN | Sean said to have been been sheared (5) |
| A homophone (said) of Sean. I assume the second ‘been’ in the clue is a typo | ||
| 10 | FACETIOUS | Playful aspect of promissory notes (9) |
| FACET (aspect) IOUS (promissory notes). Not sure what the ‘of’ is doing, except to make the surface read better | ||
| 11 | INSPECTOR | Examiner to check gold (9) |
| INSPECT (check) OR (gold) | ||
| 12 | AISLE | Way to get married in church? I’ll say! (5) |
| A homophone (say) of I’ll | ||
| 13 | GREAT | Impressive kind of force altered rate … (5) |
| G (kind of force) plus an anagram (altered) of RATE | ||
| 15 | NO CONTEST | … the result was a foregone conclusion (2,7) |
| Brain a bit slow this morning, but not sure what the cryptic element is here | ||
| 18 | UNSHEATHE | He has tune playing to remove protective covering (9) |
| An anagram (playing) of HE HAS TUNE | ||
| 19 | DROLL | Run into toy — that’s funny! (5) |
| In insertion (into) of R (run) in DOLL (toy) | ||
| 21 | ADIEU | Wrong idea: turn and say goodbye in Paris (5) |
| An anagram (wrong) of IDEA plus U (turn). Not sure what the ‘say’ is doing, except to make the surface read better | ||
| 23 | BAGATELLE | Pretty lady holding a gun, but it’s just a game (9) |
| BELLE (pretty lady) containing (holding) A (a) GAT (gun) | ||
| 25 | MAUSOLEUM | Mum went around clinging to gold, alone in a burial chamber (9) |
| MUM (mum) containing (went around clinging to) AU (gold) and SOLE (alone) | ||
| 26 | OMEGA | Foreign game, first love has the last word (5) |
| An anagram (foreign) of GAME following (first) O (love) | ||
| 27 | DRESSED | Medic had different seeds to be prepared (7) |
| DR (medic) plus (had) an anagram (different) of SEEDS | ||
| 28 | NOTATED | Recorded music? (7) |
| A (not very?) cryptic definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ENSUING | Consequently following new ensign up at first (7) |
| An anagram (new) of ENSIGN and U (first letter of up, i.e. up at first) | ||
| 2 | PIOUSNESS | Devotion to a deity? Goodness! (9) |
| A double definition, though both relate to the same meaning of the word really | ||
| 3 | RANGE | Managed good English collection (5) |
| RAN (managed) G (good) E (English) | ||
| 4 | SAFETY NET | Device for security gets ten up (6,3) |
| SAFETY (security) plus (gets) a reversal (up) of TEN. You have to read ‘security’ twice here, I think, both as part of the definition and part of the wordplay | ||
| 5 | DECOR | Originally, did Ed choose one room’s colours and furnishings? (5) |
| The first letters (originally) of did Ed choose one room’s | ||
| 6 | RETRAINED | Dieter ran badly and was taught new ways (9) |
| An anagram (badly) of DIETER RAN | ||
| 7 | ICONS | Images in one study she’s beginning (5) |
| I (one) CON (study) S (first letter, i.e. beginning, of she) | ||
| 8 | EASIEST | Perhaps see it as being most comfortable (7) |
| An anagram (perhaps) SEE IT AS | ||
| 14 | TREMULOUS | Fearful about term at university for Lou’s son (9) |
| An anagram (about) of TERM next to (at) LOU (Lou) plus (‘s = has) S (son). Not sure what the ‘for’ is doing, except to make the surface read better | ||
| 16 | CLERGYMAN | My clanger about the vicar? (9) |
| An anagram (about) of MY CLANGER. A second outing for ‘about’ as an anagram indicator | ||
| 17 | EMOLLIENT | Lie mole made up to National Trust to get cream (9) |
| An anagram (made up) of LIE MOLE next to (to) NT (National Trust) | ||
| 18 | UNARMED | Defenceless, but United Nations are equipped and ready (7) |
| UN (United Nations) ARMED (equipped and ready). Don’t know what the ‘are’ is doing, except to make the surface read better | ||
| 20 | LEEWARD | The French and English draw back to the sheltered side (7) |
| LE (the French) plus (and) E (English) followed by a reversal (back) of DRAW (draw) | ||
| 22 | INURE | Condition in old city quarter (5) |
| IN (in) UR (old city) E (quarter, i.e. point of compass) | ||
| 23 | BLEND | Bow liberal accepted to amalgamate (5) |
| BEND (bow) containing (accepted) L (liberal) | ||
| 24 | TROUT | Empty threat about our broadcast for fish (5) |
| TT (empty threat, i.e. threat with the middle letters deleted) containing (about) an anagram (broadcast) of OUR | ||
Thanks Moley and nms
Quite good; TROUT was my favourite. I didn’t like NOTATED or PIOUSNESS for the same reasons you gave.
I also agree about Notated and Piousness, and can’t detect any cryptic aspect to No Contest. Nevertheless, a pleasant, albeit undemanding, solve. I did get a teeny bit bogged down on 14D, thinking it might be querulous – and then spent quite a while wondering whether there was some force in physics which ended in a ‘q’ (I’m not a scientist!). But once I’d got Ensuing, the rest of that corner fell into place. Thanks to Moley and Newmarketsausage
The use of ellipses in 13, 15 suggests a connection. It’s a bit of a stretch, but if you read ‘no contest’ as no ‘c’ on test, equate ‘test’ to ‘check’, and remove the ‘c’, you get ‘heck’, which is kinda synonymous with ‘great’ (the previous answer) in phrases like ‘a heck of a lot’/’a great deal’. That’s all I’ve got!
Thanks Moley and Newmarketsausage, most entertaining.
Thanks Moley and NMS; did what it said on the tin.
Greensward @3; nice idea but a bit tortuous – I doubt that was what was intended. To me, the ellipses just serve to connect ‘Impressive kind of force altered’ to NO CONTEST.
I’m not sure that without crossers NOTATED is obvious, so I thought it was OK.
Thanks Moley and newmarketsausage.
I thought this was a bit of a mixture. Some very good clues, such as 25a MAUSOLEUM (nice surface) and 16d CLERGYMAN (clever anagram). On the other hand there were several rather weak ones, in particular 18d UNARMED. The “armed” part means exactly the same in the definition and in the wordplay, effectively leaving only the “un” bit to be cryptically clued.
Lord Jim @5’s criticism seems to me to be right on the mark. There were several clues (11a,2d,4d,18d) in which the cryptic element was, in whole or in large part, based on the same sense of the word as the definition. One or two clues like this is to be expected, but it seemed like too many in this case, especially when you throw in the two clues with no cryptic element (15a, 28a), and you end up with too many uninspired clues.
But I agree there were a number of good clues as well.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who was reminded of Nick Park by 9 across.
Sorry about that run-on sentence in my last comment.
I thought OMEGA was the last letter rather than the last word
And Ted, yes. In fact I thought the answer was sheep at first.
Bit late to the party on this one but for anyone curious, I think NO CONTEST is a double definition i.e. it is also a type of result in a sporting event, usually a boxing match, when the fight cannot continue for some reason.