Good Monday mental workout!
Nothing out of the ordinary for a Monday puzzle. Some good anagrams and witty clueing from Falcon. LOI for us was MANDATE, having been trying to make FANFARE fit there instead, but once we got MINUS it made perfect sense.
Many thanks to Falcon!
Across
1 Act for each model (7)
PERFORM
PER (for each) + FORM (model)
5 What could make friend charge? (7)
MANDATE
M + AND + ATE (what could make friend) Thanks to Hovis @1
9 Absolute shock when female fired (5)
RIGHT
[f]RIGHT (shock when F (female) left)
10 Began struggling in lake in a city near Los Angeles (4,5)
LONG BEACH
(BEGIN)* (struggling) in LOCH (lake)
11 Is doing as ordered with what’s given by doctor? (9)
DIAGNOSIS
(IS DOING AS)* (*ordered)
12 Shine in most of valley, in the morning (5)
GLEAM
GLE[n] (most of valley) + AM (in the morning)
13 Porcelain in magnificent store crew smashed (5,9)
ROYAL WORCESTER
ROYAL (magnificent) + (STORE CREW)* (*smashed)
18 Unexpected hill trek delays film (3,11)
THE LADYKILLERS
(HILL TREK DELAYS)* (*unexpected)
20 Permission to pull out (5)
LEAVE
Double definition
22 Fool taken in by phoney Creole dish (9)
CASSEROLE
ASS (fool) taken in by (CREOLE)* (*phoney)
24 Spider coming from altar – aunt going giddy (9)
TARANTULA
(ALTAR AUNT)* (*going giddy)
25 Grouse, good and ready (5)
GRIPE
G (good) + RIPE (ready)
26 Second, perhaps, has spoken about row (7)
ORDINAL
ORAL (spoken) about DIN (row)
27 Level course, almost, for Badminton competitor? (7)
EVENTER
EVEN (level) + TER[m] (course, almost)
Down
1 Page with a notice in about procession (6)
PARADE
P (page) + A + AD (notice) in RE (about)
2 Maiden after doctor, a part in pantomime? (9)
RIGMAROLE
M (maiden) after RIG (doctor) + A ROLE (a part)
3 Frequently showing temper, blowing top (5)
OFTEN
[s]OFTEN (temper, blowing top)
4 Lost in thought? Not even close (5,4)
MILES AWAY
Double definition
5 Without source of heat, I’m upset (5)
MINUS
(SUN IM)< (source of heat + I’m, <upset)
6 Unimportant load being processed (2,3,4)
NO BIG DEAL
(LOAD BEING)* (*processed)
7 Saw a head of dynasty decline (5)
ADAGE
A + D[ynasty] (head) + AGE (decline)
8 Fly in record time across border (8)
EPHEMERA
EP (record) + ERA (time) across HEM (border)
14 A plucky follower, gutted over knight and legendary king (9)
AGAMEMNON
A + GAME (plucky) + M[a]N (follower, gutted) + O (over) + N (knight)
15 Put back in check, say (9)
REINSTATE
REIN (check) + STATE (say)
16 Bomber in Trier, sort to be taken out? (9)
TERRORIST
(TRIER SORT)* (*to be taken out)
17 Fired up in fight, produces knife (8)
STILETTO
(LIT)< (fired, <up) in SET TO (fight)
19 Nothing in measuring device can show shooting star (6)
METEOR
O (nothing) in METER (measuring device)
21 Biting cold in desert (5)
ACRID
C (cold) in ARID (desert)
22 Burst ulcer causing suffering (5)
CRUEL
(ULCER)* (*burst)
23 Hunting dog ignoring black bird (5)
EAGLE
[b]EAGLE (hunting dog, ignoring B (black))
5a was my LOI but parsed as M and ATE makes MATE. Cool clue.
5 ac my last one too. Couldn’t stop thinking of ‘montage’ for some reason.
Thanks setter and blogger.
In the last few Falcon crosswords, I have commented how much improved his crosswords are, at least to me. This one I also really enjoyed with lots of well-constructed clues. As expected on a Monday, lots of easy ones too. As mentioned @1, MANDATE was my LOI with a real head slap when I got it. So easy and yet….
11a was also a beautifully constructed anagram clue.
I find EPHEMERA a funny word. In my Collins, it can be the plural of EPHEMERON, meaning ‘something short-lived’ and it can also be a singular with plural EPHEMERAS (or EPHEMERAE) with the same meaning. Maybe you etymologists out there can explain.
Thanks to Falcon and Teacow.
Hovis @1, yes, your parsing is much better than how we had thought about it. I’ve amended the blog. Thanks!
Thanks to Falcon and Teacow and Hovis for the parsing of MANDATE, my LOI. Very enjoyable. I parsed RIGMAROLE but was not sure it was correct for pantomime until I did a Google check.
Thanks Falcon & Teacow.
Hovis @ 3, my computer dictionary says: “As a singular noun the word originally denoted a plant said by ancient writers to last only one day, or an insect with a short lifespan. Current use has been influenced by plurals such as trivia and memorabilia.”
Thanks Falcon and Teacow
Interestingly MANDATE was one of my early entries, having seen this trick in another recent puzzle that I’d done. Have always found Falcon an entertaining setter to do, but like hovis@3, I’ve enjoyed how he has ratcheted up the difficulty level ever so slightly to make them even better.
ROYAL WORCESTER and THE LADY KILLERS were new learning but they were both very gettable from the anagrams. The latter sounded like an interesting film from reading the synopsis.
Finished in the SE corner with TERRORIST (deceptively harder than it should have been), GRIPE (likewise) and EVENTER (where I had to look up Badminton as the site of annual trials and eventing).