The puzzle can be found here.
Hi everyone. I found the majority of this fairly gentle, as is often the case on Sundays, but half a dozen clues held out on me for some time. These were a couple of stragglers and a few in the NE corner, but they yielded to some careful pondering. All in all, an enjoyable exercise, for which thanks to Poins.
In the clues below, definitions are underlined. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, [deleted letters] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. I’m still trying to decide on the best way of presenting these blogs, so any constructive criticism, suggestions or requests would be most welcome.
Across
1a Bid completed by telephone (4,2)
CALL UP
CALL (to bid, in bridge) + UP (completed)
4a Next to island retreat owned by old scholar (6)
BESIDE
The reversal (retreat) of IS (island) surrounded by (owned by) BEDE (old scholar)
9a Leave quickly without son’s stuff (4)
CRAM
[s]CRAM, leave quickly, without S (son)
10a Form it with stone cut irregularly (10)
CONSTITUTE
An anagram (… irregularly) of IT with STONE CUT. This was among the cluster in the NE which held out on me, but it’s a little embarrassing to admit. I hope that by talking about my “anagram blindness” I may help fellow sufferers … unless it’s just me, that is!
11a It’s an expression of dissatisfaction with support in footwear (6)
BOOTEE
BOO is our expression of dissatisfaction, and TEE is the support. (There’s no footwear called a boobra)
12a Suddenly appearing to blend into space close to Bert (8)
EMERGENT
MERGE (blend) goes into EN (space), followed by the final letter of (close to) BerT
13a Fellow graduate kind, on reflection, to small bird (9)
ALBATROSS
Join together AL (fellow), BA (graduate), SORT reversed (on reflection) and S (small). My last in
15a Look for an expert on France (4)
FACE
ACE (an expert) following (on) F (France)
16a One dealt clubs and hearts essentially needing diamonds (4)
CARD
C (clubs) and the central letters of (… essentially) heARts with D (diamonds)
17a Welsh soccer star describing those in attendance at Levante’s opening game (9)
BAGATELLE
BALE (Gareth Bale) around (describing) GATE (those in attendance) and Levante’s opening letter. I panicked a bit here
21a Not auspicious for peace keepers before conflict with Germany (8)
UNTOWARD
UN (peace keepers) TO (before, up until) WAR (conflict) with D (IVR code for Germany)
22a Left complete with note in converted attic (6)
INTACT
N (note) in an anagram of (converted) ATTIC
24a Note to Kenneth destroyed after knight leaves to get married (3,3,4)
TIE THE KNOT
TI (musical note), then TO KE[n]NETH is anagrammed (destroyed) after N (the chess abbreviation for knight) is removed (leaves)
25a Girl stripping off somewhere in France (4)
ANNE
Removing the outer letters from (stripping off) [C]ANNE[s] produces Anne. I panicked here too, but it was fine
26a Go public in trial (3-3)
TRY-OUT
TRY (go) + OUT (public)
27a Disastrous for soldier trapped in overturned vehicle (6)
TRAGIC
The GI is trapped in a CART, going backwards (overturned)
Down
1d Fellow penning work about old lift system (3,4)
CAR POOL
CARL (fellow) containing (penning) OP (opus, work) reversed (about) and O (old)
2d Confine some Gujarati militants on the way back (5)
LIMIT
Contained in some GujaraTI MILitants reversed (on the way back)
3d Not easy to understand French article on Settle (7)
UNCLEAR
UN (French indefinite article) followed by (on) CLEAR (settle a debt etc.)
5d Book by Thackeray primarily set in town (6)
ESTHER
This Biblical book has the first letter of Thackery (Thackery primarily) set in ESHER, a Surrey town. Yet another moment of mild panic, but I know Esher, regularly passing it on my way to and from London (and once upon a time stopping there, but that’s another story)
6d Made up of parts from books found inside? That’s fantastic I say (9)
INTEGRATE
From the old testament to the books of the new, NT, inside IE (that’s = that is), then GRATE, which sounds like (… I say) great (fantastic). I didn’t know the adjectival meaning of this word, but it seemed logical
7d Catch up, absorbed in abridged record of informal alliance (7)
ENTENTE
NET (catch) reversed (up, in a down clue) in ENTEr (to record, in a diary or log, perhaps) without the last letter (abridged)
8d In subjection and still tolerant (13)
UNDERSTANDING
UNDER (in subjection) and STANDING (still)
14d Offhand about high quality description of most planes (9)
AIRWORTHY
AIRY (offhand) around (about) WORTH (high quality)
16d Find guilty when new girl is discovered with Conservative in bed (7)
CONVICT
N (new), VI (Vi, girl), and C (Conservative) are all inside COT (bed)
18d Pilot bird endlessly seen on rocky peak (7)
AVIATOR
AVIA[n] (bird, used as an adjective) without its final letter (endlessly) followed by (on) TOR (rocky peak)
19d Sententiously brief American politician in charge after a bit of luck (7)
LACONIC
A (American), CON (Conservative politician, other flavours are available) and IC (in charge) all go after the first letter of (a bit of) Luck
20d Georgia has something to drink and a piece of upside-down cake (6)
GATEAU
A charade of GA (Georgia, US state abbreviation), TEA (something to drink) and the first letter of (a piece of) Upside-down
23d Starts to talk with Australian noting guttural local intonation (5)
TWANG
Initial letters of (starts to) Talk With Australian Noting Guttural
Personally, I found this far from gentle and struggled to get on Poins’ wavelength. All the more enjoyable for it as I made slow progress and eventually succeeded (apart from a misspelt ‘bootie’). Many favourites including: BESIDE, ALBATROSS, BAGATELLE, CAR POOL & INTEGRATE.
Thanks to Poins and Kitty.
Not my cup of tea I’m afraid. I have an aversion to the use of boy/girl/man/woman/fellow to arrive at names as parts of answers and we had 13a, 1d & 16d today which for me offset some clever clues. I also think “somewhere in France” is a bit of a cop out.
I don’t think I ever have or ever will ever come across 6d as an adjective. My favourites were 4a & 1d.
Thanks to Poins for the challenge and to Kitty for a Purrfect review.
My thoughts exactly mirror those of RD including the awards for the top two.
Not a setter whose work I’m familiar with so it was an interesting experience.
Thanks to him and to Kitty whose blogs are – to quote RD again – Purrfect.
The NE felt like the work of a different setter! Took me far longer than the rest combined. I am another who dislike random names or for that matter random towns such as Esher and Cannes.
We worked through this steadily and eventually completed it, the NE corner holding out the longest. We’ve no particular objection to the use of ‘random’ names of people/towns/books in moderation, but thought it was a bit overdone here. And in 25ac we couldn’t decide for ages whether ‘stripping off’ applied to a girl’s name to give a French place name or vice-versa.
On the other hand we liked the momentary ambiguity in 24ac – was ‘knight’ to be read as ‘kt’ or ‘n’?
Favourites, though, despite the random names, were ALBATROSS and BAGATELLE.
Thanks, Poins and Kitty.
DNF. I found this a bit loose with the random fellows AL and CARL, the random french location CANNES and random town ESHER. Defeated by the NE corner I wasn’t helped by having DETENTE for 7D. Like Hovis@1 I had BOOTIE for 11A. Empathy to your blogger’s panic, Kitty, but it all looks good to me! Thanks to you and Poins.
Another BOOTIE here. And I was held up in the NE by entering DETENTE for 7dn without thinking it through. Which meant I couldn’t get 4ac. I too go through Esher on the train fairly regularly, but I kept thinking the answer ought to be TOTNES, so never got that, either.
Is it confirmed that BOOTEE is correct? Like others, I had BOOTIE, which is the significantly more favoured usage and parses just as well with the “expression … of support” covering both halves of the answer.
Thanks to Poins and Kitty.
@gwep – sorry for the late reply. Yes, BOOTEE is the solution accepted by the website. The alternative hadn’t occurred to me, partly because I wasn’t familiar with the -tie spelling, and partly because “support” is so often TEE in crosswordland. I would have been a little irked had I entered BOOTIE though.
Thanks, Kitty.
And since you asked, there is nothing wrong with the presentation of your blog.
Still, I would like to say something about it but not here.
Please, drop me a line if you think that’s fine.
As a blogger you can find my crossword email address in the version of the blog in WordPress.