Phew, this was hard work! Still a couple that I am not sure about. Thanks Wanderer.
| Across | ||
| 1, 6 | STRIPTEASE SHOW | Guys in a band who produced something mildly erotic? (10,4) |
| TEASES (guys) in STRIP (a band) and anagram (produced) of WHO | ||
| 9 | LAWBREAKER | One that’s taken brief holiday, standing in for unknown criminal (10) |
| LAWyER (one that has taken a brief) with BREAK (brief holiday) replacing Y (unknown, maths) | ||
| 10 | EL AL | Regular flyer knocks back large drink (2,2) |
| L (large) ALE (drink) reversed (knocks back) – Israeli airline | ||
| 12 | DISOBEDIENCE | Poor decision leads to exacerbated dispute emulating Bounty mutiny (12) |
| anagram (poor) of DECISION and first letters (leads) of Exacerbated Dispute Emulating Bounty | ||
| 15 | READINESS | Being prepared to eat in a field, putting away starter and seconds (9) |
| DINE (to eat) in aREA (field) missing first letter (putting away starter) then S S (second, two of) | ||
| 17 | RULER | Person in charge of game, essentially referee between two sides (5) |
| RU (Rugby Union, a game) then refEree (essentially, middle letter) inside R and L (two sides) | ||
| 18 | PRAWN | Recipe in hand? Note cocktail ingredient (5) |
| R (recipe) in PAW (hand) then N (note) – ingredient of a prawn cocktail | ||
| 19 | SINGAPORE | State in “wrong” sort of Europe, not EU country (9) |
| GA (Georgia, state) in SIN (wrong) and anagram (sort) of euROPE missing EU | ||
| 20 | INCENTIVISED | Given motivation by mobile devices, innit? (12) |
| anagram (mobile) of DEVICES INNIT | ||
| 24 | TWEE | Model No.1 too pretty, perhaps (4) |
| T (the Model T Ford) then WEE (No. 1 – No 1 and No 2 are wee and poo) | ||
| 25 | ADRENALINE | Endless denial about injecting of kidney hormone (10) |
| anagram (about) of DENIAl (endless, no final letter) contains (injecting) RENAL (of kidney) | ||
| 26, 27 | RUMP PARLIAMENT | Behind new message about breaking into separate 17th century house after purge (4,10) |
| RUMP (behind) then N (new) EMAIL (message) reversed (about) inside (breaking into) PART (separate) – see The Rump Parliament | ||
| Down | ||
| 1, 13 | SOLE PROPRIETOR | Error spoilt Poe translation? In the US, the concern is mine alone (4,10) |
| anagram (translation) of ERROR SPOILT POE | ||
| 2 | ROWS | Disputes setting of 1 across 6 and 26 27 (4) |
| I’m not sure about this. The entries listed are both across entries in rows, but this seems a bit vague as half of the solutions across entries too | ||
| 3 | PARTITIONING | Dividing up in two, distressed after wife leaves one during split (12) |
| anagram (distressed) of IN TwO missing W (wife) and I (one) inside PARTING (split) | ||
| 4 | ERATO | For topless tea dances, it must be Muse (5) |
| anagram (topless) of fOR (topless) and TEA | ||
| 5 | STEVENSON | Writer of Rocket Man, we hear (9) |
| sounds like (we hear) Stephenson (George Stephenson, inventor of The Rocket locomotive) – Robert Louis Stevenson | ||
| 7 | HALF NELSON | Hold up Leonard briefly, or a younger relative? (4,6) |
| 8, 23 | WELL-EARNED REST | Wanderer set off to take in the Spanish League, as reward for hard work (4-6,4) |
| anagram (off) of WANDERER SET contains (to take in) EL (the, Spanish) and L (league) | ||
| 11 | SIERRA NEVADA | Venus oddly is back fully in range (6,6) |
| VeNuS (oddly) reversed is S NV which is SIERRA (S, phonetic alphabet) and NV (state of US) | ||
| 13 | See 1 | |
| 14 | SALAD CREAM | Something very amusing about a young male dressing (5,5) |
| SCREAM (something very amusing) contains (about) A LAD (young male) | ||
| 16 | EAST INDIA | Varied Asian diet here? (4,5) |
| anagram (varied) of ASIAN DIET | ||
| 21 | IDEAL | Best thought left (5) |
| IDEA (thought) L (left) | ||
| 22 | LIFE | Sentence from a biography (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 23 | See 8 | |
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.
For 7d, it follows from half nelson being either NEL (len<) or SON (younger relative).
Thanks to Wanderer and PeeDee.
Just a minor point about 25a: it’s DENIA(l) i.e. only the last letter is missing
Thank you Hovis and passerby for the corrections, fixed now.
Thanks, PeeDee, especially for the parsing of SIERRA NEVADA, which I couldn’t quite see.
Re 2dn: I think this might refer to the fact that the answers to those two clues occupy the whole rows, which is rather a speciality of Wanderer’s.
Many thanks, as ever, to Wanderer for an enjoyable puzzle – I especially liked the clues for DISOBEDIENCE, SALAD DRESSING and INCENTIVISED [because ‘innit’ always makes me laugh].
[I wondered if there was a reason for Wanderer appearing on a Wednesday, rather than Friday but I can’t find one.]
Yes, quite a few I couldn’t parse either, including 7d which I think Hovis has nailed. I also spent ages trying unsuccessfully to work out SIERRA NEVADA (very neat) and had trouble disentangling ‘State’ and ‘country’ in the clue for SINGAPORE. I parsed 2d as you did; I agree it seems a bit unsatisfactory and there may be more to it. I’ve now seen Eileen’s explanation which does sound more convincing.
RUMP PARLIAMENT was new and I didn’t know SOLE PROPRIETOR was mainly an American term.
Horrible word of the day: INCENTIVISED. I’m all for banning it, yesterday if possible.
Thanks to PeeDee and Wanderer
Hi Eileen – INCENTIVISED and DISOBEDIENCE take up a whole row too
Hi PeeDee
Hmm, yes. What I really meant was that the other two are composite clues. I really enjoy and admire the way Wanderer almost invariably contrives to get them running on, rather than making us chase all over the grid, which can be irritating,
Interesting to see WordPlodder’s dislike of INCENTIVISED. Exactly my thought at the time. Sounds very American even if it isn’t. Agree with Eileen @7. Also, the surface of the clue at 2d suggests locations so those 2 rows were the obvious ones to pick.
Thought 11d was very sneaky. Guessed the answer then worked backwards and the penny dropped.
Thanks to Pee Dee and Wanderer
I take 2d as pointing out that the 2 part answers have been set to appear in rows rather than as Eileen says “all over the grid”.
Very good crossword with no arcana or specialist GK required.
Great blog too but I think the reversal (about) of EMAIL is missing from 26/27
Thanks for pointing that out Dansar. Fixed now.
Thanks to Wanderer and PeeDee. I had a lot of blank spaces after my first try along with items I correctly guessed (e.g., SIERRA NEVADA) but could not parse, but when at last I got RUMP PARLIAMENT and SOLE PROPRIETOR the situation improved (though I still needed help parsing HALF NELSON and a few others). My LOI was TWEE. ROWS did make sense to me.
Thanks Wanderer and PeeDee
I enjoy Wanderer’s puzzles, with his trademark two-parters, and today was no exception.
WP @ 5: I think the more usual UK expression is SOLE TRADER (who may in fact have employees).
Yes, damned hard, but this is one of the best daily crosswords I have seen for a long time. It took me ages to understand SIERRA NEVADA and HALF NELSON, but the revelation was all the more satisfying once the penny dropped at last. I always enjoy Wanderer’s puzzles, but he was on storming form with this one.
Thanks Wanderer and PeeDee
Another excellent offering by this setter, albeit two days earlier than he normally shows up. Had parsing issues with 2d and 7d as well which still took a while for the penny to drop after the explanations were given here. Too many good clues to mention – was especially pleased to work out the SIERRA NEVADA one though.
Finished in the SE corner with that SIERRA NEVADA, SINGAPORE (where I needed all of the crossers and then some more time to work out the logic) and RUMP PARLIAMENT the last in.