A standard REDSHANK offering – robust cluing and some elegant surfaces. Thanks REDSHANK.
FF: 8 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | MEDIUM | English copper stops silent vehicle (6) |
| [ E (english) DI (copper) ] in MUM (silent) | ||
| 4 | SCIMITAR | Mike’s back with one sailor’s weapon (8) |
| [SCIM (mike’s = MIC’S, reversed)] I (one) TAR (sailor) | ||
| 9 | ENSIGN | US officer is over in English navy (6) |
| [SI (reverse of IS) in ENG (english)] N (navy) | ||
| 10 | ON AND OFF | Switch positions every so often (2,3,3) |
| double def | ||
| 12 | NORM | Standard choice of letters (4) |
| cryptic def; read as N or M | ||
| 13 | INVESTMENT | Maybe shares home with clothing for masses (10) |
| IN (home) VESTMENT (clothing for masses) | ||
| 15 | SUBTERRANEAN | A rat-run’s been rerouted underground (12) |
| A RAT RUNS BEEN* | ||
| 18 | MAGNETIC TAPE | Head reads this alluring copy, following teacher’s lead (8,4) |
| MAGNETIC (alluring) [ T (Teacher, first letter) APE (copy) ] | ||
| 21 | BLACK WIDOW | Boycott opening, lacking new web designer (5,5) |
| BLACK (B, Boycott, opening) WInDOW (opening, without N – new) | ||
| 22 | LENS | It affords clearer views of valleys, heading off (4) |
| gLENS (valleys, without starting letter) | ||
| 24 | REPUBLIC | State of boozer opening souvenir (8) |
| PUB (boozer) in RELIC (souvenir) | ||
| 25 | CHILLI | Hot stuff cool on radio (6) |
| sounds like CHILLY (cool) | ||
| 26 | ACOLYTES | Minions who may, given brain, become nice altar boys (8) |
| [ACOLYTES + BRAIN]* = NICE ALTAR BOYS | ||
| 27 | IMPOST | Tax writer’s job (6) |
| I’M (writer) POST (job) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MEEKNESS | Bend knee in trouble, displaying this? (8) |
| KNEE* in MESS (trouble) | ||
| 2 | DESCRIBE | Trace key member in Delaware (8) |
| [ ESC (key) RIB (member)] in DE (delaware) | ||
| 3 | URGE | Push outrigger, steering clear of odd features (4) |
| oUtRiGgEr, alternate letters | ||
| 5 | CONDEMNATION | Trick people defending Democratic criticism (12) |
| CON (trick) DEM (democratic) NATION (people) | ||
| 6 | MONSTRANCE | Protest about missing host’s receptacle (10) |
| reMONSTRANCE (protest, without RE – about) | ||
| 7 | TROWEL | Small digger’s drier keeping right (6) |
| TOWEL (drier) containing R (right) | ||
| 8 | REFUTE | Deny official regular appearances in cup ties (6) |
| REF (official) UTE ( cUp TiE, alternate letters) | ||
| 11 | INTRANSITIVE | On the way, setter’s not taking object (12) |
| IN TRANSIT (on the way) I’VE (setter’s) | ||
| 14 | REMARKABLY | Spot sailor entering bank unusually (10) |
| [MARK (spot) AB (sailor) ] in RELY (bank) | ||
| 16 | WATERLOO | Battle develops later in court (8) |
| LATER* in WOO (court) | ||
| 17 | TEE SHIRT | This tree’s misshapen top (3,5) |
| THIS TREE* | ||
| 19 | IBERIA | One live broadcast upset Spain and Portugal (6) |
| I (one) BE (live) RIA (broadcast = AIR, reversed) | ||
| 20 | SAPPHO | Poet, idiot, potty about Helen principally? (6) |
| SAP (idiot) [ PO (potty, chamberpot) around H (Helen, principally) ] | ||
| 23 | WHIM | Fancy that guy burdened with wife (4) |
| W (wife) HIM (that guy) | ||
*anagram
Thanks, Redshank – I like your ‘robust’ for the cluing!
I was held up by insisting to myself that E CU must appear in 1ac and I spent a while trying to find a poet who was an anagram of IDIOT + H but chuckled at the surface of SAPPHO when the penny dropped.
Favourite clues were the two ecclesiastical ones, INVESTMENT and MONSTRANCE and INTRANSITIVE, all for the clever definitions.
I knew Redshank wouldn’t use REFUTE without justification and, consulting Chambers, I find that it has gone the way of ‘indifferent’, et al, although ‘disprove’ is given as the first definition. [My oldish Collins doesn’t have ‘deny’ but I dare say newer versions have.]
Many thanks to Redshank for an enjoyable challenge.
The first sentence should read ‘Thanks, Turbolegs’, of course.
This was of course the B side to Crucible in the Graun. Or was it a double A side?
Double A, for sure. 😉
Pleasant solve, with nothing too obscure except for MONSTRANCE. I thought it was a new word, but looking at my “Words I’ve learnt from cryptics” file, I see it already had not one, but two entries. Hardly “learnt”, or even looked at for that matter. Must take this cryptic puzzle business more seriously.
Sorry, you may have meant this anyway, but for 21a, I had BLACK (=Boycott (verb)), then the same as you WIDOW (=opening (window), lacking N).
‘Brain’ or no brain, I had no idea about ACOLYTES which I just bunged in from the def.
Thanks to Turbolegs and Redshank
Thanks to Turbolegs and Redshank
I refuse to accept the definition at 8d, and have left it blank. Someone must make a stand and it seems that it won’t be Chambers.
Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs. I could not parse ACOLYTES and did not know REMONSTRANCE (and that stopped me from getting the first word in MAGNETIC TAPE).
Dansar @ 6
My local newspaper reported a court case in which the defendant had been convicted. It said that he had refuted the charge, but did not comment on the apparent miscarriage of justice.
Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
A good solid crossword in which the long intersecting clues through the centre provided me with the greatest challenge.
Was pleased to parse ACOLYTES (the compound anagram, one of his typical tricks of the trade – but still often hard to twig on to). Liked SAPPHO (when the penny dropped), MEDIUM (when I also gave up soon looking the E CU) and MONSTRANCE (after discovering the word itself and for the subtle removal of ‘about’ from the ‘protest’).
Finished with INVESTMENT (which I didn’t properly parse), that MONSTRANCE and MAGNETIC TAPE as the last few in.