A nice variety of clue types here, plenty to keep one’s interest. Thanks Goliath
| Across | ||
| 1 | BOATSWAIN | I wasn’t upset by snake, being a naval officer (9) |
| anagram (upset) of I WASN’T follows (by) BOA (snake) | ||
| 6 | PLUMP | Pope’s first mass is full (5) |
| Pope (first letter of) then LUMP (mass) | ||
| 9 | NYALA | Some horny Alaskan antelope (5) |
| found inside horNY ALSkan | ||
| 10 | TAXI STAND | Cabaret for the audience? (4,5) |
| sounds like “cab array” – a feature of the urban landscape | ||
| 11 | HAPPEN UPON | Bump into not quite happy ex reversing – no joke! (6,4) |
| HAPPy Ex (not quite all the letters) then NO PUN (no joke) reversed | ||
| 12 | BERG | Mountain where Ingrid lost her man (4) |
| BERGman (Ingrid Bergman, actress) losing MAN | ||
| 14 | ALLURED | Seduced everyone – awfully rude (7) |
| ALL (everyone) then anagram (awfully) of RUDE | ||
| 15 | SHEBANG | Entire operation of the female thrill (7) |
| SHE (the female) BANG (thrill) | ||
| 17, 26 | TRAFFIC LIGHT | Cars few and far between (7,5) |
| TRAFFIC (cars) LIGHT (few and far between) – a feature of the urban landscape | ||
| 19 | AVERAGE | Mean street, right time (7) |
| AVE (Avenue, a street) then R (right) AGE (time). Note for beginners: one might reasonably ask why isn’t the abbreviation for street St not Ave? Some abbreviations (such as St for street) have been used in clues tens-of-thousands of times before. There is a crosswording tradition that these old chestnuts are so well known they need to be be even further disguised. | ||
| 20, 1 down | PARK BENCH | Green judges (4,5) |
| PARK (green) BENCH (judges) – a feature of the urban landscape | ||
| 22 | BUS SHELTER | Cracker keeps the Financial Times quiet (3,7) |
| BELTER (cracker) contains US (the FT) SH (quiet) – a feature of the urban landscape | ||
| 25 | LIBRARIAN | Bookish type, one born at the end of September, back in his element? On the contrary! (9) |
| AIR (his element, Air is Libra’s element) reversed (back) in LIBRAN (one born at the end of September) – on the contrary indicates the opposite of LIBRAN in AIR | ||
| 26 | See 17 | |
| 27 | TULIP | Some advice given about essentially peculiar flower (5) |
| TIP (some advice) contains (about) lecULiar (middle letters of, essentially) | ||
| 28 | GOLD MINER | Mingled or mixed-up fortune hunter (4,5) |
| anagram (mix-up) of MINGLED OR | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | See 20 | |
| 2 | A CAPPELLA | A hat on the head of Peter Fitzgerald not accompanied (1,8) |
| A CAP (hat) on Peter (head of, first letter) then ELLA (Ella Fitzgerald) | ||
| 3 | SPACECRAFT | Accepts RAF version: could be a UFO (10) |
| anagram (version) of ACCEPTS RAF | ||
| 4 | ASTOUND | Surprise about German joiner (7) |
| AS TO (about) UND (and, a joining word, in German) | ||
| 5 | NOXIOUS | We French embracing axiom: being unclothed is bad for you (7) |
| NOUS (we, in French) contains (embracing) aXIOm (unclothed) | ||
| 6 | See 24 | |
| 7 | USAGE | Employment for lami or veloy with parts missing? (5) |
| a saUSAGE (with parts missing) might be saVELOY or saLAMI | ||
| 8 | PEDAGOGUE | After exercise, breathless – nursed by outstanding teacher (9) |
| PE (exercise) then (after…is) AGOG (breathless) inside (nursed by DUE (outstanding) | ||
| 13 | CEREBELLUM | Part of brain that’s extremely creative brewed beer to mull over (10) |
| CreativE (extremely, outer letters) then anagram (brewed) of BEER then MULL reversed (over) | ||
| 14 | AUTOPILOT | George a 27? Too bad! (9) |
| anagram (bad) of A TULIP (27 across) TOO – George pilots’ slang for the autopilot | ||
| 16 | ADAPTOGEN | Herbal medicine makes a pedant go berserk (9) |
| anagram (berserk) of A PEDANT GO | ||
| 18 | CAUSING | Precipitating a change of leader in having a rest (7) |
| pAUSING (having a rest) with C replacing P (with a change of leading letter) | ||
| 19 | ARSENAL | Marsh fens half-stripped of weapons (7) |
| mARSh fENs hALf missing outer letters (stripped) | ||
| 21 | REBEL | Rise in 13 (5) |
| found inside ceREBELlum (13 down) | ||
| 23 | ROTOR | Up and down and round it goes (5) |
| ROTOR is a palindrome (the same when read up and down) | ||
| 24, 6 | LAMP POST | Light job (4,4) |
| LAMP (light) POST (job) – a feature of the urban landscape | ||
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.
Very enjoyable.
Failed to parse LIBRARIAN. Was fixated on IBR being one (I) B (born) R (end of September).
ADAPTOGEN was a new word for me.
Small error in blog for 19a. AGE not T for ‘time’.
Thanks to Goliath and PeeDee.
Thanks, PD — I needed your explication of 25Ac LIBRARIAN. As always with Goliath I stare at the crossword for ages before finding a FOI, which today was NYALA. Then I’m off. Thanks, Goliath, a great mid-week brain detox.
Thanks both. I would never have parsed USAGE in a month of Sundays, so it was my LOI. Thanks again PeeDee.
Thanks to PeeDee and Goliath
I can’t make 7d work.
SALAMI or SAVELOY (SAUSAGE), with parts (SA) missing gives USAGE
LAMI or VELOY with parts missing doesn’t
Dansar. The way I parsed it (really same as in blog) is that “sausage for salami or saveloy” with ‘sa’ as the missing parts gives “usage for lami or veloy”.
Could not get BUS SHELETER and it’s now my favourite. Thanks for the clues and the answers.
Thank you Hovis@5
I think I see what you mean and I know what the setter is getting at but it’s the grammar which I can’t quite make work.
This is partly because I think the clue works perfectly well as EMPLOYMENT FOR/IN LAMI OR VELOY?
I suspect (but there is only one person who can confirm) that the extra WITH PARTS MISSING was added because there is a convention that words used in a clue should either be real words or if not then something should indicate that their non-conformance is “knowing”.
I enjoyed the crossword anyway and this niggle doesn’t detract from that.
Thanks to Goliath and PeeDee.. I too was defeated by BUS SHELTER though after a struggle I did manage to piece out ADAPTOGEN which was new to me.
I loved BUS SHELTER
Thanks Goliath and PeeDee
Only got to this one recently … and loved it. Particularly liked the five ‘urban landscape’ clues.
Had no clues as to the parsing of USAGE which after seeing the trick used here, thought that it was a beautifully innovative device. Also didn’t make the connection of air to the Libran sign at 25a. I thought it was a great mix of seeing the definition and working out the word play / using the word play to construct a word that you could see was the required definition.
Finished in the SE corner with ADAPTOGEN (the only new term for me), BUS SHELTER (as copmus@9 says, a belter in its own right) and CAUSING (which took ages to work out what was going on). A great puzzle mid-week from a setter who usually pops up on the weekend.