Quite liked this challenge from Alberich today – had to put in some hard work to get through it all. Elegant cluing and clever misdirection peppered throughout the puzzle.
FF: 9 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | COPING | Managing course (6) |
| double def; the latter referring to masonry work – didnt know this before. | ||
| 4 | ACCOLADE | Praise champion keeping company with youth (8) |
| ACE (champion) containing [ CO (company) LAD (youth) ] | ||
| 10 | SPOILER | One in senior nursing post is type who ruins things (7) |
| I (one) in [ SR (senior) containing POLE (post) ] | ||
| 11 | CLEMENT | Caught by copper, maybe not the first that’s lenient (7) |
| C (caught) eLEMENT (copper, without the first letter) | ||
| 12 | AXON | A kiss acceptable? Bit of nerve required (4) |
| A X (kiss) ON (acceptable) | ||
| 13 | UNFEASIBLE | After universal mobile ban, selfie is not possible (10) |
| U (universal) [BAN SELFIE]* | ||
| 16 | AROUND | Somewhere near a stadium, German disappears (6) |
| A gROUND (stadium, without G – german) | ||
| 17 | PENALTY | Fine writer always entertains officer (7) |
| PEN (writer) [AY (always) containing LT (officer) ] | ||
| 20 | DIGITAL | Fool breaks ring finger (7) |
| GIT (fool) in DIAL (ring) | ||
| 21 | JOTTER | They’re regularly seen after returning to Jack’s pad (6) |
| TER [ThEy’Re, regularly] after [ J (jack) OT (reverse of TO) ] | ||
| 24 | EARTHQUAKE | Disaster as dons take her dancing (10) |
| QUA (as) in [TAKE HER]* | ||
| 25 | ZEST | Relish taking part in quizzes, typically (4) |
| hidden in “,,quizZES Typically” | ||
| 27 | NIELSEN | News about one different composer (7) |
| NN (N=new, therefore news = NN) containing [ I (one) ELSE (different) ] | ||
| 29 | LEG-PULL | English doctor cracks quiet joke (3-4) |
| [E (english) GP (doctor) ] in LULL (quiet) | ||
| 30 | TIRESOME | Old timer’s rambling anecdote ultimately is boring (8) |
| [O (old) TIMER’S]* E (anecdotE, ultimately) | ||
| 31 | VESTRY | Holy person occupies most room in church (6) |
| ST (holy person, saint) in VERY (most) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CASTAWAY | Why theatre can’t perform Robinson Crusoe? (8) |
| cryptic def; read as CAST AWAY | ||
| 2 | PHOTOCOPIER | I hope to cop off, having right image-maker! (11) |
| I HOPE TO COP* containing R (right) | ||
| 3 | NILE | Zip over European river (4) |
| NIL (zip) E (european) | ||
| 5 | COCKEYED | The old bores turned up drunk (8) |
| YE (the, old english) in COCKED (turned up) | ||
| 6 | OVERSHADOW | Who so raved about eclipse? (10) |
| WHO SO RAVED* | ||
| 7 | AYE | Indeed organ can be heard (3) |
| sounds like EYE (organ) | ||
| 8 | ESTEEM | Consider ending of Close Encounters revolutionary (6) |
| E (closE) [reverse of MEETS (encounters) ] | ||
| 9 | PRONE | Supporting Sunderland, say? That’s apt (5) |
| PRO (supporting) NE (sunderland, north east england) | ||
| 14 | BITE THE DUST | Teeth I’d lost in raid? That’s come to nothing (4,3,4) |
| TEETH ID* in BUST | ||
| 15 | ANTITHESIS | Essay ain’t bad to start with? The opposite (10) |
| [AINT]* THESIS (essay) | ||
| 18 | LABURNUM | Poisonous plant US city vagrant keeps in vase (8) |
| [ LA (us city) BUM (vagrant) ] containing URN (vase) | ||
| 19 | BRUTALLY | Cruelly dry year restricts everything (8) |
| [ BRUT (dry) Y (year) ] containing ALL (everything) | ||
| 22 | RENNET | Cheesemakers use this apple (6) |
| double def | ||
| 23 | SKULL | Brainbox has audible row (5) |
| sounds like SCULL (row) | ||
| 26 | OGRE | With head lowered, stab monster (4) |
| GORE (stab) with G (head) moving down a place | ||
| 28 | ERR | Be wrong about mounting resistance (3) |
| RE (about = RE, reversed) R (resistance) | ||
*anagram
Thanks to Turbolegs and Alberich
Taut, scrupulous cluing throughout, with many pleasing devices. Hard to single out a favourite but 13a is superb and I only wish it were true.
Slight error in parsing of 2d – R is not contained
Thanks, Turbolegs.
After an excellent puzzle from Alberich’s alter ego Klingsor yesterday, I feel really spoiled. I totally agree with Turbolegs’ preamble and Dansar @1. I started putting ticks against clues with intriguing and entertaining constructions but had to stop. Ditto for sublime surfaces – here I think I’d have to give top prize to 13ac, too. And the relatively simple 1dn made me smile as well.
Huge thanks to Alberich for such a lovely start to the day.
And a pangram to boot.
It never occurs to me to look for those, course.
Thanks both. But foe suspecting a anagram, I would not have got Jotter! I did fail to see Nielson at 27a.
Oops “pangram”
And I totally agree with Eileen@2. I had a doubletick by ANTITHESIS as well. I needed to come here to get the full parsings of JOTTER and NIELSEN.
Two splendid puzzles to tussle with which had many “aha” moments and no “well that’s just ridiculous” ones. Thanks to K/A and Turbolegs.
Thanks to Alberich and Turbolegs. Great fun. My LOI was PRONE because I was not clear that Sunderland was NE, but I liked CASTAWAY and JOTTER with “jotter pad” at the bottom of my printout.
Thanks Alberich and Turbolegs
An excellent puzzle that I only got to on the weekend, taking a couple of sessions to get out. Enjoyed teasing out the cryptic parts of a number of the clues – in particular with SPOILER, NIELSEN, CAST AWAY, COCKEYED and PRONE.
Finished with that COCKEYED, LABURNUM (which I pieced together firstly from the word play) and TIRESOME (where I needed all of the crossers to see what turned out to be a pretty straightforward clue).