A challenging puzzle today from WANDERER, thanks to whom for a gripping work out.
FF:9 DD:9
| Across | ||
| 1, 4 | PRINCE CHARMING | Royal dynasty replacing the French kisser in a rescue act (6,8) |
| PRINCE CHARles (royal, with MING {dynasty} replacing LES {the, french} ) | ||
| 9 | ENDURE | Last stand (6) |
| double def | ||
| 10 | FRANKLIN | Open zip setback for soul singer (8) |
| FRANK (open) LIN (zip = NIL, reversed) , arethra | ||
| 11 | TURN IN | Go home and go to bed (4,2) |
| TURN (go) IN (home) | ||
| 12 | LA MANCHA | The Italian guys, second of which docked somewhere in Spain (2,6) |
| LA (the, italian) MAN CHAp (guys, with second chap incomplete) | ||
| 13 | KEY | Island that might be part of Majorca or Minorca (3) |
| cryptic def; read as major[ca] or minor[ca] | ||
| 14 | UNCLAD | Relative finally spent a day in the nude (6) |
| UNCLe (without last letter, finally spent) A D (day) | ||
| 17 | NONSTOP | Interminable pontoon game? Briefly succeeded for just one round (7) |
| PONTOoN* with S (Succeeded, briefly) replacing O (round, one of) | ||
| 21 | ERRATA | Bloomers making comeback arrived in tea dances (6) |
| RRA (reverse of ARR – arrival, come) in TEA* | ||
| 25 | TAY | Intermittently steady current (3) |
| alternate letters of sTeAdY | ||
| 26 | NOBLEMAN | Possibly count on return of good foreign lover (8) |
| NOB (reverse of BON – good, french) LEMAN (lover) | ||
| 27 | AMPERE | Backing mother and father unit (6) |
| AM (mother = MA, reversed) PERE (father) | ||
| 28 | ETERNITY | Age ten, yet starts to resume infantile play (8) |
| TEN YET RI (starts to Resume Infantile)* | ||
| 29 | STATUE | Female hiding tasteless jewellery in bust? (6) |
| SUE (female) hiding TAT (tasteless jewellery) | ||
| 30, 31 | NATIONAL CRISIS | Bad liars in action leading to second referendum outcome for some, perhaps (8,6) |
| LIARS IN ACTION* S (second) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PLECTRUM | Pick fruit around Crete, mostly when stoned (8) |
| PLUM (fruit) around CRETe* (mostly, stoned – anagrind) | ||
| 2, 23 | INDIRECT OBJECT | One benefitting from action taken in roundabout protest (8,6) |
| INDIRECT (roundabout) OBJECT (protest) | ||
| 3 | CARDIGAN | Knitted garment as part of suit? One to complain about (8) |
| CARD (part of suit) I (on) GAN (complain = NAG, reversed) | ||
| 5 | HURRAY | In a rush? On the contrary, it’s said joyfully (6) |
| cryptic def; ‘In a rush’ on the contrary = ‘a in rush’ > A in HURRY | ||
| 6 | RUNWAY | Take off here, having fled heartlessly (6) |
| RUN aWAY (fled, without middle letter) | ||
| 7, 19 | IN LOCO PARENTIS | Responsible for an issue raised by others? (2,4,8) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 8 | GENIAL | Friendly and cheerful Ealing cast (6) |
| EALING* | ||
| 12 | LENSMAN | Photographer chap from French town (7) |
| LENS (french town) MAN (chap) | ||
| 15 | DON | Mostly accomplished fellow (3) |
| DONe (accomplished, mostly) | ||
| 16 | HOE | Tool removing a little stone from footwear (3) |
| sHOE (footwear, without S – little Stone) | ||
| 18 | PROMPTER | Comparatively punctual theatre worker (8) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 19 | See 7 | |
| 20 | BASELESS | Bullshit about a tennis player is unfounded (8) |
| BS (bullshit) about [ A SELES (tennis player, monica) ] | ||
| 22 | INTERN | 11, say, after exchanging words in jail? (6) |
| sounds like IN TURN (answer to 11ac, with words exchanged) | ||
| 23 | See 2 | |
| 24 | LEAN-TO | Listed old outbuilding? (4-2) |
| LEANT (listed) O (old) | ||
| 25 | TANTRA | Sacred texts of distant races (6) |
| hidden in “..disTANT RAces” | ||
*anagram
Thanks setter and blogger. Very enjoyable. FOI 9ac which made me think of McEwan’s great novel ‘Enduring Love’ with its brilliantl double entendre of a title. LOI 22d as it took me a while to work out how the clue worked in relation to 11ac. COD for me was the clever 2d,
Normally a game with the Friday Wanderers is a pleasant stroll in the park but today it was if Mbappe had joined on loan.He first dropped the shoulder on 13.
I thought that there was an island called ORC(probably is)_ but he did a Cruyff turn with a much better move.
That put the mockers on LENSMAN (also rather cunning) and LA MANCHA
I hope he stays in the team as it will keep me alert of a Friday. Couldve done with the check button
Thanks Turbolegs, Wanderers and VAR of course.
DON KEY HOE TAY + LA MANCHA = ?
Hovis,
Dont know if it came easy to you, but your comment@3 was scintillating!! Likewise, WANDERER.
Regards,
TL
Turbolegs @4. La Mancha was one of my last answers and was only known to me from Don Quixote. As soon as the name came to me, I saw the 4 3-letter words circling round the middle. Very clever. Of course, NOBLEMAN is themed but not sure of anything else.
Thanks to Wanderer, Turbolegs, and Hovis. I got off to a very slow start and did not parse the les-Ming part of PRINCE CHARMING but did fight my way through. I suspected that the 3-letter words were significant but did not get it (and TAY was one of my last ones in).
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
An excellent crossword to finish the week with the ‘DON KEY HOE TAY’ trick just the icing on the cake – was sorry that I hadn’t spotted it myself (well done Hovis). Very clever how he had LA MANCHA and NOBLEMAN symmetrically placed about it. Can remember a similar instance in the Guardian by Puck where he curled ARM MAD LID ALL around a similar grid with the O in the centre (when I checked this site, I see that it was in 2012) – incredible how one doesn’t forget ultra clever thinking by a setter !
The puzzle was full of other seriously good clues, especially his trademark double worded clues – PRINCE CHARMING and the surface of NATIONAL CRISIS were great. Also liked the TURN IN / INTERN pair.
Finished with LENSMAN (another good clue where I had to look up the French town), HURRAY (which took longer than it should have to see) and KEY (brilliant deception about the parts of the two Spanish islands that one needed to work with)
18d is a double definition, surely. And Aretha Franklin sounds strangely anatomical with the extra “r” (arethra).