Thanks to BRADMAN today, for dishing out a puzzle on the easier side of his offerings. I have a couple of queries on parsings which perhaps someone can throw light on.
FF : 8 DD: 7
| Across | ||
| 1 | REMONSTRATION | Protest of soldiers facing battle site beginning to retreat into base (13) |
| RE (soldiers) MONS (battle site) [ R (beginning to Retreat) in STATION (base) ] ; if my parsing is not wrong, then there seems to be an extra ‘S’ in the clue. | ||
| 9 | LIBERAL | Generous UK politician of yesteryear? (7) |
| double def | ||
| 10 | RECOVER | Get back to find maiden maybe by sports ground (7) |
| REC (sports ground) OVER (maiden, maybe, from the game of cricket) | ||
| 11 | IGLOO | Endless despondency faced by one in hut in cold place (5) |
| I (one) GLOOm (despondency, endless) | ||
| 12 | MALAYALAM | Language that can equally well be written right to left (9) |
| straight def for a palindrome | ||
| 13 | DUST CART | Dirty vehicle of the French belts around (4,4) |
| DU (of, in french) reverse of TRACTS (belts) | ||
| 15 | DESCRY | Make out first of soldiers entering to attack (6) |
| S (first of Soldiers) in DECRY (attack) | ||
| 18 | REDRAW | Plan once more presented in colour (green) (6) |
| RED (colour) RAW (green) | ||
| 19 | PLUTARCH | Old writer in another world almost and cunning with it (8) |
| PLUTo (another world, almost) ARCH (cunning) | ||
| 22 | CAMELHAIR | Fabric this person put in a line to stuff into seat (9) |
| [ME (this person) in {A L (line)}] in CHAIR (seat) – chambers doesn’t have this as a single word | ||
| 24 | CREED | Animal will get caught retreating – that’s what one believes (5) |
| DEER (animal) C (caught), all reversed | ||
| 25 | PORTICO | One firm behind left entrance (7) |
| PORT (left) I (one) CO (firm) | ||
| 26 | TBILISI | Capital city is built anew, one having displaced university (7) |
| IS BuILT* with I (one) replacing U (university) | ||
| 27 | DUSTIN HOFFMAN | I’m on hand with stuff to be put out for actor (6,7) |
| IM ON HAND STUFF* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | RALLIED | In bumpy ride everyone pulled together (7) |
| ALL (everyone) in RIDE* | ||
| 2 | MOBILISED | After limbo dancing, side is loosened up, ready for action (9) |
| LIMBO* SIDE* | ||
| 3 | NARCO | Drug dealer participating in seminar complacently (5) |
| hidden in “..semiNAR COmplacently” | ||
| 4 | TELEMARK | Audible assessment of TV critic for a particular sort of turn (8) |
| sounds like TELLY MARK (assessment of tv critic) | ||
| 5 | AIRILY | Dangerously losing head in a flippant manner (6) |
| hAIRILY (dangerously, without first letter) | ||
| 6 | ITCHY FEET | Desire of traveller with tiny amount of money, first to last (5,4) |
| TITCHY (tiny) FEE (amount of money) with T moving from first position to last position | ||
| 7 | NOVEL | Man penning very short fictional work (5) |
| NOEL (man) covering V (very) | ||
| 8 | GRAMMY | Entertainment award makes old poet hug maiden repeatedly (6) |
| GRAY (old poet) containing MM (maiden = M, repeatedly) | ||
| 14 | CHAPLAINS | Clergy in church when keeping free from fancy stuff (9) |
| CH (church) [ AS (when) containing PLAIN (free from fancy stuff) ] | ||
| 16 | CARPE DIEM | To grumble I deem silly – live for the moment (5,4) |
| CARP (grumble) [ I DEEM]* | ||
| 17 | ELDRITCH | Weird child, terror not half unruly (8) |
| CHILD TERror (not half)* | ||
| 18 | RECIPE | Precise cooking without this ultimately? Maybe, maybe not (6) |
| semi &lit; PRECIsE* (without S; thiS, ultimately) | ||
| 20 | HADRIAN | Emperor had managed to capture island (7) |
| HAD [ RAN (managed) containing I (island) ] | ||
| 21 | SATORI | A trio’s excited to find spiritual enlightenment (6) |
| A TRIO’S* | ||
| 23 | MIRED | Motorway with sign of no movement – one’s got stuck (5) |
| MI (motorway) RED (no movement, traffic light) | ||
| 24 | CHIEF | Island captured by revolutionary female leader (5) |
| [CHE (revolutionary) F (female)] containing I (island) | ||
*anagram
Definitely too many S’s in the wordplay for 1a. The camel hair (coat) appears to be setters’ material of the week and it is definitely two words
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs
I can’t see an alternative parsing of 1a, so it does seem like a rare oversight.
Camelhair is one word in Collins, which makes it legitimate here, I think.
Enjoyable puzzle. My favourites were RECIPE and MIRED (I liked “sign of no movement”).
For 1 across, could ‘base’ be the anagrind for ‘into’? That would give RE and TA (soldiers) around MONS + anagram of ‘into’.
Not Bradman at his best, methinks. To add to the criticisms, I think 4d is a poor clue since TELE is also short for television. I realise TELE MARK still sounds like TELEMARK but does not make a good homonym.
Semi-guessed MALAYALAM correctly but had the consonants around the wrong way for the unknown SATORI.
Couldn’t parse 1a either and like JamJar @3 wondered if ‘base’ could be an anagram indicator with ‘soldiers’ either side of MONS, but there is still an R unaccounted for with that parsing, unless ‘into’ is doing double duty as anagram fodder and as a containment indicator for ‘beginning to retreat’ (R). Seems unlikely.
I liked ELDRITCH, a word I can’t recall ever having seen outside crossword-land.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs
Sorry – I deserve remonstration!
… which I believe is ?????? in Malaylam, Bradman.
…or apar?dha? in fact.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Did this across two sessions on a very hot Friday night down here.
Spotted the extra S in 1a and got on with life – it happens. Although I got AIRILY, for the life of me, I couldn’t find the word meaning ‘dangerously’ that I had to behead until coming here. Had no issues with the rest of it apart from having something else in at 18a (that I can’t decipher now) and fixed it up as REDRAW as my last one in.