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VELIA gently kicks off the week…
A nice mix of clues here. Nothing proved too much of a challenge, except 14A, where we’re not sure we have the right solution!
Some great surfaces – 7D, and the anagrams in 12A, 15D and 25A in particular, and 24A was nicely concise.
Thanks VELIA!
Across
1 Chastised for joke I dropped (8)
PUNISHED
PUN (joke) + I + SHED (dropped)
5 Saw the innards of fleshy supine Swedes (6)
ESPIED
[fl]ES[hy] [su]PI[ne] [sw]ED[es] (innards of)
9 Showing exclamation of surprise, I swear! (2,2,4)
ON MY WORD
ON (showing) + MY WORD (exclamation of surprise)
10 Protection from weapon belonging to us (6)
ARMOUR
ARM (weapon) + OUR (belonging to us)
12 Also known as rubbish dump, nosey! (9)
PSEUDONYM
(DUMP NOSEY)* (*rubbish)
13 Art’s back in school (5)
TRAIN
(ART)< (<back) + IN
14 Dashes off and stalls (4)
PENS
Double definition
Not really sure about this solution!
16 Thriftiness, not fine, fancy clothes (1-6)
T-SHIRTS
([THRI]f[T]ine[SS])* (not FINE *fancy)
19 Change abandoning criminal sort (7)
VERSION
[con]VERSION (change, abandoning CON (criminal))
21 Unpleasant part of procedure reviewed (4)
RUDE
([proc]EDUR[e])< (part of, <reviewed)
24 Near junction 8 (5)
NIGHT
NIGH (near) + T (junction)
8 down = darkness
25 Shifting scenery as required (9)
NECESSARY
(SCENERY AS)* (*shifting)
27 Having this hurts neither Italians nor Greeks to begin with (6)
OWNING
OW (this hurts) N[either] I[talians] N[or] G[reeks] (to begin with)
28 Accompaniment could be right looker (4,4)
SIDE DISH
SIDE (could be right (or left)) + DISH (looker)
29 Brilliant head of Georgian antique (6)
GOLDEN
G[eorgian] (head of) + OLDEN (antique)
30 Jam contains herb notes (8)
MESSAGES
MESS (jam) contains SAGE (herb)
Down
1 Cue for politician to withhold love (6)
PROMPT
PRO (for) + MP (politician) + T[o] (withhold O (love))
2 Men rub off figure (6)
NUMBER
(MEN RUB)* (*off)
3 Darned small woolly animal with odd tail (5)
SEWED
S (small) + EWE (woolly animal) + [od]D (tail)
4 Working Danes have rights and jobs (7)
ERRANDS
(DANES)* (*working) have RR (rights)
6 Saint gagged and put on the rack (9)
STRETCHED
ST (saint) + RETCHED (gagged)
7 I would love the French to attempt reverence (8)
IDOLATRY
ID (I would) + O (love) + LA (the, French) + TRY (to attempt)
8 Ask nerds to dissipate the gloom (8)
DARKNESS
(ASK NERDS)* (*to dissipate)
11 Leave out some bathroom items (4)
OMIT
[bathro]OM IT[ems] (some)
15 Sixteen confused with church life (9)
EXISTENCE
(SIXTEEN)* (*confused) with CE (church)
17 Service still no good (8)
EVENSONG
EVEN SO (still) + N (no) + G (good)
18 First, build an oil rig (8)
ORIGINAL
(AN OIL RIG)* (*build)
20 Bugger all nitrogen, oxygen and neon (4)
NONE
N (nitrogen) + O (oxygen) + NE (neon)
21 Get over always eating crushed ice (7)
RECEIVE
(EVER)< (always, <over) eating (ICE)* (*crushed)
22 Discount drop including French wine (6)
SAVING
SAG (drop) including VIN (French wine)
23 In this way initially you prevent fever (6)
TYPHUS
in THUS (this way), (Y[ou] P[revent] (initially))
26 Audibly gives up nuts (5)
SEEDS
“cedes” (gives up, audibly)
Very easy start to the week. 14a was my LOI and I’m sure PENS must be correct. You can “dash off an essay” say and pen=stall as in sheep pen say. Thanks to Velma and Teacow.
Gentle indeed.
I too had PENS (?) One can of course ‘pen a note’ but, equally, Tolstoy penned ‘War & Peace’, which is hardly a ‘dashing off’ excercise.
The clue for ‘evensong’ was a horrid way to find one of the most beautiful words in the language, but, hey, that’s crosswords.
Nevertheless, enjoyed it. Thanks to both.
Just as Mondayish as Vulcan over there. Also had PENS at 14ac.
Thanks to Velia and Teacow. – I enjoyed this.
PENS was my last one in, too and I’m sure it must be right.
Grant @2 – I know what you mean about EVENSONG but I’ve seen it clued so many times as a simple charade of EVEN and SONG that I thought it was quite refreshing.
My ticks were for the clever surfaces [rubbish dump and shifting scenery – I’ve done plenty of that in my time] in the anagrams at 12ac and 25ac.
Same as everyone else with an uncertain PENS as loi and what Teacow said I the intro – nice anagrams and surfaces. Thanks also to Velia. Still waiting for MrsW to come out of her appointment so onto the Indy.
I put PEWS in for 14 but I didnt take the puzzle seriously and not having heard of this setter before , CBA with parsing.
hey its Monday.
Thanks to Velia and Teacow. Enjoyable. I’m yet another dubious about PENS and for some reason I took a long time figuring out SIDE DISH.
This is only the second FT puzzle by this setter [perhaps, one known elsewhere?], appearing exactly six weeks after the debut.
Like for others, PENS (14ac) was my LOI (not helped by the very ordinary -E-S).
I thought, in this category (easy, accessible etc), it was an excellent crossword of a setter matching any similar compiler in other publications (to say the least).
There were a couple of occasions on which I thought “mmm, the grammar’s not right” – I can live with ‘withhold’ in 1dn but not with ‘have’ in 4dn.
But, be assured, they didn’t spoil the fun.
Happy to see more of this setter!
Thanks to Teacow & (of course) Velia.
Thanks Velia and Teacow
A quick solve with a couple that took a bit of a double take to parse, including:- CONVERSION, OWNING (probably my favourite for the day) and PROMPT.
Finished with a couple of them CONVERSION and OWNING with PENS (which I was quite confident of when it dawned on me) as the last one in.
Thanks, Velia. Nice One.