The week begins with ARMONIE…
A lovely mix of clues, as one has come to expect from this setter.
Nothing too taxing, though 8d was a new one for us. We particularly liked 18a and 17d.
Thanks ARMONIE!
Across
1 Dance will stir John (6)
CANCAN
CAN (stir, prison) + CAN (John, toilet)
5 Wimp provides shiny fabric? Avoid! (4,4)
LAME DUCK
LAME (shiny fabric, lamé) + DUCK (avoid)
9 Doctor misfiles delicate papers (8)
FLIMSIES
(MISFILES)* (*doctor)
10 The suppression of an ancient city (6)
THEBAN
THE + BAN (suppression)
11 Condition of lake in moorland (6)
HEALTH
L (lake) in HEATH (moorland)
12 Sweeper collects everything in the hall (8)
BALLROOM
BROOM (sweeper) collects ALL (everything)
14 Meet behind bar when tight (12)
CLOSEFITTING
FITTING (meet) behind CLOSE (bar)
18 Ragamuffins threaten to go out with birds (12)
GUTTERSNIPES
GUTTER (threaten to go out) + SNIPES (birds)
22 Abuse of whisky has soldier taking a bit of a turn (8)
MALTREAT
MALT (whisky) has RE (soldier) taking A + T[urn] (bit of)
25 Think about an issue (6)
REASON
RE (about) + A SON (an issue)
26 Stopped alongside showing craft (6)
PEDALO
[stop]PED ALO[ngside] (showing)
27 Arranged recital including new instrument (8)
CLARINET
(RECITAL)* (*arranged) including N (new)
28 Not responsible for holiday touring Asian city (8)
RECKLESS
RECESS (holiday) touring KL (Asian city, Kuala Lumpur)
29 Paint a curious snake (6)
TAIPAN
(PAINT A)* (*curious)
Down
2 Snoozing adult strips off when rising (6)
ASLEEP
A (adult) + (PEELS (strips off))< (<rising)
3 Firm’s representative allowed to be involved with crime (9)
COMPLICIT
CO (firm) + MP (representative) + LICIT (allowed)
4 Whicker bowled our man next door (9)
NEIGHBOUR
NEIGH (whicker) + B (bowled) + OUR
5 See fur that’s easily mislaid (7)
LOSABLE
LO (see) + SABLE (fur)
6 Material has dead man rising (5)
METAL
(LATE (dead) + M (man))< (<rising)
7 Gloomy Dutch tower (5)
DREAR
D (dutch) + REAR (tower)
8 Composition arranged? No chance! (8)
CHACONNE
(NO CHANCE)* (*arranged)
13 Collection of large books (3)
LOT
L (large) + OT (books, old testament)
15 I’m left with insect that’s valuable (9)
IMPORTANT
IM + PORT (left) + ANT (insect)
16 Maestro presents opera popular in Ulster (9)
TOSCANINI
TOSCA (opera) + (IN (popular) in NI (Ulster, Northern Ireland))
17 African petition to restrict Vikings (8)
SUDANESE
SUE (petition) to restrict DANES (vikings)
19 Blunder of German man lacking aspiration (3)
ERR
[h]ERR (German man, lacking aspiration)
20 Revamped section for reviews (7)
NOTICES
(SECTION)* (*revamped)
21 Drink with Kansas leaders in Kansas (6)
TOPEKA
TOPE (drink) with KA[nsas] (leaders)
23 Policy about restricted line (5)
TRACK
TACK (policy) about R (restricted)
24 Rekindle approval in a girl (5)
EVOKE
OK (approval) in EVE (a girl)
*anagram
Very enjoyable thank you to Armonie and Teacow
8a made me smile – I was explaining to some ‘young’ people the other day about carbon copies and flimsies and the perils involved in rubbing out mistakes – good old manual typewriters!
A pleasant way to recover from the rigours of today’s Punk in the Independent. I hadn’t come across FLIMSIES (and the connection to bingo) before and I missed the parsing of the first CAN (obvious now of course) in 1a.
My favourite was also 18a, both for the surface and the GUTTER for ‘threaten to go out’, which had me wondering for ages before I alighted on the correct meaning.
Thank you to Armonie and to Teacow
Thanks to Armonie and Teacow. Very enjoyable. I had trouble with the SW corner until I finally got PEDALO (I wasn’t sure about the KL in RECKLESS) and I also was not confident about tower-rear in DREAR.
Well, well, well; here we go again! I was enjoying this challenge until I reached 16d and saw that, once again, a setter had used “Ulster” sloppily to imply NI. At that point I had no desire to continue. The setter may just as well have used “Ireland” or “The UK” or “Europe” to imply NI, since, like “Ulster”, they are all larger geographical or political entities that include Northern Ireland. I fail to see how the whole can imply the part, unless appropriately qualified.
Anyone interested in getting a quick appreciation for why Ulster should not be used as a synonym for Northern Ireland should read some of the comments in answer to a relevant query in the Guardian, at the link below:
https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-185487,00.html
I’ve no doubt there are better sources available, but this one came easily to hand.
Thanks Armonie and Teapot
A quite straightforward solve until the SW corner held me up for nearly as long as it took to do the rest of the puzzle.
Have been focused on the Times crossword recently and I did see NI defined as 2/3 of Ulster there – so take heart declanor@4, setters are slowly coming around. Coincidentally, i have seen TOSCANINI come up twice in around the same time period and both times broken down at TOSCA and a couple of different ways of getting to the NINI.
Usually thing of Vikings as Norse, so that held up the middle bit of SUDANESE for a while. Thought that TOPEKA was quite clever.
Finished with RECKLESS (strange as KL is one of my favourite cities) and TACK (where it took a while for the ‘policy’ definition to fall).