An enjoyable bank holiday Monday crossword from Falcon. Not too tricky, but a few new ones for us today.
Some very clever anagrams (like WHISTLE-STOP and TRUNCHEON). New words for us were UNGUENT, SAM BROWNE and TRANSEPTS. Overall a great start to the week. Many thanks to Falcon!
Across
1 They’re found in churches, intricate patterns close to altars (9)
TRANSEPTS
(PATTERNS)* (*intricate) + [altar]S (close to)
6 Sound choice, it’s said (5)
PLUMB
sounds like PLUM (choice)
9 A male aboard pilot’s vessel (7)
STEAMER
A M (a male) aboard STEER (pilot)
10 Squirm and shake crossing river (7)
WRIGGLE
WIGGLE (shake) across R (river)
11 Avid listener, for example, coming back inside (5)
EAGER
EAR (listener) + EG (for example, coming back inside)
12 Beginning to gossip about head teacher (9)
GOVERNESS
G[ossip] (beginning to) + OVER (about) + NESS (head)
14 Restrain short aggressive dog (3)
CUR
CUR[t] (short aggressive, restrain)
15 Descriptive of political candidate’s tour to Welsh pits in disarray (7-4)
WHISTLE-STOP
(TO WELSH PITS)* (*in disarray)
17 Song from musical Aurelia, mostly, composed (5,6)
ANNIE LAURIE
ANNIE (musical) + (AURELI[a])* (mostly, *composed)
19 Ladder – step on it (3)
RUN
Double definition
20 Once hurt badly by new club (9)
TRUNCHEON
(ONCE HURT)* (*badly) by N (new)
22 Long tale about ending of marriage (5)
YEARN
YARN (tale) about [marriag]E (end of)
24 Felled idol stupidly breaking law (4,3)
LAID LOW
(IDOL)* (*stupidly) breaking LAW
26 Comic hero also in comic read (3,4)
DAN DARE
AND (also) in (READ)* (*comic)
27 Coarse type in speakeasy, a hooker (5)
YAHOO
[speakeas]Y A HOO[ker] (in)
28 Term used by photographer, for example, at Caerphilly, perhaps (3,6)
SAY CHEESE
SAY (for example) at CHEESE (Caerphilly, perhaps)
Down
1 Try a test in translation (5)
TASTE
(A TEST)* (*in translation)
2 One exacting retribution in area against English Queen (7)
AVENGER
A (area) + V (against, versus) + ENG (English) + ER (queen)
3 Former PM wearing identical belt (3,6)
SAM BROWNE
BROWN (former PM) wearing SAME (identical)
4 Flier scoffing at voyage (11)
PEREGRINATE
PEREGRINE (flier) scoffing AT
5 Understood saying (3)
SAW
Double definition
6 Earlier religious building, incomplete (5)
PRIOR
PRIOR[y] (religious building, incomplete)
7 Ointment, fiery, not soft, applied round top of ulcer (7)
UNGUENT
[p]UNGENT (fiery, not soft (P)) around U[lcer] (top of)
8 Brooch from Paris – bent, regrettably (9)
BREASTPIN
(PARIS BENT)* (*regrettably)
13 Vast year-end manoeuvres in a time for remembrance in America (8,3)
VETERANS DAY
(VAST YEAR END)* (*manoeuvres)
14 Worker in cold town famous for its lace (9)
CHANTILLY
ANT (worker) in CHILLY (cold)
16 Entirely European on jolly small island (5,4)
EVERY INCH
E (European) on VERY (jolly) + INCH (small island)
18 Indefinite number of us on island, hard to feed (7)
NOURISH
N (indefinite number) + OUR (of us) + IS (island) + H (hard)
19 Are all silly importing eastern beer (4,3)
REAL ALE
(ARE ALL)* (*silly) importing E (Eastern)
21 In small room, old stringed instrument (5)
CELLO
CELL (small room) + O (old)
23 Female relative, kind to conserve energy (5)
NIECE
NICE (kind) to conserve E (energy)
25 Foremost of weedkillers? Arsenic used to be (3)
WAS
W[eedkillers] (foremost of) + AS (arsenic)
Thanks to Falcon and Teacow. Lots of fun on a Monday. I needed all the crossers to work out DAN DARE (new to me) and took a while parsing UNGUENT.
The most straightforward of the three we’ve done today but still a pleasant solve. Nice to see PEREGRINATE getting an outing with a nice clue as well – English is such a rich language. Thanks to Falcon (I wonder if he clued PEREGRINE deliberately?) and Teacow.
Thanks Falcon and Teacow
Am struggling keeping up doing the Times and FT puzzles, but enjoyed this one. Thought that it was going to be easy but there were a few places where I got slowed down and a couple of new terms including the Scottish song, the British comic strip and PEREGRINATE (my last one in).
I had ‘aggressive dog’ as the definition in 14a with the word play CUR (B) – restrain cut short