It’s Tuesday and so I was expecting a stinker. Not so it seems: here is a very pleasant crossword apparently of medium difficulty. Most of the clues can be explained with fairly straightforward parsing. My only slight criticism was the grid, which had two faults in my opinion: two of those dreaded answers where 2 out of 5 letters are checked; and after getting only a few answers one was doing two or more separate crosswords.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
Try as I might, I can’t see anything going on here.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COBBLERS | They used the last round stone with last of their bricks (8) |
| cobble [round stone] {thei}r {brick}s | ||
| 5 | SWINE | The source of a bit of spam and hock perhaps (5) |
| s{pam} wine, &lit. | ||
| 8 | VOLCANO | Tailless rodent is able to settle by old source of vents (7) |
| vol{e} can o | ||
| 9 | DILUTES | Instruments by delta island show waters down (7) |
| d i lutes | ||
| 10 | AREAS | Not covered, ignored at the outset, like the regions (5) |
| {b}are as | ||
| 11 | DISCOURSE | Record nothing – sure to become garbled speech (9) |
| disc 0 (sure)* | ||
| 12 | COBRA | Emergency committee required for venomous snake (5) |
| 2 defs — COBRA stands in the UK for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, an emergency committee devised by Tony Blair, but in the US it stands for something quite different, as see this entry from Collins | ||
| 13 | GAMMON | Good God! Is it an angry right-winger? (6) |
| g Ammon — I had to check two things here: whether Ammon really was a God (yes) and whether an angry right-winger could be called a gammon, something I’d never heard (again yes apparently) | ||
| 17 | ELEVEN | Nice boy in school’s new addition for cricket team (6) |
| Élève n — whenever the word ‘Nice’ appears in a crossword it almost always refers to the place Nice in France, but in this case all I could think of was garçon, because I didn’t read it properly: I just saw ‘Nice boy’ and should have seen ‘Nice boy in school’ | ||
| 18 | YOUTH | The second person there before absconding is a teenager (5) |
| you th{ere} — before [ere] is absconding | ||
| 22 | EFFUSIONS | In Fresno I suffer, holding such outpourings back (9) |
| Hidden reversed in FreSNO I SUFFEr | ||
| 24 | Roger soaked in beer makes an impression (5) | |
| p(R)int — R = Roger? — eventually in Collins under ‘R in American (2)’ we find ‘received’, and when telecommunications people say ‘Roger’ this is what they mean | ||
| 25 | ARRAIGN | Maybe between 1820 and 1830 reportedly put on trial (7) |
| “a reign” — George IV reigned from 1820 to 1830 | ||
| 26 | MELODIC | Like air I’m cold when blown with energy (7) |
| (I’m cold E)* | ||
| 27 | HORSE | Sounds husky, what has croup in the end? (5) |
| “hoarse” — croup is not only an illness where the voice becomes husky but also a part of the rump of a horse (something I discovered only by looking it up: I’d always believed Mainwaring in Dad’s Army when he says to Pike that, despite Mrs Pike’s insistence that the boy wears a scarf so as not to catch croup, surely only horses get croup) | ||
| 28 | FEATHERS | Possibly down here and fast moving (8) |
| (here fast)* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CAVEAT | Warning – with a lot of sparkling wine have some food (6) |
| Cav{a} eat | ||
| 2 | BALDER | British tree that’s thinning out (6) |
| B alder | ||
| 3 | LOADSTONE | Anode lost after dissolving iron compound (9) |
| (Anode lost)* | ||
| 4 | REORDERS | Sends off for more instruments when college is dismissed (8) |
| re{C}orders | ||
| 5 | SALVO | A part of reprisal volley? (5) |
| Hidden in repriSAL VOlley, &lit. | ||
| 6 | INTERIMS | Minister broadcast in periods in between (8) |
| (Minister)* | ||
| 7 | EASTERN | Fylde in the end behind Orient (7) |
| {Fyld}e astern | ||
| 9 | DASH | Fly from Denmark, not Northern Ireland (4) |
| Da{NI}sh | ||
| 14 | AUTOPILOT | Robot applying gold to upper surface over one portion (9) |
| Au top 1 lot | ||
| 15 | SEAFARER | One looking around in the distance – maybe from crow’s nest? (8) |
| se(afar)er — semi-&lit. | ||
| 16 | CONSOMME | Tory battle is in the soup (8) |
| Con Somme — in April Goliath in the FT clued this word as ‘Tory battle starter’, which I marginally prefer as it seems to have a slightly more credible surface | ||
| 17 | EYEWASH | Earth and two trees – this is soothing sight (7) |
| E yew ash | ||
| 19 | MOON | In one short day starter in office is to show a lot of cheek (4) |
| Mo(o{ffice})n | ||
| 20 | FIDDLE | Theologian in the papers for fraud (6) |
| fi(DD)le | ||
| 21 | STICKS | They say river to the underworld doesn’t twist (6) |
| “Styx” — stick or twist, as in the card game pontoon | ||
| 23 | SHINE | Polish joint of beef brought to Spain (5) |
| shin E | ||
*anagram
There’s a lot of nonsense here: COBBLERS, FIDDLESTICKS, BALDERDASH, GAMMON, HORSE FEATHERS and EYEWASH (which I missed until just now). Oh, and MOONSHINE. (There’s a place just up the way from us called Moonshine [one can only speculate why], and local painters delight in sunny landscapes called ‘The River by Moonshine’ or similar.)
A lovely lot of nonsense – tricky in places but then it is a Vlad
Thanks to setter and blogger
Missed the theme as per.
Enjoyed this despite tripping myself up in two places. Entered LODESTONE without checking the anagram fodder properly. Also had SPAWN at 5a which also parses imho and held me up for some time.
Thanks John and Crosophile
A bit nonsensical but enjoyable.
Lots of good clues; I particularly liked COBBLERS, DASH and SEAFARER.
Thanks Crosophile and John.
We thought this was a rubbish crossword! 🙂
A most enjoyable solve, and we actually spotted the theme, post-solve. But we too put ‘spawn’ initially for 5ac, though we weren’t totally convinced so it soon got altered, although we thought of ‘spice’ for a bit since ‘Spam’ is a portmanteau word from ‘spice’ and ‘ham’ (hock?) before we twigged SWINE.
Before we had any crossing letters we wondered if 25ac might be ‘Regency’, but of course the regency ended in 1820 when George IV became king in his own right.
Plenty to like here; favourites were VOLCANO and AUTOPILOT.
Thanks, Crosophile and John.
What a load of… good stuff. I enjoyed the theme, though was triply ignorant for 13a – I didn’t know the god, nor the senses of GAMMON for ‘humbug’ or a right-winger. Still, I managed to guess correctly. Didn’t know what ‘croup’ was doing in 27a so thanks for the explanation.
Favourite was ‘They used the last’ def for 1a.
Hello crypticsue @2: Vlad?? In another place, I think.
Thanks to John and Crosophile.
Wordplodder@6 – so it s – so many crosswords makes the poor old brain befuddled. Apologies to Crosophile
Seeing HORSE FEATHERS across the bottom made me look for more Marx Brothers references, but I soon found the nonsense.
I was a bit puzzled by the past tense in 1a – don’t cobblers use lasts any more? Or are there no more cobblers? I suppose it’s mostly there for the surface reading.
GAMMON is particularly associated in my mind with those favouring Brexit.
Before “interims” ruled it out I toyed with the idea of SPORK. ….well it made sense at the time 🙂 🙂
Thanks all.
Thanks, John for the blog, and thanks for all the really nice comments. They really are appreciated. 🙂