Another fantastic puzzle from WANDERER this Friday. So many clues to like that its hard to pick a favorite.
FF: 10 DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | LEMUR | Primate holding puppet in both hands (5) |
| EMU (puppet) in LR (both hands, Left, Right) | ||
| 4 | AD LIBITUM | Fully improvised piece by Dali represented Greek character’s return (2,7) |
| AD LI (DALI*) BIT (piece) [reverse of MU (greek character)] | ||
| 9 | DELIMIT | Mark the boundaries of food shop next to college (7) |
| DELI (food shop) MIT (college) | ||
| 10 | AEROBIC | I love caber-tossing as a form of exercise (7) |
| I O (lover) CABER* | ||
| 11 | INVERTED COMMA | Just prior to speech, Mark holds butterfly upside down? (8,5) |
| INVERTED (upside down) COMMA (butterfly) | ||
| 14 | IDLY | One intermittent delay, with no particular purpose (4) |
| I (one) DeLaY (intermittent i.e. alternate letters) | ||
| 15 | INAUGURAL | Maiden needs a ruling about wearing a uniform? On the contrary (9) |
| [A U (uniform)] in A RULING* | ||
| 18 | DROWSIEST | Extremely sleepy? After reflection, promise short afternoon nap (9) |
| DROW (promise = WORD, reversed) SIESTa (afternoon nap, short) | ||
| 19 | VIVA | Car test(4) |
| double def | ||
| 21 | RESTRUCTURING | Shake-up by police once code- breaker mathematician goes on holiday? (13) |
| REST (holiday) RUC (police once, royal ulster constabulary, police in ireland from 1922 to 2001) TURING (code-breaker mathematician, alan) | ||
| 24 | EXPUNGE | Former wordplay, originally good enough for 3 (7) |
| EX (former) PUN (wordplay) GE (Good Enough, starting letters) – 3d is ‘get rid of..’ | ||
| 26 | DRAFTEE | Service model possessed by current conscript (7) |
| [ RAF (service) T (model) ] in DEE (current) | ||
| 27 | EAGLE EYED | Very discerning 1 down, eg Edna Everage eating starters when out (5-4) |
| LADY (answer to 1dn) EG EEE (starting letters of “..Edna Everage Eating..”)* | ||
| 28 | SERUM | Antitoxin obtained from Javanese ruminant (5) |
| hidden in “..javaneSE RUMinant” | ||
| Down | ||
| 1, 13 | LADY WINDERMERE | A fan, she’d hold, of red wine (mainly red drunk, in short) (4,10) |
| RED WINE MAinLY RED* (without IN , denoted by ‘short’) | ||
| 2 | MELLIFLUOUS | Sweet smell confused with foul one, you said (11) |
| SMELL FOUL I (one) U (sounds like you)* | ||
| 3 | REMOVE | Get rid of a form of school? (6) |
| double def | ||
| 4 | AFTERLIFE | Part of religious belief systems found in following sentence (9) |
| AFTER (following) LIFE (sentence) | ||
| 5 | LEASE | Let there be boundless delights! (5) |
| pLEASEs (delights, boundless) | ||
| 6 | BIRDCAGE | Its bars restrict the range of singers, as one composer said to another (8) |
| sounds like BYRD (william, composer) CAGE (john milton cage, composer) | ||
| 7 | TAB | Stick up for Bill (3) |
| BAT (stick) , reversed | ||
| 8, 23 | MICHAELMAS TERM | In two different forms, Mike has male teacher in study period (10,4) |
| MICHAEL (mike, first) MASTER (male teacher) M (mike, second) | ||
| 12 | MORNING STAR | Strongman working out with iron, if not working daily (7,4) |
| STRONGMAN IRon* (not working – without ON) | ||
| 13 | See 1 down | |
| 16 | ASTOUNDED | Very much surprised to see university in area of Birmingham that’s given daughter education (9) |
| [ U (university) in ASTON (area of birmingham)] D (daughter) ] ED (education) | ||
| 17 | ESTRANGE | Alienate Gretna’s elopers after chucking bounders out (8) |
| GRETNA’S Elopers* (without LOPERS – bounders) | ||
| 20 | VITALS | Small bottles containing owlet’s wing? We couldn’t survive without them (6) |
| VIALS (small bottles) containing T (owleT’s wing, i.e. end character) | ||
| 22 | CHEWY | Revolutionary Road “has no heart”? That’s tough (5) |
| CHE (revolutionary) WaY (road, without heart i.e. without central character) | ||
| 23 | See 8 | |
| 25 | PEG | Part of tuning system for violin or piano, say (3) |
| P (piano) EG (say) | ||
*anagram
BIRDCAGE ia classic.
Lovely puzzle and blog.
I have to agree with the introduction – a wonderful puzzle – thank you to Wanderer and Turbolegs
Hear hear. Some beautiful stinkers. Thanks, both.
What copmus, crypticsue and Hornbeam said.
It seems almost churlish not to highlight some super clues – but, as Turbolegs says, it would be invidious to do so.
[Turbolegs, I think ‘she’d hold’ needs underlining in 1,13.]
Yes, very enjoyable with some great clues. I particularly liked the ‘A fan, she’d hold’ and ‘Its bars restrict the range of singers’ defs and the ‘butterfly upside down’ wordplay.
Favourite though was the humble ‘Car test’ for the humble VIVA, my first ever old banger. A fine example of the quality of the late 1960’s-early 1970’s British car industry.
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs
Thanks Wanderer & Turbolegs.
Taking up Eileen’s suggestion for 1,13: “A fan she’d hold” means “She would hold a fan”. I think that the definition can be further extended to include “of”: “A fan she’d hold of” would be read as “She had hold of a fan” meaning “She held a fan”.
Yes. you’re right, psmith @6.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
This took a fair while to complete the grid … and nearly as long to go back over and properly parse the numerous clues that I’d gotten the obvious answer in the grid but had not worked through the word play all of the way. Still came here without RESTRUCTURING and MICHAELMAS TERM fully done.
I particularly liked the dimensions of the clues – cleverly disguised definitions, some fiendish word play and the delicate nuances of some of the actual words. It was definitely very 22d but in a very good way where each clue needed to be worked over … and then worked over some more … before savouring the wonderful aftertaste.
Finished with down the bottom with RESTRUCTURING, DROWSIEST and DRAFTEE the last few in.