A typical Alberich offering this Friday, lots of fun with clever cluing and nothing too inscrutable. Thanks Alberich!
FF: 9 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | SUPPER | One drinks or one eats it (6) |
| cryptic def; SUPPER as in one who sups (drinks) | ||
| 4 | SWIMWEAR | This writer’s wife breaks promise to provide trunks? (8) |
| [I’M (this writer’s) W (wife)] in SWEAR (promise) | ||
| 9 | ROBUST | Steal our belongings? Time to get tough! (6) |
| ROB US (steal our belongings) T (time) | ||
| 10 | PLANGENT | Ringing works to gather information (8) |
| PLANT (works) conatining GEN (information) | ||
| 12 | DART | River fish move rapidly (4) |
| triple def; dart river is in new zealand | ||
| 13 | RECOMMENCE | Advocate, missing daughter, joins church to make new start (10) |
| RECOMMENd (advocate, without D – daughter) CE (church) | ||
| 15 | NEW HAMPSHIRE | State that could lead to her mishap? (3,9) |
| cryptic def; NEW – anagram indicator, HAMPSHIRE can be rearranged as HER MISHAP | ||
| 18 | ON THE WARPATH | What on earth? Penny’s upset, looking for a fight (2,3,7) |
| WHAT ON EARTH P (penny)* | ||
| 21 | THE TEMPEST | Male agency worker in try-out for play (3,7) |
| [ HE (male) TEMP (agency worker) ] in TEST (try-out) | ||
| 22 | SHUN | Deliberately avoid attention! (4) |
| double def | ||
| 24 | ANTIGUAN | Islander active in opposing the Second Amendment? (8) |
| A (active) in ANTI GUN (opposing the second amendment – right to bear arms) | ||
| 25 | REPEAL | Make invalid fight off overwhelming onset of apathy (6) |
| REPEL (fight off) around A (Apathy, first letter) | ||
| 26 | HAWK-EYED | Husband, fearful around crib, is vigilant (4-4) |
| H (husband) [ AWED (fearful) around KEY (crib) ] – new meaning of CRIB that i learnt today | ||
| 27 | BITTER | Arctic bird has no name (6) |
| BITTERn ( bird, without N – name) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | STRIDENT | Harsh, spiteful gossip’s going around medical department (8) |
| STRID (spiteful gossip’s = DIRT’S, reversed) ENT (medical department) | ||
| 2 | PUB-CRAWL | It involves several locals rising up to fight housing costs, primarily (3-5) |
| PU (reverse of UP) [ BRAWL (fight) containing C (Costs, first letter) ] | ||
| 3 | EAST | Some make a stand – that’s the point (4) |
| hidden in “..makE A STand..” | ||
| 5 | WILL-O-THE-WISP | Ghostly light turned pillows white (4-1-3-4) |
| PILLOWS WHITE* , nice surface i thought | ||
| 6 | MONTMARTRE | Paris district has more gripping books on market (10) |
| MORE containing [ NT (books) MART (market) ] | ||
| 7 | EXEUNT | Old tune playing as they leave (6) |
| EX (old) TUNE* | ||
| 8 | RATHER | Bishop pens articles more readily (6) |
| RR (bishop) around [ A THE (articles) ] | ||
| 11 | KEEP THE PEACE | Look around – PE teacher endlessly struggles to prevent fighting (4,3,5) |
| KEEP (look = PEEK, reversed) [ PE TEACHEr (endlessly) ]* | ||
| 14 | TAWNY EAGLE | Elegant way to circulate flyer (5,5) |
| ELEGANT WAY* | ||
| 16 | TASHKENT | Capital asset ultimately remains with county (8) |
| T (asseT, ultimately) ASH (remains) KENT (county) | ||
| 17 | CHANDLER | College trainer is a novelist (8) |
| C (college) HANDLER (trainer) | ||
| 19 | ATTACH | Baseless assault with hard stick (6) |
| ATTACk (assault, baseless – without last letter) H (hard) | ||
| 20 | BESTOW | Give most suitable expression of pain (6) |
| BEST (most suitable) OW (expression of pain) | ||
| 23 | YETI | Even I can be a fabulous creature (4) |
| YET (even) I | ||
*anagram
Alberich/Klingsor is one of my favourite setters. I love the way he crafts surfaces. As a good example, 2d reads perfectly naturally with the surface having nothing to do with the answer. All very clever.
Found this a lot easier than usual. A few minor hold-ups in the bottom half. Didn’t know TASHKENT or that crib=key in 26a. Not madly keen on stick=attach in 19d but I guess it’s close enough.
5d was also one of my favourites. Thanks to Klingsor and Turbolegs.
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs. I agree wholeheartedly with your preamble and hovis’ first paragraph.
No dud clues anywhere but I think my favourites were NEW HAMPSHIRE, PUB CRAWL and MONTMARTRE.
Many thanks, Alberich, for another super puzzle.
[Turbolegs, there’s also a river DART in England. It rises on Dartmoor and enters the sea at Dartmouth.]
Thanks TL and Alberich. Everything a a puzzle should be. Brilliant.
Thanks to Turbolegs and Alberich
Very fine, as always.
I saw 1a as a DD.
Thanks Alberich and Turbolegs
Found this a little easier than normal from this setter but no worse for that. Particularly liked the crossing of ON THE WARPATH and KEEP THE PEACE and thought that the word play of PUB CRAWL was quite good.
No new whole terms but didn’t know that definition of KEY / ‘crib’.
Finished in the SW corner with YETI (neatly clued), BITTER and TASHKENT (that always sounds like an exotic place to visit but I suspect would be a disappointment if one actually did).