Tees is always good value for a Monday. Mostly straightforward, occasionally slightly contrived, but always witty.
8a seems a rather obscure word (but easy to work out), 21d a rather tortuous definition, and I wasn’t quite convinced by part of the wordplay in 24a. But I’m happy to be corrected if anyone can provide a better explanation. Otherwise lots to enjoy here: I laughed at the image in 1a, took far too long to see the very neatly-constructed 17a and 5d, but my favourite was probably the self-explanatory 27a. Thanks to Tees as always.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FAIR AND SQUARE | Honest thus to describe old-fashioned blonde? (4,3,6) |
| A straight definition and a cryptic one: fair = blonde, square = old-fashioned. | ||
| 8 | UNCI | Learning centre preserves earliest of crochet hooks (4) |
| UNI (learning centre) containing the earliest letter of C[rochet]. Uncus, plural unci: a hook or a hook-shaped object. | ||
| 9 | PHILISTINE | Greek character first in queue as barbarian (10) |
| PHI (Greek letter), then 1ST inserted into LINE (queue). | ||
| 10 | STAMPEDE | Impressed with plane’s last uncontrolled flight (8) |
| STAMPED (impressed) + last letter of [plan]E. | ||
| 11 | EXPATS | Brits abroad getting Irishman into weird sex (6) |
| PAT (stereotypical Irish man’s name) inserted into an anagram (weird) of SEX. | ||
| 13 | TENDERISED | Made easier to cut, wanted fabric reversed (10) |
| DESIRED NET (wanted fabric), reversed. Tenderising = processing tough cuts of meat. | ||
| 16 | See 23 Down | |
| 17 | LASS | Northerner’s girl left behind (4) |
| L (left) + ASS (behind = buttocks). Lass = girl, a word typically used in Scotland and northern England. | ||
| 18 | EVANGELIST | Missionary agents live abroad (10) |
| Anagram (abroad = scattered) of AGENTS LIVE. | ||
| 20 | CYPRUS | Cold syrup produced in the island (6) |
| C (cold) + anagram (produced) of SYRUP. | ||
| 22 | PROPHECY | Prognosis to support male clearly discontented (8) |
| PROP (support) + HE (male) + C[learl]Y (discontented = with contents removed). | ||
| 24 | BARREL ROLL | Manoeuvre requires some biscuits and bread (6,4) |
| The wordplay here is a little tenuous: ROLL = bread roll, yes, but I’m not sure how BARREL = biscuits. Possibly from a biscuit barrel (equivalent to a cookie jar), or “barrel” as a measure (barrelful) – but barrels can be used to contain many things other than biscuits, so it’s not very clear. I might be missing something, though. For the aircraft manoeuvre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_roll. | ||
| 26 | NOOK | Approval withheld in retreat? (4) |
| NO OK (approval withheld). Neat! Nook = retreat = private hideaway. | ||
| 27 | INTERNAL RHYME | Poet’s scheme is this clue’s theme (8,5) |
| Definition and example! Internal rhyme, in poetry = a rhyme between two or more words in a single line, as here (scheme / theme), or a rhyme between words in the middle of separate lines (not just the words at the end). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FIND THE LADY | Cherchez la femme — there’s a trick to it! (4,3,4) |
| Definition and cryptic definition. “Cherchez la femme”, French for “search for the woman”, is a proverbial expression suggesting that the root cause of a crime or mystery often involves a woman (or the perpetrator’s relationship with her). “Find the lady” is a card trick to win money from gullible onlookers. | ||
| 2 | IDIOM | I love to wear dumb expression (5) |
| I + O (love = zero in tennis scoring), inserted into (wearing) DIM (dumb = stupid). | ||
| 3 | APPLE TREE | Subprogram concerned with energy that bears fruit (5,4) |
| APPLET (a self-contained unit within a larger computer program or web page) + RE (regarding = concerned with) + E (energy). | ||
| 4 | DRIVERS | Right to be admitted to several clubs (7) |
| R (right), inserted into (admitted to) DIVERS (archaic word for several). Clubs as in golf clubs, but of course that’s still ambiguous: here it means implements to hit a golf ball with, not associations of golfers. | ||
| 5 | QUIRE | Leaves awkward situation with meeting cancelled (5) |
| QUAGMIRE (awkward situation) with AGM (annual general meeting) removed – very clever. Leaves = sheets of paper: originally a quire was 4 sheets folded into a booklet, but the word has been used to mean various quantities of paper whether folded or not. | ||
| 6 | ANTIPODAL | Not liking river, boy rises on opposite side (9) |
| ANTI (against = not liking) + PO (Italian river, very useful to crossword compilers) + LAD (boy) reversed (rising). Antipodal = on the opposite side of the world. | ||
| 7 | EEN | Night of poetry in Mile End (3) |
| Hidden answer in [mil]E EN[d]. E’en = poetic version of “even” = evening. As in “Hallowe’en”, now often written without the apostrophe, which was originally “All Hallows’ even”, the evening before All Hallows’ Day. | ||
| 12 | TERPSICHORE | Reciter hops about — this muse the inspiration? (11) |
| Anagram (about) of RECITER HOPS, and a semi-&lit (clue as definition): Terpsichore was one of the Ancient Greek Muses, associated with dance and with the recitation performed by a Greek chorus. | ||
| 14 | DESERT RAT | British soldier restarted fighting (6,3) |
| Anagram (fighting) of RESTARTED. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Armoured_Division_(United_Kingdom), known as the Desert Rats. | ||
| 15 | DOG COLLAR | Band of vicars good to make arrest outside (3,6) |
| G (good), with DO (make) + COLLAR (arrest) outside it. Slang for the white collar band traditionally worn by vicars. | ||
| 19 | AMPHORA | Start to accept representative house god in vessel (7) |
| Starting letter of A[ccept] + MP (Member of Parliament = representative) + HO (Ho. = abbreviation for house) + RA (Ancient Egyptian sun god). An Ancient Greek wine-jar. | ||
| 21 | SOLAR | Notes right coming from our setter? (5) |
| SO + LA (notes in sol-fa musical notation) + R (right). “Our setter” here is the Sun, which rises and sets: the question-mark suggests that Tees realises the definition is a bit of a stretch. | ||
| 23/16 | HUNKY DORY | Fine and well-built swimmer (5,4) |
| HUNKY (well-built, masculine) + DORY (fish). Slang for “good” or “OK”. | ||
| 25 | ALI | Ringmaster from Halifax (3) |
| Hidden answer in [h]ALI[fax]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali, who could be described as the master of a boxing ring. | ||
I enjoyed this – a couple of places, eg 8a weren’t particularly ‘Mondayish’ – I did smile at 11a – I didn’t have a problem with biscuits in a barrel
Thanks to Tees for the fun and Quirister for the review
Once again, I agree with crypticsue on all counts.
For a few minutes, I tried to parse QUITS for 5dn – then smiled [with you, no doubt, Quirister 😉 ] when the other meaning of QUIRE dawned.
I liked 27ac, too but my top favourite has to be TERPSICHORE.
Many thanks to Tees for an enjoyable puzzle.
Apparently there are also ‘barrel biscuits.’
A steady solve although I didn’t know UNCI. I particularly liked QUIRE and DOG COLLAR.
Thanks Tees and QUIRister.
I’ve made a habit of drawing attention to the fact that ass = buttocks (17ac) is an Americanism and that the word is arse. So much so, someone being very kind to me would say, that many setters now signpost the fact that it is an American usage (actually they probably did before I started being so pedantic about it all).
But not here.
Otherwise all good as usual from Tees. No problem with barrel = biscuits. Was very tempted to have QUITS at 5dn, but of course couldn’t make it parse. In 19dn was looking for a house god (and Tees would very likely require one to know who it was, although the best I could think of was Lares, which didn’t fit and in any case isn’t quite right).
We were late finishing this. We were held up for some time with the mistaken idea that 1ac was ‘Pure and simple’ and 1dn ‘Pick any card’ (and the few crossing letters we had supported the idea). Then a lightbulb moment gave us the correct answers for 1dn and 2dn and we were fairly and squarely on the way to finishing. DOG COLLARS was our CoD, with HUNKY DORY a close second.
Thanks, Tees and Quirister.