One of those puzzles that takes longer to poarse than to solve.
Some cracking clues in here from Neo, but also a few that were very straightforward to get the ball rolling, including the chestnut (French POLISH).
Some answers like AMBIGUOUS and CONCERT were obvious, but it took me a wee while to see the parsing, and I’m afraid I haven’t come up with a satisfactory parsing of 17ac, but I’m sure one of the commenters will set me straight.
Thanks, Neo.
| Across | ||
| 1 | WATCHSTRAP | Band with time to focus on beat (10) |
| WATCH (“to focus on”) + STRAP (“beat”) | ||
| 7 | ARCH | Bow demo leader cancelled (4) |
| (m)ARCH (“demo” with its leader cancelled) | ||
| 9 | SHOE | Succeeded with ground- breaking device in Oxford? (4) |
| S (succeeded) with HOE (“ground-breaking device”) | ||
| 10 | DOUBLE BIND | Dilemma for two people born in Germany (6,4) |
| DOUBLE (“for two people”, as in double bed) + B (born) + IN + D (Germany) | ||
| 11 | MERLOT | Wine demonstrating excellence – look for one (6) |
| MER(i>LO)T (“excellence” with LO (“look”) for (i.e. instead of) I (“one”) | ||
| 12 | DESIGNER | Stylist perhaps does without representation (8) |
| DEER (“perhaps does”) without SIGN (“representation”) | ||
| 13 | BEHEMOTH | Large beast and two insects circling husband (8) |
| BEE + MOTH (“two insects”) circling H (husband) | ||
| 15 | OTTO | Bavarian king ran from Walpole’s castle (4) |
| [RAN from] OT(ran)TO (“Walpole’s castle”)
The Castle of Otranto (published in 1764), regarded by many as the first gothic novel, was written by Horace Walpole, and Otto was King of Bavaria from 1886 to 1916, although due to his limited mental abilities, Bavaria was actually ruled by regents in his stead. |
||
| 17 | PUMP | Source of inflation turned back by politician (4) |
| <=UP by MP (“politician”)
I can’t parse this one? |
||
| 19 | UPRISING | Mounting disorder? (8) |
| Think RISING UP for “mounting”. | ||
| 22 | SHERWOOD | Female cross going round wide forest (8) |
| SHE (“female”) + ROOD (“cross”) going round W (wide) | ||
| 23 | AT ONCE | Expert grips weight immediately (2,4) |
| ACE (“expert”) grips TON (“weight”) | ||
| 25 | MONTEVERDI | Composer to drive men potty (10) |
| *(to drive men) Claudio Monteverdi, who died in 1643, was an Italian composer. | ||
| 26 | BONE | Maybe rib second-class individual (4) |
| B (second-class) + ONE (“individual”) | ||
| 27 | ASKS | Idiot embracing Kelvin pops question (4) |
| ASS (“idiot”) embracing K (Kelvin) | ||
| 28 | REDEMPTION | Minder poet abused seeks atonement (10) |
| *(minder poet) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ATHLETE | Unfortunately the late Flo-Jo? (7) |
| *(the late) and &lit.
Flo-Jo was the nickname of Florence Griffith Joyner, an American sprinter and world record holder who died of epilepsy at the eraly age of 38. |
||
| 3 | CREEL | Caterer emptied fish and lobster basket (5) |
| C(atere)R [emptied] + EEL (“fish”) | ||
| 4 | SEDITION | Society publication is revolting (8) |
| S (society) + EDITION (“publication”) | ||
| 5 | ROUND-SHOULDERED | Having hunch delivery task needs to be taken on (5-10) |
| ROUND (“delivery task”) + SHOULDERED (“taken on”) | ||
| 6 | POLISH | European language that might be French? (6) |
| Clue refers to French polish, a way of treating wood with shellac to get a very high glss surface. | ||
| 7 | AMBIGUOUS | Vague old American with scholar up at famous university (9) |
| O (old) + US (“American”) with <=M.A. (“scholar”, up) at BIG (“famous”) U (university), so A.M.-BIG-U-O-US | ||
| 8 | CONCERT | Performance when Romeo comes into court (7) |
| ONCE (“when”) + R (Romeo) comes into Ct. (court) | ||
| 14 | EUPHRATES | One running boozer beset by Brussels taxes? (9) |
| PH (public house, so “boozer”) beset by E.U. (“Brussels”) + RATES (“taxes”) | ||
| 16 | ORGANISM | Being in minor gas explosion (8) |
| *(minor gas) | ||
| 18 | UNHOOKS | Releases piratical captain held by leaderless barbarians (7) |
| HOOK (“piratical captain” in Peter Pan) held by [leaderless] (h)UNS (“barbarians”) | ||
| 20 | NO-CAN-DO | Party enforcing six-pack ban? That’s impossible! (2,3,2) |
| Cryptic defintion. Think of a DO with NO CANS | ||
| 21 | BOVVER | Aggro where British done — five arrested (6) |
| B (British) + OVER (“done”) with V (five) arrested | ||
| 24 | ORBIT | Ultimate tribute about astronaut’s fourth circuit (5) |
| OBIT (“ultimate tribute”) about (ast)R(onaut) [‘s fourth (letter)] | ||
*anagram
An entertaining and challenging puzzle.
I well remember Flo-Jo and her famous nails. Didn’t remember she had died though – a tragedy.
For 17a, I guess UP can mean “by” in some context but I cannot think of one. Maybe it can mean “back” but this seems less likely to me.
Thanks to Neo and loonapick.
I thought it was UP = turned, which is then reversed (“back”)
Great fun with some delightfully accurate clueing.
I read 17ac’s wordplay as turned=up(side-down)< + MP, with ‘back’ indicating its reversal, even in a Down clue. Though I may be missing something.
I think you are correct Andrew and Encota.
Morning all, though it won’t be morning once I’ve typed this.
Have to say that the submitted 17ac simply had ‘turned up by politician’, so something mysterious may have occurred there. Obviously ‘turned up’ would at first glance signify a down reversal, but hey! If up can mean ‘turned’, who cares.
Cheers
Neo
In that case, is it then not simply: turn the word UP around and add MP?
Thanks Neo for yet another fine crossword and Loonapick for the enlightenment. BOVVER was the one word that’s new to me and I couldn’t parse the clue since I had never heard the term “aggro” before. (Slang is somewhat different in the US.) I almost like learning new words more than completing a puzzle, however!
Another great Neo crossword – thanks to him and loonpick
COD ORBIT, never heard of BOVVER but wordplay was helpful.
Thanks Neo and loonapick
My second Neo in the week, whilst catching up on some old puzzles. Got to say that the recent experience didn’t make this solve any quicker with some cleverly disguised clues, some tricksy word play and a few terms that were new to me – The Castle of OTRANTO’, OTTO – the Bavarian king and the term DOUBLE BIND. Had PUMP with the reversed UP next to MP without really understanding how UP got defined. Thought that the clue for MERLOT was terrific and the surface of 1d was tragically spot on.
Finished in the NE corner where some self-inflicted damage with 7a (initially D. + OFF seemed to work) and a hopeful DOUBLE NEE D at 10a (sort of did too) extended the length of the solve by nearly double. Finally saw that 7d was indeed AMBIGUOUS which allowed a re-think on those two and get CONCERT as the last one in.