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FF: 10 DD: 9
One of those where the parsing took longer than the solve. Clever witty cluing.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EFFLORESCE | Prepare fleece for protecting special blossom (10) |
| FLEECE FOR* containing S (special) | ||
| 6 | TEEM | Assemble round bucket (4) |
| double def | ||
| 9 | SWISS ROLLS | Societies fill posh London area limousine, they’re jam-packed (5,5) |
| SWI ( SW 1, posh london area) SS (society = S, * 2) ROLLS (limousine) | ||
| 10 | SOFA | Capital expels one Ottoman bearing arms? (4) |
| SOFiA (capital, bulgaria without I – one) | ||
| 12 | GREEN FINGERS | Environmentalist identifies expert in bed (5,7) |
| GREEN (enviromentalist) FINGERS (identifes); bed used in the context of a garden | ||
| 15 | ANTIPASTO | Colonist finished chopping current duck starter (9) |
| [ {ANT (colonist) PAST (finished)} containing I (current) ] O (duck) | ||
| 17 | NITRE | Salt somewhat disconcerting? Send it back (5) |
| hidden, reversed in “..disconcERTINg..” | ||
| 18 | CRIER | Former newsreader, American guy, missing Times (5) |
| CRIttER (american guy, without TT – times) | ||
| 19 | EXTREMIST | English film about wayward T. Rex fanatic (9) |
| [ E (english) MIST (film) ] abour {T REX}* | ||
| 20 | DISQUALIFIED | Banned officer with one boring existence in team (12) |
| DI (officer) [ { I (one) in LIFE (existence) } in SQUAD (team) ] | ||
| 24 | EPIC | Grand chef’s instructions withdrawn on leaving (4) |
| reCIPE (chef’s instruction) reversed without RE – on. | ||
| 25 | DRY BATTERY | Energy supplier scorched range (3,7) |
| DRY (scorched) BATTERY (range) | ||
| 26 | SITE | Locate what’s needed in home counties (4) |
| IT (what’s needed) in SE (home counties) | ||
| 27 | ATTENDANCE | A lot of races finish next to a new church gate (10) |
| A TT (lot of races) END (finish) A N (new) CE (church) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | EASY | Child’s play at intervals repays you at first (4) |
| rEpAyS (at intervals) Y (You, at first) | ||
| 2 | FAIL | Let down smaller section of Irish party (4) |
| fianna FAIL (irish party, smaller section of) | ||
| 3 | OBSTREPEROUS | Rowdy Peter’s arranged run out in old coach (12) |
| [PETER’S* RO (Run Out)] in { O (old) BUS (coach) } | ||
| 4 | ERODE | Cicero depicts bracing weather (5) |
| hidden in “..cicERO DEpicts..” | ||
| 5 | COLD FRONT | Might warming cups offset this weather feature? (4,5) |
| cryptic def; i am not sure if i am missing a deeper parse to this given how ‘FRONT’ lends itself to many meanings | ||
| 7 | EGOCENTRIC | Leave some money in Morecambe in vain (10) |
| [ GO (leave) CENT (money) ] in ERIC (morecambe) | ||
| 8 | MEANS TESTS | Checks on earnings European raised in chap’s seed producers (5,5) |
| MAN’S (chap’s) TESTES (seed producers) with the E (european) moving up; had to toil to see the parsing | ||
| 11 | UNINTERESTED | Bored? Join set around noon (12) |
| [ UNITE (join) RESTED (set) ] around N (noon) | ||
| 13 | FANCY DRESS | Like to line up disguise for ball? (5,5) |
| FANCY (like) DRESS (line up) | ||
| 14 | ATKINS DIET | Poles stop working at rig cladding for regime (6,4) |
| [ NS (poles, north south) DIE (stop working) ] in AT KIT (rig) | ||
| 16 | SMELL A RAT | Small tear developed? Suspect trouble (5,1,3) |
| SMALL TEAR* | ||
| 21 | FIBRE | Lie about what keeps me going regularly (5) |
| FIB (lie) RE (about) – funny clue! | ||
| 22 | LEAN | List articles, one foreign (4) |
| LE (french for THE, foreign article) AN (article) | ||
| 23 | BYTE | Time invested in extra bits (4) |
| T (time) in BYE (extra, cricket terminology); 8 bits make a byte | ||
*anagram
Re 5d.
“Cups” are setters’ favourite word for brassieres. On a cold day if a woman presses her bra with a very warm iron and wears it, she might offset ‘this weather feature’ (COLD FRONT) at least for a few moments.
Is my imagination running wild? I will get my coat.
Thanks, Turbolegs.
I interpreted 5dn as Rishi did.
Several other smiles here, for instance SOFA, MEANS TESTS, FIBRE and EGOCENTRIC [the definition is simply ‘vain’].
I think 6ac is a reversal [round] of MEET [assemble] rather than a double definition.
Many thanks to Redshank for an enjoyable puzzle.
Yes, a good challenge with some interesting parsing, especially the ‘European raised in chap’s seed producers’ and the ATKINS DIET wordplay. The ‘Grand chef’s instructions’ fooled me and EPIC was my last in. I agree with Eileen @2’s parsing of TEEM; one of those annoying ones where you’re not certain which word is being reversed and you have to rely on the crosser(s).
I think Rishi @1 is probably on the right track for 5d, but I’d better say no more.
Lots of clues to enjoy, but OBSTREPEROUS is a preposterous sounding word and was my favourite.
Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs
I got snagged on the regime -and epic-my bad. Redshanks’s good. Thanks all.
Regular readers will not be at all surprised that I agree with Eileen @2
Thanks to her, Redshank and Turbolegs
Thanks Redshank & Turbolegs
I also saw 5 as Rishi & Eileen, and 6 as Eileen. Nice puzzle, enjoyably tricky. Possibly best of the day for me.
I also parsed 6a as Eileen and many others.
Some real gems in this, making it favourite out of four puzzles in the course of today.
The Guardian was ok, The Toughie was beyond me, the Indy was a write in and this was just right 🙂
Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
Found this fiendishly hard from a combination of quite a number of unknown terms – FIANNA FAIL, CRITTER (US chap, knew it for animals) and EFFLORESCE – along with some very tricky word plays to negotiate. All offset by some terrific and witty clues and a few gimmes to get one started.
Broke into a ‘loud grin’ with both the COLD FRONT and MEANS TEST clues.
Got really stuck in the SW corner and took nearly an hour before I was able to construct the ATKINS DIET in reverse from the word play by finally twigging to DIE for ‘stop working’ and finishing off with SITE (which I guessed much earlier but could not equate IT to ‘what’s needed’).
Great puzzle, the most challenging and enjoyable for a while.