A relatively straightforward challenge from REDSHANK today, thanks to whom for a brisk Friday morning workout. A couple of new meanings/words learnt along the way, but quite gettable from the strong cluing.
FF:9 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | DETONATE | Go off fruit school imported (8) |
| ETON (school) in DATE (fruit) | ||
| 5 | BUREAU | Dandy covers half your desk (6) |
| BEAU (dandy) covering UR (half of yoUR) | ||
| 10 | ADMIRER | Fan drier controls damp in odd places (7) |
| DRIER AM (DaMp, odd places)* | ||
| 11 | INTRUDE | Disrupt batting offensive around start of Test (7) |
| [ IN (batting) RUDE (offensive) ] around T (start of Test) | ||
| 12 | LEECH | Fish about next to child’s old doctor (5) |
| LEE (fish = EEL, reversed) CH (child) | ||
| 13 | ONCE AGAIN | Rebuild canoe to win one more time (4,5) |
| CANOE* GAIN (win) | ||
| 14 | DRESSING ROOM | Where to make up smooth hot curry (8,4) |
| DRESS (smooth) IN (hot) GROOM (curry, ref a horse – new meaning for me) | ||
| 18 | MONEY-GRUBBER | Skinflint corrupts my one good file (5-7) |
| MY ONE* G (good) RUBBER (file) | ||
| 21 | CORPUSCLE | Officer, American, called regularly about radical cell (9) |
| CORP (office) US (american) CLE (CaLlEd, regularly) | ||
| 23 | THETA | Character in Greek theatre angry about having to leave (5) |
| THEATre* (without RE – about) | ||
| 24 | BROMIDE | British papers in capital make trite comment (7) |
| B (british) [ ID (papers) in ROME ] | ||
| 25 | KNEECAP | Severely punish northern Europeans in returning group (7) |
| [ N (northern) EE (europeans)] in reverse of PACK (group) | ||
| 26 | ERSATZ | Mock a bunch of skiers at Zermatt (6) |
| hidden in “..skiERS AT Zermatt” | ||
| 27 | PRURIENT | Nearly interrupt criminal like peeping Tom (8) |
| INTERRUPt* (nearly, without last letter) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DOABLE | It’s possible to visit cathedral close in Lincoln (6) |
| DO (visit) [ L (cathedraL, close) in ABE (lincoln) ] | ||
| 2 | TEMPER | Moderate salesman paid up (6) |
| reverse of REP (salesman) MET (paid) | ||
| 3 | NORTHERLY | Wind abated at that point in new French airport (9) |
| THERe (at that point, abated ~ without last letter) in [ N (new) ORLY (french airport) ] | ||
| 4 | TERROR-STRICKEN | Mistakes mislead ten nurses, scared stiff (6-8) |
| [ERRORS (mistakes) TRICK (mislead) ] in TEN | ||
| 6 | ULTRA | Diehard gunmen support superior officer (5) |
| U (superior) LT (officer) RA (gunmen) | ||
| 7 | EMULATOR | Antipodean runner subsequently caught rival (8) |
| EMU (antipodean runner) LATOR (sounds like LATER, subsequently) | ||
| 8 | USERNAME | Section of code man resurrected brought up ID (8) |
| hidden, reversed in “..codE MAN RESUrrected..” | ||
| 9 | CIRCUIT BREAKER | Track roller’s fuse perhaps (7,7) |
| CIRCUIT (track) BREAKER (roller) | ||
| 15 | GREAT BEAR | Grizzly stars (5,4) |
| double def | ||
| 16 | AMICABLE | Without Charlie it would still be warm (8) |
| cryptic def; meaning is retained even without C – charlie [AMIcABLE] | ||
| 17 | ENORMOUS | Unit picked up Republican on second Yankee jumbo (8) |
| ENO (reverse of ONE, unit) R (republican) MO (second) US (yankee) | ||
| 19 | RESCUE | Salvage two items from the Crucible, wasting time (6) |
| RESt CUE (two items from the crucible, famous venue for snooker championships) | ||
| 20 | CARPET | Swimmer and Parisian runner (6) |
| CARP (swimmer) ET (and, in french) | ||
| 22 | UNIAT | Eastern church member, one embracing another one (5) |
| UNIT (one) embracing A (one) | ||
*anagram
For 21a, I have COP (officer) + US (American) + CLE (CaLlEd regularly) about R (radical, in Collins) with CELL as definition.
Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs.
Up to Redshank’s usual high standard, although I did think he was pushing it a bit today (e.g. 18ac Rubber =File, 21ac Officer = Corp, 7dn Lator caught = later). Still, it didn’t stop me so I’m not complaining — great workout, as Turbolegs says. Many thanks, both.
Thanks, Hovis@1, you overtook me in the post.
Yep, Hovis, that was my only question mark today. And you gave me the answer I was looking for.
Nice puzzle.
All fine, except 6d in which the cryptic grammar (the plural ‘support’) is not what the pedants, the nitpickers et al would like to see. 🙂
Many thanks to Turbolegs & Redshank.
I hadn’t heard of the Eastern church member and was held up by questioning the ‘LATOR’
Quite tricky but enjoyable – thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs
For 10a, I parsed it as AIRER (“drier”) plus DM (“DaMp in odd places”).
Oh, please, Sil @4…
The Royal Artillery is gun men? No, it isn’t.
The Royal Artillery are gun men?
Yes, they are.
Sometimes I despair…
Aidan @6. That’s what I had. Clearly a mistake in the blog. Didn’t spot it though.
Grant @7, that is exactly where you (and many other solvers) go ‘wrong’, I am afraid.
The surface reading should never be confused with the cryptic grammar.
In today’s 6d, RA (gunmen) is a ‘cryptic unit’, a ‘building stone’ and therefore needs a singular form of the verb.
Many setters who don’t allow these things, would use e.g. ‘must support’, ‘will support’ or ‘should support’.
You may disagree with me (and happily so) but don’t call this nonsense (because it isn’t).
Two days ago, Julius had a similar thing in the SUCKING PIG clue (9ac):
“I’m given PG Tips” for ‘I inside PG’ is also, strictly speaking, not right.
In the correct cryptic grammar, ‘I’ should be seen as an object and needs therefore the third person singular form of the verb.
That said, I know that some setters and most solvers cannot be bothered about it.
I’ll just mention it every now and then, and to be clear, without accusing anyone of anything.
In the blog of the most recent Guardian Quiptic puzzle, I made a comment @18 in which I said something about the fact that, at times, setters and solvers are at odds.
In the third paragraph, I quoted what Tim Moorey (who I know as a Sunday Times setter and Mephisto, in particular) said in the Chambers Crossword Dictionary.
It reflects exactly how I think about it, which is: “OK, fine if you’re happy with it but don’t tick me off if I’ll keep far away from it”.
Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
Took a few days to get to this one … and a few more to get around to checking it off here. Found it took all of my average three parts of an hour to complete with a quick early look and most of the lunch break to finish it off Found some quite tricky parsing was required for some of them.
Reckon that pedantry is the correct term for the discussion of 6d. To be honest, I read the clue and took a couple of minutes to separate the U and LT, check that the term ULTRA could be used as a synonym for ‘diehard’ and it never struck me to wonder about the plurality or not of the ‘gunmen’ of the RA.
Finished with a couple of the crossing long ones – CIRCUIT BREAKER showed that my original MONEY GRASPER wasn’t correct and was then able to find the GRUBBER bit – wouldn’t have thought of a ‘file’ as a RUBBER …but there it was.