A straightforward offering from Chalmie.
It took me a little while to get started this morning, but the answers fell into place very quickly once I got the long answer down the middle.
I had a couple of minor quibbles at 13dn and 21ac, but otherwise this was a very good puzzle with a mixed range of devices and a little general knowledge required, but nothing too obscure.
Thanks, Chalmie.
| Across | ||
| 1 | REPUBLIC | State theatre club I built (8) |
| REP (“theatre”) + *(club i) [anag:rebuilt] | ||
| 6 | UNCAGE | Liberate one French composer (6) |
| UN (“one” in “French”) + (John) CAGE (American “composer” whose most famous work is ‘4’33’ in which the orchestra does not play any instruments, but the “music” is whatever sounds there are in the environment in which the “performance” is taking place) | ||
| 9 | PARDON | Standard dress in what? (6) |
| PAR (“standard”) + DON (“dress in”) | ||
| 10 | EOHIPPUS | Prehistoric animal expert, on holiday in Paris, purchases unusual shrunken heads (8) |
| First letters [heads] of Expert On Holiday In Paris Purchases Unusual Shrunken | ||
| 11 | STIR | Prison in Stenhousemuir mostly cleared (4) |
| ST(enhousemu)IR [mostly cleared] | ||
| 12 | LITTLE OWLS | Hooters going off till we lost (6,4) |
| *(till we lost) [anag: going off] | ||
| 14 | ESPRESSO | Strange person (not working) sometimes ceases to drink (8) |
| *(pers) (“person” without ON (“not working”)) [anag: strange] + [sometimes] (c)E(a)S(e)S(t)O | ||
| 16 | ERIE | Lake where exclusive circle get rid of bed (4) |
| (cot)ERIE (“exclusive circle” getting rid of COT (“bed”)) | ||
| 18 | TOFU | Some remnant of unappetising food (4) |
| Hidden in [some] “remnanaT OF Unappetising” | ||
| 19 | SHORTAGE | Want identification to open beach (8) |
| TAG (“identification”) to open SHORE (“beach”) | ||
| 21 | IN ADDITION | And I do it in trouble as well (2,8) |
| *(and i do it in) [anag: trouble]
Shame that IN is part of the answer and the fodder. |
||
| 22 | EMMY | Award writer rejected – what a surprise! (4) |
| <=ME (“writer” rejected) + MY (“what a surprise!”) | ||
| 24 | OUTGROWN | Got too big to be caught, maybe? Hopelessly wrong (8) |
| OUT (“be caught, perhaps” in cricket) + *(wrong) [anag: hopelessly] | ||
| 26 | ATOMIC | Cat stops spies returning bomb? (6) |
| TOM (“cat”) stops <=CIA (“spies”, returning) | ||
| 27 | ASPENS | Trees like swans (6) |
| AS (“like”) + PENS (female “swans”) | ||
| 28 | ETERNITY | Bird that’s coming back round initially thanks you forever (8) |
| TERN (“bird”) with <=I.E. (“that is”, coming back) round + [initially] T(hanks) Y(ou), so E(TERN)I-T.Y. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | EXACT | Demand and obtain energy by law (5) |
| E (energy) + X (“by” in mathematics) + ACT (“law”) | ||
| 3 | UNDERGROUND | Tube not fine enough (11) |
| Something like coffee beans that have not been ground enough (underground) could be described as “not fine enough”. | ||
| 4 | LONG-LOST | Making Fellow of poet not seen for ages (4-4) |
| If the LONG of “poet” Henry Wadsworth (Long)fellow is LOST it would be making “fellow” | ||
| 5 | CREATION SCIENCE | Critic one can see exploding bogus theory (8,7) |
| *(critic one can see) [anag:exploding] | ||
| 6, 17 | UP HILL DOWN DALE | Winning F1 driver we hear drank beer all over the place (2,4,4,4) |
| UP (“winning”) + (Damon or Graham) HILL (“F1 driver”) + homophone of [we hear] DOWNED (“drank”) + ALE (“beer”) | ||
| 7 | CEP | Preach about oddly missing fungus (3) |
| <=P(r)E(a)C(h) [oddly, returning] | ||
| 8 | GRUELLING | Thin soup with fish is hard to get through (9) |
| GRUEL (“thin soup”) + LING (“fish”) | ||
| 13 | OVER THE MOON | Out in the open, bird keeps low – I’m delighted (4,3,4) |
| OVERT (“out in the open”) + HEN (“bird”) keeps MOO (“low”).
Not sure that the “I”m” should be ther, other than to help the surface. |
||
| 15 | SPOONFULS | Measures flops on US exchange (9) |
| *(flops on US) [anag: exchanges] | ||
| 17 | See 6 | |
| 20 | BIGOTS | Racists maybe depart in pieces (6) |
| GO (“depart”) in BITS (“pieces”) | ||
| 23 | MOIST | Rather wet film about nothing (5) |
| MIST (“film”) about O (“nothing”) | ||
| 25 | GEE | Letter brings up brain scan (3) |
| [brings up] <=E.E.G. (electroencephalogram, so “brain scan”) | ||
*anagram
I’d never heard of the ‘Prehistoric animal’ but it wasn’t too difficult to get with a few crossers in place. I thought ‘unappetising’ might be part of both wordplay and definition for 18a but I’m sure such inexcusably loose setting practices would have no place here. For the sake of completeness, Phil (World Champion 1961) can be added to Graham and Damon as a HILL ‘F1 driver’.
The reference to ‘Stenhousemuir’ and its reminder of hearing the Scottish football results on the BBC World Service on Sunday evenings was my favourite.
Thanks to Chalmie and loonapick
‘F1 driver’.
The reference to ‘Stenhousemuir’ and its reminder of hearing the Scottish football results on the BBC World Service on Sunday evening was my favourite.
Thanks to Chalmie and loonapick
Woops, sorry about that Chief. I blame my iPad.
Ha ha, a few miles east, where I live, the place is known as ‘Stenhousemuir Nil’. Like loonapick I was slow to take off until I unravelled the long 5dn. After that it was as usual with Chalmie — a slow, steady hacking into the jungle. Great puzzle, thanks Chalmie. And well blogged, loonapick.
Thanks, loonapick. There is a small decorative feature, in that there are answers beginning BIG/LITTLE, LONG/SHORT, UP/DOWN, IN/OUT and OVER /UNDER.
I used a very long route to crack EOHIPPUS when the answer was there staring me in the face.It was my LOI.Thanks Loonapick and Chalmie.
Thanks Chalmie and loonapick
Enjoyable puzzle which I started off by confidently writing something completely wrong (can’t see it now with all of the overwriting) in at 25d. Was able to complete the rest without too much incident, apart from having to correct a LONG LAST to LONG LOST when I went through my final parsing check. Didn’t spot the initial letters of the old horse-like creature for way too long – and it only triggered slight recognition when I did.
Thanks to Chalmie for dropping by to point out the pairs hidden throughout, whilst noting a lot of two word answers, didn’t see the connection between them all. Recalled two of the HILL racing family and thought that long clue was amongst the best. It was my third to last in, followed by ESPRESSO (with it’s complex word play) and LONG LOST (after repairing it).