An enjoyable challenge from Armonie this morning.
There were a few I had to double check my GK on, including the college athlete, swans, and the cricketing term, but otherwise mostly straightforward! I initially assumed Georgia referred to the state in the US, which is GA abbreviated. GE is the ISO code for the country Georgia. Not being familiar with the term, this held me up for a while.
I think my favourites today are 6d, 3d, 11a, 24a. Thank you Armonie.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DISABLED | Managed without a fur that’s rendered unserviceable (8) |
| DID (managed) without SABLE (a fur) | ||
| 5 | ACROSS | Oscar’s created a clue like this (6) |
| (OSCARS)* (*created) | ||
| 10 | DWELL | Glen keeps wife in lodge (5) |
| DELL (glen) keeps W (wife) | ||
| 11 | DASHBOARD | Disappoint the hopes of the directors with control panel (9) |
| DASH (disappoint the hopes of) + BOARD (the directors) | ||
| 12 | CALL FORTH | Caught everyone in favour of Thursday’s occasion (4,5) |
| C (caught) + ALL (everyone) + FOR (in favour of) + TH (Thursday) | ||
| 13 | LOIRE | Beliefs about current in river (5) |
| LORE (beliefs) about I (current) | ||
| 14 | BROODY | Miserable boy’s cross with Yankee (6) |
| B (boy) + ROOD (cross) + Y (yankee) | ||
| 15 | RADICAL | Militant caught slashing tyre (7) |
| C (caught) slashing RADIAL (tyre) | ||
| 18 | LITOTES | Is dishonest after consuming drink? That’s an understatement! (7) |
| LIES (is dishonest) after consuming TOT (drink) | ||
| 20 | TROPIC | King is absorbed by subject of terrestrial boundary (6) |
| R (king) is absorbed by TOPIC (subject) | ||
| 22 | ACUTE | A lovely accent (5) |
| A + CUTE (lovely) | ||
| 24 | APPLE TART | Penny’s allowed to tuck into a portion of dessert (5,4) |
| P (penny) + LET (allowed) to tuck into A PART (a portion) | ||
| 25 | INSULATED | Spoke to rudely about American being cut off (9) |
| INSULTED (spoke to rudely) about A (American) | ||
| 26 | HEAVE | Yank gets ambassador’s greeting (5) |
| HE (ambassador) + AVE (greeting) HE = His/Her Excellency |
||
| 27 | NETHER | A stone the reptile hides under (6) |
| [a sto]NE THE R[eptile] (hides) | ||
| 28 | REARREST | Once more hold back support (8) |
| Double definition (re-arrest; rear-rest) |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DEDUCT | Take away journalist found in the Channel (6) |
| ED (journalist) in DUCT (the channel) | ||
| 2 | SMELL A RAT | Suspect lets alarm off (5,1,3) |
| (LETS ALARM)* (*off) | ||
| 3 | BOLT FROM THE BLUE | To flee a college athlete is an unexpected occurrence (4,4,3,4) |
| BOLT (flee) FROM THE BLUE (a college athlete) A blue is an award of sporting colours earned by athletes at some universities and schools for competition at the highest level. |
||
| 4 | ELDERLY | Old tree lay hollowed out (7) |
| ELDER (tree) + L[a]Y (hollowed out) | ||
| 6 | COBBLED TOGETHER | Pen friend suffered anguish to win female? That’s ill- conceived! (7,8) |
| COB (pen friend) + BLED (suffered anguish) + TO GET HER (to win female) A cob is a male swan, a pen the female |
||
| 7 | OKAPI | Endorse a holy creature (5) |
| OK (endorse) + A + PI (holy) | ||
| 8 | SUDDENLY | Duly ends assembly without warning (8) |
| (DULY ENDS)* (*assembly) | ||
| 9 | ESTHER | Biblical queen? There’s trouble! (6) |
| (THERES)* (*trouble) | ||
| 16 | CHINAWARE | Facial feature to be conscious of in crockery (9) |
| CHIN (facial feature) + AWARE (to be conscious of) | ||
| 17 | ALSATIAN | A sovereign met a man and a dog (8) |
| A LS (a sovereign, pound sterling) + AT (met) + IAN (a man) | ||
| 19 | SPARTA | Creative work found in resort in Ancient Greece (6) |
| ART (creative work) found in SPA (resort) | ||
| 20 | TOP EDGE | Georgia drank heavily to start with and produced a miscue with the bat (3,4) |
| GE (Georgia) + TOPED (drnk heavily) to start with | ||
| 21 | ATTEST | Witness Tory leader in an investigation (6) |
| T (Tory leader) in A TEST (an investigation) | ||
| 23 | UPSET | Trouble at college? Get ready! (5) |
| UP (at college) + SET (get ready) | ||
I parsed 17d with just L as “sovereign” and SAT = MET as in “the committee sat/met every Monday”.
I feel pretty safe in assuming the message along the main diagonal was an unintentional nina.
Thanks Armonie and Teacow.
Slightly stiff for a Monday, I thought. By the way, wasn’t there an era when Armonie always included a musical term? My parsing of 17d was the same as Hovis@1. Thanks to Armonie and Teacow.
Thanks to Armonie and Teacow. Very enjoyable. I did not parse ALSATIAN (LS was new to me) and took a while spotting NETHER and REARREST.
Very nice Monday cryptic, even better than the same setter’s offering (as Chifonie) in today’s Grauniad. Thanks to Armonie and Teacow. Failed to parse Alsatian though, so thanks to Teacow for that.
Thanks, Armonie and Teacow. Agree with Hovis on ALSATIAN which was my LOI. 3D works here in the Midwest – the University of Michigan football team is familiarly “Big Blue” and its fans say “Go Blue!”
Thanks to Teacow and Armonie
Does anyone know where B = BOY comes from?
Dansar @ 6
From previous discussions on this, the general consensus seems to be that as BF is a standard abbreviation for BOYFRIEND B can be extrapolated to be an abbreviation for BOY. It’s one of those divisive ones.
Indeed, Simon (& Dansar).
When I tried to use this abbreviation in The Independent, it didn’t get past the editor (because it wasn’t in any of the dictionaries).
ps, I was almost certain that it was right, only to find that Eimi had a different view and, I think, rightly so.
My starting point wasn’t BF but OB (‘old boy’).
But eventually , perhaps, it was because I solved too many Armonie/Chifonie puzzles in the past …..
Thank you both, I thought it might be from Boys’ Brigade but of course that’s plural. I don’t like it either way, that Armonie’s a naughty b.
Thanks Armonie and Teacow
Got through this very quickly on the time clock but still most enjoyable. Was another Hovis-like parse of 17d (which was my last one in too) and have got used to this setter’s single letter foibles. Liked the two long ones and had to untangle an erroneous DISCUSSED at 25a before getting ALSATIAN.