It’s been a while since I’ve known in advance that I am going to be blogging a daily cryptic, so this makes a change from a last minute rush to cover for someone who has not turned up.
This puzzle struck me as being a fairly typical mid-week Indy, not overly taxing but not a write-in either. There was only one entry (26ac) that I felt needed further explanation because it is not in Chambers.
Across
1 Saw everyone to do with operations except boss concerned with certain elements (13)
METALLURGICAL – MET (saw) ALL (everyone) [s]URGICAL (to do with operations except boss)
9 Just words in song T Rice composed with A Lloyd Webber’s musical backing (10)
RECITATIVE – an anagram (composed) of T RICE followed by EVITA (A Lloyd Webber’s musical) reversed (backing)
10 Swap made at start of capital card game (4)
SOLO – OSLO (capital) with the first two letters interchanged (swap made at start of)
11 Regular soldiers put November in events book (8)
ORDINARY – OR (soldiers) plus N (November) in DIARY (events book)
12 Struggling, finally level, use two rooks, queen and king perhaps? (6)
RULERS – an anagram (struggling) of [leve]L (finally level) USE RR (two rooks)
13 Drop of tea lacking flavour – little change (5)
TWEAK – T[ea] (drop of tea) WEAK (lacking flavour)
15 Adult’s run out to scoop up wild poorly animal (9)
ARMADILLO – A (adult) RO (run out) around (to scoop up) MAD (wild) ILL (poorly)
18 How hunger can make one uncouth (5-4)
ROUGH-HEWN – an anagram (can make one) of HOW HUNGER
20 Active fellow, he gets things done (5)
AGENT – A (active) GENT (fellow)
23 Give a ring and everything included in prize (4,2)
CALL UP – ALL (everything) in (included in) CUP (prize)
24 Maybe insomniac struggles without whiskey and splash of soda? (8)
RESTLESS – [w]RESTLES (struggles without whiskey) S[oda] (splash of soda)
26 Malevolent deity is restrained reportedly (4)
LOKI – sounds like (reportedly) ‘low-key’ (restrained) – Norse myth The god of mischief and destruction (Collins); Scandinavian Mythology A mischievous and sometimes evil god who contrived the death of Balder and was punished by being bound to a rock. (ODE)
27 Program promoters and evaluators (10)
APPRAISERS – APP (program) RAISERS (promoters)
28 Striking atmospheric phenomena (13)
THUNDERSTORMS – cryptic def.
Down
2 A feature of intellectual broadcast from London (7)
EYEBROW – sounds like (broadcast) ‘highbrow’ (intellectual) without the ‘h’ (from London)
3 Crosophile en ville near Toulouse? Not with this perhaps (5)
ALIBI – I (Crosophile) in (en) ALBI (ville near Toulouse) – in other words he was elsewhere
4 Little protection for American reared transport animals (6)
LLAMAS – SMALL (little) around (protection for) A (American) reversed (reared)
5 Wet fish stores quite popular (5)
RAINY – RAY (fish) around (stores) IN (quite popular)
6 Reserve put on the best dessert (3,5)
ICE CREAM – ICE (reserve) CREAM (the best)
7 Rating doing crossword and being forgiving (9)
ABSOLVING – AB (rating) SOLVING (doing crossword)
8 Comprehensive sees promotion for the lowliest of blossoms (6)
FLORAL – FOR ALL (comprehensive) with the final ‘L’ moved upwards (sees promotion for the lowliest)
14 Advanced English force in manoeuvres – they might be in tanks (9)
ANGELFISH – an anagram (in manoeuvres) of A (advanced) ENGLISH F (force)
16 Bloody conflict is over (3)
RAW – WAR (conflict) reversed (is over)
17 Maybe one pardoning sins to which man’s been prone? (8)
CHAPLAIN – CHAP (man) LAIN (‘s been prone)
19 Between loves a cad lies, Romeo smooth-talker (6)
ORATOR – RAT (a cad) in (between … lies) OO (loves) R (Romeo)
21 Special remedy for a fingerpicking style? (7)
NOSTRUM – NO STRUM (a fingerpicking style?)
22 Like, for instance, the start of sheepdog trials (6)
ASSAYS – AS (like) SAY (for instance) S[heepdog] (the start of sheepdog)
24 A sport getting to go, ready for Delhi (5)
RUPEE – RU (a sport) PEE (to go)
25 Something to catch with and miss nothing (5)
LASSO – LASS (miss) O (nothing)
Thanks Gaufrid (and Crosophile too). I agree with your description, though was held up on the crossing 10A/8D as I couldn’t get Snap out of my mind, despite having often played Solo with my parents as a child. I dispute Albi being ‘near Toulouse’ – it’s 85 km away, and if that’s ‘near’ I’m an astronaut!
So it seems that A can mean active, American, advanced or adult,
Can we include aardvark in this setters Artillery?
Had a great lunch in Toulouse once but never heard of ALBI-sorry.
Highbrow in Highgate and Eyebrow in ‘Ackney
Sorry but this didnt cut the moutarde
Made Paul look good
Neither geography not history are my strong points but Toulouse is the capital of Haute-Garonne and the nearest big place to Albi, roughly 40 miles away. Find Albi on a map and Toulouse ought to spring out. Toulouse was the very heart of the Albigensian heresy which was named after nearby Albi.
As a Londoner I would maintain that it’s not just ‘Ackney that drops H’s. Maybe I should have written
“A feature of intellectual broadcast from many parts of London but not for instance some people in Highgate though actually even there quite a few people drop their H’s”? 🙂
I apologise for using abbreviations in crossword clueing. What was I thinking?
Thanks for popping in (I’ve blown my cover)
Let me hexplain!
Perception of distance can vary according to where you live.Many people living in East Anglia have to travel quite some distance to their nearest big town but just regard it as a fact of life. My Co -Solver had heard of Albi but unprompted would probably have have located it in Italy. He is not going to be allowed to book the holiday !
We enjoyed the workout. Thanks to S and B
PS There’s a literary nina. 🙂
We’d agree with this being “a fairly typical mid-week Indy, not overly taxing but not a write-in either.” We wondered if there might be a theme or nina, yesterday’s reprint in the i being a themed Crosophile puzzle, but couldn’t see one; we’ll have to have a closer look now.
We knew Albi to be somewhere not too far from Toulouse, and we also knew about Loki; the story of the death of Baldur can be found here.
Thanks, Crosophile and Gaufrid.
Thanks Gaufrid for the blog and thanks for all the comments.
The nina [which may not be general knowledge for everybody] involves 10, 11, 28, 15, 24, 6 and sort of 16.
11 28, and 24, are my favourites.