[New comment layout] - details here
A really great puzzle – definitely not easy but well worth persevering with. Lateral thinking is all here: look sideways while thinking backwards and you should not have a problem 😉 Thank you Io.
Looks like a pangram too…
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DEMOB | Military discharge, March 2? (5) |
| DEMO (march) and B (2, second of something) | ||
| 4 | ZODIAC | Group of houses – about 12, on reflection? (6) |
| CA (circa, about) I DOZ (1 dozen, 12) reversed (on reflection) | ||
| 8 | NAUGHTY NINETIES | Order anything en suite – it’s time for slap and tickle! (7,8) |
| anagram (order) of ANYTHING ENSUITE – name for the 1890s in Europe | ||
| 9 | A TOOTH FORA TOOTH | Reciprocated wisdom? (1,5,3,1,5) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 11 | INDEED | Having alphabetical reference but no X? Yes! (6) |
| INDExED (having alphabetical reference) missing X | ||
| 13 | MODERNER | Laid-back children redo Mucha frames, more art deco than nouveau (8) |
| found reversed (laid-back) inside (framed by) childREN REDO Mucha – two styles of modern art, one more recent than the other | ||
| 15 | POLYGRAM | Label of Old Glory torn in plan to retreat (8) |
| anagram (torn) of GLORY inside MAP (plan) reversed (to retreat) – former record label | ||
| 16 | LOQUAT | Question One in set: How is the Japanese medlar also known? (6) |
| QU (question) A (one) inside LOT (set, group of items) | ||
| 17 | IN ALL CONSCIENCE | Totally against experimental research, morally speaking (2,3,10) |
| IN ALL (totally) CON (against) SCIENCE (experimental research) | ||
| 20 | CASK CONDITIONED | Enquire if press boss is taken by cloudy beer like this? (4-11) |
| ASK (enquire) IF (condition) ED (editor, press boss) all follows (is taken by) C (cloudy) | ||
| 22 | JERSEY | I agree about judge going over the top (6) |
| YES (I agree) RE (about) J (judge) all reversed (going over) | ||
| 23 | DEPOT | Bus station’s record during period (5) |
| EP (extended play, record) inside DOT (period, full-stop) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DO-GOODERY | Well-meaning interference, not with dogwood and wild rye (2-7) |
| DOGwOOD missing W (with) then anagram (wild) of RYE | ||
| 2 | MATCH | Agreement that people may be delighted to strike? (5) |
| cryptic definition – marriage and firelighter | ||
| 3 | BANK OF MUM AND DAD | OK, fund blown: mad, bad man’s needed to resort to this? (4,2,3,3,3) |
| anagram (blown) of OK FUND with (…is needed) MAD BAD MAN – what a mad bad man needs to sort out his finances | ||
| 4 | ZINFANDEL | Disguised Led Zeppelin’s first fan in red or white? (9) |
| anagram (disguised) of LED Zeppelin (first letter) FAN IN – red or white wine | ||
| 5 | DITTO | Some said it too (5) |
| found inside (some) saiD IT TOo | ||
| 6 | AVE | Welcome spelunker who’s out of credit (3) |
| cAVEr (spelunker) missing (out of) CR (credit) | ||
| 7, 10 | BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES | Prepare for storm, Britain: where’s man cutting straw roofs, 5? (6,4,3,7) |
| B (Britain) then AT TEN DOWN is where you will find HE (man) inside (cutting) THATCHES (straw roofs) | ||
| 12 | DIRECTORY | Clergyman immersed in flatpacking guide? (9) |
| RECTOR(clergyman) inside (immersed in) DIY (flatpacking) | ||
| 14 | ROQUEFORT | To Frenchman, what’s for slicing red German cheese? (9) |
| QUE (what, to Frenchman) has FOR all inside (slicing) ROT (red, in German) | ||
| 18 | LIKES | Characteristic of student’s first digs (5) |
| LIKE (characteristic of) then Student (first letter) – enjoys | ||
| 19 | CUT-UP | Very distressed tradespeople, it would seem (3,2) |
| CUT UP can be read as TUC (Trade Union Congress, tradespeople) UP (reversed) | ||
| 21 | AXE | Test 19? 5 – it will (3) |
| EXAm (test) missing last letter (CUT) and reversed (UP) – and also CUT UP (19 again, ditto). The definition it will just re-iterates that an AXE will cut things up. I suppose one could say the last definition is technically redundant, but nevertheless I am grateful for a little extra help here! | ||
This was great fun to solve but a devil to parse. Knew a pangram was on the cards from my FOI, LOQUAT, and needed it to confirm those 3-letter answers. ZINFANDEL was my favourite from among some super clues. 3d was a close second.
Thanks IO and PeeDee.
IO doesn’t do easy puzzles.But this was made slightly more approachable by the long clues. First rate as to be expected with JH. Flawless and difficult to pick any favourites.
And an excellent blog to top it off.
Wunderbar!
Re 20: don’t you mean CONDITION (if)?
Re 4d: “white zinfandel” isn’t actually a white wine but a sweet rosé.
On the easy side for an Io, I thought. Couldn’t see where AT TEN DOWN came from for a while, but managed to parse everything which is not normally the case with a JH puzzle.
Spotted the possible pangram after entering 4d and 14d, but it didn’t help with others.
I was introduced to Zinfandel in San Francisco in 1972 before it was popular over here. The hotel we stayed in offered free “Zin” at 4pm every day!
NNI@4- I once went to Marin Cellars in San Rafael where the owners had two beautiful German Shepherds and one was called Zinfandel.
We came away nearly $300 lighter and only 3 bottles to show for it.
Good value by today’s standards.
I like Mr Henderson in hgis current ‘be kinder to solvers’ mode – very enjoyable indeed – thank you to him and PeeDee
Thanks IO and PeeDee.
Terrific puzzle, 21d being LOI and top fav.
Easier than the typical IO but by no means a write-in. Most of it came eventually but I needed PeeDee’s parsing for a number of clues such as AXE and ROQUEFORT. Liked ZODIAC, A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH, and JERSEY especially. Anytime I see the letter Z in a British crossword I become alert for a pangram. Thanks to both.
Thanks Io and PeeDee
Got a quicker start than normal to one of JH’s puzzles by seeing DITTO and ZODIAC in the first minute or two. Was soon hitting reality, especially with some of the tricky parsing as I got further into the grid. Like the way he merges a definition into a well known phrase that beautifully misleads one – ‘label of old’ getting obfuscated by the use of ‘Old Glory’.
BANK OF MUM AND DAD raised a grin, until having to unravel the bits and pieces of the word play. The pangram was a saviour in getting the penultimate AXE and again having to work hard to understand the why.
CASK-CONDITIONED was the last one in and the only term that I wasn’t aware of – real ale hasn’t made much of an impact down under as far as I’ve seen.
Re my earlier comment. I barely knew what wine was back in 1972. It was 1997 when we toured Western USA then went on to spend a week in Hawaii. We went back for another 3 weeks in 2000.
NNI @ 10: Zinfandel is better known in Europe as the South Italian Primitivo. Genetically they are identical.
Thanks to JH for a top puzzle and PeeDe for the blog.
Yippee! First time I have completed an Enigmatist, my bete noire.
After a fraught 15 minute hospital appointment involving two hours of waiting this was just the pick me up I needed. Enjoyable but it took a while to get all the squares filled, to my surprise, correctly. Thanks for saving my afternoon Io.
um, PeeDee, in 17a, I think “Totally” is clueing IN ALL rather than the other way round. But I certainly needed your explanations today, even though I had the answers. Thanks.
Thanks for spotting that Mystogre. Fixed now.
PeeDee:
Thanks for the excellent blog. I only tried this puzzle today and I needed your explanations for several clues.
I understood your parsing of CASK-CONDITIONED except for C for cloudy. Can you help with that?
Hi cellomaniac, Chambers says that C is an abbreviation for cloudy used in a meteorological context.
Thanks, PeeDee, I’ll try to remember that.