Oh dear, I can’t finish this, how embarrassing. Thanks Monk!
Any help gratefully received.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | ERIC | Perhaps Clapton’s earpiece regularly dropped (4) |
| every other letter (regularly dropped) of EaRpIeCe | ||
| 8 | UNFORESEEN | Sudden front invisible when circulating (10) |
| FORE (front) inside (with…when circulating) UNSEEN (invisible) | ||
| 10 | EMBARK | Setter getting over clamour to engage in affair (6) |
| ME (the setter) reversed (getting over) then BARK (clamour) | ||
| 11 | OBSCURED | Made dim sum for starters, cubed or otherwise (8) |
| anagram (otherwise) of Sum (first letter, for starters) with CUBED OR | ||
| 12 | ELEPHANT | Pat Helen’s bum – she’ll never forget! (8) |
| anagram (bum, wrongly) of PAT HELEN | ||
| 13 | IDOIST | Marriage vow by first 20th century linguist? (6) |
| I DO (marriage vow) with IST (1st first) – a user of the international language Ido | ||
| 15 | ABERDEEN ANGUS | Circumventing grandma, bare bonkers (woman and man) breed (8,5) |
| NAN (grandma) with anagram (bonkers) of BARE inside (circumventing…is…) DEE (a woman’s name) with GUS (a man’s name) – breed of cattle | ||
| 18 | AELOUS | God angry, evidently opening up lost soul (6) |
| 20 | OBSERVER | Weekly deliveries run after stock problem is tackled (8) |
| OVER (deliveries, 6 balls in cricket) contains (after…is tackled) R (run) following BSE (a problem in cattle, stock) – The Observer newspaper, a weekly paper | ||
| 22 | UNCALLED | Uninvited relative, stabbed by gangster, died (8) |
| UNCLE (a relative) contains (stabbed by) AL (Al Capone, gangster) then D (died) | ||
| 24 | APEMAN | Pop over – call round to see old primate (6) |
| PA (pop, father) reversed (over) then NAME (call) reversed (round) | ||
| 25 | INFECTIOUS | Bad if out, since likely to spread (10) |
| anagram (bad) of IF OUT SINCE | ||
| 26 | ITCH | Unintroduced jerk causing irritation (4) |
| hITCH (to jerk) missing first letter (un-introduced) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PROMULGATE | Announce chatter about sullen old revolutionary (10) |
| PRATE (chatter) contains (about) GLUM (sullen) with O (old) reversed (revolutionary) | ||
| 2 | SCRAPPLE | Finally, famous music producer and techie giant make “Meat Loaf in the US” (8) |
| last letters (finally) of famouS musiC produceR then APPLE (techie giant) | ||
| 3 | GURKHA | Nepali carpet taken up by Asian ruler, briefly (6) |
| RUG (carpet) reversed (taken up) then KHAn (Asian ruler, briefly) | ||
| 4 | BRASSICA | Prostitute I caught with a Swede, maybe? (8) |
| BRASS (a prostitute) I C (caught) with A – aka rutabaga for US solvers | ||
| 5 | PSEUDO | Fake subscription rejected when stopping postal order (6) |
| DUES (subscription) reversed (rejected) inside PO (postal order) | ||
| 6 | FETE | Party a lot, audibly so (4) |
| sounds like (audibly so) “fate” (a lot, destiny) | ||
| 9 | FROM THE WORD GO | Fresh food growth, farmer missing first half ab initio (4,3,4,2) |
| anagram (fresh) of FOOD GROWTH and farMER (missing first half) | ||
| 14 | SUSTENANCE | Suspect dodgy canteen food? (10) |
| SUS (suspect) then anagram (dodgy) of CANTEEN | ||
| 16 | DESOLATE | Fail to keep up with external appointment, getting lonely (8) |
| LOSE (fail to keep) reversed (up) inside (with…external) DATE (appointment) | ||
| 17 | GARDENIA | Drainage transformed shrub (8) |
| anagram (transformed) of DRAINAGE | ||
| 19 | LOANEE | I borrow without any other European capital being put down (6) |
| 21 | SPARSE | Scattered boxes end in waste (6) |
| SPARS (boxes) then wastE (end letter of) | ||
| 23 | NINE | Opening partly round and square (4) |
| found inside (partly) opENINing reversed (round) – nine is three squared | ||
Hi PeeDee
No need to be embarrassed, this was tough.
18a is AEOLUS, the Greek god of the winds – A E (first letters of ‘angry evidently) + anagram of ‘soul’
Had LOANER too but still haven’t worked out why.
I think 18d is LOANEE, which would be a borrower rather than a lender, and could be LONE (without any other) E= European Capital. Not sure about the A.
Or, ALONE (without any other) + E, with letter A being shifted down
I failed on the same two clues. For 19d I think it must be ALONE (“without any other”) + E (” European”) with the A (“capital”) moved down a few spaces.
Andy@2, I think that you are on the money here.
How about ALONE (without any other) + E (European) with the capital (first letter A) moved down.
Oi Monk. Where’s my nina. always rely on those from you.
AEOLUS looks better than my attempt at HELIOS which suggested IMAGED or ISABEL for 18d but I wasnt happy.
IDOIST was new to me but I followed the instructions
I completely forgot to look for the Nina.
AEOLUS was in another crossword recently and fortunately I remembered him; I agree with other commenters parsings of LOANEE
A very tricky crossword from Monk today and I did look for a Nina but couldn’t see anything – what am I missing??
Thanks to Monk and PeeDee
Thanks all for filling in the gaps. A bit of a team effort there! Blog is updated now.
Could 6A be fete, a homophone of feat, which according to one dictionary I found online can mean: ‘Large: as, a pretty feat parcel (a rather large quantity)’? I don’t have Chambers and wonder what it says.
Like crypticsue, I remembered AEOLUS from a recent crossword, not to be confused with hercules’ companion in mythology, not to mention the TV series. I also entered an unparsed LOANER then kicked myself for getting the definition the wrong way around, that is to say a loaner is a lender not a borrower.
Had a good chuckle over 12a, my favourite today.
Although I’ve seen IDO several times in cryptics, I never seem to remember it. IDOIST was new to me though.
I wonder how many words there are for “prostitute” (maybe I should consult my thesaurus). Don’t remember seeing “brass” before.
SCRAPPLE was another new word for me but my first guess.
Thanks to Monk and PeeDee.
Hi ub, I can’t find feat meaning large in Chambers. Are you sure it would rhyme with “fate” and not “feet”?
I think “loaner” is easily confused with “loanee” by association with similar words such as “rent”. I can rent my car to someone else. I can rent a car to go on holiday. Loaner looks like someone who takes out a loan. It is technically incorrect but I suspect it is used this way a lot in common English.
PeeDee @13. Indeed, I‘ve known people (from Lancashire mainly but also from Yorkshire) that use “lend” and “borrow” interchangeably, as in “Can you borrow me a fiver?”. I first met LOANER as a word when it appeared on Countdown many moons ago and I remember thinking “surely, it is lender not loaner” but it was explained that loaner was an acceptable alternative so I really don’t have much of an excuse.
@12 PeeDee, thanks for reply. I simply mispronounced ‘fete’ in my head given that it’s not a word I have heard recently if at all. A dictionary pronunciation aid corrected me.
That was tough. The top and RHS are all consonants and the LHS and bottom all vowels (which was how I confirmed LOANEE). I can’t see any connecting thread through the vowels/consonants to make some message, but maybe there is one.
One more step, Chalmie: All of the Across entries start with vowels, and all of the Downs with consonants.
Gah! Posted prematurely: … Acrosses all _end_ with consonants, and Downs with vowels.
Expanding Chalmie and Jon Delfin
All the across solutions start with vowels and end with consonants
All the down solutions start with consonants and end with vowels
Beat me.
Gave up after about 50%
Loved Elephant
Thanks PeeDee for the explanations – I really needed them today. When my car is in for servicing the agent gives me a loaner for the day. I did think a couple of the answers were “ugly” words – ISOIST, LOANEE – and that affected my enjoyment. Despite the starting letters, I am sorry Monk I did not enjoy this one. But thank you for the time gobbler.
Failing to finish sapped my joy but not my amazement at Monk’s genius. Thanks to both.
Managed to finish with a family effort but wasn’t able to parse 13a and 15a. My daughter thought 26a jerk was bitch without the introduction. I liked 18a because of the large number of vowels, making the anagram seemingly unlikely. Not very keen on “loanee”as a word, but it makes sense and was gettable. Quite a workout today.Thanks to setter and all contributers to the blog.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
A really tough puzzle that took numerous sittings and over the 100 minutes to complete throughout yesterday. Got off to a good start seeing the ERIC Clapton clue immediately but with the combination a couple of new terms – the Greek god and the US dish and some very tricky charades to negotiate, it proved a challenging solve.
Made the error with LOANEE – spotting the theme of consonant start / vowel finish would have certainly helped – but even that was very hard to see.
Finished down the bottom with that erroneous LOANER, SPARSE (which took longer than it should have) and OBSERVER (with its cleverly disguised definition) the last few in.