A themed offering from Chalmie.
I didn't notice the theme immediately, but when I worked out SIMON TEMPLAR and noticed that I already had WILD GEESE and MOONRAKER in the grid, I realised the common factor of ROGER MOORE, which allowed me to slot in a few more, including ROGER and SEA WOLVES. Once I had completed the grid, I also noticed PERSUADER, MAVERICK, BOAT TRIP and CARER (and of course the homophone MORE). Apologies if there are more themed entries, but I am not a great fan of the man, so may have missed something.
Thanks, Chifonie.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ROGER | Backing barely one of 16 popes will do (5) |
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[backing] <=(g)REGOR(y) ("one of 16 popes", barely) |
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| 4 | PERSUADER | Convincing one angry-looking salesman to take Australia back (9) |
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<=(RED ("angry-looking") + REP ("salesman") to take Aus. (Australian)) [back] |
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| 9 | SEA WOLVES | Notices missing volume found inside fish (3,6) |
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SEES ("notices") with AWOL ("missing") + V (volume) found inside |
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| 10 | COAST | Freewheel when in bed (5) |
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AS ("when") in BED ("bed") |
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| 11 | OTHERS | They’re not the same returning to higher education, Rhodes scholars originally (6) |
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[returning] <=TO + H(igher) E(ducation) R(codes) S(cholars) [originally] |
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| 12 | MAVERICK | Non-conformist state I see in Macedonia (8) |
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AVER ("state") + I + C (see) in MK (internet domain of "Macedonia") |
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| 14 | SIMON TEMPLAR | Hiding shrunken head slyly, Miss Marple not a saint (5,7) |
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*(mis Marple not) [anag:slyly] where MIS is MIS(s) hiding S(hrunken) [head] Simon Templar (aka The Saint), created by Leslie Charteris, was played on TV by Roger Moore and Ian Ogilvy. |
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| 18 | LET ONESELF GO | Fleet’s on manoeuvres to break bricks, not to care about looks (3,7,2) |
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*(fleets on) [anag;manoeuvres] to break LEGO (bricks) |
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| 21 | EXPOSURE | Photo of old lavatory? Yes! (8) |
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EX ("of old") + PO ("lavatory") + SURE ("yes") |
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| 23 | STRICT | Rigorous, in a way, of the stomach to discharge gas (6) |
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In St. (street, so "a way") (gas)TRIC ("of the stomach" discharging GAS) |
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| 25 | LONER | Hands over an individualist (5) |
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L + R (left and right "hands") over ONE ("an") |
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| 26 | MOONRAKER | Rank Moore poorly in Bond film (9) |
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*(rank Moore) [anag;poorly] |
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| 27 | WILD GEESE | Playwright suppresses urges for flyers (4,5) |
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(Oscar) WILDE ("playwright") suppresses GEES ("urges") |
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| 28 | STRAP | Band leaves westward (5) |
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<=PARTS ("leaves" westward, i.e. from east to west (backwards)) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | RESPONSE | Press 1 to change answer (8) |
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*(press one) [anag:to change] |
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| 2 | GRAPHEME | Letter to linguistics scholar has fruit around border (8) |
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GRAPE ("fruit") around HEM ("border") |
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| 3 | RIO GRANDE | Old relative to be carried across river (3,6) |
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RIDE ("to be carried") across O (old) GRAN ('relative") |
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| 4 | PAVE | Put the top on quiet greeting (4) |
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P (piano, so "quiet") + AVE ("greeting") |
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| 5 | ROSE APPLES | Oriental fruit for people sick with Sars (4,6) |
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*(people sars) [anag:sick] |
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| 6 | UNCLE | Relative with large pimple going carb- free (5) |
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(carb)UNCLE ("large pimple" CARB-free) |
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| 7 | DRAG IN | Embroil newspaper in racket (4,2) |
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RAG ("newspaper") in DIN ("racket") |
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| 8 | RETAKE | Alien absorbed by inclination to get back (6) |
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ET (extraterrestrial, so "alien") in RAKE ("inclination") |
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| 13 | AEROGRAMME | Letter from abroad comes up in system – Margo reacts (10) |
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Hidden backwards [comes up in] "systEM MARGO REActs" |
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| 15 | APERTURES | American expert formerly not sure about Windows? (9) |
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A (American) + (ex)PERT [formerly not, i.e not EX] + *(sure) [anag:about] |
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| 16 | A-FLICKER | Lack fire, surprised in strobe light (1-7) |
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*(lack fire) [anag:surprised] |
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| 17 | BOAT TRIP | What seasick British patriot may be on (4,4) |
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B (British) + *(patriot) [anag:seasick] |
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| 19 | FELLOW | Hill that hurts man (6) |
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FELL ("hill") + OW! ("that hurts") |
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| 20 | SPINEL | Mineral crystal found in Scots pine log (6) |
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Hidden [found] in "scotS PINE Log" |
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| 22 | SCRAG | Thin person’s credit in decline (5) |
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CR (credit) in SAG ("decline") |
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| 24 | MORE | Lord Chancellor once longer (4) |
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Sir Thomas MORE was Lord High Chancellor from 1529 to 1532. |
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An enjoyable outing from Chalmie, two thirds of which were a write-in. Needed cheats to get GRAPHEME and SCRAG (where I had ‘skinny’) though.
I also relied on this blog to parse a number of answers and alert me to the theme! Must have been sleeping, but I did like MOONRAKER. Had 24d been MOORE, I might have noticed but in my defence, this actor’s body of work is mostly unknown to me.
I also liked ROSE APPLES which grow in my nearby botanical gardens and SIMON TEMPLAR (again this should have tipped me off but I did like Ian Ogilvy and later, Val Kilmer).
And AEROGRAMME, remember those?
Anyway, thanks Chalmie for an entertaining grid and Loonapick for the explanations.
This was the third puzzle of the day for me and if not the best, certainly the trickiest. I had SEA HORSES which I obviously didnt parse and never heard of SEA WOLVES-nice to fail occasionally
Thanks Chalmie and Loonapick
Really nice puzzle, tricky in places.
I assume the easily gettable and my last-one-in, A-FLICKER (16dn), should be AFLICKER?
(as the FT has regularly these kind of typographical glitches)
Yesterday Julius had a magnificent reversed hidden but today’s 13dn wasn’t bad either.
How could I have missed the theme?
Don’t ask me because I don’t know.
Many thanks to loonapick and Chalmie.
Enjoyed this. Spotting the theme might have sped up my LOI – More.
(In blog 10A bed = cot … thanks for parsing as I didn’t see this, even though not the most challenging!)
Overall an enjoyable puzzle. I missed the theme, too.
One nit to pick about 1d: this is the first time I’ve seen a clue that required an anagram of letters that were not explicitly in the clue. Even though I got the answer, I was not happy with the clue. Feel free to call me a curmudgeon.
Thanks Chalmie and loonapick
Spotted the theme as soon as SIMON TEMPLAR fell quite early in the piece, so a little annoyed with myself for messing up MORE (had GOVE, unparsed but in a list of lord chancellors). The theme helped me unravel WILD GEESE after initially entering an unparsed SNOW GEESE (well before checking whether there was a playwright called SNOWE). GRAPHENE was new.
Enjoyed untangling SEA WOLVES, EXPOSURE, STRICT and APERTURES. Finished in the SW corner with FELLOW, that WILD GEESE and SPINEL (setters are getting trickier with those hidden answers).
Why is “po” a lavatory?