A neat ZAMORCA to start the week…
I was concerned that this wasn't going to turn out to be the pangram that I was expecting, but thankfully the SW corner came to the rescue. Precise and concise clues made this a pleasure to solve.
Thanks ZAMORCA!
ACROSS
1. Pedal car has scored, entertaining 50 children! (6)
CLUTCH
(CUT (scored) entertaining L (50)) + CH (children)
4. Small staff with time aboard has ship immaculate (8)
SPOTLESS
S (small) + (POLE (staff) with T (time) aboard) has SS (ship)
9. Tenant with large unruly dog’s about to be rejected (6)
LODGER
L (large) + (DOG)* (*unruly) + (RE)< (about, <to be rejected)
10. Little girl sounded content to be made a fuss of (8)
PAMPERED
PAM (little girl) + "purred" ("sounded content")
12. Champion’s left raceway, crashing to one side (4)
AWRY
(R[ace]WAY (ACE (champion) left))* (*crashing)
13. Writer’s worried about America after January (4,6)
JANE AUSTEN
(EATEN (worried) about US (America)) after JAN (January)
15. Hamleys’ criminal confronted, consumed with embarrassment (12)
SHAMEFACEDLY
(HAMLEYS)* (*criminal), FACED (confronted), consumed
18. Crazy plan to take two drugs each on one day (8,4)
CRACKPOT IDEA
CRACK + POT (two drugs) + (EA (each) on (I (one) + D (day)))
21. For starters, papers mistaken about revolutionary plot (10)
APPETISERS
(PAPERS)* (*mistaken) about (SITE)< (plot, <revolutionary)
22. Made linguine sample for posh grocery (4)
DELI
[ma]DE LI[nguine] (sample)
24. Sailors gulped drink after Field Officer ditched (8)
FORSAKEN
(RN (sailors) gulped SAKE (drink)) after FO (field officer)
25. British family wearing team’s beachwear (6)
BIKINI
B (british) + (KIN (family) wearing II (team))
26. Mention mishandled duel in a low voice (6,2)
ALLUDE TO
(DUEL)* (*mishandled) in ALTO (low voice)
Alto = contralto, the lowest female voice
27. Admire an American hero (6)
REVERE
Double definition
Paul Revere
DOWN
1. Fail to nab limited parking space on vacation (8)
COLLAPSE
COLLA[r] (to nab, limited) + P (parking) + S[pac]E (on vacation)
2. Started down path (5,3)
UNDER WAY
UNDER (down) + WAY (path)
3. Gloated about soldiers having won (4)
CREW
C (about) + RE (soldiers) having W (won)
5. Guardian’s following article announced in UN (5-7)
PEACE KEEPERS
KEEPERS (guardians) following "piece" (article, "announced")
6. Finest cover’s a quilt made last century (3-7)
TOP QUALITY
TOP (cover) + (A QUILT)* (*made) + [centur]Y (last)
7. Greets migrating birds (6)
EGRETS
8. Policeman intercepts evil gang leader on railway track (6)
SIDING
(DI (policeman) intercepts SIN (evil)) + G[ang] (leader)
11. Accounts supported by these sliding scales (7,5)
BALANCE SHEET
supported by (THESE)* (*sliding), BALANCE (scales)
14. Close northern pass including area around trailhead (4,2,4)
NEAR AT HAND
(N (northern) + HAND (pass)) including ((AREA)* (*around) + T[rail] (head))
16. Sticky and hot taking tablets in a seedy bar (8)
ADHESIVE
(H (hot) taking ES (tablets)) in (A + DIVE (seedy bar))
17. Make the most of saying one’s leading event (8)
MAXIMISE
MAXIM (saying) + IS (ones) + E[vent] (leading)
19. Craft fair welcoming a fine fibre for weaving (6)
RAFFIA
(FAIR)* (*craft) welcoming (A + F (fine))
20. American city rents about to rise out of control (6)
SPIRAL
(LA (American city) + RIPS (rents))< (<about)
23. Greatness of Velázquez isn’t part of retrospective (4)
SIZE
([velazqu]EZ IS[nt] (part of))< (<retrospective)
Thanks Zamorca and Teacow
Another good start to the week – not too hard but with another grist, particularly in the word play to keep it very interesting.
Liked JANE AUSTEN, CRACKPOT IDEA and the clever CREW.
Started off with EGRETS and finished in tge NW corner with the clever CLUTCH and COLLAPSE.
Agree this was a nice start to the week and spotted the pangram. Favourites include: LODGER, AWRY, COLLAPSE & CREW.
I agree about the good start to the week, helped by spotting that it might be a pangram fairly early on
Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow
A very enjoyable puzzle – thanks Zamorca, and Teacow. Is it just me that finds a pangram particularly appealing when the 26 letters can be (a) selected from 26 different words (e.g. no QUIZ here!) and (b) such that at least one is picked from every row and column? Oh, it is just me 😉
Yet another good Monday puzzle-one teeeny quibble -choir parts are written SATB so alto is relatively high.
But then an alto flute is a great instrument so no foot fault
Thanks
I agree with Copmus@5 that alto is not really a low voice; the low voices are bass and baritone. And I think 9a would have been better without the ‘s in the clue. But maybe I’m just grumpy because I could not get 1a, despite the clue being perfect.
Thanks, Zamorca and Teacow.
We found this a little tricky in places, mainly in parsing the answers. No trouble with 13ac, though, and we liked the fact that ‘writer’ clued an author rather than the setter or a writing implement.
Copmus and EdK @5&6: ‘Alto’ is actually a contraction of ‘contralto’, i.e. ‘against alto (= high)’ and it’s the lower of the two upper voices. Actually, alto parts are often sung by mezzo-sopranos these days but a true contralto sounds quite different.
allan_c@7: Certainly when used as a female voice, Alto is a contraction of contralto, but the word is also used in its own right for a male voice. The traditional cathedral choir has boys singing the top part (trebles) and men singing the alto, tenor, and bass parts. A lot of choral music sung by community choirs has women singing the parts that were originally written with male altos in mind. For example, Mendelssohn’s Elijah was given its first performance at the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival in 1846. I have it on good authority that the alto section of the choir on that occasion was all male and 60 strong.
Thanks Zamorca, I enjoyed this. There were many clever bits here — I liked AWRY, JANE AUSTEN ( great surface), CRACKPOT IDEA, NEAR AT HAND, and SPIRAL. Thanks Teacow for parsing and explaining CLUTCH and BALANCE SHEET for me.
When I pronounce “pampered”, the second syllable contains a schwa. Does anyone say “purred”?
The “on vacation” floored me for 1dn… but now filed away.. to be forgot anon… I just thought “alto” was lowest of female voices so that didn’t upset me…
Thanks Zamorca n Teacow
Geoff@10: I happen to be fairly easy going on homophones, but your comment has made me look at the clue again. Is not “sounded” doing double duty, both as the homophone indicator and an essential part of the definition of “purred”?
Thanks, Zamorca and Teacow. NW corner stumped me; AWRY last one in. As a singer, I think of alto as the lowest female voice, so in that sense it’s okay. (I’m a bass.)
Pelham Barton @12, yes, I guess it is doing double duty, but I maintain that such a “loose” homophone is disappointing. Too many cryptic crossword compilers do it. If anyone pronounced that word pampurred, they would surely be regarded as a little odd, wouldn’t they? End of grumble.