A Monday morning offering from ZAMORCA….
A jolly fine puzzle, and a pangram too, as one has come to expect from this setter. 21d and 13d took a while to parse, and 6d took a while to solve (I was helped in the end by thinking that there was no W in the grid, having failed to notice the one in 16d). All good fun, and plenty of nice clues – 2d probably being my favourite because of the surface.
Thanks ZAMORCA!
ACROSS
1. Playground mat is a basic shape (9)
RECTANGLE
REC (playground) + TANGLE (mat)
6. Finally getting detailed map of the world (5)
ATLAS
AT LAS[t] (finally, getting de-tailed)
9. Discovered in Agra – illustrious vessel (5)
GRAIL
[a]GRA IL[lustrious] (discovered in)
10. Set a higher standard at university, you once devoured advanced books (2,3,4)
UP THE ANTE
UP (at university) + (THEE (you, once) devoured (A (advanced) + NT (books)))
11. Boring Saab’s restored and working with new interior, free of moisture! (3,2,1,4)
DRY AS A BONE
DRY (boring) + (SAAB)* (*restored) and ON (working) with [n]E[w] (interior)
12. Magistrate carrying case of evidence gets military vehicle (4)
JEEP
JP (magistrate) carrying E[videnc]E (case of)
14. Academic’s an ethicist primarily, disrespecting all that’s sacred (7)
PROFANE
PROF (academic) + AN + E[thicist] (primarily)
15. Puts child to bed and has a good meal (5,2)
TUCKS IN
17. Doctor keeps providing iron and partner disagrees (7)
DIFFERS
(DR (doctor) keeps (IF (providing) + FE (iron))) and S (partner, to North in bridge)
19. Reject call quite regularly coming in (4,3)
SHUT OUT
SHOUT (call), [q]U[i]T[e] (regularly) coming in
20. Used to do hair with firm/medium brush initially (4)
COMB
CO (firm) + M (medium) + B[rush] (initially)
22. Husband has admirer thrown out by valet (7,3)
MARRIED MAN
(ADMIRER)* (*thrown our) by MAN (valet)
25. Reserve judgment in conversation about rite going ahead (9)
RETICENCE
"sense" (judgment, "in conversation"), (RITE)* (*about) going ahead
26. Make a sculpture with victory in mind (5)
CARVE
V (victory) in CARE (mind)
27. Woman turned back crossing hill in downpour (5)
STORM
(MS)< (woman, <turned back) crossing TOR (hill)
28. Took time off and gardened outside, working daily (9)
HOLIDAYED
HOED (gardened) outside (DAILY)* (*working)
DOWN
1. Hard to manipulate the unconscious mind (5)
RIGID
RIG (to manipulate) + ID (the unconscious mind)
2. Fun putting mad record up loud (5,4)
CRAZY GOLF
CRAZY (mad) + (LOG)< (record, <up) + F (load)
3. Experienced sailors head off charts, each taking on crew (4,6)
ABLE SEAMEN
[t]ABLES (charts, head off) + EA (each) taking on MEN (crew)
4. Protest ultimately ending with street fight (7)
GRUMBLE
[endin]G (ultimately) with RUMBLE (street fight)
5. Court pursues former lover over money that’s gone forever (7)
EXTINCT
CT (court) pursues (EX (former lover) over TIN (money))
6. Once more in decline, leader drops to last place (4)
ANEW
WANE (decline) leader drops to last place (W moves to the end)
7. Take a breather before final decisive strike (5)
LUNGE
LUNG (a breather) before [decisiv]E (final)
8. Ponder overnight and see point student laboured (5,2,2)
SLEEP ON IT
(SEE POINT + L (student))* (*laboured)
13. Agreed clear-cut points caught by journalist (10)
ACQUIESCED
AQUI[t] (clear, cut) + ES (points) + C (caught) by ED (journalist)
14. Sure complication follows half of orthopedic foot treatments (9)
PEDICURES
(SURE)* (*complication) follows [ortho]PEDIC (half of)
16. Be kind when I cry terribly at end of play (4,5)
SHOW MERCY
(ME (I) + (CRY)* (*terribly)) at end of SHOW (play)
18. Stay loyal (7)
STAUNCH
19. Fantastic laser playing over old city (7)
SURREAL
(LASER)* (*playing) over UR (old city)
21. Time and time again fell short framing slogan (5)
MOTTO
(T (time) and T (time again)), MOO[r] (fell, short) framing
23. Loads of space inside to have a doze (2,3)
NO END
EN (space, in printing) inside NOD (to have a doze)
24. Sun’s shown up endless dirt and waste on top of water (4)
SCUM
S (sun) + (MUC[k] (dirt, endless))< (<shown up)
This was quite the gentlest, swiftest route to a pangram I can recall.
A pleasingly steady write-in that was light on its toes, just right for a Monday.
2d, my LOI, was also my favourite.
Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow for the blog.
6d was my LOI. That took a bit of thought. ACQUIESCED took a little while to get the clear-cut part and was held up thinking MO was one of the “times” in MOTTO. Spotted the pangram but didn’t help with 6d.
6d beat me but rest of puzzle was quite easy. Thanks to both setter and blogger for a pleasant start to the week.
Had much in common with all three commenters and with Teacow. Missed the W in 16d which allows me to finish with 6d in belief that it must have a W! MO as a “time” in 21d held me up as I could not parse. Otherwise plain sailing with 3d. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow.
Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow. I needed help parsing ACQUIESCE and MOTTO and needed all the crossers to finally get MARRIED MAN.
As usual, completely failed to notice the pangram, but this was almost entirely a quick write-in, so wasn’t giving it too much thought. The only one which took a couple of minutes working through the alphabet was 6d, which was my LOI, too. Favourite was NO END, which was briefly misleading.
Well, I got in a bit of a mess after writing in SALERNO at 19d. It seemed obvious at the time – an anagram (“fantastic”) of “laser” with “on” (“playing”) reversed (“over”), with the definition being “old city”. I thought it was nice to have a change from “old city” being Ur, as it usually is. And then it turned out that it was.
All good but I’d be lying if I said rapid.. got 13d through the definition… so.. thanks for the parsing… there was a panagram!? Ah well.. next time..
Thanks ZAMORCA n Teacow
That was fun, thanks Zamorca. I know by now to expect a pangram from this setter and that helped with 13d, one of my last ones in. Favourites were ATLAS, PROFANE, CARVE, and MOTTO. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
Thanks Zamorca and Teacow
Felt like it was quite straightforward, but it took a little longer than normal with a few distractions and some trouble justifying the last couple in – ACQUIESCED and SHUT OUT. Was more comfortable with RECTANGLE (although not with correct parsing – lazily considered just the shapes of a playground or mat) and needed the blog to finish off the MOO? bit of the MOTTO parsing.
A lot of single letters in the construction of clues which is a bit of a trait of this setter – with a lot of different ways of instructing on how to get them.
Grinned at MARRIED MAN when the penny dropped.