Very nice puzzle – traditional in style yet fresh in execution. Thank you Artexlen.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | COLLABORATION |
Left workplace with speech on company teamwork (13)
|
| L (left) LAB (laboratory, a workplace) with ORATION (speech) all following CO (company) | ||
| 9 | PONTIFF |
Priest is quiet about squabble (7)
|
| P (piano, quiet) ON (about) TIFF (squabble) | ||
| 10 | CAPITAL |
Outdo one regularly at fault – excellent (7)
|
| CAP (outdo) I (one) then every other letter (regularly) of aT fAuLt | ||
| 11 | OUNCE |
Measure something cricket ball does getting bowled out (5)
|
| bOUNCE (something a cricket ball does) missing (getting…out) B (bowled) | ||
| 12 | SUN BONNET |
Dishevelled on nun, best headwear (3,6)
|
| anagram (dishevelled) of ON NUN BEST | ||
| 13 | STRUDELS |
Daughter admitted to mixed results making puddings (8)
|
| D (daughter) inside anagram (mixed) of RESULTS | ||
| 15 | KIMONO |
This writer’s working wearing knockout attire (6)
|
| I’M (this writer is) ON (working) inside KO (knockout) | ||
| 18 | DEDUCT |
Departs English Channel for dock (6)
|
| D (depart) E (English) DUCT (channel) | ||
| 19 | FLAGSHIP |
Fellow falls behind in important vessel (8)
|
| F (fellow) LAGS (falls behind) then HIP (in, fashionable) | ||
| 22 | TRAUMATIC |
A jerk on vehicle carrying you, reportedly painful (9)
|
| A TIC (jerk) following (on) TRSM (vehicle) containing U (sounds like reportedly, you) | ||
| 24 | BARER |
Second bishop getting cut from hairdresser is balder (5)
|
| BARbER (hairdresser) missing the second letter B (bishop) | ||
| 25 | SHOT OFF |
Close to worthless house, posh person rushed away (4,3)
|
| worthlesS (last letter, close to) HO (house) and TOFF (posh person) | ||
| 26 | RECEIPT |
Getting set-piece, right back crosses (7)
|
| found inside (crossed by…) seT PIECE Right reversed (back) | ||
| 27 | GREASE MONKEYS |
Mechanics say green smoke is unusual (6,7)
|
| anagram (is unusual) of SAY GREEN SMOKE | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | COPIOUS |
Abundant signs of debt covered by policeman (7)
|
| IOUS (signs of debt, signatures of debt) following (covered by, underneath in the grid) COP (policeman) | ||
| 2 | LENINGRAD |
European in bustling Darlington withdrawing to old city (9)
|
| E (European) inside anagram (bustling) of DARLINGtoN missing (withdrawing) TO | ||
| 3 | ABIDE |
Tolerate a US president dispatching the last (5)
|
| A then BIDEn (US president) missing (dispatching) the last letter | ||
| 4 | OFFISHLY |
Old swimmer borne by swimming stroke in cool manner (8)
|
| O (old) then FISH (swimmer) inside (borne by) FLY (swimming stroke, butterfly) | ||
| 5 | ACCENT |
Mark of character that directs stress? (6)
|
| cryptic definition – a character is a letter | ||
| 6 | IMPROVING |
Independent politician on tour making advances (9)
|
| I (independent) MP (politician) and ROVING (on tour) | ||
| 7 | NOT ON |
Unfeasible going north or south (3,2)
|
| a palindrome – can be read up the grid (north) or down the grid (south) | ||
| 8 | BLOTTO |
Drunk beginning to bet on game (6)
|
| Bet (first letter, beginning to) and LOTTO (a game) | ||
| 14 | DECOMPOSE |
Break down artistic style with male model (9)
|
| DECO (artistic style) with M (male) POSE (model) | ||
| 16 | OTHERWISE |
So wire the explosive in a different way (9)
|
| anagram (explosive) of SO WIRE THE | ||
| 17 | ELECTRUM |
Choose strange alloy (8)
|
| ELECT (choose) and RUM (strange) | ||
| 18 | DETEST |
Dislike cuddling partner keeping TV turned up (6)
|
| TED (teddy bear, cuddling partner) contains SET (the TV) all reversed (turned up) | ||
| 20 | PYRITES |
Mineral – it’s found in piles of combustible material (7)
|
| IT inside PYRES (piles of combustible material) | ||
| 21 | STAFFS |
Crooks gutted stores either side of river (6)
|
| StoreS (gutted, no middle letters) containing (either side of) TAFF (river, in Wales) | ||
| 23 | AMONG |
In area, going to avoid centre (5)
|
| A (area) then MOviNG (going) missing centre letters | ||
| 24 | BACON |
Account penned by good Parisian writer (5)
|
| AC (account) inside (penned by) BON (good, as said in Paris) |
Thanks PeeDee, I was help up for so long trying to work out if I was misspelling “cooperation” at 1A (at one stage I wondered if it would be co-operation) and this turned out to be my last answer in.
Just a small correction: your solution to 21D says “TAFF (fiver, in Wales). I think that we all know it’s not a “fiver”…
Thanks for spotting that Peter. Fixed now.
Could say the same as yesterday – pleasant, though not demanding. ELECTRUM not a familiar word to me, but blindingly obvious from the wordplay. Lots of anagrams helped me along. Enjoyed PONTIFF and DETEST and nothing to object to at all, so thanks to Artexlen and PeeDee for the blog.
Thanks to Artelexen and PeeDee. I got stuck on 23D because I initially parsed it as Agong rather than AMONG until I took a closer look. OTHERWISE smooth sailing and fun.
I was initially unconvinced by RECEIPT for ‘Getting’ at 26a, thinking it was the wrong part of speech, but I now see that ‘getting’ can be a noun. Same as Peter @1 with “cooperation” for 1a which held me up at the start.
I like those innocent looking short words that one dismisses as a definition until nothing else fits. AMONG for ‘In’ was a good example of the genre today.
Thanks to Artexlen and PeeDee
Like Perplexus@3, I didn’t know ELECTRUM – or PYRITES for that matter – but both were gettable.
LENINGRAD and GREASE MONKEYS were my picks today.
As with others, ‘cooperation’ was my first thought but its length made me cast around further to dredge up ‘lab’ and thus the fitting answer. Unlike Wordplodder, I guessed wrong at 23d, placing an unparsed ALONG for my LOI but I too enjoy the stiff challenge these short ones often present.
Thanks to Artexlen and PeeDee whose parsing required for a handful. In the blog, I think 22a should read TRAM and 3d, BIDE(n).
We may be a bit dim but we just cannot understand the parsing of RECEIPT. It’s surely a reversal of ‘piece’ inside ‘rt’ for ‘right. But the wording of the clue seems to imply that it’s ‘piece’ inside a reversal of ‘rt’.
Incidentally there are a couple more typos in the blog – ‘trsm’ instead of ‘tram’ at 22ac and an intrusive ‘n’ at 3dn.
Apart from our issue with RECEIPT a nice straightforward puzzle although we took a while to get FLAGSHIP – we thought of an unparsed ‘blighter’ (fellow) until 20dn gave us the P.
Thanks, Artexlen and PeeDee.
Allan C @3,
Our wires must have crossed re the blog. I shared your puzzlement at the wording of RECEIPT.
Whoops, I meant Allan C @7!
I agree that using “getting” as a noun meaning “receipt” is archaic at best but the parsing is clearly as in blog, i.e. a reverse inclusion.
allen_c – RECEIPT is a hidden word clue. It is hidden inside seT PIECE Right.
The clue says that if you take “set piece right” and reverse it (back) to get “thgir eceip tes” then these letters go across RECEIPT.
The “piece” inside “rt” idea is a red herring to lead you off in the wrong direction.
allan_c & Diane
It’s seT(-)PIECE Right, just a simple reversal.
Hovis – I think receipt for getting is still in common use: “on receipt of the goods….” or “on getting the goods…”
As Diane@6 implied, 3d should be A BIDEn, not A BINDEn. Otherwise, a very enjoyable puzzle and a great job of parsing in the blog. Thanks to both PeeDee and Artexlen.
Much easier to solve than parse, nonetheless, I found this very pleasant. Liked DEDUCT, OFFISHLY, and DECOMPOSE in particular. Thanks Artexlen and to PeeDee for explaining the ones I correctly guessed like AMONG, RECEIPT, and BARER.
Feeling rather foolish after succumbing to that red herring at 26A! Keeps you on your toes, this lark.
Thanks Ed@USA and Diane – when I first saw Biden mentioned in the UK newspapers I misread his name as “Binden”. I have been struggling to stop repeating this mistake ever since.
Thanks Artexlen and PeeDee
Late as usual, held up by printing a few of the puzzles from last week. This setter always has knife-edge crisp clues which allows one to confidently write in an unknown alloy such as ELECTRUM and conversely be held up for longer than it should take to get a well known AMONG. Liked the clever use of ‘in’ the definition of AMONG as well as a different meaning in FLAGSHIP.
See the newish US president has appeared for a second time in a short period.
Finished this enjoyable puzzle in the SW corner after having several attempts before seeing TRAUMATIC which enabled me to get DECOMPOSE and that tricky AMONG as the last one in.