A very nice puzzle and in a traditional style. Thank you Tees.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | RAM-RAIDER |
Robber one up holding atomic weapon the wrong way (3-6)
|
| RIDER (one up) contains (holding) A (atomic) and ARM (weapon) reversed (the wrong way) | ||
| 10 | EXIST |
Be patronising towards women denied start (5)
|
| sEXIST (patronising towards women) missing first letter (denied start) | ||
| 11 | YALTA |
Agent on vacation was resting back in Crimean resort (5)
|
| AgenT (empty of letters, having been vacated) LAY (was resting) all reversed (back) | ||
| 12 | OLD MASTER |
Mature mother cradling son in Michelangelo‘s work? (3,6)
|
| OLD (mature) MATER (mother) contains (cradling) S (son) | ||
| 13 | GUTLESS |
Find some supermarket chickens so yellow? (7)
|
| double definition | ||
| 14 | GENERAL |
Regular classes taken by inexperienced driver (7)
|
| GENERA (classes) with L (inexperienced driver) | ||
| 16 | DINGO |
Dog trained for keeping at home? Not this one (5)
|
| anagram (trained for) of DOG contains IN (at home) | ||
| 18/19 | TOP BRASS |
Blouses with underwear included for 14s? (3,5)
|
| TOPS (blouses) contains (with…included) BRAS (underwear) – generals for example | ||
| 20 | WOE IS ME |
Possibly wise move to drop very sorrowful expression (3,2,2)
|
| anagram (possibly) of WISE MOvE missing (to drop) V (very) | ||
| 21 | STEWARD |
Attendant checks returning dread in two ways (7)
|
| AWE (dread) put inside (checked, like airline baggage) ST RD (street and road, two ways) | ||
| 23 | HELLEBORE |
Torment tiresome sort outside electronic plant (9)
|
| HELL (torment) BORE (tiresome sort) contains (outside) E (electronic) | ||
| 25 | EYRIE |
Brontë heroine reserves island home for birds (5)
|
| EYRE (Bronte Heroin) contains (reserves) I (island) | ||
| 27 | LASSO |
See! That catches animal! (5)
|
| LO (see) contains (that catches) ASS (animal) – read the definition as: “here you will see a thing that catches an animal” | ||
| 28 | REHEARSED |
Went through stop light rounding car on late trip? (9)
|
| RED (stop light) contains (rounding) HEARSE (car on a late trip) – to be late is to be dead | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DRAY |
This cart carries heavy load three feet up (4)
|
| YARD (three feet) reversed (up) | ||
| 2 | AMULET |
Charm a Greek character hired out (6)
|
| A MU (Greek character) and LET (hired out) | ||
| 3 | CADAVEROUS |
Gaunt old American beneath fellow in saloon (10)
|
| O (old) US (American) follows (beneath) DAVE (fellow, man’s name) inside CAR (saloon) | ||
| 4 | ODIOUS |
Repulsive party overturned fiscal promises (6)
|
| DO (party) reversed (overturned) then IOUS (fiscal promises) | ||
| 5 | TRADE GAP |
Call for rapid movement over Brexit problem? (5,3)
|
| PAGE (call for) and DART (rapid movement) all reversed (over) | ||
| 6 | VEGA |
Star not complete convert to compassionate eating? (4)
|
| incomplete VEGAn (convert to compassionate eating) | ||
| 7 | VICTORIA |
Six American spies surrounding rocky hill station (8)
|
| VI (six) CIA (American spies) contains (surrounding) TOR (rocky hill) – railway station in London | ||
| 8 | STERILISED |
As equipment in theatre idle sister wrecked (10)
|
| anagram (wrecked) of IDLE SISTER – as in a operating theatre | ||
| 13 | GO DOWNHILL |
Degenerate duke’s command after first part of march? (2,8)
|
| Reference to the nursery rhyme The Grand Old Duke of York:
The Grand Old Duke of York |
||
| 15 | NOBLE METAL |
Men to label explosive element resistant to corrosion (5,5)
|
| anagram (explosive) of MEN TO LABEL | ||
| 17 | NEEDLESS |
Excessive to provoke fascist troops (8)
|
| NEEDLE (to provoke) SS (fascist troops) | ||
| 18 |
See 22
|
|
| 21 | SEETHE |
Set eyes on article in stew (6)
|
| SEE (set eyes on) and THE (article) | ||
| 22/18 | ACROSS-THE-BOARD |
A mongrel had to be ordered to cover king in blanket (6-3-5)
|
| A CROSS (mongrel) then anagram (ordered) of HAD TO BE containing (to cover) R (rex, king) | ||
| 24 | EROS |
Horseless champion succeeded in love (4)
|
| hERO (champion) missing H (heroin, horse) then S (succeeded) | ||
| 26 | EDDA |
Works from Sturluson in numbered days (4)
|
| found inside numberED DAys – Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic poet and historian, one of the compilers of the Edda |
Nice Sunday entertainment. Couldn’t see RAM-RAIDER for some reason. 13D favourite.
18/19 needs plural BRAS insertion.
Thanks to Tees and PeeDee
PeeDee sums this up very nicely: a pleasant set of clues; no gadgets, gizmos or themes and fun to solve. Like gwep, RAM RAIDER didn’t leap out – far from it, it was my LOI. Perhaps fixated by the possibility of RUM something (rum handle – to treat the wrong way???). Then TRADE GAP arrived as penultimate and put that idea to rest and, again like gwep, I couldn’t really see why it had resisted. I did like CADAVEROUS.
It’s curious that we refer to the works of artists as OLD MASTERS. The artists themselves – makes complete sense. But why the paintings – which doesn’t?
Thanks Tees and PeeDee
Hi Postmark, people refer to paintings by the artist’s name too – this is a Van Gogh and that one’s a Monet. The same principle is at work with GMs I suppose.
As with others, RAM RAIDER took a bit of working out and I finished off with CADAVEROUS. With the EROS underneath it, column 5 reads like it has an echo.
Took a while to get going but ended at a gallop with 28ac being my last… OLD MASTERS seemed totally acceptable.. a collection of such would refer to both artists and their work as a genre… I’d go a generation or 2 back from Van Gogh or Monet.. maybe more baroque n Velasquez .. but I’m no art historian..
Thanks Tees n Peedee
I liked the fact that some defs were cunningly disguised-yep I liked this
Thanks Tees and Peedee
Thanks to Peedee for clarifying a few parsings. Still not sure why a rider is one up? And I don’t get the dd of 13a (I see why gutless is yellow but what’s the deal with chickens?).
Hi Eric, someone riding a horse is described as “up”, in the saddle. Or motorcyclists can ride solo (one up) or with a pillion (two-up). Some supermarket chickens have had their guts removed (oven ready birds), and so are gut-less.
Took me quite a while to sort out the parsing of 9a, despite the answer being fairly obvious and I wasn’t particularly happy with the random ‘fellow’ in 3d or the drug reference in 24d. Not to worry, much of the puzzle was very enjoyable and I always appreciate a setter’s art.
Thanks to Tees and to PeeDee for the review – and the much needed parsing for 9a!
jane @ 9: H = horse is also a term in horse racing, as well as being a drug reference
A pleasant Sunday diversion. No real problems except with 9ac where we wasted some time trying to work something around a reversal of ‘a-bomb’. We particularly liked HELLEBORE, CADAVEROUS and GO DOWNHILL.
Thanks, Tees and PeeDee.
Very clever, thanks Tees. Needed a word finder to get CADAVEROUS because I didn’t know saloon=car and I didn’t like Dave=fellow. Otherwise all else down smoothly. I liked HELLEBORE, LASSO (semi-&lit?), ODIOUS, and SEETHE. Thanks PeeDee for parsing — I couldn’t fully understand GO DOWNHILL, RAM-RAIDER, or AMULET.