The first Monday SLEUTH for about 18 months kicks things off this week…
A fun puzzle with some slightly fiddly parsing. I have to admit to not previously knowing 4d or 10a, but the wordplay was clear enough. I assume there is something missing from 5d since the surface doesn't seem to make much sense.
Thanks SLEUTH!
ACROSS
9. A love for time gone stirring lots again (9)
NOSTALGIA
(LOTS AGAIN)* (*stirring)
10. One receiving guests with a plant (5)
HOSTA
HOST (one receiving guests) with A
11. Pair of revolutionaries taken with nationalist language (7)
CHECHEN
CHE CHE (pair of revolutionaries) with N (nationalist)
12. A person assisting dealer keeps postal order for small container (7)
AMPOULE
(A + MULE (person assisting dealer)) keeps PO (postal order)
13. Wind from the east gets to decline (3)
SAG
(GAS)< (wind, <from the east)
14. Approach taken by man with book in style that’s offensively pointed (4,3,4)
NEAR THE BONE
NEAR (approach) taken by ((HE (man) with B (book)) in TONE (style))
17. Man in Latin America has computer problem (5)
VIRUS
VIR (man in Latin) + US (America)
18. Light brown vehicle transporting oil (half obscured) (3)
TAN
TAN[ker] (vehicle transporting oil, half obscured)
19. Leave a dish with ice cream (5)
SPLIT
21. Current team sport in African country in blistering sun is out of place (11)
INCONGRUOUS
I (current) + ((RU (team sport) in CONGO (African country)) in (SUN)* (*blistering))
23. On a regular basis, crude thing needed for breaks? (3)
CUE
C[r]U[d]E (on a regular basis)
25. Long-standing rival in mess after slipping around end of game (7)
NEMESIS
(IN MESS)* (*after slipping) around [gam]E (end of)
27. Standard search with no end of calls to get floor covering (7)
PARQUET
PAR (standard) + QUE[s]T (search, with no [call]S (end of))
28. Media executive enters medical facility in large car (5)
SEDAN
ED (media executive) enters SAN (medical facility)
29. Wartime leader is vote loser after shenanigans (9)
ROOSEVELT
(VOTE LOSER)* (*after shenanigans)
DOWN
1. British scientist consuming new nibbles (6)
SNACKS
SACKS (British scientist, Oliver Sacks) consuming N (new)
2. Special person in fancy gear is paediatrician (8)
ASPERGER
(S (special) + PER (person)) in (GEAR)* (*fancy)
Hans Asperger was an Austrian paediatrician
3. Find woman without daughter favouring active involvement (3,5,2)
LAY HANDS ON
LA[d]Y (woman, without D (daughter)) + HANDS ON (favouring active involvement)
4. Player’s representative snubbed in rugby club (4)
AGEN
AGEN[t] (player's representative, snubbed)
Sporting Union Agen Lot-et-Garonne, commonly referred to as Agen, is a French rugby union club
5. A relative has endless fizzy drink when entering in this way US city (3,7)
SAN ANTONIO
(A + NAN (relative) has TONI[c] (fizzy drink, endless)) when entering SO (in this way)
6. Superficial flaw in part of a golfer’s repertoire (4)
CHIP
7. Key fare includes refined bread of old (6)
ESCUDO
(ESC (key) + DO (fare)) includes U (refined)
The Escudo was the Portuguese currency before the Euro
8. Bet name’s changed for underground site (8)
BASEMENT
15. A tense time amid awful frost to an extent (5,1,4)
AFTER A SORT
A + ((T (tense) + ERA (time)) amid (FROST)* (awful))
16. European distributed treats, yes, in comfortable situation (4,6)
EASY STREET
E (European) + (TREATS YES)* (*distributed)
17. Victor again rejecting a good number on English ship shows conceit (8)
VAINNESS
V (Victor) + [ag]AIN (rejecting A G (good)) + N (number) on E (English) + SS (ship)
20. University given right to probe serial offender as university employee (8)
LECTURER
(U (university) given R (right)) to probe LECTER (serial offender, Hannibal Lecter)
22. Revolutionary protest in Cyprus, something marked by hoots? (6)
COMEDY
(DEMO)< (protest, <revolutionary) in CY (Cyprus)
24. A complete lot shunning tips for respectable existence (6)
ENTITY
ENTI[re]TY (a complete lot, shunning R[espectabl]E (tips for))
26. Sensible artisan eats sandwiches (4)
SANE
[arti]SAN E[ats] (sandwiches)
27. Learner in school gets to make slow progress (4)
PLOD
L (learner) in POD (school)
Yes, some quite tricky parsing which made a proper solve harder than just bunging in from the definitions. I’m probably missing something myself, but although the surface of 5d didn’t read very smoothly, mainly to put the def at the end I suppose, it didn’t strike me there was something missing. Didn’t know the ‘rugby club’ either, but did remember HOSTA.
I haven’t bothered to look it up, but my only quibble was with SEDAN as a ‘large car’. I’ve always just thought of one as a car, even a fairly small one, with four doors and a boot. Alas, they now seem to be on the way out with all these SUV’s instead.
Thanks to Sleuth and Teacow
Wordplodder has said pretty much what I thought, particularly re the convoluted parsing. Solving this hurriedly meant entering many unparsed and relying on crossers, definitions and lucky guesswork. Favourites included PARQUET, SPLIT and NEAR THE BONE.
Thanks to Sleuth and Teacow.
Thanks Sleuth and Teacow
A trickier start to the week than usual with a sprinkling of new terms (HOSTA, AGEN and VIR), some general knowledge and the complex word play. Took just under the hour after work to get it out and a little longer to work out the last of the parsing.
A typical clue was SAN ANTONIO, which I guessed early on, couldn’t untangle it at first, waited for some more crossers and then unravelled the why bit later.
Finished in the NW corner with VIRUS (with its unknown Latin ‘man’), ASPERGER and the innocuous SAG which held out till the end. Very enjoyable Monday puzzle.
An enjoyable solve although we had a few minor niggles. We couldn’t see the parsing of ESCUDO, apart from ‘esc’; VAINNESS, whilst a perfectly good word, is not one that comes to mind easily in preference to ‘vanity’; and we thought SEDAN to be large only by inference since it’s American usage and American cars are usually large.
On the other hand we thought the clue for VIRUS was great, with the need to lift and separate ‘Latin America’. We also liked ASPERGER and PARQUET among others.
Thanks, Sleuth and Teacow.
Alerted to this one by a friend who knows how much I enjoy puzzles from this setter. Must admit, I thought he had his foot firmly pressed on the accelerator today, some of the parsing took a long while to unravel and there were a few bits of GK that I had to ask Mr Google about.
Top answer for me was PARQUET.
Thanks to Sleuth and to Teacow for the review.
Thanks Sleuth, that was fun for a Monday. Aside from drawing a blank on BONE I was able to solve this without much angst but I needed the blog to parse ESCUDO and SAN ANTONIO. Favourites were VIRUS and ASPERGER. Thanks Teacow for the write-up.
Got 5dn from the crossers.. even though spending quite a long time trying to wiggle it out from the surface.. no unknowns so all the rest came out .. mostly by stealth… not a swift solve by any means but thoroughly enjoyable.. faves were PARQUET, AMPOULE, n CHECHEN
Thanks Sleuth n Teacow