Solid cluing with the occasional flash of wit.
I particularly enjoyed the image of Champagne-filled opera-goers desperate for the missing Portaloos. Thanks, Leonidas.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GASPER |
Smoke fish including small gutted plaice (6)
|
| GA.R (‘fish’) includes S[mall] + P{laice}E, eviscerated. | ||
| 5 | WOODCHIP |
Court near Washington with cool wallpaper (8)
|
| WOO (to ‘court’) + DC (‘Washington’) + HIP (‘cool’). | ||
| 9 | INTREPID |
Setter foolishly printed in bold (8)
|
| I (1st person, ‘setter’) + anagram (‘foolishly’) of PRINTED. | ||
| 10 | TUMBLE |
Roll of midriff meeting elbows halfway around (6)
|
| TUM (‘midriff’) + 1st half of ‘ELBows’. reversed. | ||
| 11 | EXTEND |
Offer solution to (E x 10) + (50 x 10) (6)
|
| E + X + TEN + D (Roman 500, = 50 x 10). | ||
| 12 | LET LOOSE |
Release hired toilets before end of Glyndebourne (3,5)
|
| LET (‘hired’) + LOOS (‘toilets’) + last of ‘glyndebournE’. | ||
| 14 | GRAYSON PERRY |
Artist knocking back Cornish cheese with his French drink (7,5)
|
| Reversal of YARG (‘Cornish cheese’) + SON (Fr. ‘his’) + PERRY (pear ‘drink’). | ||
| 18 | INDEPENDENCE |
Fresh new epic needed about national freedom (12)
|
| Anagram (‘fresh’) of N[ew] + EPIC + NEEDED around N[ational]. | ||
| 22 | DISCIPLE |
Devotee putting impulses regularly on record (8)
|
| DISC (‘record’) + alternate letters of “ImPuLsEs’. | ||
| 25 | ASYLUM |
Safety area swiftly evacuated in front of chimney (6)
|
| A[rea] + outside letters of ‘SwiftlY’.+ LUM (Scots ‘chimney’). | ||
| 26 | ACCORD |
Agree places centrally next to rows three or four? (6)
|
| Middle of ‘plACes’ + C OR D (3rd or 4th rows in e.g.theatre). | ||
| 27 | STERNUMS |
What adders do to swallow bird bones (8)
|
| Adders-up do S.UMS, which surrounds TERN (‘bird’). | ||
| 28 | MENSWEAR |
Some women swearing in M&S department (8)
|
| Included in ‘woMEN SWEARing’. | ||
| 29 | LAHORE |
City mayor undone finally after halo slipped (6)
|
| Anagram (‘slipped’) of HALO plus last letters of ‘mayoR’ & ‘undonE’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ANNEXE |
The second of Henry’s cattle skinned in side building (6)
|
| ANNE (Boleyn, 2nd wife of HVIII) + internal letters of ‘oXEn’. | ||
| 3 | PORBEAGLE |
Shark left tailless on famous ship . . . . (9)
|
| PORt (‘left’, de-tailed) + BEAGLE (Darwin’s famous ship). | ||
| 4 | REPUDIATE |
. . . . floating at pier due for cast off (9)
|
| Anagram (‘floating’) of AT PIER DUE. | ||
| 5 | WADDLES |
Shuffles when top of bandage slips down (7)
|
| sWADDLE (to ‘bandage’), its ‘S’ descended to last place. | ||
| 6 | OCTET |
Composition of film that’s taken under a month (5)
|
| OCTober + ET (‘film’). | ||
| 7 | COMBO |
Trump’s hairstyle cryptically is a mixture of things (5)
|
| The Donald famously sports a comb-over hairstyle, so, cryptically, COMB + O[ver] (as in cricket). | ||
| 8 | ILLUSORY |
Exotic lily ours? It’s not real (8)
|
| Anagram (‘exotic’) of LILY OURS. | ||
| 13 |
See 19
|
|
| 15 | NONPAREIL |
Best apron tangled in twisted line (9)
|
| Nested anagrams (‘tangled’, ‘twisted’) of APRON + LINE. | ||
| 16 | EVERY INCH |
A German child assimilating so thoroughly (5,4)
|
| E.IN (‘a’ in German) + CH[ild] surround VERY (‘so’). | ||
| 17 | ENCIRCLE |
Ring nurse over poorly cleric (8)
|
| E.N. (a qualified ‘nurse’) + anagram (‘poorly’) of ‘CLERIC’. | ||
| 19, 13 | PHILIP |
Duke in character starts to laugh improvising part (6)
|
| PHI (Gk. ‘character’) + 1st letters of last 3 words. The late Duke of Edinburgh, of course. | ||
| 20 |
See 23
|
|
| 21 | FULMAR |
Seabird mostly stuffed with butter that’s turned (6)
|
| Most of ‘FUL{l} (‘stuffed’) + reversal of RAM (a butting animal). | ||
| 23, 20 | CROSS-DRESSER |
14 is one annoyed with American drawers (5-7)
|
| CROSS (‘annoyed’) + DRESSER (chest-of-drawers in U.S.), for the flamboyant potter at 14. | ||
| 24 | PADRE |
Priest keeping notebook on his own class? (5)
|
| PAD (‘notebook’) + R[eligious] E[ducation]. |
I think the blog for 15d should make it clearer that it is an anagram of APRON inside an anagram of LINE.
I enjoyed this tussle, taking a little longer than my normal solve. I think I learned GASPER & FULMAR from previous cryptics. The wife of 14a was in Countdowns dictionary corner not long ago.
To Hovis @1:
Picky as ever, Hovis. You’re right, of course, so I’ve added a ‘nested’ to the blog.
This witty puzzle from Leonidas was really something to get your teeth into, including my overall favourite, 14, with its ploughman’s-style surface. The artist here was not the first entertainer I thought of with that name but the enumeration ruled that one out. Liked 5, 12 and 27 too.
A really good mix of clues and original wordplay.
Too bad I didn’t see both halves of the unknown 3d – another unusual species to add to the growing list.
Thanks to Leonidas and Grant .
Very enjoyable as per usual from Leonidas. Never heard of GASPER but guessed it from the word play. Had to look up a list of Cornish cheeses to get GRAYSON, but I managed everything else without aids.
Number 10 from NH, if anyone is interested.
Third out of three hard ones in the Fifteensquared stable today. This was very entertaining, even if some of the cultural references, eg GRAYSON PERRY being a CROSS-DRESSER, passed me by. A few not so common words as well; I just remembered PORBEAGLE, but WOODCHIP as a type of ‘wallpaper’ had to go in from wordplay.
Favourites were GASPER (a descriptive word), the surface for TUMBLE and my last in, COMBO.
Yes, number 10 from Leonidas, plus (I think) another 24 from Wire in the Indy, NNI @4. I can understand if you don’t wish to reveal his/her identity, but are you able to say who “NH” is?
Thanks to Leonidas and Grant
Today I failed on 3 down and 14 across, even with “–a-son perry” and “por-e—e” and admit I had never heard of either of them or of “yarg”. The rest was fun if challenging. Thanks Leonidas and Grant.
Lovely crossword and a very thorough blog, thank you.
I think all my favourites mentioned above, perhaps STERNUMS was the pick for me.
I would have thought the plural of sternum was sterna.
AID @ 8: both are acceptable.
WordPlodder @5:
See the S&B York 2021 (29/30 Oct) post (in Announcements, or at the top of Fifteensquared’s home page), ‘comment’ @28.
This was another very fine Leonidas crossword, one of those setters who think precision does matter!
[that said, I did like our setter’s previous puzzle even more]
Many thanks to Grant & Leonidas.
That took awhile — there were some words I didn’t know but I could get from the wordplay — GASPER, WOODCHIP (as wallpaper), and FULMAR; other unknowns required outside help such as GRAYSON PERRY and PORBEAGLE. Overall it was a nicely crafted crossword with LET LOOSE, EVERY INCH, and PADRE being favourites. Thanks to both.
A lovely challenge as ever from Leonidas. A slight tussle with 3d but very gettable from the wordplay.
[To Sil @10, a belated thanks].
Thanks Leonidis and Grant
A day behind again – damned work ! Was only able to grab short gaps throughout the day to get this one done and enjoyed it immensely even though it took most of the day to finish.
Had to resort to a word finder to get WOODCHIP as the penultimate entry – had never heard of that version of wallpaper. Also finished with COMBO and chuckled when I worked out the logic of it. GASPER was commonly used down here when smoking was more widely practiced in my circle. STERNUMS did raise an eyebrow, being more familiar with STERNA, but as Simon says, there it was as an alternative in the dictionary. Had to look up who GRAYSON PERRY was and that immediately led to the 23d, 20d answer.