The puzzle is available here.
Hi gang. Always love a Morph, as he can be relied upon to PLAY A BLINDER. My favourite today was 9a, TROUSER. Thanks Morph!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators
Across
1a Zombie family member’s backing off, clutching something red (9)
AUTOMATON
AUNt (family member) without the last letter (backing off) containing (clutching) TOMATO (something red)
6a Fed up with education after exam (5)
SATED
ED (education) after SAT (exam)
9a Appropriate to wake between 3 and 5 in afternoon (7)
TROUSER
ROUSE (to wake) between letters 3 and 5 in afTeRnoon
10a Put off touching vegan food (7)
REPULSE
RE (touching, regarding) + PULSE (vegan food)
11a Packing items of PPE, they’ll help deliver jabs (6,6)
BOXING GLOVES
BOXING (packing) + GLOVES (items of PPE)
14a Smooth operator taking one in – I’ll find belief in odd places (9)
PLAUSIBLE
PLUS (operator) around (taking … in) A (one) + I (from the clue) + odd letters of (… in odd places) BeLiEf
16a Part of supermarket beer is stocked (5)
AISLE
ALE (beer) with IS inside (stocked)
17a Sharper knife’s lost one time (5)
CUTER
CUT[t]ER (knife) has lost one T (time)
18a Short position with private knowledge, obtaining debt pledges – sneaky! (9)
INSIDIOUS
All but the last letter of (short) INSIDe (position with private knowledge) + IOUS (debt pledges)
19a Take on role of a Birmingham criminal, perhaps, and perform brilliantly (4,1,7)
PLAY A BLINDER
To PLAY A BLINDER could perhaps mean to take on a role in Peaky Blinders TV series, which takes its name from a real Birmingham street gang of the same name. I was amused to read that one of their rival gangs was the Sloggers, which my mental autocomplete naturally caused me to read as Sloggers and Betters …
23a Old empress abandoning zither’s beginning another instrument (7)
OCARINA
O (old) + C[z]ARINA (empress) removing (abandoning) Zither’s first letter (beginning), giving us a different instrument
24a Tea will put a smile on feelings of vexation (7)
CHAGRIN
CHA (tea) + GRIN (smile)
25a Fed‘s letter intercepted by another (5)
EATEN
EN (letter) with the insertion of (intercepted by) ATE (another – another “fed”, not another letter, which took me forever to work out)
26a Falls in river with utmost style (9)
TRENDIEST
DIES (falls) in TRENT (river)
Down
1d One opposed to having colonist on top of column (4)
ANTI
ANT (colonist) goes above (on top of, in a down entry) I (column)
2d Archaic word for U K (4)
THOU
A double definition, the space in between which not only made it easier to solve but possible to underline in the blog!
3d Large study of participation in church services? (4,11)
MASS OBSERVATION
With Mass being a church service, the whole clue could describe a MASS OBSERVATION of MASS OBSERVATION. … which is something I now feel needs to exist
4d Bones of sailors on bottom of Mississippi (5)
TARSI
TARS (sailors) on the last letter (bottom) of MississippI
5d No herons _____ to be seen? Never mind (2,7)
NO REGRETS
NOR EGRETS
6d Being flexible with worker lacking aspiration, cut workforce down – that’ll regulate prices (6,3,6)
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
SUPPLY (being flexible) + (h)AND worker without the initial H (lacking aspiration) + DE–MAN (cut workforce) + D (down)
7d Set of novelties I flogged (10)
TELEVISION
NOVELTIES I anagrammed (flogged)
8d Bandage ear, say, knowing what to put on (5,5)
DRESS SENSE
DRESS (bandage) + SENSE (ear, say)
12d A copper’s arranged to take place as star investigator? (5,5)
SPACE PROBE
A COPPER‘S anagrammed (arranged) + BE (to take place)
13d Sex coming up in wedding photos perhaps results in fighting between partners? (7,3)
MARTIAL ART
IT (sex) is reversed (coming up) in MARITAL (wedding) ART (photos perhaps)
15d Inspired Messiah? Not him, sick inside and tense (9)
BRILLIANT
BRIAN (Messiah? Not him: Monty Python’s Brian) with ILL (sick) inside + T (tense)
20d Specialised market in organic hemp (5)
NICHE
The answer is hidden in orgaNIC HEmp
21d Press cull removing head (4)
URGE
pURGE (cull) taking off the first letter (removing head)
22d Nose endlessly runs with it (4)
SNOT
NOSe without the last letter (endlessly) is anagrammed (runs) + ‘T (it). Perhaps not the best image to finish on! I can’t resist the opportunity to remedy that with just one more of these:
Somehow I finished this but not fully understanding exactly half of the 28 clues (a record for me) so too many to elaborate on. Thanks Morph and Kitty.
This was nicely challenging and a lot of fun with the very clever TROUSER my favourite.
I always struggle to equate FEED and EAT. After all “I fed the cat” has a rather different meaning to “I ate the cat” (sorry Kitty!) However I suppose they can be synonymous in some contexts.
I am not sure about ‘T = IT outside of Yorkshire which made 22d my last one in.
Many thanks to Morph and to Kitty.
25a I still thought it was en with the insertion of a te but I agree your parsing works as well.
Hi Rabbit Dave @2 🙂 . Try feed and eat as intransitive verbs. Then no cats need be harmed in the making of an example!
I also wondered about ‘t, but it has (as you would expect) dictionary support. You will be thinking of the quite different Yorkshire t’ (not Yorkshire Tea, which is quite different again!). I suppose I have become used to this sort of thing. I remember i’ for IN holding me up over in barred puzzle land recentlyish.
Thanks, Kitty @4. I’ve had quite a morning mixing up transitive and intransitive, and ‘t and t’. 🙂
There were times when I struggled with Morph (I mean, of course, his crosswords) but not with this one.
However, I failed miserably on 22dn.
I entered UNIT – it fits the construction but has nothing to do with ‘Nose’, and so I knew something was wrong!
Earlier in the week, someone used A = ‘across’ and I didn’t like it.
Morph does a similar thing in 6dn (D = ‘down’), something you see more often, but I still didn’t/don’t like it.
For me, best clue by far the brilliant 11ac (BOXING GLOVES), closely followed by 13dn (a nice find).
But all pretty good (except, for me, 22dn).
Great to have a crossword that isn’t full of clergymen, soldiers, chess pieces and earls & dukes!
Thanks to Kitty for the blog & Morph for today’s entertainment.
Certainly needed Kitty’s words of wisdom to help untangle some of the parsing – 25a & 22d in particular.
Tops for me today were REPULSE, PLAY A BLINDER & ANTI – all three of which made me laugh.
Not an easy solve by any means but very enjoyable, with the exception of 22d!
Many thanks to our super cat lady for the excellent review and to Morph for the challenge.
Not a gentle Sunday stroll at all. I missed the parsing of EATEN, like Kitty looking for another ‘letter’ rather than another ‘fed’ and just parsed 22d as a cryptic def without “appreciating” (though I’m not sure if that’s the right word!) the wordplay component. Wouldn’t have had a hope with T for ‘it’ anyway. Like Sil @6, I just about put in ‘unit’ but couldn’t make it fit with ‘nose’ as a def.
The surface for MARTIAL ART was my favourite today, closely followed by TROUSER.
Thanks to Morph and Kitty
Isn’t “plus” an operand? Never heard it called an operator, which seems ill-fitting and clumsy, if that’s how it’s used.
Thank you kitty for several of the parsings, which were more elusive than the solutions.
More taxing than usual for a Sunday, but enjoyable. Had to be SNOT, but I didn’t parse the ‘t/t’.
3D (“large study”) could be a reference to the UK organisation begun in 1937 – see Wiki, sorry I’m no good with links.
Thanks to Morph and Kitty.
[Those unfamiliar with ocarinas might like to see .
Their own web site is no longer there, so I think they must have disbanded.]
https://youtu.be/zOTD6xYapnM
My previous message included this link, but it vanished when I posted the message
Another unit, though I corrected it finally while remaining unsure of the t. I share Sil’s slight disappointment at seeing down for d but can’t justify the feeling.
I wondered whether the space in U K was setter or editor. It rather gave the game away. My first encounter with Morph was reading a discussion about his clue 0.9 (3) for NIX. Compared to that I think an unseparated UK would have been a doddle.
Otherwise all very enjoyable and surprisingly Sundayish. AUTOMATON TROUSER NO REGRETS and INSIDIOUS my picks.
Thanks S&B
James, thank you for the 0.9 clue! That’s completely brilliant. I enjoyed this puzzle very much, but could not work out where the T came from in 22d. I was another “A TE” too, but Kitty’s explanation is much better. Thanks very much to Kitty and Morph.
Is ear (a) sense? I liked the use of Brian and the marital art.
We worked steadily through this and completed it as we thought – but like Sil@6 had UNIT for 22dn. Lots to like, though, including BOXING GLOVES, TROUSER and ANTI. Thanks, Morph and Kitty.
Ian SW3@9: According to Chambers an operand is something that is operated on; a plus sign indicates the operation required, i.e. it is the operator.
As usual the first time I try a new (to me at least) setter I fail miserably, some likes, a few more dislikes but that’s probably just me getting used to a new style. EATEN jumped out straight away while many others that should have been solved remained unclear. Hey hoe win some lose some.
Thanks Kitty and Morph
Petert @ 15
You could say someone has an ear for, say, music or languages, which equate to them having a sense / flair / or aptitude for the subject.