An enjoyable challenge from ARTEXLEN today.
FF: 9 DD: 9
I felt a couple of clues could have been better structured from a smoothness standpoint.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MOTHS |
Some time cutting out new flyers (5)
|
| MOnTHS ( some time, without N – new ) | ||
| 4 | COINTREAU |
Spirit about lively auction houses (9)
|
| RE ( about ) in [ AUCTION ]* | ||
| 9 | PERTAIN |
Apply pressure, confident to have leader ousted (7)
|
| P ( pressure ) cERTAIN ( confident, without starting letter ) | ||
| 10 | DILEMMA |
Detective book of 19th century containing large problem (7)
|
| [ DI ( detective ) EMMA ( book of 19th century, jane austen ) ] containing L ( Large ) | ||
| 11 | HORSERADISHES |
Veg maybe Arab soldiers put with meals (13)
|
| HORSE ( arab, maybe ) RA ( soldiers ) DISHES ( meals ) | ||
| 14 | REED |
Grass in river joining another from the east (4)
|
| R ( river ) [ reverse of DEE ( river, from the east -> reversed ) ] | ||
| 15 | IMPERIOUS |
Irreverent holding monarch to be tyrannical (9)
|
| IMPIOUS ( irreverent ) containing ER ( monarch ) | ||
| 18 | STRANGLER |
Learner absorbed by unknown person using restraint (9)
|
| L ( Learner ) in STRANGER ( unknown person ) ; i am iffy about this clue since ‘person’ seems to be on double duty | ||
| 19 | TWEE |
Cutesy short message on social media (4)
|
| TWEEt ( message on social media, short i.e. without last letter ) | ||
| 21 | CORROBORATION |
Wow! Hold up speech as endorsement (13)
|
| COR ( wow ) ROB ( hold up ) ORATION ( speech ) | ||
| 24 | THICKET |
Pass borders holding primarily dense mass of plants (7)
|
| TICKET ( pass ) around H ( Holding, primarily ) | ||
| 26 | ELUSION |
European and American trapped by cat escape (7)
|
| E ( european ) [ US ( american ) in LION ( cat ) ] | ||
| 27 | DREARIEST |
Barking Advertiser sacking five is most sad (9)
|
| [ ADvERTISER ( without V – five ) ]* | ||
| 28 | TIGHT |
Snug thing that regularly gets used (5)
|
| “..ThInG tHaT..”, alternate ( regular ) letters of | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MOPS |
Second piece of extra information for cleaners (4)
|
| MO ( second ) PS ( piece of extra information ) | ||
| 2 | TORCHBEARER |
Leader such as monumental New York female? (11)
|
| cryptic def; referring to the statue of liberty ( monumental new york female ) | ||
| 3 | STAIRS |
Flight from spot on vacation bearing south (6)
|
| ST ( SpoT, on vacation i.e. without inner letters ) AIR ( bearing ) S ( South ) | ||
| 4 | CONGENIAL |
Do I angle shot to one’s liking? (9)
|
| CON ( do ) [ I ANGLE ]* | ||
| 5 | INDIA |
Where you might find bits of Hindi merged with dialect (5)
|
| IN ( bits of hINdi ) DIA ( bits of DIAlect ) ; if my parsing is correct, cant say i am too fond of this clue | ||
| 6 | TALLIERS |
They reckon everyone gets drawn into rows (8)
|
| ALL ( everyone ) in TIERS ( rows ) | ||
| 7 | ELM |
Wood sprite changing gender (3)
|
| ELf ( sprite, with F – female changing to M – male ) | ||
| 8 | UNASSISTED |
Demolishing sundaes, sit on my own (10)
|
| [ SUNDAES SIT ]* | ||
| 12 | HOODWINKING |
Tricking gangster family to infiltrate branch (11)
|
| HOOD ( gangster ) [ KIN ( family ) in WING ( branch ) ] | ||
| 13 | PROSECUTED |
Writing to abridge? Editor tried (10)
|
| PROSE ( writing ) CUT ( abridge ) ED ( editor ) | ||
| 16 | PARRAKEET |
Mean with garden tool on wings of elegant bird . . . . (9)
|
| PAR ( mean ) RAKE ( garden tool ) ET ( end characters of EleganT ) ; i had to confirm the spelling with ocd as i was used to seeing this with a single R | ||
| 17 | ONLOOKER |
. . . . witness lone rook being mangled (8)
|
| [ LONE ROOK ]* | ||
| 20 | MINUET |
Gathered around in university for dance music (6)
|
| double def; MET ( gathered ) around [ IN U ( university ) ] | ||
| 22 | OUTRE |
Unusual exterior with elevated foundation (5)
|
| OUTER ( exterior ) with R ( foundation ) moving up | ||
| 23 | KNIT |
Connect Charlie on the telephone (4)
|
| sounds like NIT ( fool, charlie ) | ||
| 25 | IRE |
Passion of one topping school subject (3)
|
| I ( one ) RE ( school subject, Religious Education ) |
An initial first pass proved very shabby so I wasn’t confident of completing this grid today.
Very pleased I stuck at it, though, after a breakthrough in the SW corner enabled me to get onto the setter’s wavelength at last.
Cluing was fair in the main with just two half-parsed (4d, 12d).
Favourites included 4a, 10, 11 and 21. Finished in the top left with 1a/1d.
Thanks to Artexlen and Turbolegs.
I did enjoy this. I had a question mark against “person” doing double duty in 18a but, on reflection, I think “unknown” as a noun could possibly equate to “stranger” (He’s an unknown/a stranger). My first guess for 16d was PARAKEET but, since it didn’t fit, I left it until it became obvious that a double R spelling must be possible. I got held up a little on 20d thinking the MIT bit was the university, leaving NUE for “gathered round” but soon saw my error. Great fun, with PERTAIN & HORSERADISHES taking the most thought.
Had fun with this, though I didn’t much like 5d. At 16d I also began writing in parakeet until I realised it doesn’t fit so I checked the wordplay which clearly indicates double R so it had to be.
Thanks Artexlen and Turbolegs
Thanks Artexlen and Turbolegs
5dn: I took “bits of Hindi” to give INDI, which overlaps with DIA to give INDIA, taking “merged with” to indicate the overlap.
Thanks to Artexlen and Turbolegs. No problems for me except I had no confidence in the second R in PARRAKEET.
Fine for me except I wasn’t not entirely comfortable with the parsing of INDIA – I now like the explanation given by Pelham Barton@4, though to me the concept of merging/overlapping was a new one. All part of my education.
This was all good fun although I did have reservations and they have all been mentioned by others. My problem was IRE as I was unaware of Religious Education as a school subject (it isn’t here except in church run schools) so I spent some time trying to justify IPE!
Thanks as always to Artexlen and Turbolegs.
Mystogre, I can remember religion classes in NSW public (= state) schools in the ’70s, but it was maybe only one or two periods per term (and I think you were allowed to opt out).
And like PE ( also PT), RE was variously known as RS and RI. Both subjects appear to have all but vanished from state schools; only one was beneficial for the waistline!
Thanks Artexlen and Turbolegs
Was able to get to this backlog puzzle yesterday on a day off between contracts. Took a number of sessions to get it out but really enjoyed doing it. Good range of devices and some nice misdirection kept one on one’s toes.
Raised eyebrows with the spelling of our PARAKEETS, had not seen that variation before, but had to be so from the word play and a follow up confirmation in the dictionary.
Finished in the NW corner with PERTAIN (neat), MOPS (obvious from definition but needed some thought to work out why) and MOTHS (toyed with MOTES originally – anagram of SOME T – but struggled to map it back to ‘new flyers’ and thankfully had a re-think).