A sound puzzle in the usual Monday style from Silvanus.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Engineer claims idea involving old interactive websites
SOCIAL MEDIA
An insertion of O in (CLAIMS IDEA)* The insertion indicator is ‘involving’ and the anagrind is ‘engineer’.
7 Greek character from university returning cured of speech impediment?
UPSILON
A charade of U and NO LISP reversed. The twentieth letter of the Greek alphabet. Also written as YPSILON; but not to be confused with EPSILON, which is fifteen letters earlier.
8 Rural virus, mostly accompanied by stomach pain
BUCOLIC
A charade of BU[G] and COLIC.
10 Unpleasant atmosphere when old lady goes behind this writer’s back
MIASMA
A charade of I’M reversed, AS for ‘when’ and MA.
11 Backache after beginning to prune plant
PLUMBAGO
A charade of P for the initial letter of ‘prune’ and LUMBAGO. Stomach pain and backache in the first five acrosses. I’m reaching for the medicine cabinet already.
13 Mix 3 ingredients for sandwich filling
TUNA
The solution to 3 is AUNT, so it’s (AUNT)*
14 President observed going around hotel in grand fashion
WASHINGTON
A charade of SAW reversed, H, IN, G and TON for ‘fashion’.
16 Many got so confused about right art of fine dining
GASTRONOMY
An insertion of R in (MANY GOT SO)* The insertion indicator is ‘about’; the anagrind is ‘confused’.
18 Wife quits golf club in bitterness
EDGE
[W]EDGE
21 Number really discontented over worker’s status as rent payer
TENANTRY
An insertion of ANT in TEN and R[AILWA]Y [R]EALL[Y]. The insertion indicator is ‘over’.
22 Dubbing for film musical
GREASE
A dd (with the second definition giving you two options, I suppose) ‘Dubbing’ is given in Collins as an alternative to ‘dubbin’, which is the spelling I know (and the trademark).
24 Pester captain boldly going to effect military evacuation
DUNKIRK
A charade of DUN and [Captain James T] KIRK. I’m sure you knew, but Captain Kirk was at the helm of the USS Enterprise, whose mission was ‘to boldy go where no man has gone before’. Perhaps, like me, you didn’t know that Collins has:
dun v to importune for payment; to plague, pester, harass
25 Demanding individual, ultimately manager to you and me
ONEROUS
A charade of ONE, R and O for the last letters of ‘manager’ and ‘to’ and US.
26 They discern thoughts of fear stopping workers going underground
MIND READERS
An insertion of DREAD in MINERS. The insertion indicator is ‘stopping’.
Down
1 Support American being consumed by shame
SUSTAIN
An insertion of US in STAIN. The insertion indicator is ‘being consumed by’.
2 School bus many regularly filled, forming queue
COLUMN
Every other letter of sChOoL bUs MaNy.
3 Relative having a cheerful manner without any frills
AUNT
[J]AUNT[Y]
4 Anger breaks over TV chef in Maine making US trailer
MOBILE HOME
Great surface, but tricky parsing. An insertion of BILE in O for ‘over’ and [Ken] HOM for the TV chef; all that inserted into ME for ‘Maine’. The inner insertion indicator is ‘breaks’; the outer one is ‘in’. What we call MOBILE HOMES are ‘trailers’ in the US, apparently.
5 Party with peanuts provided regularly for Will, maybe?
DOCUMENT
A charade of DO, CUM for the Latin word for ‘with’ and ENT for the even letters of ‘peanuts’.
6 No fewer than fifty invading a revolutionary state
AT LEAST
An insertion of L in A (STATE)* The insertion indicator is ‘invading’ and the anagrind is ‘revolutionary’.
7 Absolute timing a duet represented
UNMITIGATED
(TIMING A DUET)*
9 Honour Holland typically announced displaying royal finery
CROWN JEWELS
A charade of CROWN and a homophone of JOOLS Holland, the musician and TV presenter.
12 Uncle, man lacking money and close to despair
PAWNBROKER
A charade of PAWN, the [chess]man, BROKE and R for the last letter of ‘despair’. ‘Uncle’ is a slang word for PAWNBROKER.
15 Briefly test coupling that holds new rotating pin
TRUNNION
A charade of TR[Y] and N inserted into UNION. The insertion indicator is ‘that holds’.
17 Go to work, perhaps?
SYNONYM
‘Go’, as cruciverbophiles will know, is a SYNONYM of ‘work’.
19 Clerics decide a Conservative is accommodating
DEACONS
Hidden in deciDE A CONServative.
20 Band of very cold weather reported
FRIEZE
A homophone (‘reported’) of FREEZE.
23 Star doesn’t go conversing in Spanish
NOVA
In Spanish, NO VA means ‘doesn’t go’. But don’t be tempted to mention the mistranslation story about the poorly selling Vauxhall Nova in Spain, or the Chevrolet Nova in Latin America. It never happened. The Vauxhall was sold in Spain as the Opel Corsa from the outset and the Chevy actually sold pretty well in those Spanish-speaking countries. It doesn’t even sound the same in Spanish: the stress in nova and no va is different. And in a nod to 17dn, if you wanted to say that a car ‘doesn’t go’ or ‘doesn’t work’, you’d most likely say something like no funciona. So no corporate embarrassment, no lost sales. Just a big, fat (but often repeated) urban myth.
Many thanks to the setter for today’s puzzle.
Defeated by TRUNNION which is new to me and I couldn’t fathom the wordplay to get there. Also, whilst I got both solutions, I was unable to parse the ‘dun’ of DUNKIRK and forgot the ‘cum’/’with’ equivalence in DOCUMENT.
SOCIAL MEDIA and MOBILE HOME vie for the honours today, although I was impressed by the hidden DEACONS and thought the anagram for UNMITIGATED very clever.
Thanks Sylvanus and Pierre
Great start to the week. Quite tough for a Monday, I thought. I did get stuck for a while and ended up resorting to a word fit to get MOBILE HOME but then managed to complete. Had to check TRUNNION was a word and that DUN could mean “pester”. My favourite was WASHINGTON.
It’s Silvanus
Pierre, thanks for your review of this enjoyable puzzle and thanks to Silvanus (not Sylvanus).
Apologies to the setter, whose name now appears correctly.
Quite tough and satisfyingly chewy to parse, I don’t think I’ve seen this setter before. Didn’t know uncle for pawnbroker or trunnion, and I thought I’d made plumbago up but no it exists.
One small correction to 21. It’s R(eall)Y not R(ailwa)Y
Thanks both.
[D’you know – I actually double checked the spelling of the setter when noting my thanks, having spelled it with an ‘i’. Saw it spelled differently at the top of the page so corrected it to a ‘y’ – and now I’m the only one who’s got the name wrong! 😀 ]
Thanks, blah, for pointing out my second typo of the morning. RAILWAY is force of habit when I see RY; the misspelling of the setter’s name is due to the fact that my copy didn’t have the setter’s name on, carelessness, and haste, having two blogs to produce in one morning. Mea culpa.
Thanks Silvanus and Pierre!
Is Jools a homophone of Jewels (I think I am mispronouncing jewels-more like joo-als)?
A rock-solid puzzle, not too demanding but enjoyable. I only vaguely recalled dun, but the Star Trek reference made the answer obvious. The only reason I know TRUNNION is from building Meccano models in my childhood. I still remember seeing it for the first time and thinking ‘What a lovely, funny word!’
A couple of new words for me (DUN as pester and TON as fashion), but other than that found this towards the easier end of the scale (which for me still means I didn’t need much help!) and enjoyable.
Put me down as another who didn’t know TRUNNION and needed to check on the ‘dun’ part of 24a. I did laugh at MIND READERS and that takes top slot for me today.
Thanks to Silvanus for the puzzle and to Pierre for the review.
Many thanks to Pierre and all those taking the trouble to leave comments.
Right in the Goldilocks zone for me. MIND READER was great. If only I could have remembered Ken Hom, though.
I’m another well beaten by TRUNNION despite correctly figuring n for new & union was involved. The usual high quality stuff from one of my favourite setters.
Many thanks.
Thanks Silvanius et Pierre late on parade as didn’t do it till after work. Mostly easy hence the Monday slot I guess but grease/frieze held me up the pattern matching there is not trivial.
I remember making trunnion caps to hold the toy cannon onto the carriage thingy in year 7 metalwork. Odd that the teacher never called the pin a trunnion.
We figured out WASHINGTON from the definition, and when reverse engineering the cryptic were very excited when we thought WASHING had been clued as “observed going around” (and very disappointed when we realised that wasn’t how the cryptic actually worked)