A Monday morning SLORMGORM…
A nice gentle puzzle with some lovely surfaces to ease us into the week.
Thanks SLORMGORM!
ACROSS
1. More critical members rejected pious queen (8)
SNIPPIER
(PINS)< (members, <rejected) + PI (pious) + ER (queen)
5. Calculator one needs a hand to make work? (6)
ABACUS
10. Aficionado at work takes in old fool (7)
BUFFOON
BUFF (aficionado) + ON (work) takes in O (old)
11. Sailor with anger can make you cross (7)
SALTIRE
SALT (sailor) with IRE (anger)
12. Man with a choir playing instrument (9)
HARMONICA
(MAN with A CHOIR)* (*playing)
13. A group in receipt of small benefit? (5)
ASSET
A + SET (group) in receipt of S (small)
15. Undercover cops sat about in South Island (5)
STASI
(SAT)< (<about) in (S (south) + I (island))
16. Where one might be patient if pilot has gone wild (8)
HOSPITAL
(PILOT HAS)* (*gone wild)
19. Fashion design one knight registered (6,2)
SIGNED IN
(DESIGN)* (*fashion) + I (one) + N (knight, in chess)
20. Cream cheese ultimately containing less fat (5)
ELITE
[chees]E (ultimately) + LITE (containing less far)
21. Chap in charge is extremely busy (5)
MANIC
MAN (chap) + IC (in charge)
23. Passed or past accepted as correct? (9)
OVERTAKEN
OVER (past) + TAKEN (accepted as correct)
25. Catch cold in Britain with a king, but recover (3,4)
GET BACK
GET (catch) + (C (cold) in (B (Britain) with A + K (king)))
27. Soiled relative with a nosebleed at front (7)
UNCLEAN
UNCLE (relative) with A + N[osebleed] (at front)
28. Fishermen casting line in French city (6)
ANGERS
ANG[l]ERS (fishermen, casting L (line))
29. Musicians head of label in church records (8)
CELLISTS
L[abel] (head of) in (CE (church) + LISTS (records))
DOWN
1. Section of a stage criminal bashes up (8)
SUBPHASE
2. How an air display team appears as news? (11)
INFORMATION
Double definition.
An air display team appears IN FORMATION
3. I’m not poor after organising PR campaign (9)
PROMOTION
(IM NOT POOR)* (*after organising)
4. EU concealing news primarily increases weariness (5)
ENNUI
EU concealing NN (news) + I[ncreases] (primarily)
6. When little dog rolled around in wood (5)
BALSA
(AS (when) + LAB (little dog))< (<rolled around)
7. Greek character seen in Oriental force (3)
CHI
8. Perfectly executed pudding (5)
SWEET
9. Hired gun hot to go after two idiots (8)
ASSASSIN
IN (hot) after ASS ASS (two idiots)
14. Odd scenes with a kiss creates retching in the main (11)
SEASICKNESS
(SCENES with A KISS)* (*odd)
16. Fishes obtained on wharves (8)
HADDOCKS
HAD (obtained) on DOCKS (wharves)
17. I study jerk with a large sort of twin (9)
IDENTICAL
I + DEN (study) + TIC (jerk) with A + L (large)
18. Nurse and Pole amid trees can see hills (8)
PENNINES
(EN (nurse) and N (pole)) amid PINES (trees)
21. Two old ladies hugging German is hot stuff! (5)
MAGMA
MA MA (two old ladies) hugging G (German)
22. Director of Seat (5)
CHAIR
24. Composition in film by Universal editor turned up (5)
ETUDE
ET (film) by U (universal) + (ED)< (editor, <turned up)
26. It is the name of the game (3)
TAG
Double definition/cryptic definition
"it" being another name for the children's game "tag"
I agree, this was a pleasingly fleet and gentle start to the week. No dictionary required today! Finished in the NW corner with 15a my LOI as I took a while to see the role ‘sat’ played here.
1a and 28 were probably my favourites. Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow (for parsing the obvious-to-me-now ‘pins’ part of 1a).
Good start to the week but I was held up by 1a too. It wasn’t hard to get, especially with the crossers in, but I’d never heard of (I suppose) “snippy” for ‘critical’ before and I spent some time trying to fit in “snipier”.
I liked the ABACUS cryptic def and the mental picture of ‘When little dog rolled around in wood’ for BALSA.
Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow
I thought OVERTAKEN was particularly neat in a generally pleasant exercise – good Monday fare.
Thanks for the blog , a fine puzzle . Clues were clever, neat and brief .
Yes, a pleasant solve. Snippier was also new to me…as was Subphase.
Thank you to Slormgorm and Teacow.
Many thanks to Teacow for the usual grand blog and to all who solved and commented.
Hope to see you all next time around, but until then its cheers and chin chin from me. 🙂
Thanks Teacow and Slormgorm. A very smooth solve but even after reading the blog I don’t understand a couple of the clues. In 1a, why is members = pins? Also, in 18d, why is EN = nurse?
Verbose @7. EN stands for ‘enrolled nurse’ (this abbreviation is fairly common in cryptics so worth remembering) and ‘pins’ are ‘legs’, so body members.
Thanks Hovis @8.
Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
A welcome gentle puzzle to start the week, so I can catch up on a bit of a backlog of puzzles that has built up over the past few weeks. No real holdups and really enjoyed it while it lasted. Liked the construction for GET BACK, which took a little longer than other clues and thought that the BALSA construction was quite clever too.
Finished up in the NW corner with INFORMATION, SUBPHASE (not what I was expecting for some reason) and that SNIPPIER (only recalling the ‘more critical’ definition when looking it up).