A Neo quickie
I got up a few minutes later than normal this morning, so anticipated that I might struggle to get this blog done before work. As it is, I have time for a leisurely breakfast!
Neo can sometimes be a tricky setter, but the first pass through the clues offered me enough crossing letters to allow me to complete the grid on the second pass.
Thanks, Neo.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SEYCHELLES |
On the radio: state bombs archipelago (10)
|
| Homophone [on the radio] of SAY (“state”) + SHELLS (“bomb”) | ||
| 7 | FOPS |
Fails to ignore 50 dandy dressers (4)
|
| F(l)OPS (“fails”) ignoring L (50) | ||
| 9 | OGRE |
Giant blunder on pitch disheartened Rice (4)
|
| OG (own goal, so “blunder on pitch”) + [disheartened] R(ic)E | ||
| 10 | POMERANIAN |
European Arab protecting monarch in Knock (10)
|
| OMANI (“Arab”) protecting ER (Elizabeth Regina, so “monarch”) in PAN (“knock”) | ||
| 11 | HERNIA |
An heir put out causing damage to corporation? (6)
|
| *(an heir) [anag:put out]
Corporation, in this case, refers to the belly. |
||
| 12 | URBANITE |
In Beirut perhaps an inhabitant there? (8)
|
| AN in *(Beirut) [anag:perhaps] | ||
| 13 | LOATHING |
Disgust where Heather defends expletive (8)
|
| LING (“heather”) defends OATH (“expletive”) | ||
| 15 | IRMA |
Female having Irish mother (4)
|
| Ir. (Irish) + MA (“mother”) | ||
| 17 | SCAB |
Small taxi: one shouldn’t pick it (4)
|
| S (small) + CAB (“taxi”) | ||
| 19 | RIPARIAN |
Scotsman to invest capital short after run on bank (8)
|
| IAN (“Scotsman”) to invest PARI(s) (“capital”, short) after R (run) | ||
| 22 | SHEEPISH |
Shy right away from utter nonsense (8)
|
| R (right) away from SHEE(r) (“utter”) + PISH (“nonsense”) | ||
| 23 | CALLOW |
Ruminant eating everything green (6)
|
| COW (“ruminant”) eating ALL (“everything”) | ||
| 25 | COMIC OPERA |
Mikado for instance sending one manager into stupor? (5,5)
|
| I (one) + COPER (“manager”) into COMA (“stupor”) | ||
| 26 | ACHE |
Hard to interrupt unstoppable service – it’s long (4)
|
| H (hard) to interrupt ACE (“unstobbale service” in tennis) | ||
| 27 | ISLE |
Discussed division of the church in land surrounded (4)
|
| Homophone [discussed] of AISLE (“division of the church”) | ||
| 28 | ELEMENTARY |
Simple copper perhaps suspicious when wife leaves (10)
|
| ELEMENT (“copper perhaps”) + (w)ARY (“suspicious”, when W (wife) leaves) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | EL GRECO |
Renouncing identity Coleridge confused painter (2,5)
|
| *(colerge) [anag:confused] where COLERGE is COLER(id)GE renouncing ID (identity) | ||
| 3 | CLEAN |
Completely innocent (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 4 | EMPHASIS |
Stress English politician has income support at first (8)
|
| E (English) + MP (Member of Parliament, so “politician”) + HAS + I(ncome) S(upport) [at first] | ||
| 5 | LIMBURGER CHEESE |
Member with desire: see her excited about cold dairy product (9,6)
|
| LIMB (“member”) with URGE (“desire”) + *(see her) [anag:excited] about C (cold), so LIMB-URGE-R(C)HEESE | ||
| 6 | STROBE |
Good man with garment for flasher at disco (6)
|
| St. (saint, so “good man”) with ROBE (“garment”) | ||
| 7 | FINANCIER |
Connoisseur seen around home is money wizard (9)
|
| FANCIER (“connoisseur”) seen around IN (“home”) | ||
| 8 | PHANTOM |
Ghost from Hampton wandering about (7)
|
| *(Hampton) [anag:wandering about] | ||
| 14 | TABLE WINE |
Drink with meal can give one wind, expert admitted (5,4)
|
| TWINE (“wind”) with ABLE (“expert”) admitted | ||
| 16 | SPACE-AGE |
Modern philosopher gathering momentum (5-3)
|
| SAGE (“philosopher”) gathering PACE (“momentum”) | ||
| 18 | CAHOOTS |
League accountant shows impatience when driving (7)
|
| CA (Chartered “Accountant”) + HOOTS (“shows impatience when driving”) | ||
| 20 | ANOTHER |
Second drink from anonymous person? (7)
|
| A.N. OTHER (“anonymous person”) | ||
| 21 | DIPOLE |
Detective Inspector needing European aerial (6)
|
| DI (Detective Inspector) needing POLE (“European”) | ||
| 24 | LEAPT |
Rose suddenly turned pale with temperature (5)
|
| *(pale) [anag:turned] with T (temperature) |
A couple of slips in the blog. URBANITE is an anagram of BEIRUT with AN included and in 22a should say SHEEr (utter).
Thanks, Hovis – will amend when I get back to my PC
Mostly not too difficult but not ELEMENTARY either. Working out the parsing of POMERANIAN, RIPARIAN (good word), TABLE WINE and my last in SHEEPISH gave pause for thought. Favourite was CAHOOTS for ‘League’ at 18d.
I agree with Hovis @1 that for URBANITE, ‘perhaps’ is an anagram indicator for ‘Beirut’, with ‘In’ as an insertion indicator for ‘an’.
Thanks to Neo and loonapick
I agree with Hovis re URBANITE but needed 5d’s cheese to look at that clue again and spot ‘an’ where ‘in Beirut’ wouldn’t work.
I enjoyed EL GRECO and (like Wordplodder) CAHOOTS best.
I was expecting a tricky grid from this setter so was pleasantly surprised when most of it slipped in quite smoothly. Think I was on Neo’s wavelength today.
RIPARIAN, was my LOI, guessed happily from the crossers and from ‘Ian’ where earlier I had suspected ‘Rab’. Yes, a lovely word to be stored for future reference.
Thanks to Neo and Loonapick.
Blog now amended. thanks, Hovis.
All went smoothly but for entering MOOCHER for A.N.OTHER even though I could only justify MO for “second” and thus could not get RIPARIAN. Thanks Neo and loonapick.
Thanks loona, thanks all.
Cheers
Neo
Got to this late but I hate missing a Neo crossword — it was most enjoyable with SHEEPISH, COMIC OPERA, ELEMENTARY, PHANTOM, and SPACE-AGE being favourites. Had trouble parsing RIPARIAN and TABLE WINE.Thanks to both.
Thanks Neo and loonapick
Agree that this was at the easier end of Neo’s difficulty spectrum – well at least to fill the grid. There were three that I was way off in the parsing – URBANITE (lazily using ‘in Beirut’ as the anagrist without actually checking it off), TABLE WINE (had T- A BLEW- IN E, a (one), BLEW (wind, thinking the wrong tense) in TIN (can) and then E (expert, hopefully in some single letter list)) and ANOTHER (didn’t know that Brit term for an ‘unnamed person’).
Did struggle to equate ‘philosopher’ to SAGE and PACE to ‘momentum’, but am sure that they list somewhere.
Enjoyed the challenge, finishing in the NE corner with LIMBURGER CHEESE (a new one on me), URBANITE and POMERANIAN (a native of a new area for me, that took a while to work out the word play).