My first time blogging this setter , and came up quite short. Thanks Trunk, for the sound thumping.
FF: 8 DD :10+
I confess I needed help from the interwebs to get across the line for this challenge. Still need help with 25a.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TRUDGE |
Tramp’s flat disgusting externally/ internally (6)
|
| TRUE ( flat ) containing ( ~internally ) DG ( DisgustinG, externally ) | ||
| 4 | HERMIT |
Monk once wanting sex after that woman married (6)
|
| IT ( sex ) after [ HER ( that woman ) M ( married ) ] | ||
| 8 | ARCHIVE |
Unintroduced demo currently playing out of large record store (7)
|
| mARCH ( demo, unintroduced, without first letter ) lIVE ( currently playing, without L – large ) | ||
| 9 | CLOSE UP |
Heal completely, nearly getting out of bed (5,2)
|
| CLOSE ( nearly ) UP ( out of bed ) | ||
| 11 | CISTERCIAN |
One holding a flush, clubs and one ace being put in order (10)
|
| CISTERN ( one holding a flush ) containing [ C ( clubs ) I ( one ) A ( ace ) ] | ||
| 12 | HOBO |
Bum – there! – someone’s smells (4)
|
| HO ( there! ) BO ( someone’s smells, Body Odour ) | ||
| 13 | MAHDI |
Muslim leader out to lunch eating hot starter from Indian (5)
|
| [ MAD ( out to lunch ) containing H ( hot ) ] I ( Indian, starting letter ) | ||
| 14 | TOBOGGAN |
With runners, ride horse over on soggy ground to opening (8)
|
| [ GAN ( horse = NAG, reversed ) after BOG ( soggy ground ) ] with TO opening ( moving to the front ) | ||
| 16 | STRAGGLE |
Stray American replacing uniform in conflict (8)
|
| A ( american ) replacing U ( uniform ) in STRuGGLE ( conflict ) | ||
| 18 | LIBEL |
Defamation, I’ll be damned (5)
|
| [ I’LL BE ]* | ||
| 20 | BRIT |
Young fish dash across river (4)
|
| BIT ( dash ) across R ( river ) | ||
| 21 | OUT OF SHAPE |
Is he almost past being this unhealthy? (3,2,5)
|
| cryptic def; reverse clue for HE PASt ( almost ) -> OUT OF SHAPE | ||
| 23 | VAGRANT |
Uncertain against a let (7)
|
| V ( against, Versus ) A GRANT ( let ) | ||
| 24 | ONTARIO |
Head briefly around salt lake, for one (7)
|
| ONIOn ( head , briefly ) around TAR ( salt, sailor ) | ||
| 25 | DEXTER |
On the right-hand side and a little lower (6)
|
| ?? | ||
| 26 | WHITER |
Trace with a ruler – it’s more reliable (6)
|
| WHIT ( trace ) ER ( ruler ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TARSI |
Reduce strain on cause of pain in parts of foot (5)
|
| [ STRAIn ( reduced i.e. without last letter ) ]* – is the anagrind, ’cause of pain’ ? | ||
| 2 | UNHITCH |
Release a local jerk (7)
|
| UN ( a, i assume ‘local’ here refers to language , french in this case ) HITCH ( jerk ) | ||
| 3 | GOVERNING |
Controlling last third of active service in progress (9)
|
| [ VE ( last third of actiVE ) RN ( service, Royal Navy ) ] in GOING ( progress ) | ||
| 5 | ELLEN |
Catch-22 author uncovered name – one MacArthur (5)
|
| hELLEr ( catch-22 author, uncovered, without end characters ) N ( name ) | ||
| 6 | MOSS HAG |
Mass map makers on one type of the other broken ground in Glencoe? (4-3)
|
| M ( mass ) OS ( map makers, Ordnance Survey ) SHAG ( one type of the other? ) | ||
| 7 | THUMBNAIL |
Brief hint – album is corrupted (9)
|
| [ HINT ALBUM ]* | ||
| 10 | MISTREATS |
Fail to embrace anything pleasurable, as abuser does (9)
|
| MISS ( fail ) containing TREAT ( anything pleasurable ) | ||
| 13 | METER MAID |
Lovely Rita, setting an example, tailed woman penning note (5,4)
|
| MERMAID ( tailed woman ) around TE ( note ); from the song lovely rita by the beatles. i took the ‘setting an example’ of the clue as ‘ for example ‘ | ||
| 15 | BULLFINCH |
Billed one male – female concerned with children (9)
|
| BULL ( male ) F ( female ) IN ( concerned with ) CH ( children ) | ||
| 17 | ANTHRAX |
Case for admission, chest not over deadly disease (7)
|
| AN ( case of AdmissioN ) THoRAX ( chest, without O – over ) | ||
| 19 | BY HEART |
Not after compassion off Pat (2,5)
|
| BY ( ~ not after ) HEART ( compassion ) | ||
| 21 | OUNCE |
Force losing black cat (5)
|
| bOUNCE ( force, without B – black ) | ||
| 22 | PRIOR |
Former prince covering up endless debauchery (5)
|
| PR ( prince ) covering RIOt ( debauchery, endless ) |
Thanks for the blog and all the others this year. DEXTER is Latin for right and a small breed of cow.
6D ” the other ” is a euphemism for sex , very naughty.
Another new setter I think and a fine and challenging puzzle, CISTERCIAN was very neat indeed and I liked BULLFINCH
I parsed 1 down as TA(x) + RSI (repetitive strain injury). Got nowhere near parsing OUT OF SHAPE so thanks for the explanation.
I think this is a collaboration. The first two clues and some of the answers give hints to the two involved.
I like your parsing for 1d cruciverbophile. I didn’t see that. I also thought this was a collaboration.
Shurely TRONK or TRANK?
A great piece of collaboration from two of my favourite setters, with a fine homophone as their ‘alias’
Many thanks to Trunk and Turbolegs – happy Christmas to you all
Challenging, certainly, and thanks to the setters for a good seasonal workout. Thanks also to Turbolegs and the contributors above for helping me with some of the analysis of the rather elaborate wordplay. Merry Christmas.
Grid complete and all correct, thanks mainly due to a word wizard. Failed to parse 1d and 13d.
Thanks to Tramp, Monk, and Turbolegs.
Too hard for this little black duck.
Too hard for me. I thought a bit too much rather cumbersome clueing.
This one stretches the definition of ‘Definition’
Why is WHITER more reliable?
Thanks (I think) Trunk and Turbolegs
This was very tough, taking numerous sittings last thing on Christmas Eve and Christmas night to finally get it completed with liberal use of internet help. Was able to get all parsing apart from UNHITCH worked out.
MOSS HAG was an unknown and it took quite a bit of tracking down to find the Scottish term for the broken ground / hole from peat has been taken. Grinned when I finally saw the SHAG part of it. BRIT was a new younger fish to add to the knowledge bank.
copmus@13, WHITER was only vaguely remembered in this context and was able to find confirmation that it was a dated derogatory term for being more decent or dependable (suspect that it wouldn’t pass PC tests these days !)
Satisfying to get to the finish up in the NW corner with that UNHITCH, CISTERCIAN (that required a word finder, then saw the clever ‘one holding a flush’) and TARSI (which required all crossers in).
As a colleague noted the first two clues tell you the two setters involved in this.
I love both setters
WHITER could have been a kind of pail on the phone.
In places this crossed over the line from very difficult to downright unfair.
Very oddly, this puzzle turned up on my site as the (non-existent) Tuesday FT, which I solved, very enjoyably, and published my blog. (I hadn’t seen the the Xmas Eve publication, being otherwise engaged). Hovis immediately waded in to point out the mistake, the blog was taken down and so you’ll never know my views.
But I’m grateful to crucoverbophile for the parsing of TAxRSI, which was the only clue beyond me.
Thanks to all, and welcome to Trunk, whoever they may be. Great puzzle.