A really super puzzle today, heaps of interesting stuff in here. Thank you Chalmie.
This puzzle requires both cryptic deciphering skills and good general knowledge. Neither one will get you there in its own.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PIT STOPS |
Sees clue reflecting tyre changes? (3,5)
|
| a reversal (reflecting) of SPOTS TIP (sees clue) | ||
| 5 | RIPPER |
Rain oddly masks King Jack? (6)
|
| every other letter (oddly) of RaIn then PPE (personal protective equipment, masks etc) and R (rex, king) – Jack the Ripper perhaps, question mark indicates definition by example | ||
| 9 | PLEADERS |
They make cases for soft heads (8)
|
| P (piano, soft) and LEADERS (heads) – to plead a case in a court | ||
| 10 | BERING |
Compatriot of 7, explorer asleep when leaving run-down area (6)
|
| slumBERING missing SLUM – Danish explorer Vitus Bering | ||
| 12 | SNOWY |
Belgian investigator’s dog is now yours to keep (5)
|
| found inside (…to keep, that…will contain) – the dog of newspaper reporter Tintin in the Belgian comic strip | ||
| 13 | CROMLECHS |
Maybe Oliver’s unwell companion enters the French stone monuments (9)
|
| CROMwell (Oliver Cromwell maybe) missing well (un-well) then CH (Companion of Honour) inside LES (the, in French) | ||
| 14 | CRECHE |
Taps into Native American’s nursery (6)
|
| CH (cold and hot, taps) inside CREE (Native American) | ||
| 16 | RISSOLE |
Teacher served up only item on menu (7)
|
| SIR (teacher, address) reversed (served up) then SOLE (only) | ||
| 18 | ALFONSO |
Fools an ugly Spaniard (7)
|
| anagram (ugly) of FOOLS AN – a Spanish forename | ||
| 20 | BESIDE |
Next to live party (6)
|
| BE (live) and SIDE (party, in an argument for example) | ||
| 22 | ACELLULAR |
As viruses are excellent, starts to live largely underground like angora rabbits (9)
|
| ACE (excellent) then first letters (starts to) of Live Largely Underground Like Angora Rabbits | ||
| 23 | BINGO |
Throw away game after game (5)
|
| BIN (throw away) followed by (with…after) GO (game) | ||
| 24 | OPIATE |
Drug one consumed after work (6)
|
| I (one) ATE (consumed) following (after) OP (opus, work) | ||
| 25 | SEPARATE |
Individual gorillas possibly back judge (8)
|
| APES (gorillas possibly) then RATE (judge) reversed (back) | ||
| 26 | APEDOM |
Primates discommode parishioners – not all return (6)
|
| found inside (not all of) discomMODE PArishioners reversed (return) | ||
| 27 | ALLEN KEY |
It’s used to assemble friend broken knee hampers (5,3)
|
| ALLY (friend) containing (that…hampers) anagram (broken) of KNEE | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | POPISH |
Burst his devious plot in the 17th century (6)
|
| POP (burst) then anagram (devious) of HIS – the Popish Plot was a fictitious anti-Catholic conspiracy theory in the 17C resulting in the persecution and death of many Catholics | ||
| 2 | THE MOOR OF VENICE |
Overcome? If not, he could be a Shakespearean character (3,4,2,6)
|
| anagram (…could be…) of OVERCOME IF NOT HE | ||
| 3 | TODAY |
Now Bill turns up in play (5)
|
| AD (advertisement, bill) reversed (turns up) inside TOY (play) | ||
| 4 | PORSCHE |
Shakespearean lawyer from same place as 2 heard fast car (7)
|
| sounds like (heard) PORTIA (lawyer in the Merchant of Venice, the heroine posing as a man to gain influence in the courts) | ||
| 6 | IDEALISTS |
Celebrity team, cycling visionaries (9)
|
| A-LIST SIDE (celebrity team) with letters rotated (cycling) | ||
| 7 | PRINCE OF DENMARK |
Shakespearean character has no defence (almost) for breaking into clothes shop (6,2,7)
|
| anagram (for breaking) of NO DEFENCe (almost) inside PRIMARK (clothing store chain) | ||
| 8 | REGISTER |
Notice concerning wild tigers (8)
|
| RE (concerning) then anagram (wild) of TIGERS | ||
| 11 | BOHR |
Compatriot of 7, scientist starts to buy off his rivals (4)
|
| first letters (starts to) of Buy Off His Rivals – Danish physicist Niels Bohr | ||
| 15 | CANALETTO |
Part of poem about irritatingly late painter of 2’s city (9)
|
| CANTO (part of poem) containing (about) anagram (irritatingly) of LATE | ||
| 17 | CASANOVA |
Lover of 2’s city has about a month in South Africa (8)
|
| CA (circa, about) then A NOV (November, a month) inside SA (South Africa) | ||
| 19 | OWLS |
In the end, to follow illegal rules is for the birds (4)
|
| last letters (in the end) of tO folloW illegaL ruleS | ||
| 20 | BARBELL |
Fish with large weightlifting kit (7)
|
| BARBEL (fish) with L (large) | ||
| 21 | COMEDY |
Buffalo Bill perhaps entertaining setter with jokes (6)
|
| CODY (William Cody perhaps, Buffalo Bill) contains (entertaining) ME (the setter of this puzzle) | ||
| 23 | BRAHE |
Scientist, compatriot of 7, in algebra heaven (5)
|
| found inside algeBRA HEaven – Tyco Brahe, Danish astronomer and alchemist |
I agree with you preamble, PeeDee – it was a super crossword from Chalmie involving some very enjoyable unravelling of connected clues. Luckily, the two compatriots of 7 I didn’t know were accessibly parsed. The same can be said of 13a, my LOI, in which I particularly liked the ‘unwell’ part of the wordplay. This did need an online check though.
1a was my favourite with 4d and 27a not far behind.
Thanks to Chalmie And PeeDee.
Sorry, PeeDee, meant your preamble. And, as an afterthought, what a creative use for Primark!
My favs: CROMLECHS and PORSCHE.
13: A small typo in the blog: Should be LES(‘the’ in French) instead of LE…
I agree that this was excellent . I never knew that BERING was Danish and BRAHE was new to me. All very clearly and fairly clued . I was delighted to complete it.
Many thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks Chalmie and PeeDee.
A super crossword and very educational.
Thanks KVa, fixed now.
Quite a challenge I agree. A lot of entering the answer first then parsing later, but this didn’t work for PRINCE OF DENMARK for which I had no idea about the ‘clothes shop’ bit. I learnt that Portia was a lawyer and like SM @4, that the never heard of BERING was a Dane.
Thanks to Chalmie and PeeDee
For the record, I had never heard of Vitus Bering either. But I did know that a Bering Strait separates Alaska from Russia, subject of various cold-war novels and movies. So it just had to be him.
Thanks for the enthusiastic review and kind comments.
I’ll admit that I didn’t know Bering was Danish, though I was aware he was an Arctic explorer with his own Strait. With all the Danes, the information that they’re Danish isn’t necessary for solving the clue: it assists those who know and painlessly educates those who didn’t. I’d hoped to be able to get Sandi Toksvig in, but she didn’t fit. Nor did Hans Christian Andersen, and after that the other Danes I’m most familiar with are the fictional ones in Borgen.
Very good puzzle which alas was a dnf as I missed Ripper. Having given up, I even resorted to WORDsearch (having previously dismissed Ripper as the answer) and still couldn’t see the answer.
Very clever clue which sent me off in quite the wrong direction.
Thanks Chalmie for the challenge. This crossword was on the difficult end of the spectrum for me but it was ultimately rewarding. I knew BERING but couldn’t parse it. I used a word finder for CASANOVA and CROMLECHS; I should have known the latter because it was recently in a crossword. My favourites included PITSTOPS, RIPPER, CRECHE, TODAY, and COMEDY. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
A bit of a challenge but a satisfying solve. Of the two Shakespearean characters we got the Moor from the enumeration as much as from the anagram fodder; the Prince held out till we got BRAHE (and kicked ourselves for not seeong BOHR earlier). The explorer then had to be BERING but we needed Google to check his nationality. Lots to enjoy, and we’ll go with KVa@3 to nominate CROMLECHS and PORSCHE as favourites.
Thanks, Chalmie and PeeDee.
Great fun!
Thanks Chalmie and Peewee
Small point on the parsing of 27ac: I am sure you meant something like “containing” instead of “inside”.
.
Sorry PeeDee. I failed to spot an automatic miscorrection.
Thanks for spotting that Pelham. No need to apologies for any misspelling, I would not have noticed anyway.
Long-experienced readers don’t even read the individual words in a sentence, let alone the individual letters in a word, they read whole paragraphs at a time. You could make all sorts of errors in there and I would still read it without noticing any problem!
Thanks for that, PeeDee. I take your point about how people read, and I do not normally bother correcting minor typos in my own posts, but I make an exception when it comes to actual or screen names.
Thanks Chalmie and PeeDee
Actually did this on the day but it got lost in the pile and only checked it today. Did it in a long single session and certainly found it at the difficult end of this setter’s spectrum. Clever and interesting theme – both the Danish folk involved and the indirect clue that pointed us toward them. Similarly like the alluded definition of the other Shakespearean character.
BRAHE was my first one in – indelibly etched in memory from my History of Science elective subject from the Maths degree nearly 50 years ago – not sure that I remembered that he was Danish though. Needed more than the usual referential help with the clothing store, Tintin’s dog, the virus characteristic, the stone monuments and confirming that Portia’s role.
Finished in the SE corner with COMEDY and SEPARATE.