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Hi everybody. I enjoyed this puzzle, most of which went in smoothly until at 5d I had a mental block and impatiently used a wildcard search.
The combination of hidden word and insertion in 10a was something I don’t recall seeing before, and I liked that. My favourite clue today was probably the simple but elegant 13a. Thanks Kairos!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
Across
8a Citizen having say in veto (8)
NEGATIVE
NATIVE (citizen) containing (having … in) EG (say)
9a Set in middle of the forest (6)
HARDEN
The middle letter of tHe + ARDEN (forest)
10a Stays with rector in part of Orinoco settlement (6)
CORSET
R (rector) is inserted in part of OrinoCO SETtlement
11a Commander has simple beef (8)
COMPLAIN
COM (commander) + PLAIN (simple)
12a Sweep around everyone in dance venue (8)
BALLROOM
BROOM (sweep) around ALL (everyone)
13a Live on edge (6)
RESIDE
RE (on) + SIDE (edge)
14a A far larger squat is converted into tourist attraction (9,6)
TRAFALGAR SQUARE
A FAR LARGER SQUAT is anagrammed to give (converted into) the answer
18a Saints accepting high church feature (6)
STALLS
S and S (saints) around (accepting) TALL (high)
20a Sad description of featherless duck? (8)
DOWNCAST
A duck with its feathers shed might be said to have had its DOWN CAST
23a Individual against replacing detective’s building material (8)
CONCRETE
[dis]CRETE (individual) with CON (against) replacing DI’S (detectives)
24a See river terrace (6)
EXETER
EXE (river) + TER (terrace). An ecclesiastical see (which, for a nice change, is not Ely)
25a Egg scandal involves Kairos (6)
GAMETE
–GATE (scandal) contains (involves) ME (Kairos)
26a Choreographed adept can perform this way (3,5)
TAP DANCE
An anagram of (choreographed) ADEPT CAN
Down
1d What may be worn by Iron Lady (6)
FEDORA
FE (iron) + DORA (lady)
2d Where lines of tenors may be seen (4,4)
BASS CLEF
A cryptic definition
3d Brother describes leading restaurant (6)
BISTRO
BRO (brother) goes around (describes) IST (leading)
4d Rules what an officer may do under canvas? (3,12)
TEN COMMANDMENTS
COMMAND MEN (what an officer may do) in TENTS (under canvas?)
5d Fancies ring given to Ethiopian prince (8)
CHIMERAS
CHIME (ring) + RAS (Ethiopian prince)
6d Trains West African baboons (6)
DRILLS
Two definitions. Drills are related to mandrills, but they are smaller and without the bright facial colouring
7d Live with more feral fox (8)
BEWILDER
BE (live) + WILDER (more feral)
15d What pub low on stock may do briefly is prudent (8)
RATIONAL
RATION ALe (what pub low on stock may do) without the last letter (briefly)
16d Light infantry gun soldiers returned to old magazine (8)
LISTENER
LI (light infantry) + STEN (gun) + RE (soldiers) reversed (returned)
17d A muscle’s strained holding North American figurehead (5,3)
UNCLE SAM
A MUSCLE is anagrammed (strained) containing (holding) N (North)
19d Legal right to possess chestnut fungus and alga (6)
LICHEN
LIEN (legal right) around (to possess) CH (chestnut)
21d Wife assists young men (6)
WHELPS
W (wife) + HELPS (assists)
22d Drawing of king hidden in ramshackle chest (6)
SKETCH
K (king) inside (hidden in) an anagram of (ramshackle) CHEST
Thanks to K and K!
10a: An interesting device.
My other faves: CONCRETE, TEN COMMANDMENTS and RATIONAL.
I found it hard to get onto and stay on Kairos’s wavelength until the long central Across clue fell into place and then everything that had been holding out collapsed and I sailed to the end. 10a is a nice device and seems to work well.
I also had ticks for HARDEN, BALLROOM, DOWNCAST, EXETER, FEDORA, CHIMERA, BEWILDERS and WHELPS. Very nice all round.
Thanks Kairos and Kitty
Just the ticket for a Sunday. Everything was going pretty well until I hit the NE corner. I had a brain fade for COMPLAIN which delayed DRILLS and especially CHIMERAS. I also found HARDEN for ‘Set’, a word with so many meanings, well… hard.
WHELPS in the sense of ‘young men’ and NEGATIVE as a verb for ‘veto’ (at least that’s what I suppose it is, having just now looked it up) were both new.
Thanks to the two K’s
Thanks for the info on NEGATIVE, WordPlodder. I couldn’t equate it to ‘veto’ and have no recall of ever seeing it as a verb. Bit annoyed that I also ended up using a word fit for CHIMERAS – a hard clue, but I feel that I should have seen it. Like others, I really enjoyed this.
I lazily entered ‘beside’ @ 13a (be = live; side = on; and the lazily accepted beside = Edge – which, of course, it doesn’t). This gave me no chance of solving 5d, so a DNF.
Must resolve to be more rigorous in future.
Enjoyed it, though. Thanks Kairo and Kitty.
Like Hovis I was annoyed with myself for not seeing the Ethiopian prince. As a Bob Marley fan, I should have thought if Ras Tafari.
I did have to ask Mr Google about the Ethiopian prince and find it hard to accept ‘broom’ as anything other than a noun but the 10a device didn’t cause too much concern.
Top three for me were DOWNCAST, TEN COMMANDMENTS & BEWILDER.
Thanks to Kairos and to our favourite feline for the review – loved your illustration for 20a.
Bravo to Kairos for inventing the new device at 10a. It works well!
This was my 1st Kairos crossword and I liked it quite a bit. It was complex enough to be enjoyable but not so complex as to be impenetrable. My top choices were NEGATIVE, RESIDE, BISTRO, TEN COMMANDMENTS, and BEWILDER. I needed a word finder to get CHIMERAS and LISTENER and I couldn’t parse CONCRETE. Thanks Kairos and Kitty.
My thanks to Kitty for the review and to all for their comments.
I have used the wordplay in 10a in previous crosswords in the Independent. When I first used it, I could not recall having seen it before but it must have been used other setters so perhaps it would be fairer to say that I have rediscovered it rather than invented it.