A very nice puzzle indeed.
And if that makes it sound a bit ‘meh’ then I’ve missed my mark. There were many pretty surfaces and one parse I’m still not entirely sure of.
Most enjoyable. Thanks, Falcon.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LAST GASP |
Undertaken as a final recourse? Most unlikely, as described by GP (4-4)
|
| LAST (‘most unlikely’, as In ‘that’s the last thing I’d have thought of’) + AS surrounded by GP. | ||
| 5 | EDITOR |
Newspaper chief travelled back to cover it (6)
|
| Reversal of RODE (‘travelled’) around IT. | ||
| 10 | SPARE |
Box close to stage not required, (5)
|
| SPAR (to ‘box’) + last of ‘stagE’. | ||
| 11 | MERRYLEGS |
Cheerful, members finding Jupe’s performing dog (9)
|
| MERRY (‘cheerful’) + LEGS (‘members’). Easy if one knows one’s Dickens, perhaps not otherwise. From ‘Hard Times’. | ||
| 12 | OUT-AND-OUT |
Total published, also revealed (3-3- 3)
|
| OUT (‘published’) + AND (‘also’) + OUT (‘revealed’). | ||
| 13 | INANE |
Mad discarding spades? Senseless (5)
|
| INsANE without S[pades]. | ||
| 14 | ALCOVE |
Bay – a large bay (6)
|
| A + L[arge] + COVE (‘bay’). | ||
| 15 | EXHIBIT |
Show former husband one piece (7)
|
| EX (‘former’) + H[usband] + 1 + BIT (‘piece’). | ||
| 18 | PICASSO |
Constable I included as very good painter (7)
|
| P[olice] C[onstable] includes ‘I’ then AS + SO (‘very’). | ||
| 20 | SPRINT |
Second edition – short run (6)
|
| S[econd] + PRINT (‘edition’). | ||
| 22 | TWANG |
Flavour includes whiskey, in a manner of speaking (5)
|
| T.ANG (‘flavour’) includes W[hiskey] in radio code. | ||
| 24 | CELEBRATE |
Famous person and judge paint the town red (9)
|
| CELEB (‘famous person’) + RATE (to ‘judge’). | ||
| 25, 8 | CHRISTINA ROSSETTI |
It has restrictions, unfortunately, for a poet (9,8)
|
| Anagram (‘unfortunately’) of IT HAS RESTRICTIONS. | ||
| 26 | ELOPE |
Couple ultimately bound to run away together (5)
|
| Last of ‘couplE’ + LOPE (to ‘bound’). | ||
| 27 | SPARSE |
Meagre sum initially held in reserve (6)
|
| SPAR.E (‘in reserve’) contains 1st of ‘Sum’. | ||
| 28 | VERY WELL |
In excellent health, I agree (4,4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LESSON |
Fewer working class (6)
|
| LESS (‘fewer’) + ON (‘working’). | ||
| 2 | SMART ALEC |
Wise guy reformed rascal met (5,4)
|
| Anagram (‘reformed’’) of RASCAL MET. | ||
| 3 | GREENHOUSE GASES |
Guess one agrees, loosely, about hydrogen and what causes global warming? (10,5)
|
| Anagram (‘loosely’) of GUESS ONE AGREES. | ||
| 4 | SOMEONE |
Person of importance quick to receive me on base (7)
|
| Tricky parse. I think it’s SOON (‘quick’) to include ME then mathematical base ‘E’. | ||
| 6 | DAYLIGHT ROBBERY |
What the window tax might have been seen as? A rip-off (8,7)
|
| Rather nice cryptic def, for the historians out there. | ||
| 7 | THETA |
Article on team’s leader, a Greek character (5)
|
| THE (definite ‘article’) + 1st of T{eam} + A. | ||
| 8 |
See 25
|
|
| 9 | WRITHE |
Feel acute embarrassment? Summons ambassador (6)
|
| WRIT + H[er] E[xellency]. | ||
| 16 | BANGALORE |
In abundance after prohibition in Indian city (9)
|
| BAN + GALORE. | ||
| 17 | UP STICKS |
Stays after winning move (2,6)
|
| UP (‘winning’) + STICKS (‘stays’). | ||
| 19 | ORCHID |
Bloomer old Roman Catholic concealed (6)
|
| O[ld] + R[oman] C[atholic] + HID (‘concealed’). | ||
| 20 | SALVAGE |
Rescue brute, grabbing end of tail (7)
|
| SA.VAGE includes last of ‘taiL’. | ||
| 21 | REVEAL |
Live it up, taking in a show (6)
|
| REVE.L (paint the town red, ‘live it up’) around ‘A’. | ||
| 23 | AORTA |
Main artery forming part of that road going north (5)
|
| In this Down clue, reversed (‘going north’) in ‘thAT ROAd’. |
This fell into place very quickly, with a few exceptions. There’s no way I was going to get MERRYLEGS, even with all the intersecting clues. Likewise never heard of Christina Rossetti. Very enjoyable, and I was surprised to see this blog up so quickly, while all you Brits are still tucked into bed!
Ha, my first thought was MERRYLEGS in Black Beauty as I didn’t remember Jupe. Luckily, ‘cheerful members’ was enough. The puzzle was an enjoyable interlude and a write-in for the most part. I liked the ‘poet’, ‘rip off’ and ‘gases’ most but PICASSO was good too.
I go along with Grant’s parsing of 4d which I could only half unravel.
Thanks to him and Falcon.
Grant,
A minor slip in the blog: 3d is missing the H of hydrogen
SOMEONE: This is the one you aren’t entirely sure of? I don’t see any issues with your parsing.
With 11A, I guessed the correct answer from the cross-letters and the definition. I did read the book many years ago but had forgotten the name of the dog so had to cheat to confirm it.
Re 4D I had trouble equating “soon” with “quick”: “soon” denotes an indefinite measure of when the activity will start; “quick” indicates how long the activity will take. This is crossword land so I guess it’s (ungrammatically) close enough. Well done, Grant, for explaining this.
Still on the subject of 4D, yesterday we had reference to Lemma and today we have Euler. I was pretty good at maths in school but my brain strained to remember these two. Maybe I’m not as old as I feel!
Thanks for the blog, a good set of clues. Did not know MERRYLEGS but the word play was very kind. Like Peter @5 I did wonder about SOON= QUICK but it is in Chambers inevitably.
Hugely helped by getting 3 and 6 down on first pass. But failed to beat my record time by taking so long to unscramble the poetess and to solve “up sticks”. Thanks both.
A fairly quick (or should that be soon?) for us. We didn’t know the Dickens reference but the answer to 11ac was easily got from the wordplay. We took a while to see the parsing of REVEAL; ‘up’ misled us into looking for a reversal (in a down clue) or possibly an anagram – one can see deviousness where there isn’t any sometimes. Favourite was DAYLIGHT ROBBERY.
Thanks, Falcon and Grant.
Thanks Grant as I hadn’t unravelled “SOMEONE”, agree with Roz and allan_c that the dog is clued helpfully (especially with the first 3 crossers). I thought “cove” and ALCOVE were a little close (I know this doesn’t bother everyone) and we have SPARE at 10a appearing similarly in 27a too, but more than made up for by the long anagrams and the lovely 21d, thanks Falcon.
Re ‘soon’ & ‘quick’, how about “If you’re going to finish that job, make it soon / quick”?
Thanks Falcon, that was satisfying. I hadn’t heard of MERRYLEGS or UP STICKS but I was familiar with CHRISTINA ROSSETTI only because a friend of mine wrote the music for an off Broadway production of the Goblin Market some years ago. There were many good clues with my favourites being TWANG, SOMEONE, and CELEBRATE. Thanks Grant for the blog.