A bank holiday SLORMGORM to start the week…
Apologies, technology has defeated me today, so no crossword image.
23ac was my absolute favourite, and I got badly held up by putting in CICADAS initially.
All jolly good fun!
Thanks SLORMGORM!
ACROSS
1. Definitive lesson in canoeing at the front (7)
CLASSIC
CLASS (lesson) + I[n] + C[anoeing] (at the front)
5. Hold back substanceless reportage by reporters (7)
REPRESS
R[eoportag]E by PRESS (reporters)
9. Incense traveller saved by motor rescue company (5)
AROMA
ROM (traveller, Romany) saved by AA (motor rescue company)
10. Fighting against your own state is disgusting (9)
REVOLTING
11. Top act cruise ship put on kept snorting drug (9)
HEADLINER
LINER (cruise ship) put on (HAD (kept) snorting E (drug))
12. Main idea of article chaps finally censored (5)
THEME
THE (article) + ME[n] (chaps, finally censored)
13. What will bore physician seen with sick (5)
DRILL
DR (physician) seen with ILL (sick)
15. Knight putting new bracelet on religious type (9)
CELEBRANT
N (knight) putting (BRACELET)* (*new) on
18. Tory party has 40 day period to become sympathetic (9)
CONDOLENT
CON (tory) + DO (party) has LENT (40 day period)
19. Especially old paintings mounted the wrong way round (5)
EXTRA
EX (old) + (ART)< (paintings, <mounted the wrong way around)
21. Wood block knocked over by the middle of saw (5)
BALSA
(SLAB)< (block, <knocked over) by [s]A[w] (the middle of)
23. Easily secured rhino is something hunter might miss (1,4,4)
A FAST BUCK
25. Member meeting powerful old American high-flyer (9)
ARMSTRONG
ARM (member) meeting STRONG (powerful)
26. Nurse and academic will get back to you (3,2)
END ON
EN (nurse) and DON (academic)
27. Back, bottom or front parts of several equines (7)
ENDORSE
END (bottom) + OR + S[everal] E[quines] (front parts)
28. Rogue welcomed by American spies European bugs (7)
CICADAE
CAD (rogue) welcomed by CIA (American spies) + E (European)
DOWN
1. Conservative whip and news chief had a barney (7)
CLASHED
C (Conservative) + LASH (whip) and ED (news chief)
2. Love helping to support bill by opposition leader (9)
ADORATION
RATION (helping) to support (AD (bill) by O[pposition] (leader))
3. South American shopping centre is not very big (5)
SMALL
S (south) + MALL (American shopping centre)
4. Carbon and chlorine spelt incorrectly in journal (9)
CHRONICLE
C (carbon) + (CHLORINE)* (*spelt incorrectly)
5. One voraciously wanting to get out of head? (5)
RAVER
6. Bud on a counter is pleasant to a taste (9)
PALATABLE
PAL (bud) on A + TABLE (counter)
7. The best English roofer comes from the south (5)
ELITE
(E (English) + TILE (roofer))< (<comes from the south)
8. Part of group infiltrated by old FBI agents (7)
SEGMENT
SET (group) infiltrated by G-MEN (old FBI agents)
14. Keep a close eye on game king sitting on behind (4,5)
LOOK AFTER
LOO (game) + K (king) sitting on AFTER (behind)
16. Itch to get plastered with lager as listless (9)
LETHARGIC
(ITCH with LAGER)* (*to get plastered)
17. Odd Austen novel filled with a sense of wonder (9)
ASTOUNDED
18. Chat about getting in taxi close to The Savoy? (7)
CABBAGE
(GAB)< (chat, <about) getting in (CAB (taxi) + [th]E (close to))
20. Question chancellor about article with suspicion (7)
ASKANCE
(ASK (question) + CE (chancellor)) about AN (article)
22. Hebrew character going through alamedas (5)
LAMED
[a]LAMED[as] (going through)
23. At work, tucking into beer is without equal (5)
ALONE
ON (at work) tucking into ALE (beer)
24. One who loves a brew is jerk that man punches (5)
THEIC
TIC (jerk), HE (that man) punches
An agreeably straight-forward solve with just a little ripple over 27a.
Like our blogger, I had to change the plural of 28’s bug (and read the surface more attentively) to fit the wry 20d.
A FAST BUCK was also my top pick, along with CABBAGE.
Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow.
Glad I took note of the wordplay and missed the CICADAS trap at 28a. I took a while to work out the parsing for HEADLINER (helped by seeing the name of our esteemed setter!) and for some reason had to convince myself that REVOLTING really is a form of ‘Fighting against your own state’. Didn’t know LAMED as a ‘Hebrew character’ but it seemed v. likely from wordplay and crossers.
I parsed my last in, RAVER, as ‘One voraciously wanting’ (=CRAVER) ‘to get out of head?’ (=deletion indicator for the ‘head’, or first letter, C) plus clue as definition, so had it down as an &lit.
Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow
I thought likewise for RAVER, Wordplodder.
Ditto.
Golly, I am a 24D even though I have never heard of the word – gettable from the clue, however.
Re 28A, we have them in Australia too, although we call more than one of them “Cicadas” – that’s because most Aussies didn’t learn Latin, like I did…
Other than that, a pretty easy offering.
Very enjoyable and not too taxing. I too had CICADAS, without fully parsing it, which ruled out solving 20d. Couldn’t account for ROM in 9a — still can’t — and RAVER was a mystery, until explained by the above contributors. The only other thing I can’t work out: why is CE a chancellor?
Geoff, I guess that CE for Chancellor refers to the English version of our treasurer as “Chancellor Exchequer”.
Geoff again, re 9A “gypsies” in the UK in not “politically correct” these days, so they are referred to as “Romanies”. I am guessing that “ROM” is an acceptable abbreviation meaning “traveller”.
Re my comment at 10.05 am – I typed in “of the” between “Chancellor” and “Exchequer” but encased the words between two angled brackets – that is a “less than sign” and a “greater than” sign. My published answer omitted these two words, making me look like I don’t know that the UK version of an Australian “treasurer” is “Chancellor OF THE Exchequer”. This is probably part of HTML that means “hide” – one computer language with which I am not familiar.
Ah, I was celebrating completing one of these crosswords without being stumped by a Britishism — but alas, ’twas not to be …
And I’m very familiar with the Roma, having recently spent a couple of weeks motoring around Romania, but it’s news to me that it can be abbreviated to ROM.
Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
Peter@9: angle brackets do not mean “hide”: they mean that what is included in them is to be taken as a formatting instruction. For example, angle brackets containing “strong” mean “start using bold type”, and angle brackets containing “/strong” mean “stop using bold type”. If the contents of angle brackets are not a valid formatting instruction, they will be ignored.
Thanks for the blog, really enjoyed this , great variety of clues.
ROM is specifically a Gypsy male from the language so it is a traveller. Gypsy is fine to use in the right context but should be a capital G.
I did not know LAMED but it was clued very fairly.
RAVER is now my favourite after the extra bonus from WordPlodder@2
Thanks, Pelham, for the explanation of “angle brackets”. I’m still not sure where my “of the” disappeared to. The brackets didn’t format them as “bold”, but rather as “invisible”.
Peter, for what it’s worth, I did a similar thing with angled brackets many moons ago and learned my lesson. By the way ROMA is the plural of ROM as well as referring to the ‘gypsies’ as a group.
Ah, didn’t know that, Hovis. I only was aware of the plural. Makes sense.
Thanks Slormgorm, that was pleasant. I initially put in cicadas but couldn’t I parse the “s” so I changed it to an “e” remembering my Latin from high school. I couldn’t parse ENDORSE; my top pick was CABBAGE because I was misdirected for so long. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
Many thanks to TC for the usual great blog and to all who solved and commented.
WP has my intended pasing of RAVER – I wonder if I can write a puzzle with no britishism for GDU? Have to give it a go sometime …
That’s all from me so only remains to say hope to see you all next time around, but until then it is cheers and chin chin from me. 🙂
I don’t mind the occasional Britishism, Slormgorm! All part of life’s rich tapestry. There were a couple of crosswords a week or so ago, in the FT and Guardian, that were full of them, which did cause me some angst! But I can’t complain. If we only had a few more decent setters on this side of the planet, we wouldn’t have to poach all of yours!
Had to go round when I first put albatross as high flyer thinking am old American was Betsy Ross. But scratched that pretty soon and had a great time. Thank you