Another varied and entertaining puzzle from Julius. Thank you Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BROWBEAT |
Ursus arctos with tails bitten off start to torment cow (8)
|
| BROWn BEAr (Ursus arctos) missing last letters (with tails bitten off) then first letter (start to) of Torment | ||
| 5 | WEAPON |
Arm militant OAP in overcrowded city (6)
|
| anagram (militant ?) of OAP inside WEN (The Great Wen, London the overcrowded city) | ||
| 10 | BOLOGNA |
Italian city diary kept by an aristo in retirement (7)
|
| LOG (diary) inside A NOB (an aristo) reversed (in retirement) | ||
| 11 | OVERSAW |
Managed at least a dozen deliveries and a wicket (7)
|
| OVERS (at least a dozen deliveries, two or more overs in cricket) then A W (wicket, cricket again) | ||
| 12 | ADAPT |
Bill prone to change (5)
|
| AD (advertisement, bill) and APT (prone) | ||
| 13 | HAILSTONE |
Part of shower in a hotel’s broken (9)
|
| anagram (broken) of IN A HOTEL’S | ||
| 14 | BLACK SABBATH |
Band into R’n’B lacks Abba theatricality (5,7)
|
| found inside (into) r’n’B LACKS ABBAT THeatrically | ||
| 18 | ANGLE GRINDER |
Tool for cutting and polishing fish skin in Germany (5,7)
|
| ANGLE (fish) then RIND (skin) inside GER (Germany) | ||
| 21 | APPETISER |
American interdisciplinary degree resit rejected, for starters (9)
|
| A (American) PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics: interdisciplinary degree) then RESIT reversed (rejected) | ||
| 23 | HOIST |
Hearts 0-1 St Mirren (star given red card, heavy tackle) (5)
|
| H (hearts) OI (0 and 1) then ST mirren missing (given red card, sent off) MIIRREN (Helen Mirren, a star of screen and stage) – Hearts (Heart of Midlothian) and St Mirren are two Scottish football clubs | ||
| 24 | TBILISI |
I sit around, nibbling odd bits of brill in a Georgian city (7)
|
| I SIT reversed (around) containing (nibbling) every other letter (odd bits) of BrIlL | ||
| 25 | SAVELOY |
A type of cabbage stuffed with the Spanish sausage (7)
|
| SAVOY (a type of cabbage) containing (stuffed with) EL (the, in Spanish) | ||
| 26 | CANDLE |
Daughter left stick outside, which is wicked (6)
|
| D (daughter) L (left) inside (with…outside) CANE (stick) – something which has a wick | ||
| 27 | REINDEER |
Maybe Rudolph was king in this place, it’s commonly rumoured (8)
|
| sounds like (it is commonly rumoured, as spoken informally) “reigned ‘ere” (was king in this place) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BOBCAT |
Auntie saves old article on Vermont’s last wild feline (6)
|
| BBC (Auntie, nickname for the British Broadcasting Company) contains (saves) o (old) then A (indefinite article) then last letter of vermonT | ||
| 2 | OILCAN |
Old island salt knocked over tin of lubricant (6)
|
| O (old) I (island) then NACL (NaCl, Sodium Chloride, common salt) reversed (knocked over) | ||
| 3 | BAGATELLE |
Top-of-the-table game is something of little significance (9)
|
| double definition | ||
| 4 | AGATHA CHRISTIE |
I hit Chas – a great novel writer (6,8)
|
| anagram (novel) of I HIT CHAS A GREAT | ||
| 6 | EVENS |
50-50 chance of the next clue having singular ending? (5)
|
| SEVEN (7ac, the next clue) with S (singular) at the end instead of the start | ||
| 7 | PASTORAL |
Visiting MP Astor, a Lady from the countryside (8)
|
| found inside (visiting) mP ASTOR A Lady | ||
| 8 | NEW DELHI |
Bash we held in the capital (3,5)
|
| anagram (bash) of WE HELD IN | ||
| 9 | ROBINSON CRUSOE |
A washed-up individual, dodgy neocon Boris is infiltrated by Russia (8,6)
|
| anagram (dodgy) of NEOCON BORIS containing (is infiltrated by) RUS (Russia) | ||
| 15 | BEETHOVEN |
He couldn’t hear buzzer on time on hot stove (9)
|
| BEE (buzzer, something that buzzes) with T (time) H (hot) and OVEN (stove) | ||
| 16 | BASALTIC |
Rocky, small area surrounded by sea (8)
|
| S (small) A (area) inside (surrounded by) BALTIC (sea) | ||
| 17 | EGYPTIAN |
African, beginning to experience pain, ain’t going to work (8)
|
| first letter (beginning to) of Experience then GYP (pain) and anagram (going to work) of AIN’T | ||
| 19 | GILLIE |
Field sports guide that is supporting good and bad (6)
|
| IE (that is) following (supporting) G (good) and ILL (bad) | ||
| 20 | STAYER |
Plucky horse tears maniacally around yard (6)
|
| anagram (maniacally) of TEARS containing (around) Y (yard) | ||
| 22 | TRIAL |
Hearing test? (5)
|
| double definition |
A super Julius bag of tricks to mitigate the leaden skies outside.
As usual, it’s tough to pick a favourite as there are so many gems but I’ll nominate ‘Rudolph’ because it made me laugh out loud.
Other honourable mentions go to 1a (use of ‘cow’), Miss Marple’s creator (4d), 9d’s ‘washed-up individual’, and 22d’s ‘tackle’. I confess I was thinking of rugby but wonder if its a type of crane.
There were others, naturally.
LOI was 19d for which I needed all crossers – I was more accustomed to seeing this spelt with an ‘h’ but I gather both are acceptable.
Thanks to PeeDee (your regular Wednesday slot seems always to be such good fun) and Julius.
PeeDee,
I’m sure it’s a slip as the blog explains the sausage correctly but 25a should be E not A in the middle.
Thanks Diane, fixed now.
A block and tackle (or just tackle) is a is a system of ropes and pulleys for lifting weights too heavy to be lifted unaided, a HOIST.
This was very enjoyable. Mt favourites were BROWBEAT & BEETHOVEN. Shouldn’t “starters” (plural) give “appetisers” (plural). But then the surface wouldn’t work. The only things that stumped me were a couple of the Great Wen in WEAPON (never heard of it), and the Scottish football clubs in HOIST (ditto, although it didn’t matter).
Geoff @4 STARTERS in the plural can also refer to the first course, as in ‘I’ll have a prawn cocktail for starters’.
14A was very clever. At first I thought that “theatrically” was being used as an anagram indicator and, although I worked out the answer, I couldn’t parse it. Then I saw that the answer was contained in the clue: that must have been very hard to set so, well done Julius!
Like Geoff, I didn’t know where the “WEN” came from in 5A but the answer was obvious from cross letters.
17D was also obvious from cross letters, but my only knowledge of “GYP” is meaning to cheat someone.
Like Diane, I was familiar with Ghillie as Scottish hunting servant but I wonder if this clue refers to a hunting guide by Jamie Briscoe called “The Gillie”. Here’s a link to how I convinced myself that my solution was correct. Or maybe I am just over-thinking it.
https://sunvalleylife.com/gillie-guide-hunting-fishing-real-estate-jamie-briscoe/
Thanks for the blog , brilliant set of clues to enjoy today, I will agree with Diane for ROBINSON CRUSOE and Peter for the clever hidden BLACK SABBATH.
See The Music Box, starring Laurel and Hardy for classic use of a block-and-tackle.
I also expected a H for GILLIE but Chambers does give the answer as the first spelling from the Gaelic.
All went swimmingly but then I ground to a bit of a hold in the bottom left hand corner, with Basaltic and Candle my two LOI. I confess to needing help with Google on the former.
Never heard of Wen – Nice to know I’m not alone
Wen turned up very recently in a Picaroon Guardian puzzle, it is surprising how often this happens.
I saw variations on Ohm’s Law four times last week.
To save time, I’ll go along with Diane @1 – I had the same reaction to REINDEER. 😉
Lots of ticks – won’t list them all – and super surfaces all round but must highlight
EVENS, ROBINSON CRUSOE, BEETHOVEN and EGYPTIAN.
Many thanks to Julius, as ever, for a lot of fun and to PeeDee for a great blog.
The Smoke and the Great Wen are as firmly ingrained as The Cheshire Cheese where many a talented writer has been taken suddenly drunk.
Very nice puzzle esp squeezing Abba into Sabbath
many thanks to Julian and Pee Dee
I always enjoy this setter’s crossword and today I’ve solved two, having the great pleasure of blogging the first one.
The Great Wen has now reached the status of ‘I wonder how many people won’t know that’ when I meet it in a crossword. Reindeer made me laugh too
Thanks very much to Julius and PeeDee
Some lovely clues, especially REINDEER and BLACK SABBATH. Thank you, Julius and PeeDee.
Thanks Julius, I solved this bit by bit today and only needed a word finder for ANGLE GRINDER, an unfamiliar tool to me. Like Roz said “a brilliant set of clues” with BROWBEAT, BLACK SABBATH, and BEETHOVEN my top picks. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
Yes Roz@9. WEN did appear recently, as did Savoy and PPE. I didn’t know any of these at the time, but managed to remember them and they all helped today.
Late to the party as I didn’t start this till nearly bedtime – and finished this morning. A satisfying solve, although I didn’t get the parsing of 23ac – all I could think of was a sort of hidden in H[earts] 0-1 ST [Mirren] with ‘star given red card sent off’ indicating removal of the letters of ‘star’, but of course that didn’t explain removing the E – so glad to have it explained here. Favourites were BROWBEAT and REINDEER.
TBILISI was another recent occurrence – from Phi in the Indy last week.
Thanks, Julius and PeeDee