A fun challenge from ARTEXLEN to brighten our Friday.
FF: 10 DD: 8
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PIGSTY |
Succeeded in typing novel, no need for new pen (6)
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S ( succeeded ) in [ TYPInG ( without N – new ) ]* |
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| 4 | REST STOP |
Others work on stone area beside highway (4,4)
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REST ( others ) [ ST ( stone ) OP ( work ) ] |
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| 9 | OODLES |
Many artistic works lacking head (6)
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dOODLES ( artistic works, without starting letter ) |
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| 10 | STIRRING |
Lively prison gang (8)
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STIR ( prison ) RING ( gang ) |
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| 12 | INELEGANT |
Clumsy removing wings, dined on insect (9)
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INE ( dINEd, without wings i.e. end characters ) LEG ( on, cricket terminology ) ANT ( insect ) |
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| 13 | NAKED |
Blatant denial youngster vocalised (5)
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sounds like NAY ( denial ) KID ( youngster ) |
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| 14 | CONSIDERATIONS |
Damaged sections in road creating concerns (14)
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[ SECTIONS IN ROAD ]* |
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| 17 | WAR OF THE WORLDS |
Classic book campaign that might involve Narnia and Never- land (3,2,3,6)
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cryptic def; WAR ( campaign ) with reference to narnia and neverland being two worlds |
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| 21 | LOGIC |
Reason I choke after cycling (5)
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I CLOG ( choke ) with 'LOG' moving to the front ( cycling ) |
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| 22 | CATALOGUE |
EU act with goal to transform record (9)
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[ EU ACT GOAL ]* |
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| 24 | BUST A GUT |
Vehicle with tow at back showing strain (4,1,3)
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BUS ( vehicle ) [ TUG ( tow ) AT , all reversed ( back ) ] |
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| 25 | ADRIFT |
Commercial opening not secure (6)
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AD ( commercial ) RIFT ( opening ) |
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| 26 | SPARSEST |
Analyses to cut stone that’s least dense (8)
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PARSES ( analyses ) in ST ( stone ) |
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| 27 | AENEID |
A space festival is epic (6)
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A EN ( space ) EID ( festival ) – my loi |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PROVINCE |
Region for French wine roughly north of Spain (8)
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PRO ( for ) VIN ( wine, french ) C ( roughly ) E ( spain, Espana ) |
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| 2 | GUDGEON |
Resentment when overlooking river and lifting no fish (7)
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GrUDGE ( resentment, without R – river ) ON ( reverse of NO ) – guessed the answer and then confirmed the parse |
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| 3 | THEME |
Subject that man to replace one in prison sentence (5)
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HE ( that man ) replacing I ( one ) in TiME ( prison sentence ) |
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| 5 | ESTATE AGENTS |
Characters from house state a gent sacked workers in property (6,6)
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hidden in "..housE STATE A GENT Sacked.."; slightly contrived but a valiant effort to fit such a long telescopic solve |
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| 6 | TARANTINO |
Cheers, endlessly raving over director (9)
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TA ( cheers ) RANTINg ( raving, endlessly ) O ( over ) |
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| 7 | THICKEN |
Cast nick the set (7)
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[ NICK THE ]* |
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| 8 | PAGODA |
Trouble with crack climbing ornamental structure (6)
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ADO ( trouble ) GAP ( crack ) , all reversed |
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| 11 | TALENT SCOUTS |
They seek those gifted money of old troop members (6,6)
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TALENT ( money of old, new testament ) SCOUTS ( troop members ) |
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| 15 | IRONCLADS |
Strengthened vessels from old cairns tidied up (9)
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[ OLD CAIRNS ]* |
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| 16 | ASSENTED |
Yielded when given perfume, having rejected charmer origi- nally (8)
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AS ( when ) ScENTED ( given perfume, without C – Charmer, originally ) |
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| 18 | AUGUSTA |
A wind in Utah regularly avoided US city (7)
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A [ GUST ( wind ) in UA ( UtAh, regularly avoided ) ] |
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| 19 | LIGNITE |
Tiling ground above base that’s rock (7)
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[ TILING ]* E ( base, logarithms ) |
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| 20 | GLOBES |
Balls in golf hit higher than opponents (6)
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G ( golf ) LOB ( hit higher ) ES ( opponents, from the game of bridge, East South ) |
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| 23 | LADLE |
Uncovered blade on the French kitchen utensil (5)
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bLADe ( uncovered, without end characters ) LE ( the, french ) |
Like you, 27A was my last one solved. I toyed with “legend” for a while even though it doesn’t really mean “epic”.
Thanks for parsing 21A. The answer was obvious from the definition and the three cross letters but I really couldn’t see how it worked.
A slight complaint about 17A: the title of the novel has the word “The” in front of it.
Nice to see log tables still getting a mention.
I too had LEGEND for 27a and couldn’t see how it worked. I wouldn’t have got it in a fit, having only vaguely remembered Eid. I wasn’t aware talent was money. And LEG/ON stumped me. (Stumped as in cricket?!) The SW quarter was the last to fall for me.
Mostly not too difficult but with some hard ones. Defeated by AENEID for which I also had an unparsed “legend”. Last in was WAR OF THE WORLDS which I couldn’t parse properly either. I liked OODLES, with ‘artistic works’ making me think of works of fine art by an old master rather than humble doodles on a notepad.
Thanks to Artexlen and Turbolegs
Thanks Artexlen. Most of this went in smoothly but I needed a word fit for GUDGEON, a fish unknown to me. My top picks were AENEID, BUST A GUT, the nicely hidden ESTATE AGENTS, and TARANTINO. I didn’t realize that ST was short for “stone” but I’ll remember that because it was used twice. Thanks Turbolegs for parsing PROVINCE (I originally wrote in Provence but INELEGANT changed that) as well as the LEG of INELEGANT, being mostly ignorant about cricket.
TS @ 4 ST = stone as the unit of weight.
Thanks Simon. Stone as a unit of weight is not common in the U.S. but I’ve heard it used before mainly from boxing matches.
Thanks for the blog, very good set of clues. The IRONCLAD “Thunderchild” had a role in the War of the Worlds.
The Aeneid is one of the earliest sequels, Virgil takes a character from the Iliad to imagine the next blockbuster .
PIGSTY was very neat.
Even though I busted a gut, I remained adrift with all my logic and considerations entirely inelegant. Artexlen to me: final grade is a C-
Anil, ?
Anil, that was a thumb’s up!