Today Moo delivers half-and-half: Half straightforward (but fun) and half quite the test (but fun).
This puzzle displays a remarkable variety of cryptic devices. As particularly witty or inventive, I marked 13A, 18A, 23A, 24A, 5D, 22D, and 25D. I think I arrived at a satisfactory parsing for all of the clues in the end, but please let me know if I missed any tricks here.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DISGRACEFUL |
Lifeguards caught cavorting? Outrageous! (11)
|
| Anagram of (cavorting) LIFEGUARDS + C (caught) | ||
| 7 | AIR |
Cockney’s shock appearance (3)
|
| HAIR (shock), with an unaspirated pronunciation (Cockney) | ||
| 9 | JACOB |
Rees-Mogg is such a woolly individual (5)
|
| Double definition, the second meaning referring to a breed of sheep | ||
| 10 | RETENTION |
Keeping form of punishment new head introduced (9)
|
| DETENTION (form of punishment), with “r” substituted for “d” (new “head” [i.e., first letter] introduced) | ||
| 11 | CHALLENGE |
What might follow university? It’s a problem (9)
|
| Double definition, the first meaning referring to the long-running quiz show | ||
| 12 | ARISE |
Teacher back in Casualty in spring (5)
|
| SIR (teacher) reversing (back) inside (in) A&E (casualty, i.e., hospital department) | ||
| 13 | EYEWEAR |
Reportedly the first person to use Ray-Bans? (7)
|
| Homophone of (reportedly) I (the first person, i.e., pronoun) + WEAR (use), i.e., a brand of sunglasses | ||
| 15 | SETH |
Third son’s name registered in Somerset House (4)
|
| Hidden in (registered in) [SOMER]SET H[OUSE], i.e., of Adam and Eve | ||
| 18 | OOHS |
Sound of river provoking cries of wonder (4)
|
| Homophone of (sound of) OUSE (river) | ||
| 20 | PARTIAL |
Biased and incomplete (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 23 | OMANI |
Chap from Middle East retiring very soon (5)
|
| IN A MO (very soon) reversing (retiring) | ||
| 24 | SPEARHEAD |
S for pioneer? (9)
|
| Cryptic definition and &lit, i.e., the first letter (“head”) of the word “spear” is “s.” | ||
| 26 | CLIENTELE |
One’s patrons tell niece off (9)
|
| Anagram of (off) TELL NIECE | ||
| 27 | CEASE |
Stop patient swallowing a drug (5)
|
| CASE (patient) around (swallowing) E (drug) | ||
| 28 | ERR |
Royal couple go astray (3)
|
| I think this reads as follows: ER (Queen Elizabeth) + R (queen) = “royal couple” | ||
| 29 | LED ZEPPELIN |
Group piloted an aircraft once (3,8)
|
| LED (piloted) + ZEPPELIN (an aircraft once, i.e., of yesteryear). I recommend “Presence,” an ineffable outlier. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DEJECTED |
Gloomy Democrat given the boot (8)
|
| D (Democrat) + EJECTED (given the boot) | ||
| 2 | SOCRATES |
Philosopher needing help to collect old banger (8)
|
| SOS (needing help) around (to collect) CRATE (old banger, i.e., jalopy) | ||
| 3 | REBEL |
Heretic’s dance entertaining bishop (5)
|
| REEL (dance) around (entertaining) B (bishop) | ||
| 4 | CORONER |
Who will investigate if singer gets run down? (7)
|
| CROONER (singer), with “r” (run) moving “down” one space, plus &lit, the job of the coroner | ||
| 5 | FATHERS |
Priests who’ve not been celibate? (7)
|
| Double and cryptic definition | ||
| 6 | LANCASTER |
Alec’s rant upset royal house (9)
|
| Anagram of (upset) ALEC’S RANT | ||
| 7 | ACIDIC |
Bitter investigators in US agency sent north (6)
|
| CID (investigators) inside (in) CIA (US agency) reversed (sent north) | ||
| 8 | RANGER |
Guide had a word with Charles’s mum (6)
|
| RANG (had a word with, i.e., called up) + ER (Charles’s mum) | ||
| 14 | EMOTIONAL |
A moonlit scene ultimately making you sentimental (9)
|
| Anagram of (making [for] you) A + MOONLIT + [SCEN]E (last letter of “scene,” i.e., “ultimately”) | ||
| 16 | FIREWALL |
Sack everyone blocking women’s online protection (8)
|
| FIRE (sack) + ALL (everyone) around (blocking) W (women). I assume the sense here is “blocking in,” rather than “blocking up,” which would be backwards. | ||
| 17 | BLUDGEON |
Bachelor lounged about in club (8)
|
| B (bachelor) + anagram of (about) LOUNGED | ||
| 19 | SUSPEND |
Exclude contrary American while away (7)
|
| US (American) reversed (contrary) + SPEND (while away, e.g., the hours) | ||
| 20 | PRECEDE |
Introduce Penny to shrink (7)
|
| P (penny) + RECEDE (shrink) | ||
| 21 | LOUCHE |
Shifty-looking yob briefly taking heroin in church (6)
|
| LOU[T] (yob, “briefly,” i.e., minus last letter) + H (heroin) inside (in) CE (church) | ||
| 22 | CAVIAR |
Sex with American in limo? It’ll cost you (6)
|
| VI (sex, i.e. the number six in Latin, in Roman numerals) + A (American) inside (in) CAR (limo) | ||
| 25 | RECAP |
Run over MP, losing head at last (5)
|
| RE[D]CAP (informal term for MP, i.e., military police), minus (losing) “d” (last letter of “head” [“at last”]) |
There were some great moments in this, that elicited quite a few smiles. As usual deficiencies in my knowledge of things British let me down, such as Jacob sheep, A&E hospital department and “redcap”. I’ve encountered the Ouse river in these puzzles once or twice, but was unaware of its pronunciation. I haven’t heard of LOUCHE. And I wasn’t entirely comfortable with precede/introduce, although I’ve found it in the dictionary, so better not mention it … 🙂
Although I found this quite easy, I did think it was very enjoyable. Some lovely anagrams, particularly 1a. I also thought CORONER was an excellent clue. The only clue that held me up for a while was CAVIAR but got it after some thought.
I agree with Cineraria’s assessment overall. My top picks were the witty OMANI, OOHS, LOUCHE and FATHERS.
Got in a bit of a pickle in the SE and only solved SPEARHEAD from the definition. However, it was an enjoyable puzzle so thanks to Moo and Cineraria for unravelling a few mysteries in the aforementioned quadrant.
Pretty easy although I agree with GDU re “precede = introduce”. I am not sure that they mean the same. I preceded The Beatles on stage and then introduced Roy Orbison. That’s not totally true but I did see The Beatles as a support act to Roy Orbison in 1963 (?). I saw The Beatles but did not hear them as the girls in the audience screamed all the way through their act. But Roy did sing “Running Scared” twice after audience acclaim.
5D was a brilliant clue.
Big ticks from me for the semi-&lit CORONER (my last in), the “simple” cryptic def/double def FATHERS and especially the surface and def for CAVIAR. Best clues for the month so far for me and into the “Good clues” file they go to be (sort of) preserved for posterity.
Thanks to Moo and Cineraria
For JACOB< I went for the biblical story of Rebecca, not knowing it as a breed of sheep. I needed the blog for CAVIAR as there was no indication in the clue that “sex” was foreign. For 18a, I entered ROAR (river plus awe for “wonder”) thus I did not get 19d. Otherwise an excellent puzzle which I should have completed.
Thanks Moo, there wasn’t a bad clue in the bunch. I ticked OMANI, SPEARHEAD, SOCRATES, CORONER, and FIREWALL as notable but I could have easily ticked five different ones. I couldn’t fully parse CAVIAR or RECAP but all else made sense. Interesting that the clue for DEJECTED would appears on Election Day in the U.S. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
Thanks for the blog, really enjoyed this. I can’t improve on the lists of everyone’s favourites but I will repeat the praise for the excellent CORONER.
I though the second R in 28 stood for Rex (king), which makes for a royal couple.
Amen on “Presence” as a great LZ outlier album.