This offering from Neo ranges from straightforward to quite challenging . . .
. . . including one clue (19D) that I do not really understand, so I will be interested to see the comments. See discussion of this in the comments.
UPDATE: CORRECTED GRID:
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | UPROAR |
Bedlam at university — paddle round river (6)
|
| UP (at university) + OAR (paddle) around (round) R (river) | ||
| 5 | IDLENESS |
Lids seen to flutter in dalliance? (8)
|
| Anagram of (to flutter) LIDS SEEN | ||
| 9 | ENSCONCE |
Settle for section in Beethoven’s concerto (8)
|
| Hidden in (section in) [BEETHOV]EN’S CONCE[RTO] | ||
| 10 | RECITE |
Deliver on location as discussed (6)
|
| RE (on) + homophone of (“as discussed”) SITE (location) | ||
| 11 | VENEER |
Facing archdeacon, counterpart appears powerless (6)
|
| VEN (archdeacon, i.e., The Venerable) + [P]EER (counterpart) minus “p” (“power”-less) | ||
| 12 | ANATOLIA |
Moved Laotian area in Asia Minor (8)
|
| Anagram of (moved) LAOTIAN + A (area) | ||
| 14 | TRUSSONOMICS |
Society stops consortiums reformulating failed policy (12)
|
| S (society) inside (stops) anagram of (reformulating) CONSORTIUMS | ||
| 18 | CUT-AND-THRUST |
Score with awkward truths in spirited exchange (3-3-6)
|
| CUT (score) + AND (with) + anagram of (awkward) TRUTHS | ||
| 22 | AMBITION |
One buried inside in a tomb strangely shows desire (8)
|
| I (one) inside (buried inside) anagram of (strangely) IN A TOMB | ||
| 25 | ATOMIC |
Alpha male in charge for minute (6)
|
| A (alpha) + TOM (male, i.e., as a cat) + IC (in charge) | ||
| 26 | EDITED |
Checked receding water level — dredge in middle (6)
|
| TIDE (water level) reversed (receding) + interior of [DR]ED[GE] (“in middle”) | ||
| 27 | UNGAINLY |
Looking awkward and ugly in an upset (8)
|
| Anagram of (upset) UGLY IN AN | ||
| 28 | ODYSSEUS |
Hero in poem by American about yard and ship (8)
|
| ODE (poem) + US (American) around (about) Y (yard) + SS (ship) | ||
| 29 | AGENDA |
Plan to have rump in cooking range (6)
|
| END (rump) inside (in) AGA (cooking range) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | PANDER |
Severely criticise the German seen in Bow (6)
|
| PAN (severely criticise) + DER (“the” [in] German), with both words having the shared sense of “evidencing servility” | ||
| 3 | ORCHESTRA |
Gold box Rubbra emptied for ensemble (9)
|
| OR (gold) + CHEST (box) + outside letters of (“emptied”) R[UBBR]A | ||
| 4 | RUNAROUND |
Car stuck on shore no good (9)
|
| RUN A[G]ROUND (stuck on shore) minus “g” (“no good”). I am familiar with the style of car known as a “runabout,” but I have never heard of “runaround” used in this sense, although I assume it means exactly the same thing? | ||
| 5 | ICECAPS |
One cold room over in chilly regions (7)
|
| I (one) + C (cold) + SPACE (room) inverted (over) | ||
| 6 | LARVA |
Six-footer to be left Bible among reformed drinkers (5)
|
| L (left) + RV (Bible, i.e., Revised Version) inside (among) AA (reformed drinkers, i.e., Alcoholics Anonymous), i.e., a developing insect, which will have six legs | ||
| 7 | NACHO |
North American food wife leaves as snack (5)
|
| N (North) + A (American) + CHO[W] (food, minus “w” [“wife leaves”]) | ||
| 8 | SET PIECE |
Rehearsed play possibly flat on stage? (3,5)
|
| Double definition (and slightly cryptic definition, in the second instance). A “stage flat” is fake wall or piece of background scenery used in a theatre. | ||
| 13 | TWO |
Outline of waist turning round figure (3)
|
| Outside letters of (“outline of”) W[AIS]T, reversed (turning) + O (round) | ||
| 15 | NEURALGIA |
Broken rule again produces intermittent pain (9)
|
| Anagram of (broken) RULE AGAIN | ||
| 16 | METEORITE |
Landing light visible in sky? (9)
|
| Cryptic definition, i.e., a meteor (light visible in sky) having reached the ground (landing) | ||
| 17 | OUTMODED |
Old hat banned by doctor penning poem (8)
|
| OUT (banned) + MD (doctor) around (penning) ODE (poem) | ||
| 19 | NIT |
Noodle from UK region sort of square (3)
|
| NI (UK region) + T (sort of square) |
||
| 20 | HANG-UPS |
Suspend courier displaying emotional problems (4-3)
|
| HANG (suspend) + UPS (courier) | ||
| 21 | TITLED |
Perhaps like Red Baron, flier showed the way (6)
|
| TIT (flier, i.e., a bird) + LED (showed the way) | ||
| 23 | ICTUS |
Stroke — fantastic cut — is making boundary (5)
|
| IS around (making boundary [for]) anagram of (fantastic) CUT. This is a new word for me. | ||
| 24 | INDIE |
Trendy? Check out music genre (5)
|
| IN (trendy) + DIE (check out) |
At 19, on first reading I took the second definition as a reference to a sort of fastener, a square nut as opposed to a hex nut, say. But I’m not sure, actually. A square would be a sort of nut, but would a nut be a sort of square? I didn’t understand the def. part of ‘pander’ until you explained it. I think the capital B in Bow confused me. Thanks to Neo and Cineraria.
I think you’ll find 19d is NIT: ‘Noodle’ (=definition) ‘from UK region’ (=NI (Northern Ireland)) ‘sort of square’ (=T). A T-square is a tool used to check or measure right angle in eg carpentry.
The one that gave me the most trouble was METEORITE which I just couldn’t see as a cryptic def. I didn’t know that METEORITE(s) always ‘land’. RUNAROUND (cf “runabout”) was new to me too.
TRUSSONOMICS – oh, dear. It’s already in Wikipedia.
Thanks to Neo and Cineraria
Plenty of clues stumped me, and elicited groans when I came here and discovered what they were. I won’t list them all. I’ve been having such a nice time with various cryptics the last few days; my good run had to come to an end. 🙁
Thanks for the blog, a lot of very good clues here.
I also had NIT with the same reasoning as WordPlodder@2, I think in the UK that noddle=head=nut but noodle is a foolish person.
ATOMIC was very neat with the misleading minute, TRUSSONOMICS a brilliant (near) anagram. RUNAROUND was recently in a Vulcan and means the same as runabout.
METEORITES always land by definition. Meteors are caused by the debris from comet tails producing shooting stars and burning up. Meteorites typically are large objects from the asteroid belt.
I completely stumped myself by confidently writing in “TRUMPONOMICS” for 14A even though I couldn’t really parse it and didn’t know where the “P” came from, but I haven’t heard the portmanteau used to describe poor Liz’s short term at the top. I guess that this is going to be a new trend similar to adding “gate” to every scandal in the wake of Watergate.
“Ictus” was unknown to me, as was this meaning of “noodle”.
Thanks for the comments above on 19D. I had considered NET, NIT, and NOT, and of course knew NI for Northern Ireland and what a T-square was, but was not familiar with the sense of NOODLE meaning “simpleton.” I think that my original guess of NUT almost works, but concede that NIT parses better.
Thanks to Neo for another fine crossword – I had no problem with the NIT but had to work hard to get 14a
Thanks also to Cineraria for the blog
I put NET for 19d: I was born in South Shields, so had NE fixed in my mind as the ‘UK region’ and I finally just assumed that ‘noodle’ must be an IT term meaning a NET of some sort. Ho hum. NIT seems obvious now.
Thanks Neo and Cineraria.
Thanks Neo. As usual there were many great clues. My top choices were ATOMIC, EDITED, AGENDA, TITLED, and INDIE. I had nut instead of NIT, thinking that NU was short for Northumberland. (NIT is correct when one reveals the answer on the FT interactive grid.) I couldn’t parse VENEER or SET PIECE but they were obvious answers. Thanks Cinearia for the blog.
A steady solve with only a few hold-ups. TRUSSONOMICS was one as we thought at first we wanted a word ending in ISM; we also had to check ICTUS in the dictionary, and we took a while to see METEORITE and RUNAROUND. On the other hand we had no problems with NIT – it was perfectly obvious to us.
ORCHESTRA was our favourite, and reminded us of a story about Edmund Rubbra. During his army service in WWII Rubbra formed a trio to give classical music recitals for the troops; on one occasion a commanding officer thought there would be a better attendance by advertising “Ed Rub and his Band”, much to the disappointment of most of the audience who expected a jazz combo!
Thanks, Neo and Cineraria.
Dnf – I quit with a few to go, including Trussonomics. I think I would’ve got a few of the missing ones at a second attempt, but I doubt all.
19d How does ”noodle” = “nit”?
8a is quite obscure IMHO
agzztaylor@12: Reportedly, noodle and nit both mean fool or simpleton. Nit I have heard (on UK TV shows), but I have never heard noodle used that way (in the US), so I assume that it is a UK usage.
I am not sure what you mean by “8a”?
It is confusing , from Chambers , NOODLE – a simpleton NIT a fool .
But also NOODLE – the head ( chiefly US ) .
In the UK we say NODDLE for head – use you noddle.
Thanks Neo and Cineraria
19dn: Chambers 2011 and 2014 both allow “a blockhead (inf)” for noodle[2]. In turn, blockhead is defined as “a stupid person”.