I blogged Laccaria’s only previous offering which was Peanuts themed with a cracking anagram
No theme I can see this time but certainly a long anagram again. Cheers and HNY to all
ACROSS
9. A sailor welcomes monarch to a Middle Eastern port (5)
AQABA
A & Q(ueen) & AB – sailor & A
10. Having pocketed ring, Maud fell awkwardly on forest floor, it appears (4,5)
LEAF MOULD
O – ring inside [MAUD FELL]* awkwardly
11. Unlucky old men lie badly (3-6)
ILL-OMENED
12. Stop that man going inside: needs to be sent back for therapy (5)
REHAB
HE inside BAR- stop all reversed
13/15/17. We’re not done yet! Unusually flat and very hot, telling it as it is (2,4,4,4,3,3,4,5)
IT AINT OVER TILL THE FAT LADY SINGS
[FLAT AND VERY HOT TELLING IT AS IT IS]* unusually
19. Put it back on, you old monster! (4)
YETI
YE – you formerly & IT reversed
20. Saint nearly enrols helper from the East, for this kind of treatment (10)
PAEDIATRIC
AIDE reversed – from the East – inside most of Saint PATRIC(k)
23. Shrub pruned more sheltered (5)
OSIER
25. At sea, punishes Klaus, on vacation, netting catch of fish (9)
KEELHAULS
A vacated K(lau)S with an EEL HAUL inside
27. Music for funeral procession bishop possibly holds each month (4,5)
DEAD MARCH
DD – doctor of divinity – a bishop with EA(ch) inside & MARCH – a month
28. Root weeds out (5)
SWEDE
DOWN
1. Dip asparagus top in watered-down tzatziki finally (6)
TAHINI
Top of A(sparagus) inside THIN – watered-down & end of (tzatzik)I
2. Perhaps Mum accepts post coming up for debating group (10)
PARLIAMENT
MAIL – post reversed inside PARENT – mother maybe
3. Devil’s home work almost finished with enthusiasm (8)
TASMANIA
Well it’s where Tasmanian Devils are from. Most of TAS(k) & MANIA – enthusiasm
4. Student butts in to denounce programme (4)
PLAN
L – student, well learner anyway inside PAN – to denounce
5. Uncompromising Dad heard out when he interrupts (4-6)
HARD-HEADED
HE inside [DAD HEARD]* out
6. Wearing best suit maybe, but hurt (5)
SMART
7. It’s painful when penny’s pinched from pocket! (4)
OUCH
P(enny) removed from (p)OUCH
8. Eccentrics when potting Red, Green, Blue and Black? (8)
ODDBALLS
In snooker the balls red green etc are worth 1, 3, 5 and 7 respectively hence odd-balls
14. Giants, in the main, take on girls anyhow (not good!) (3,7)
OIL TANKERS
Well they do tend to be pretty big. No G(ood) in [TAKE ON (g)IRLS]* anyhow
16. Fashionable but not quite cool clothing: rising inflation involved here (5,5)
INNER TUBES
IN – fashionable & BUT inside most of SEREN(e) – calm, cool – reversed
17. Half-hidden story about glands (8)
THYROIDS
Anagram – about – half of (hid)[DEN STORY]*
18. Box set in disarray following investigation? Not right! (3,5)
SEA CHEST
SEARCH – investigation & SET* in disarray
21. Spoil function supported by clique (6)
COSSET
COS(ine) with SET – clique
22. Literary brothers resolute at hearing (5)
GRIMM
24. Terrible ruler losing head in bed (4)
IVAN
26. Some verse chosen for reflection (4)
ECHO
Not a fan of long anagram clues but got this one fairly quickly leading to a rapid solve. Liked the alliteration in 7d and the sneaky definition for TASMANIA.
Small error in blog for 16d. Should be BUT inside SEREN(e).
I got over half way without having worked out the long one but needed it to give me the crossers I needed for those that had held out on the first pass. Twigged it was an anagram but, tbh, didn’t work out the fodder and got it from enumeration, def and S—S for the last word. I agree with Hovis that TASMANIA – LOI – was very sneaky; my knowledge of devils and their environs appears to be sadly lacking and only when MANIA came to mind did the tricksiness reveal itself. PAEDIATRIC was my other big favourite though my heart sank at first – there are so many possible treatments to play with. OSIER held out for longer than it should have – my own fault for not thinking of it as a shrub; tree in my book but my own fault for not being more lateral in my thinking.
Thanks Laccaria and flashling
I put in the wrong spelling of AQABA (AKABA) but other than that, a pretty clean solve. Everything fell into place when I got the long anagram. The anagram letters for me were entirely useless and I got it from I_ A___ __E_ nicely fitting the phrase it ain’t over.
Loved ODDBALLS for the wordplay.
Thanks Laccaria and Flashling.
Thanks, Laccaria & Flashling. Another very neat long anagram – nice. Count me as another who found TASMANIA very tricky – a satisfying penny drop when I got it though.
I have to admit that like PM @2, I took a while to solve the long anagram and never really did see what the fodder was. PAEDIATRIC as a ‘kind of treatment’? I suppose so, though it’s not how I would normally think of the word. For 16d, I had ‘inflation involved here’ as the def, with ‘rising’ as the reversal indicator in a down clue for SEREN(E).
TASMANIA was my favourite and last in too. If you’re interested, do a search on “devil facial tumour disease”. Not exactly good news, but at least it does look as though it will not cause the extinction of the species.
Happy New Year to everyone connected with Fifteensquared.
Thanks to Laccaria and flashling
I wonder who decided that the ‘k’ sound in Arabic should be represented in English by Q rather than K? To get Q used more perhaps? Idle musing aside, what a great anagram for 13A etc. Thanks Laccaria and Flashling.
Thanks Hovis & WordPlodder for spotting those, I knew I should have proof read it. Minor fixes done.
I think that the sound we transcribe as a “Q” is pronounced further back in the mouth than a “K”. I am another who took an age to see TASMANIA, but appreciated it when I did. I feel the long anagram is admirable, but not really enjoyable to solve.
A bit of a mixed bag for me. Unlike others I saw TASMANIA quite early and it’s my standout favourite. TAHINI, PLAN and PARLIAMENT also appealed.
Many thanks Laccaria and flashling
Thanks to all for the comments: very kind and helpful! Yes I knew TASMANIA would fool a few people – hats off to those who sussed the definition without help! I just felt like being a bit more sneaky than just putting ‘Island’.
Yes I know I’ve a sort of fetish for long anagrams! I don’t claim to have the mighty Araucaria’s skills at that, but I like to think I got inspiration from his ‘Grantchester’. Now if only I could dream up a clue like that!
However I promise that the next one I send to Mike won’t have one. (It’s already drafted: still working on clues). I do have a very long anagram (54 letters if you please!) up my sleeve, still working on clueing the rest of the grid – but I won’t be sending it here. Instead, if I ever finish it, it’ll go on Mycrossword where people have more opportunity to pick and choose.
Sorry about the AQABA/AKABA ambiguity: I agree that either will do. When I first wrote that clue Queen Elizabeth was still alive and on the throne, but things have changed…
Thanks to flashling once again. Yes you’re right, there’s no theme to this one. A departure from my usual habit.
Tatrasman@6, as petert has suggested , the Arabic letter transcribed as Q, ‘qaf‘ is different from the letter transcribed as K, ‘kaf’. The latter is sounded just like English ‘k’, but the former is pronounced in the throat.
The name of the port, Aqaba, doesn’t actually start with a vowel in Arabic, but with the consonant ‘ayin‘, which is also a guttural and has no equivalent in English.
Nothing too difficult, although TASMANIA held out till the end, and we found the parsing of INNER TUBES a bit tricky. On the otherf hand we found, as we often do, that the long anagram was obvious once we had a handful of crossing letters so didn’t bother to sort out the anagram fodder. Favourite was OIL TANKERS simply because the clue misdirected us at first towards large cetaceans.
Thanks, Laccaria and flashling.
I believe that lots of Arabic and Hebrew words that used to contain a ‘K’ have had it changed to a ‘Q’ (never followed with a consonantal U as in English) – this being a more accurate transliteration of the ‘qaf/quf’. For example ‘Koran’ – as the word used to be known – is now almost always spelt ‘Quran’.
Re my long anagram – and excuse my political digression! – I had hoped that this puzzle’s appearance might coincide with the demise of one Madam Truss and her buddies (although the epithet might more aptly be applied to one of the said buddies). But it was not to be 🙂 Never mind! I’m still waiting for it to be ‘all over’ regarding the present incumbents!
Thanks Laccaria for an excellent crossword to begin the New Year. My LOI was TASMANIA as well and it was one of my favourites along with REHAB, YETI, PLAN, THYROIDS, and the long anagram. (It’s somewhat refreshing to see the word “fat” in an answer and not have the outrage machine going ballistic.) Thanks flashling for the blog.