A fine Tuesday challenge.
I am not entirely sure what Jason is getting at in 8A or 5D, so I welcome any further confirmation or elucidation in the comments.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PEER PRESSURE |
Look on president with certain urge to fit in (4,8)
|
| PEER (look) + PRES (president) + SURE (certain) | ||
| 8 | INSIDES |
Team on bat is showing guts (7)
|
| I think this parses as: IN SIDE (team on bat) + ‘S (is)–although I do not find that very convincing. | ||
| 9 | AMNESIC |
One initially confused after name’s lost (7)
|
| &lit and anagram of (lost) NAME’S + I (one) + first letter of (“initially”) C[ONFUSED], with “after” indicating the order of the wordplay. Very nice surface. | ||
| 11 | TRIUMPH |
I’ll feature in trusty husband’s fantastic achievement (7)
|
| I inside ([wi]ll feature in) TRUMP (trusty–I’ve never seen it, but it’s in Chambers) + H (husband) | ||
| 12 | SHORTEN |
Take up crop (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | RUNIC |
Run academic institute with college of ancient writing (5)
|
| R (run) + UNI (academic institute) + C (college) | ||
| 14 | SOAPSTONE |
Soft rock giving melodramatic serial’s tenor (9)
|
| SOAP’S (melodramatic serial’s) + TONE (tenor) | ||
| 16 | FUNDAMENT |
Behind romp with woman in Paris, wanton at heart (9)
|
| FUN (romp) + DAME (woman in Paris, i.e., in French) + central letters of (“at heart”) [WA]NT[ON] | ||
| 19 | WOODS |
Drivers with freight good to go (5)
|
| W (with) + [G]OODS (freight, minus [to go] G [good]), i.e., golf clubs | ||
| 21 | ALCOVES |
Company very into beers finding niches (7)
|
| [CO (company) + V (very)] all inside (into) ALES (beers) | ||
| 23 | PARAPET |
Soldier to sulk protecting wall (7)
|
| PARA (soldier) + PET (sulk) | ||
| 24 | EYESORE |
Some disgrace, yes, or else a carbuncle (7)
|
| Hidden in (some) [DISGRAC]E YES OR E[LSE] | ||
| 25 | SHAMPOO |
Commonly bubbly is phoney and mostly rubbish (7)
|
| SHAM (phoney) + POO[H] or perhaps POO[R] (rubbish, “mostly”), slang for champagne, I assume | ||
| 26 | TRAINSPOTTER |
What snooker coach does is perhaps obsessive? (12)
|
| Charade of TRAINS POTTER (what snooker coach does) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PASSION |
Suffering love in goin’ away (7)
|
| O (love) inside (in) PASSIN’ (goin’ away) | ||
| 2 | ENDEMIC |
Target wild mice confined to a particular area (7)
|
| END (target) + anagram of (wild) MICE | ||
| 3 | POSTHASTE |
Like a bat out of hell spread around unfettered tosh (9)
|
| PASTE (spread) around anagram of (unfettered) TOSH | ||
| 4 | EXAMS |
Cut up manuscript for short trials (5)
|
| AXE (cut) inverted (up) + MS (abbreviation of [“for short”] manuscript) | ||
| 5 | SENIORS |
Rinse so rejuvenated us? (7)
|
| Anagram of (rejuvenated) RINSE SO, referring, I assume, to the fact that subjecting one’s hair to a color rinse might make one appear younger | ||
| 6 | RISOTTO |
Dish to stir vigorously with what’s central to stock (7)
|
| Anagram of (vigorously) TO STIR + middle letter of (“what’s central to”) [ST]O[CK] | ||
| 7 | PICTURE FRAME |
Imagine ship’s beak in iron mount (7,5)
|
| PICTURE (imagine) + RAM (ship’s beak) inside (in) FE (iron) | ||
| 10 | CONVERSATION |
Talk change taking on board core elements of oath (12)
|
| CONVERSION (change) around (taking on board) inside letters of (“core elements of”) [O]AT[H] | ||
| 15 | ANTIPASTO |
A new slant regarding hors d’oeuvre, forse (9)
|
| A + N (new) + TIP (slant) + AS TO (regarding), with “forse” being Italian for “perhaps,” indicating the language of the solution | ||
| 17 | NUCLEAR |
Letter from Kyriakos Mitsotakis on pure source of energy? (7)
|
| NU (letter from Kyriakos Mitsotakis, i.e., a Greek letter) + CLEAR (pure) | ||
| 18 | ALVEOLI |
A lake I love when changing components of breathing apparatus? (7)
|
| A + L (lake) + anagram of (when changing) I LOVE, referring to a lung | ||
| 19 | WARRANT |
Justify fighting tub-thumping? (7)
|
| WAR (fighting) + RANT (tub-thumping) | ||
| 20 | ON PAPER |
Theoretically propane combusts (2,5)
|
| Anagram of (combusts) PROPANE | ||
| 22 | SHEDS |
Ditches such as you often see in gardens (5)
|
| Double definition |
Liked TRAINSPOTTER and ANTIPASTO.
Thanks, Jason and Cineraria!
INSIDES and SENIORS: I agree with your parsing. I don’t see any loose ends.
Another enjoyable puzzle from Jason. I was too lazy to parse ANTIPASTO properly (probably would have been beyond me anyway) so thanks for the explanation. I parsed INSIDES as in the blog, thinking the surface had more of a baseball rather than a cricket feel to it. I had no idea about TRUMP for ‘trusty’ (ironic) either. I agree AMNESIC was a “proper” &lit and was my pick today.
I thought 5d was humorously referring to the likelihood that most of ‘us?’ (ie solvers (and
perhaps even setters)) are SENIORS; shurely shome mishtake.
Thanks to Cineraria and the ever youthful Jason
AMNESIC, TRAINSPOTTER, FUNDAMENT and SENIORS were my picks in this enjoyable outing from Jason.
Needed Cineraria’s help explaining the ‘trump’ in TRIUMPH and a couple of others. I’ve heard CHAMPERS but not SHAMPOO but it couldn’t be anything else.
Thanks to Jason and Cineraria.
What KVa said. I’ll add my name to the presumably long list of people who didn’t know that meaning of ‘trump’.
I couldn’t quite make sense of ‘us’ = SENIORS but, having passed 60, I guess I am beginning to think of myself in that way so perhaps the definition made more sense. I think Cineraria has made a better argument ref those who actually indulge in rinses – though it was a tough def. The ‘trump’ mentioned by others was also new to me – I’m surprised I haven’t encountered it in connection with the Donald. It is amusing just how many unfortunate or inappropriate connotations there are for one 5 letter name …
TRAINSPOTTER and AMNESIC were definite favourites along with SOAPSTONE, WOODS, POSTHASTE, SHEDS and RISOTTO which is getting close to &littish too.
Thanks Jason and Cineraria
Thanks Jason and Cineraria
8ac: I agree it works as you say, but I would expect it to be “at bat” in baseball or “batting” in cricket. Is “on bat” actually used in either sport, or is there a third sport I have not considered?
11ac: Following Hovis@4, perhaps it would be easier if those who have heard of “trump” = “trusty” would say so.
12ac: I thought this was a bit feeble. Double definition, yes, but two meanings? Not really.
5dn: I took “us” in the usual way to indicate the people defined by the answer, with the definition by example indicated by the question mark, and would label the clue “& lit”.
Thanks for the blog, good set of clues . Chambers gtves trump coming directly from triumph in the card playing sense , maybe the word just changed over time for card games.
For SENIORS I was thinking of blue rinse. For SHORTEN I had take up as hemlines , so reversible , but crop as haircuts so more drastic.
AMNESIC and FUNDAMENT very neat.
Roz – more drastic, yes, but the hair will grow back! Unless poorly executed, the taking up of the hemlines should be more long-lasting.
The hemline can be taken up and down over a short timescale for specific reasons which I will not discuss further.
My shampoo is bubbly which I think is “commonly” the case.
Thanks Jason. Got to this late and it took several sittings but it was well worth the effort. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
SHAMPOO for champagne is in some terrible 70/80s films, dafinitely best forgotten.