The four long perimeter clues made this a slow solve for me on this challenge from Buccaneer . . .
. . .and I still cannot fully parse 1D??? Either this is an editing error, or I am missing a trick. Comments welcome, as always. See comment from Buccaneer@5
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FAIR MAID OF PERTH |
Business welcomes a city in Oz’s help? That’s novel (4,4,2,5)
|
| FIRM (business) around (welcomes) A + AID OF PERTH (city in Oz’s help), by Sir Walter Scott (1828) | ||
| 9 | LET-DOWN |
Service with drink rapidly becomes a disappointment (3-4)
|
| LET (service) + DOWN (drink rapidly) | ||
| 10 | TEAR GAS |
A great striker initially playing a blinder (4,3)
|
| Anagram of (playing) {A GREAT + first letter of (“initially”) S[TRIKER]} | ||
| 11 | OINKS |
Maybe sounds like a Berkshire home has green lights around (5)
|
| OKS (green lights) around IN (home), referring to a breed of pig | ||
| 12 | ARMADILLO |
Scaly creature, fleet but tailless, I’m going to love (9)
|
| ARMAD[A] (fleet) minus final letter (“tailless”) + I’LL (I’m going to) + O (love) | ||
| 13 | TARNISHES |
Taints and stains here cut out (9)
|
| Anagram of (out) {STAINS + HER[E] minus last letter (“cut”)} | ||
| 15 | COATI |
Cake one will give raccoon-like animal (5)
|
| COAT (cake) + I (one) | ||
| 16 | ADDLE |
Go off beer, drinking sizable cups (5)
|
| ALE (beer) around (drinking) DD (sizable cups, i.e., of a bra) | ||
| 18 | RESHAPING |
Gathering around empty Slough building again (9)
|
| REAPING (gathering) around outside letters of (“empty”) S[LOUG]H | ||
| 20 | ENSLAVERS |
Dribbles past Everton’s wingers? They hold people in thrall (9)
|
| Outside letters of (“wingers”) E[VERTO]N + SLAVERS (dribbles) | ||
| 23 | LYDIA |
Curiously diagonal walls in ancient kingdom (5)
|
| Hidden in (walls in) [CURIOUS]LY DIA[GONAL] | ||
| 24 | LARGISH |
Big cat crossing river with grunt (7)
|
| LASH (cat) around (crossing) [R (river) + GI (grunt)] | ||
| 25 | ANTIOCH |
Grotesque fences round hotel in Turkish city (7)
|
| ANTIC (grotesque) around (fences) O (round) + H (hotel) | ||
| 26 | REGIUS PROFESSOR |
Occupant of chair goes for surprise parties (6,9)
|
| Anagram of (parties) GOES FOR SURPRISE | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FELLOW TRAVELLER |
Pair up with composer, boring chap one accompanies (6,9)
|
| ??? TWO (pair) inverted (up) + RAVEL (composer) inside (boring) FELLER (chap). This parsing leaves an extra “L” that I cannot account for. See comment from Buccaneer@5. |
||
| 2 | INTONER |
Person chanting about cracking football club (7)
|
| ON (about) inside (cracking) INTER (football club) | ||
| 3 | MOONSHINE |
Low number keeping quiet, getting banned intoxicant (9)
|
| MOO (low) + NINE (number) around (keeping) SH (quiet) | ||
| 4 | IONIA |
One with working capital raised in Greek region (5)
|
| I (one) + ON (working) + AI (capital, i.e., “A1”) inverted (raised) | ||
| 5 | OPTIMISTS |
Choose current films — they exude positivity (9)
|
| OPT (choose) + I (current) + MISTS (films) | ||
| 6 | PLAID |
What Angus might wear in a party in Cardiff? (5)
|
| Double definition, i.e., Scots attire and [political] “party” in Welsh | ||
| 7 | REGALIA |
Finery of Spanish outfit including grand insignia on the outside (7)
|
| REAL (Spanish outfit) around (including) G (grand) + outside letters of (“on the outside”) I[NSIGNI]A | ||
| 8 | HISTORIOGRAPHER |
A checker of accounts, I spot error — high jinks involving head of accounting (15)
|
| Anagram of (jinks) {I SPOT ERROR HIGH + first letter of (“head of”) A[CCOUNTING]} | ||
| 14 | HORSEWHIP |
Husband and wife admitting sore bum in thong (9)
|
| H (husband) + W (wife) around (admitting) anagram of (bum) SORE + HIP (in) | ||
| 15 | CHARLOTTE |
Monarch wanting seconds eats extravagant dessert (9)
|
| CHARLE[S] (monarch) minus (wanting) S (seconds) around (eats) OTT (extravagant) | ||
| 17 | DISHRAG |
Cleaner roughly donning camp attire (7)
|
| ISH (roughly) inside (donning) DRAG (camp attire) | ||
| 19 | INDOORS |
During party, men succeeded taking shelter (7)
|
| IN (during) + DO (party) + OR (men) + S (succeeded) | ||
| 21 | ADIEU |
I’m leaving something rolled gold covers (5)
|
| AU (gold) around (covers) DIE (something rolled) | ||
| 22 | SHAKO |
Soldier’s accessory, extremely stylish, a big hit (5)
|
| Outside letters of (“extremely”) S[TYLIS]H + A + KO (big hit) |
Liked F M O PERTH, OINKS, MOONSHINE, PLAID and HISTORIOGRAPHER.
FELLOW TRAVELLER
I parsed it as you did. An L hanging loose…
Thanks, Buccaneer and Cineraria.
Some tricky footwork here. Top puzzle.
A few references to Turkey here with ANTIOCH, LYDIA and IONIA (which is also a region of Turkey) but not enough to make a theme. Yes, those long perimeter answers aren’t common titles or words, except for FELLOW TRAVELLER, for which I could only identify RAVEL; I couldn’t work out any more of the parsing, but looks like this could be an L too far as you say.
Good to see the references to our furry and not so furry friends in OINKS, ARMADILLO and COATI. Favourite was the surface for THONG.
Thanks to Buccaneer and Cineraria
Must admit I (like the setter, presumably) didn’t spot the extra L in 1d. Bloody L, you might say.
Sincere apologies for the neglected L in 1 down – mea culpa!
Another great crossword from Buccaneer – shame about the L
Many thanks to him and Cineraria
A pity about 1dn (even Homer nods). Like Hovis, I didn’t spot it – it was my last one in.
Apart from that, another top puzzle, as copmus says. I liked all the other long ones, plus TEAR GAS, OINKS, ANTIOCH, PLAID, CHARLOTTE and ADIEU.
Many thanks to Buccaneer for the puzzle and for dropping in and to Cineraria for a great blog.
We crossed, crypticsue!
Satisfying solve with pdms from building up the words.
Thank you to Buccaneer and manehi.
Sorry, Cineraria – yes, I did the Guardian first, and this was such a lovely crossword to follow.
I don’t get 1A
I thought the book was called “The Fair Maid Of Perth”?
What happened to the “The” in the answer?
Thanks Buccaneer and Cineraria
Mark @ 11: if you were sorting books alphabetically, where would you file it? 😉
“Have you read Scott’s Fair Maid Of Perth?” seems a perfectly reasonable question.
Thanks to Buccaneer@5 for the clarification. Would “Fifty pair up etc.” work? I have little talent for constructing comprehensible clues.
MarkA@11: A fair question. I chalked up the omission to “cryptic license,” but I suppose a more precise definition might have been “heroine” or something along those lines.
Hi Cineraria, you’re quite right that, if I’d had my wits about me at all, it was a very easy clue to fix! (Pair up with composer back from recital…)
Omitting leading articles from names of works is standard in crosswords. It’s usually definite articles, e.g. I’ve seen ‘Portrait of a Lady’ a few times, but I can remember the late, great Bunthorne giving us ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ well over 20 years ago, so leaving out indefinite articles is also perfectly possible.
Re 1ac: further to Buccaneer @14 – certainly here ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is almost invariably abbreviated to MSND – frequently with reference to puzzles by Araucaria and Puck et al.
Thanks for the input re 1a folks.
I’d just assumed that as we were looking specifically for a novel then it would be the actual title.
Something else for me to try and remember in future 😉
Thanks for the blog, I also totally missed the extra L , so many there it is easily done. The long entries were very helpful , 1Ac and 1D gave lots of first letters.
Nice lot of unusual solutions.
I’m with Mark A on the defective novel. The fact that Bunthorne did it doesn’t really answer the objection that it’s not the actual title; unfortunately databases are full of these articleless articles.
In a Picaroon puzzle in March there was ‘WASTE LAND’ defined by ‘work of Eliot’, which as a title is quite different in quality to ‘The Waste Land’. It doesn’t jar so much in this case, but then I’d never heard of the novel.
I’m with Simon S @12 – in both instances.
Shame on me, really: I was aware of ‘The Fair Maid of Perth’ as a Bizet opera – should have known / guessed it was Scott.
Excellent novel that really needs its leading article (7)
S*I*I*G
Great puzzle, so many satisfying PDMS – OINKS being my favourite. I didn’t even notice the superfluous L.
Thanks, Buccaneer and Cineraria.
Most of this was a joyless slog for me and I did more guessing from the crossers than I did actual solving. That’s too bad because I generally enjoy this setter. Thanks to both
I’m sure Buccaneer meant well with FELLOW TRAVELLER but the road to L is paved with good intentions.
I missed the extra L in 1d but didn’t stop me from solving it. A very enjoyable crossword by James. Particularly enjoyed OINKS. That bought a chuckle.
Thanks for the crossword and thanks for blogging. Already looking forward to the next Picaroon, Buccaneer or Rodriguez.