The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hello to you all and goodbye to 2023! I wish you a peaceful, happy and healthy 2024.
I enjoyed this gentle Teesing very much. My highlights are BRICKLAYER (11a) for the wordplay and (obviously) STOP DEAD (17d) for the surface. I will indeed be up late tonight, although I’m not planning to party like it’s 1999. I hope whatever you do you have a good one. Thanks Tees!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
Across
1a & 18a Exaggerate to impress as 11 might, supplied with 19? (3,2,2,4,1,6)
LAY IT ON WITH A TROWEL
Inserting the indicated answers – 11a and 19d – makes clear the second meaning: as BRICKLAYER might, supplied with MORTAR
5a Black cat runs for ball pitched short (7)
BOUNCER
B (black) + OUNCE (cat, the snow leopard) + R (runs)
9a Decision avoiding court for Italian musician (5)
VERDI
VERDI[ct] (decision) ignoring (avoiding) CT (court)
10a Large body Jellicoe ultimately found among poinsettia? (3,6)
RED PLANET
The last letter of (… ultimately) JellicoE in (found among) RED PLANT (poinsettia?)
11a Home-builder‘s hen producing good eggs? (10)
BRICKLAYER
The hen is a LAYER, and a good egg is a BRICK, so we can interpret the answer whimsically as a hen which produces bricks, or “good eggs”!
12a Lead removed from gold for instance, and the rest (2,2)
ET AL
The first letter (lead) is removed from mETAL (gold for instance)
14a Inn’s owner, sexy beast, seen by voyeur at first denied? (11)
HOTELKEEPER
HOT (sexy) + ELK (beast) + pEEPER (voyeur) without the first letter (at first denied)
18a See 1 Across
21a British send back spring rolls (4)
BAPS
Start with B (British) then reverse (send back) SPA (spring)
22a Are lives of camels and mules so onerous? (10)
BURDENSOME
We could say that some camels and mules have “BURDENSOME” lives as beasts of burden
25a & 13d. One booted and horsed, crossing over, would knee-length fit tight? (3,4,2,10)
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON
Around (crossing) O (over), an anagram of (… tight) WOULD KNEE-LENGTH FIT
26a Young child, learner seen around a comprehensive (5)
TOTAL
TOT (young child) and L (learner) seen around A
27a Piece in good works about divine persons (7)
ODDMENT
OT (good works – or at least, works of the “Good Book”) around (about) DD (Doctor of Divinity: divine) and MEN (persons)
28a King wearing worthless items — that might do for Murphy (4,3)
RING ROT
R (king) + IN (wearing) + GROT (worthless items). Murphy here is a potato
Down
1d Catholic washing in loo, adult with sweaty smell (6)
LAVABO
LAV (loo) + A (adult) + BO (sweaty smell). A new word for me, but the wordplay and checkers left no doubt
2d Criminal excitedly ready when taking in island (6)
YARDIE
An anagram of (excitedly) READY when around (taking in) I (island)
3d Show foresight: take hand to shake without greeting? (5,5)
THINK AHEAD
TAKE HAND anagrammed (to shake) outside (without) HI (greeting)
4d Operatic heroine wants no cat skinned outside room (5)
NORMA
NO and cAt without its outer letters (skinned) surrounding (outside) RM (room)
5d Novelist’s written about energy company partner (9)
BEDFELLOW
BELLOW (novelist) is written around (about) EDF (energy company)
6d Fruit munter picked up (4)
UGLI
Homophone of (… picked up) UGLY (munter). Ugly is a noun here, so that’s fine, but munter is derogatory so not the best choice of word in my book
7d Rising power to do penance in church and sepulchral monument (8)
CENOTAPH
Reversed (rising) P (power) and ATONE (to do penance) in CH (church)
8d Snakes — excellent specimens! (8)
RATTLERS
Two definitions
13d See 25 Across
15d Dry northerly heading for Umbria, fast and swirling (9)
TURBULENT
BRUT (dry) written upwards (northerly) + the first letter of (heading for) Umbria + LENT (fast)
16d How a crocodile proceeds? (3,2,3)
TWO BY TWO
A cryptic definition: not the reptile, but humans walking in a long chain, two abreast
17d Kitty’s up late — have really quick check? (4,4)
STOP DEAD
POT’S (kitty’s) reversed (up) + DEAD (late)
19d Soldiers tense in ruin finding bomb (6)
MORTAR
OR (soldiers) and T (tense) in MAR (ruin)
20d Red Sea to French crowd (6)
MERLOT
MER (sea to French) + LOT (crowd)
23d Delay having suspect freed (5)
DEFER
An anagram of (suspect) FREED
24d Certain as Pygmalion writer’s sometimes said to be (4)
SURE
This sound like, although not in all accents, (sometimes said) SHAW (Pygmalion writer)
Liked BRICKLAYER, HOTEL KEEPER, THE D O W, RING ROT and STOP DEAD!
Thanks Tees for such a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks Kitty for your colourful and neat blog!
Is there a term for an apposite anagram like “would knee length fit”? It’s not quite a cad as it makes you think of the boot rather than the Duke, but it made me smile. Thanks to Kitty for another entertaining blog and to Tees for the entertainment. Happy New Year to all.
Full marks for 14A surface, in particular sexy beast = hot elk 😀
Great puzzle, reminiscent of the Guardian in its heyday.
Echoing Petert’s sentiments, have a great night everyone.
We found this on the easier side other than stop dead and oddment which we just couldn’t parse. Have never come across stop dead in this context.
Agree with Ui that hot elk was great, also thought Duke of Wellington and burdensome were neat, and bricklayer/mortar/lay it on thick was clever, with the bonus that they helped with filling in a chunk of the grid!
Thanks Tees for a typically fun crossword and Kitty for a typically fun and colourful blog. 🙂
HNY everyone.
Thanks both. Some welcome relief following yesterday’s ultimately unsuccessful trudge, though a few challenged me here. TWO BY TWO went in, but I didn’t know the crocodile in that sense and the parsing of ODDMENT was wholly beyond me, particularly where ‘good book’ rather than ‘good works’ feels more conventional for OT. RATTLERS was another educated(?) guess and the second meaning is not confirmed by my usually inadequate dictionary. I hope all enjoy catching up with an old acquaintance tonight.
MUNTER was a new word for me, doubt that it will live long in the memory, and I needed to check on the novelist and potato problems, so a fair old learning curve today. Favourites here were LAY IT ON WITH A TROWEL, BRICKLAYER and, of course, STOP DEAD.
Thanks to Tees and to Miss Kitty for the illustrated review – a very Happy New Year to both of you.
DiBosco @4. Is, perhaps, the issue with 17d, the clever use of ‘check’ in the clue? ‘Stop dead’ as in ‘stop dead in your tracks’ means ‘come to a sudden halt’ and ‘check’ can mean ‘bring to a stop’.
Well that was an enjoyable relief after yesterday’s torturous failure!
Munter is a fairly common word in these parts for an ugly person; not pleasant, but valid.
HNY one and all, have a great one!
A lovely puzzle with many smile inducing moments. Particularly liked HOT ELK, Duke of W, RING ROT(LOI) and LAVABO which brought back memories of the old Latin Mass. STOP DEAD was a good one too. Great blog Kitty! Happy New Year to All. Slainte ??
Excuse the ?? they were supposed to be whisky glasses, but emoticons obviously don’t work here. Cheers John.
Thx Kitty and all who commented.
MUNTER is of uncertain origin. Cruel though I must surely be, it always makes me grin like an idiot when I hear it. One explanation I was given, by some wit, was that a munter is someone of the relevant potential partner corpus with whom one absolutely MUST NOT, or mun’t. Guess I should submit it to Chambers …
Hope y’all had a good Crimbo. Here’s to an HNY!
Tees