The puzzle is available to download or solve online here.
Hi everyone. More fun from the reliably entertaining Bluth. It seemed quite tricky while solving but I was surprised on looking at the time to find much less of it had elapsed that I would have guessed. Perhaps it was because I was a little slow to get started, then slightly held up at the end by a few stragglers: ILLUDE (4d), the intersecting TYPESET and PLEXUS (5d/10a), and ECLIPSE (13a).
My clues of the day are 14a, which was STELLAR, and 25&26a MARRIAGE COUNSELLING, which amused muchly. Thanks Bluth!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are usually in italics 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 | & 9a. Union pay for party and sport (11,8) |
| ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL — ASSOCIATION (union) + FOOT (pay for) + BALL (party) | |
| 9a | See 1a |
| 10a | Car manufacturer on power network (6) |
| PLEXUS — LEXUS (car manufacturer) next to (on) P (power) | |
| 11a | Remember playground in its entirety (6) |
| RECALL — REC (playground) + ALL (in its entirety) | |
| 12a | Terribly tiny self-assembly boxes (8) |
| DISMALLY — SMALL (tiny), which DIY (self-assembly) contains (boxes) | |
| 13a | Block of drugs including speed seized at the start (7) |
| ECLIPSE — E E (drugs) around (including) CLIP (speed) followed by Seized at the start | |
| 14a | Ultimately Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s right – excellent (7) |
| STELLAR — The last letters of (ultimately) FranciS and ScotT + ELLA (Fitzgerald) + R (right) | |
| 16a | I see grandparent stopping stupidly (7) |
| INANELY — I and ELY (see, diocese), with NAN (grandparent) inside (stopping) | |
| 18a | Once somebody new pursues terms for North Sea gas worker (3-4) |
| HAS-BEEN — N (new) follows (pursues) the terminal letters of (terms for) NortH SeA gaS and BEE (worker) | |
| 21a | Degenerate’s time inside never to be forgotten (8) |
| IMMORTAL — IMMORAL (degenerate) has T (time) inside | |
| 23a | Dictator’s annoyance with journalist reached its highest level (6) |
| PEAKED — PEAK, a homophone of (dictator’s) PIQUE (annoyance), with ED (journalist) | |
| 24a | A&E dressing wound – doctor’s stern and more urgently pressing (6) |
| ACUTER — A and E surrounding (dressing) CUT (wound) followed by doctoR’s end (stern) | |
| 25a | & 26. Union advice: Uri Geller is a conman performing magic essentially (8,11) |
| MARRIAGE COUNSELLING — URI GELLER IS A CONMAN anagrammed (performing) + the middle letter of (… essentially) maGic | |
| 26a | See 25a |
| Down | |
| 2d | Job sorting out AI isn’t … (9) |
| SITUATION — An anagram of (sorting out) AI ISN’T | |
| 3d | … ours oddly – experts must bring in 50 future consultants? (7) |
| ORACLES — OuRs oddly + ACES (experts) which needs the insertion of (must bring in) L (50) | |
| 4d | Trick that is used to keep flat in retirement (6) |
| ILLUDE — IE (that is) surrounding (used to keep) the reversal of (… in retirement) DULL (flat) | |
| 5d | Two classes prepared for printing (7) |
| TYPESET — The two classes are TYPE, as in category and SET, a school class | |
| 6d | Perhaps Carmen’s old fruit hat stripped down to the base (5) |
| OPERA — O (old) and PEAR (fruit) in which A – hAt stripped – is moved down to the base. The surface references Carmen Miranda | |
| 7d | Subject taught in commercial premises at last (4,9) |
| HOME ECONOMICS — HOME (in) + ECONOMIC (commercial) + premiseS at last | |
| 8d | Stars produce this type of family animation (7,6) |
| NUCLEAR ENERGY — NUCLEAR (type of family) + ENERGY (animation) | |
| 15d | Suspect Brian Lara briefly touring India is one who might quieten the crowd? (9) |
| LIBRARIAN — An anagram of (suspect) BRIAN LARa briefly around (touring) I (India) | |
| 17d | Soap hotel left out working eventually (5,2) |
| LATER ON — LAT[h]ER (Soap) with H (hotel) left out + ON (working) | |
| 19d | Costume Peter Lorre conclusively wears to horrify (7) |
| APPAREL — PeteR LorrE at the end (conclusively) goes inside (wears) APPAL (to horrify) | |
| 20d | Light dessert potentially following meat course’s conclusion (6) |
| FLAMBÉ — F (following) + LAMB (meat) + coursE’s final letter (conclusion) | |
| 22d | Trump exposed party (5) |
| OUTDO — OUT (exposed) + DO (party) | |
Thanks Bluth and Kitty!
Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog!
Liked HOME ECONOMICS, ORACLES, OPERA and FLAMBE.
SITUATION
In the blog, an inadvertent error has crept in.
LIBRARIAN
Brian Lara is in India now (The IPL festival is on)! He must be loving the way the crowds go bonkers!
(Loved the surface)
FLAMBE
The ‘Light’ in the clue is ‘glowing’. Isn’t it?
Thanks KVa – I have fixed the SITUATION in 2d. Always glad to have my errors picked up quickly.
Yes, that’s how I interpreted FLAMBÉ. 🔥
Is there some heavenly ASSOCIATION (MARRIAGEs are made in heaven?!) in the grid?
ECLIPSE, STELLAR, stars, ORACLES…
Someone will very soon say that I am wrong!
Definitely an astronomical mini theme I would say.
Thanks Bluth and Kitty. Nice gentle puzzle for hungover Saturday morning
That was fun, thank you Bluth and Kitty.
It took me a while to get started, but the anagram of MARRIAGE COUNSELLING was the way in.
I made harder work of that than I should have done. A few clues that I pondered over having most or all of the crossers that should have just been written in took some thinking about. NUCLEAR ENERGY was my LOI for example.
Some fine work as usual from Bluth. Thanks to him and to Kitty for the blog.
Lovely fun as usual from this setter, which I found at the lighter end of his spectrum. Some great surfaces to be found as well as the expected interesting parsings to unravel.
STELLAR was my favourite.
Many thanks to Bluth and to Kitty.
Looks like I had a similar experience to our blogger: it felt harder than it turned out to be and took me no longer than usual. Which came as a surprise. At first, I was totally adrift with the two long Union clues but just a couple of crossers did the job for MARRIAGE COUNSELLING. (As I rarely solve with paper and pen to hand, I tend to do most anagrams in my head rather than use a solver. OK most of the time but 19 letters is way beyond my juggling capacity!). The clue that held out the longest, from a parsing perspective, was OPERA with the cunning movement instructions. DISMALLY, IMMORTAL, STELLAR and LATER ON were my faves.
Thanks Bluth and Kitty
Casting aspersions on Uri’s paranormal talents. Brilliant.
Spent too long looking for a way to fit the ludicrous expense of modern weddings in to 1a/9a, but apart from that a steady solve.
Thanks Bluth and Kitty. Love the colours.
25/26 is superb!
Thanks, Bluth & Kitty
Lovely puzzle. ECLIPSE was might LOI. My tops too. Otherwise quite smooth once I had the longer entries. Not sure what KVa@1 means by ‘glowing’. I thought FLAMBE mkight have been av verb. Thanks Kitty (missed HOME = ‘in’ with 7d although I had the solution) and Bluth.
Thanks Kitty. Thanks all.