Thank you to Fed. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Group of golfers wearing small jumpers possibly getting temporary replacements (8)
STOPGAPS : PGA(abbrev. for “Professional Golfers Association”/group of golfers) contained in(wearing) [ S(a “small”) + TOPS(clothes for the upper body, examples of which/possibly, are jumpers) ].
5. Runs British city (6)
BLEEDS : B(abbrev. for “British”) + LEEDDS(city in England).
Defn: …, as with blood from a wound.
9. In Hollywood, John Barry, having had some music cut for soap? (8)
TOILETRY : TOILET(lavatory, called a john in Hollywood, USA) + “Barry” minus(having had … cut) “bar”(a short section of/some music).
Defn: An item of which/? is soap.
10. Right for salesman to be on the counter (6)
PROPER : PRO(for/as opposed to “con”/against) + reversal of(… to be on the counter) REP(short for “representative”, a salesman).
12. Promises royalty has regularly ignored (5)
OATHS : 2nd, 4th, 6, 8th and 10th letters of(… regularly ignored) “royalty has“.
13. Ban writer appearing after half 10 (9)
PROSCRIBE : SCRIBE(a writer who made copies of documents before printing was invented) placed after(appearing after) 1st 3 of 6 letters of(half) “proper”(answer to 10 across).
14. ABBA checking on volume before I adjusted it on SOS, for example (12)
ABBREVIATION : ABBA containing(checking) [ RE(on/with reference to) + V(symbol for “volume”, in physics) plus(before) I ] + anagram of(adjusted) IT ON.
18. Perhaps Tommy Cooper’s opening in club working with top name (7,5)
CONCEPT ALBUM : 1st letter of(…’s opening) “Cooper” contained in(in) anagram of(… working …) [CLUB plus(with) TOP NAME].
Defn: An example of which/perhaps is the record album by The Who songs that tell the story of Tommy Walker.
Clip from the movie of Tommy’s story.
21. Rash promises to pay after Gold Card’s returned right away (9)
AUDACIOUS : IOUS(or “I owe you”s/promises to pay) placed after(after) [ AU(symbol for the chemical element, gold) + reversal of(…’s returned) “Card” minus(… away) “r”(abbrev. for “right”) ].
23. Tremble as the woman almost stripped naked (5)
SHAKE : “she”(third-person pronoun for “the woman”) minus its last letter(almost) + 1st and last letters deleted from(stripped) “naked“.
24. Elaborate party (6)
LABOUR : Double defn: 1st: To overemphasise/to give much more detail – alternative to “belabour”); and 2nd: Political ….
25. Brown enraged when losing two internationals, reveals Independent (8)
SEPARATE : [ “sepia”(brown colour) + “irate”(enraged/angry) ] minus(when losing) twice(two) “I”(abbrev. for “international).
26. Cycle occasionally went in reverse – seriously (6)
DEEPLY : Reversal of(… went in reverse) [ 2nd and 4th letters of(… occasionally) “Cycle” + PEED(went/urinated) ].
27. Lords powerless after this lot ultimately forming government (8)
STEERAGE : “peerage”(lords, collectively) minus(…less) “p”(symbol for “power”, in physics) placed after(after) last letters, respectively, of(… ultimately) “this lot“.
Down
1. Porridge for one – mushy, moist and cold (6)
SITCOM : Anagram of(mushy) [MOIST plus(and) C(abbrev. for “cold”) ].
Defn: An example of which/for one is “Porridge”:
2. Number one priority is always track events for starters (6)
OPIATE : 1st letters, respectively, of(,,, for starters) “one priority is always track events“.
Defn: …/a substance that treats pain by numbing.
3. Your password shouldn’t be this fancy – iPad potentially skipping every time (9)
GUESSABLE : GUESS(to fancy/conjecture) + “tablet”(a small portable computer such as the iPad made by Apple Inc.) minus all (skipping every) “t”(abbrev. for “time”).
I’m not sure why “potentially” is in there.
4. Vacuous prince on air – trips up revealing sweat (12)
PERSPIRATION : All inner letters deleted from(Vacuous) “prince” placed above(on, in a down clue) anagram of(… up/excited) ON AIR – TRIPS.
6. Emotional student joining year one class at the beginning (5)
LYRIC : L(letter displayed by a learner driver) plus(joining) YR(abbrev. for “year”) + I(Roman numeral for “one”) + 1st letter of(… at the beginning) “class“.
7. Blue cross set in plastic tie clip (8)
EXPLICIT : X(letter representing a cross) contained in(set in) anagram of(plastic) TIE CLIP.
Defn: …/describing a graphic representation/display of sexual activity.
8. Officer material getting a green beret, finally (8)
SERGEANT : SERGE(woollen fabric material) plus(getting) A + last letters, respectively, of(…, finally) “green beret“.
11. Recovering beers and Charlie confiscated by home for those with a habit (12)
CONVALESCENT : [ ALES(beers) plus(and) C(letter represented by “Charlie” in the phonetic alphabet) ] contained in(confiscated by) CONVENT(home for those with a habit, that is, for nuns).
Defn: … from an illness, say.
15. Originally Alan Partridge maybe pulling faces in foolish endeavour (1,4,4)
A MUG’S GAME : 1st letter of(Originally) “Alan” + GAME(hunted animals, of which the partridge bird is an example/maybe) containing(pulling … in) MUGS(slang for people’s faces).
16. Hastily wrote long passage, making a drug into something that might be boring (8)
SCRAWLED : “screed”(a long piece of writing/passage) replacing(making a … into …) “E”(abbrev. for the drug, Ecstasy) with AWL(a small pointed tool that might be used for boring/piercing holes).
17. In retrospect feel Biden is somewhat unpalatable (8)
INEDIBLE : Hidden in(In) reversal of(retrospect) “feel Biden is“.
19. Articles restricted by airline – one maybe in hand (6)
BANANA : AN,AN(2 x article in grammar) contained in(restricted by) BA(abbrev. for the airline, British Airways).
Defn: …/one in a bunch.
More than a handful:
20. 25 centigrade’s close and hard to endure (6)
SEVERE : SEVER(to “separate”, answer to 25 across) + last letter of(…’s close) “centigrade“.
22. One’s surly husband’s breaking wind (5)
CHURL : H(abbrev. for “husband”) contained in(…’s breaking) CURL(to wind/coil).
I thought this was marvellous with a tick for just about every clue. The way that Fed manipulates names like John Barry, Alan Partridge and Tommy Cooper is so clever and doesn’t require the GK to solve the clue. After getting SITCOM, I thought the clue for TOILETRY was looking for the name of a TV soap. ABBREVIATION, CONCEPT ALBUM and CONVALESCENT were the pick of the bunch. Couldn’t parse GUESSABLE so thanks. You have a slight typo I BLEEDS. Best in weeks.
Ta Fed & scchua for the lovely blog.
Thanks Fed and scchua
I filled the grid fairly quickly, but had to come back to some several times for the parsing, and never managed that for GUESSABLE.
Lots of nice clues, though, with particular favourites AUDACIOUS, CONVALESCENT, and CHURL for the misleading “wind”.
Is 4d another reference to Andrew?
Very enjoyable puzzle. Typical Fed, with lots of ingenious charades requiring rather a lot of words to make a plausible surface (average word count is 8, which I believe is the limit of what is conventionally acceptable).
My favourites were SITCOM, SERGEANT, INEDIBLE, STEERAGE and CHURL – for their particularly happy combinations of construction and surface.
Thanks to Fed and scchua
GUESSABLE
Took the ‘potentially’ as an example indicator.
Excellent puzzle and lovely blog!
Thanks Fed and scchua!
muffin @2: yes, makes 4d an even better clue and a perfect description of his abject performance.
Me @1: I see I had a slight typo pointing out your slight typo scchua 🙂
INEDIBLE
Should the def be just ‘unpalatable’? Actually, ‘unpalatable’ could be somewhat inedible (not the other way around, I feel).
The ‘somewhat’ probably serves as the ‘hidden’ indicator with the reversal indicator being ‘in retrospect’. Does it work?
21a does audacious mean rash?
I agree – mostly – with the praise above, but got left with the 20d/25a crossing, having just vowels for all the crossers and one of the clues depending on the answer to the other. Not very helpful! But I got there… just. Thanks, Fed and scchua (excellent helpful blog).
I really like the entertaining way Fed clues. I needed the blog to parse CONCEPT ALBUM – saw bits of the anagram fodder (Cooper, CLUB) in the clue, but not all of it – no paper and pen when I was solving in the wee small hours as the thunderstorm hit, then drenched us.
I saw 4D as another dig at the deserving Andrew (he was the Chancellor at Huddersfield when my daughter was there {PhD IRR}, and the students refused to attend anything he attended – calling him Prince Paedophile in their responses. He temporarily replaced Patrick Stewart, who is now back in role, whether he wanted to reduce his responsibilities or not.)
Thank you to Fed and scchua.
I liked this very much…DNF, couldn’t get 9a, 25a and 20d, but had to leave for work and forgot to reveal them. Seeing the answers and parsing here was a joy. Almost each and every clue was so ingenious, it was a real pleasure.
Thank you to Fed and to Scchua for your blog
Shirley @7 – that was an audacious/rash act?
BANANA
More than a handful: ‘that pic’ 😀
Missed it in the first read.
Fabulous fun from Fed who long since cemented his Champions League place and is mounting a serious challenge for the title. Great (sort of) to see another outing for the notorious non-perspirant. Additional top ticks for CONCEPT ALBUM & SEPARATE and many, many more
Didn’t fully parse SCRAWLED but have been up since 4am due to thunderbolts and lightning which my great dane finds very, very frightening
Cheers F&S
Thank you scchua for your, as ever, clear and well-illustrated blog.
I saw potentially as “possibly” in GUESSABLE, or as KVa says @4. Needed your help for the substitution in SCRAWLED. I got AWL but couldn’t put it all together.
I enjoyed the tricks with SITCOM, CONCERT ALBUM and soap</em TOILETRY. CONVALESCENT made me laugh.
The clue for PERSPIRATION with the vacuous prince reminded me of another one recently where he was a nerd who didn't sweat.
Excellent puzzle, like the way the names are weaved into the clues. “Potentially” was needed to show iPad was an example of a tablet.
My favourites were GUESSABLE, CONVALESCENT (what a surface!), CONCEPT ALBUM and TOILETRY
Thanks Fed and scchua
I did somehow manage to complete this – for me anyway – a SEVERE (loi) test. But without much joy or fun. A grind this morning, not my cup of tea, sorry, I’m quite obviously going against the trend so far…
I found this a bit of a struggle, but very enjoyable. Last in was TOILETRY. By coincidence, as I was tackling this clue a piece of music came on my iPhone; a download from yesterday’s Radio 3 mixtape. I glanced down to see that it was John Barry’s music for the 1971 film: Mary, Queen Of Scots. This was the version with Jackson and Redgrave. Not very accurate from an historical perspective, but great fun.
I didn’t know that Porridge was a Sitcom. Failed to get STOPGAPS, TOILETRY and CONCEPT ALBUM. I don’t know how STEERAGE is government. Thanks to scchua for the brilliant parsing. For the next Fed puzzle I’ll get pen and paper.
OOOOOH – is SOS an abbreviation? It doesn’t really stand for anything – ‘Save Our Souls’ was sort of added later: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOS
Never heard of a backronym before!
BUT I loved the puzzle, Fed just gets better and better.
Very much a puzzle for bunging in the answers and working through the parsing afterwards. My favourite was the beautifully simple BLEEDS. Thanks scchua for the wonderful blog, and for explaining SCRAWLED (for some reason I thought an awl was for punching holes, not boring them). Thanks Fed for the workout.
Too much hard work for any real enjoyment today. Glad, as ever, for the blog, so thanks scchua
I didn’t find this easy but got there in the end. (Not helped by putting the answer to 2dn into 1dn.) Lots of lovely clues, especially with the use of names. I got audacious but to me that suggests brave whereas rash means risky? Thanks F and scchua.
Bleeds for runs and steerage for government were a bit oblique, and lyric for emotional a bit devious, but Fed’s plug-and-plays are straight, like re v I inside Abba + (iton)*, or convent around ales c. Great surfaces too, so I think this bloke is the real deal, thanks both.
GinF @23
I wondered about LYRIC too, but apparently if applied to poetry it means expressing the poet’s feeings and emotions.
oops, my post@ 14 got a bit scrambled.
snap bodycheetah@13. PERSPIRATION was reminiscent of the Picaroon Prize clue for PRINCE ANDREW just recently. Nerd with new Capri pants, not a sweater? . Vacuous prince seems more appropriate than a nerd.
Looked up the word for not sweating at the time. Anhidrotic. An invitation to setters here.
Cormac @19 – I’m with you: SOS is an initialism. An abbreviation is something like gym, photo, exam, lab, etc.
CONCEPT ALBUM is something of an understatment
Thanks both.
Roundly defeated and on review would be roundly defeated again. I just can’t seem to deal with clues that require me to conjure up e.g. ‘tablet’ and then remove letters (although I did guess GUESSABLE). Similarly with ‘peerage’, ‘screed’ and ‘sepia irate’ – I am just not capable of the level of clairvoyance required here. Or not willing to be capable perhaps.
Much entertainment for all that with SITCOM getting the prize for hiding in plain sight. (Thanks to scchua for the link – don’t recall seeing that episode of Porridge.)
The Guardian Puzzles App still downloading all crosswords and puzzles despite being ‘closed’. Will continue to comment this until the plug is finally pulled.
Great crossword – took a looooong time to complete but satisfying.
Thanks to both for crossword and blog.
Agree with KVa@4 on 3d GUESSABLE – “‘potentially’ as an example indicator.” – Other tABLEts are available.
Agree with KVa@6 on 17d INEDIBLE – The def should “be just ‘unpalatable’” and “The ‘somewhat’ … serves as the ‘hidden’ indicator …”
Agree with AlanC@1 on Fed’s trademark ‘lift and separates’ of “John Barry, Alan Partridge, and Tommy Cooper”
Elsewhere there’s also “Gold Card”, “Blue cross”, and “breaking wind”.
and a BOGOF in 8d SERGEANT with “Officer material” and “green beret”.
Thanks F&s
It took me a while to get onto Fed’s wavelength, and I thought this was going to be a DNF at first. After my first run through the across clues, the only one I had in was OATHS. The down clues opened it up, though, and I enjoyed some of the wordplay and deftly constructed surfaces. I liked the long answers – CONVALSECENT, ABBREVIATION and PERSPIRATION. In the end it was the SE corner that gave me the most difficulty.
A really enjoyable puzzle, though. Thanks Fed, and scchua for the always excellent blog.
Held up a little by entering DETAIL for the ELABORATE PARTY.
Are we getting FED up yet with the vacuous prince jokes? (Not me.)
Thanks Fed and scchua.
Luckily GUESSABLE was exactly that, as I’d never have parsed it … Thanks to both for a lovely puzzle and blog.
RASH = AUDACIOUS? I thought DEEPLY about this and I reckon that if you do something that involves taking lots of chances both words work, but you’re more likely to describe it as RASH if it fails and AUDACIOUS if it succeeds.
I totally agree with grantinfreo and Lechien about the surfaces: reminds me of Arachne/Rosa Klebb at her best.
Phil McHale @26: SOS isn’t even an initialism – as Cormac pointed out it was originally chosen (in Germany!) simply for the unmistakable pattern of the three letters in Morse code, as the procedural signal to introduce a detailed distress message.
It took me a long time to sort out the clue for GUESSABLE, I had the G and that gave me GUESS for fancy, I was cycling from the coffee shop to breakfast when it all clicked. Somehow that helped me with the remaining clues, though I failed to parse SCRAWLED and I used to own a set of awls, borers not punches.
My rating of a puzzle is Do you finish with a smile on your face? This, and nearly all cryptic crosswords, achieved that. I occasionally do sudoku and word finder and they never achieve that.
Thanks both.
Cormac @19. Love the term backronym. I see from the article that SOS is also an ambigram (reads the same upside down). So that’s two new words today…
9a TOILETRY How does “on the counter” mean “reversed”?
Phil@28 I don’t think SOS is an initialism ether. It’s a signal for help with a distinctive Morse code that’s easy to remember dit-dit-dit dah-dah-dah dit-dit-dit.
Thanks, to Fed and schhua for the very animated blog.
I’m with ronald@16 on this one. Not been much fun for me, the past couple of days. Took me a long time to get my first answer, a similar amount for the second. A few fell into place after that but much of the wordplay and parsing was on a very different wavelength to me.
Feel like a curmudgeon, but I do try and post my delight/appreciation when it applies.
Wellcidered @32 I do hope not! How about: Prince Andrew’s nonchalance lacking form 🙂
Valentine@38 – on the counter, in that context, as in ‘on the counter attack’ for example, thus a reversal. I didn’t parse that either, for what it’s worth.
A chewy one for me–I took BLEEDS/runs to be like colors that bleed or run in the wash, but found BANANA and STEERAGE’s definitions fairly oblique (at least in the US, I think “steerage” is usually taken to be the worst accommodations that poor immigrants were forced into on transatlantic ships, so very far from government!) Also didn’t know PORRIDGE as a sitcom though I guess it’s very well known in the UK. Lots of excellent constructions as well though, ta to Fed and scchua.
Thanks scchua and thanks all.
I think KvA @4 is right – my intention with ‘potentially’ was to indicate that it’s a definition-by-example, ‘iPad potentially’ = tablet. (Many of the other such indicators; perhaps/maybe/possibly/for one/say etc were already on duty in the puzzle elsewhere)
Again KvA is right @6 with the suggestion that the definition is just ‘unpalatable’ and that ‘somewhat’ is there to indicate the hidden.
Phil McHale @26 – I don’t think it’s possible for something to be an initialism and not be an abbreviation. Initialising something is a way of abbreviating it. (Unless it’s 4WD which takes more syllables to say than Four Wheel Drive)
Chambers has:
Initialism: An abbreviation in which each letter is pronounced separately
Of course that doesn’t negate Cormac’s point @19 about it being a backronym – which I confess I didn’t know. I thought it was Save Our Souls or possibly Save Our Ship or similar.
Cheers!
[Fed @43
Thanks for dropping in.
A classic “abbreviation that isn’t” is www for world wide web.]
24a LABOUR reminded me to go out and vote, remembering to take my FreedomPass as Photo-ID, since (27a) “”this lot” in “government”‘s gerrymandering.
Here‘s Rees-Mogg, not only admitting it (for which shouldn’t he be arrested?), but also attempting to gaslight us about its effectiveness…
…The Electoral Reform Society explains the truth.
Thought 13a PROSCRIBE could have been a little more misleading with “after half ten“. – Too late: the polls close at ten.
Thanks so much Fed for dropping in and for some amazing clues. Thanks also to sschua for the blog which helped with the ABBA clue amongst others. I hardly ever get themes but today I convinced myself that John Barry (link below) was the key to this Cryptic. How wrong I was 🤣. Marvellous misdirection by Fed, I’m impressed that no one else fell for it.
Bc@40. Very funny and very naughty! 😎
[Link for those who are interested…https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barry_(composer) ]
I really need to wake up a bit more before I do these, bunging in ‘or’ instead of ‘au’ at the start of 21a really did not help me, but did give a doh moment.
Fed @43: Thanks for the puzzle and for dropping by with some clarifications.
As I remarked @35, echoed by Valentine @38, the traditional procedural signal to introduce a distress signal in Morse code is dit-dit-dit-dah-dah-dah-dit-dit-dit, without breaks to separate it into ‘letters’. SOS is just a mnemonic for the signal, which isn’t really an abbreviation/initialism at all.
[Earworm: Hit and Miss(1960) by The John Barry Seven plus Four – theme of the BBC’s Juke Box Jury. It was a UK No, 10 hit.
ITV had something similar with Thank Your Lucky Stars: ‘Oi’ll give it foive.’ – Janice Nicholls – I think she might have come from Brum, or thereabouts.]
Brilliant but I didn’t see CONCEPT ALBUM = Tommy; maybe I’m getting old!
Very clever and entertaining. First Fed l have finished for a while so hoping that’s me getting on his wavelength rather than this one was easier – given some comments here l’m going with the former. Many of the clues were ingenious but l particularly marvelled at 16 down and 25 across. Thanks Fed and scchua
Loved the twists and turns today.
Didn’t finish – defeated by SEPARATE and SEVERE – but that didn’t detract. Favourites were PROPER and CONCEPT ALBUM. I can’t help wondering what the average age of solvers is, Tommy was a loooooong time ago!
Veronica @53 l was living in Portsmouth when South Parade Pier was destroyed during the making of Tommy. The Pinball Wizard scenes were filmed at The King’s Theatre in Southsea and some of my friends were extras. Fortunately the theatre remained intact. Average age, don’t know, but l haven’t reached retirement age yet!
😊 nice input, MartyBridge
Favourite: DEEPLY (loi).
New for me: PORRIDGE = sitcom.
I could not parse 18ac as I was thinking incorrectly of C = club +ON = working + C= opening letter of Cooper; 16d.
Thanks, both.
Got far further into this Friday (and a Fed) than usual. Almost all in fact but needed to come here for some parsings . Liked “on the counter” as a cunningly contextually concealed reversal indicator.
Did think a SERGEANT wasn’t an officer by definition but then thought NCO and Police. Loved Porridge (the programme) as a kid. Daren’t go back. It may not have aged well. Much like myself!
Thanks for the blog , good puzzle with some clever constructions. I thought SEPARATE was very neat.
Spent far too long wondering why GAP was a group of golfers before noticing PGA , pretty sure it is an AWL of golfers anyway.
Joffee@ 57 , Porridge is still brilliant , the best things never age.
Thanks Fed, it’s always a treat with BLEEDS, PROPER, OPIATE, and INEDIBLE being my top picks. My sole failure was A MUGS GAME, an unfamiliar expression for me. Thanks scchua for the blog.
I found this pretty difficult but very satisfying. I confess that I was baffled by the parsing of 1ac, because I found myself wondering why GAP referred to a group of golfers. I’d never heard of the sitcom “Porridge”, which contributed to my remaining stuck in the NW for quite a while.
There were lots of great clues, but I particularly liked the cleverly hidden definition in 2dn (OPIATE). I know that “number” meaning “that which numbs” is a well-worn cryptic trick, but it worked so naturally into the surface that I still didn’t spot it for ages.
I disagree with Fed over 8d. A sergeant is not an officer.
Chas
Why is a Non Commissioned OFFICER not an officer? Also, as someone said earlier, how about a Police Sergeant?
muffin In the British Army Officers hold the sovereign’s commission (signed by the sovereign personally!). People who are non commissioned are therefore not officers.
so why are they called officers, then? they are NCOs.
that is the point of my initial post here: sergeants are NOT called officers.
Zero for me.
Loved it. Like others I was misled by the soap in the John Barry clue but enjoyed it when the penny dropped. Loved CONCEPT ALBUM and ABBREVIATION. Many excellent word plays here. So nearly had DEEPLY … last one not in, chiz chiz.
Chas @63
Chambers:
Sergeant: 1 a non-commissioned officer of one of the higher ranks, ranking above a corporal
2: an officer of police
You can debate whether a non-commissioned officer in the army is an officer or not, but I’m not sure there’s much debate to be had about an officer of police being an officer.
Big thank you to everyone who helped me get 100% on my quibble bingo card today 🙂
Steffen @60 – when Fed started setting for the Guardian, a few years back, the way he sets clues wasn’t universally welcomed as he has a very different style to many other setters and uses different terms and references. I really enjoy being made to think and create different links, and always have done, as do many of the regulars, but that stretch from the standard tricks is what makes it such fun and such a challenge.
Shanne@70 thanks for a very helpful comment. Looking again at my comment@20 it sounds ungenerous. I merely meant to say that, for me, this was a ‘guess and parse later’ puzzle, not that there was anything inherently wrong with the clueing. I think that you have explained why I struggled. I am still relatively new to cryptics and have not done many Fed crosswords as far as I am aware. I look forward to doing more and developing a better understanding of his style.
paul@71, no need to backtrack from your comment@20. It seems that amongst solvers there are those who don’t mind retro parsing and there are those, who like me, preferto solve the clues from wordplay. When I was learning, I’d get the solution the next day and work it out retrospectively, but even years down the track there are some setters I don’t enjoy, because of my need to ‘guess and parse later’. I don’t enjoy Paul, the setter, for that reason, (amongst others), but then that’s me, and others enjoy him. If you’re relatively new to cryptics I wouldn’t set Fed as a benchmark, for the reasons Shanne outlined @70.