BOBCAT provides this bank holiday Monday's puzzle…
A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle, with some excellent surfaces.
Thanks BOBCAT!
ACROSS
1. Measure of response from mate in erotic novel (8,4)
REACTION TIME
(MATE IN EROTIC)* (*novel)
8. More than one retired clergyman housed in close (7)
SEVERAL
(REV)< (clergyman, <retired) in SEAL (close)
9. Musical number about lock-keeper? (7)
HAIRNET
HAIR (musical) + (TEN)< (number, <about)
11. Right to sidestep host about to go round carrying hot soup (7)
CHOWDER
(C[r]OWD (host, R (right to sidestep)) + (RE)< (about, <to go round)) carrying H (hot)
12. Cordial drunk at a fair (7)
RATAFIA
13. Get put off as dons’ vices serially exposed (2,3)
ON ICE
[d]ON[s] [v]ICE[s] (serially exposed)
14. We may be struck by American foundation’s courage (9)
BASEBALLS
BASE (foundation) + BALLS (courage)
16. Very old cathedral holds mass after terce on a regular basis (9)
EXTREMELY
(EX (old) + ELY (cathedral)) holds (M (mass) after T[e]R[c]E (on a regular basis))
19. Puritan indiscreet to remove two layers of clothing (5)
PRUDE
[im]PRUDE[nt] (indiscreet, to remove two layers of clothes)
21. I deliver key to board game with queen (7)
RESCUER
ESC (key) to board RU (game) with ER (queen)
23. Number of sheep in target area losing heart (7)
INTEGER
TEG (sheep) in IN[n]ER (target area, losing heart)
24. Cupboard for displaying wine after one replaces the centre (7)
CABINET
CABERNET (wine) after I (one) replaces the centre (i.e., the ER)
25. Spooner’s Manx characteristic that could be ingrown (7)
TOENAIL
"no tail" = TOENAIL (Manx characteristic, "Spooner's")
26. Bail Cineplex out? That’s unaccountable (12)
INEXPLICABLE
DOWN
1. Course primarily requiring an old instrument is curtailed (7)
RAVIOLI
R[equiring] A[n] (primarily) + VIOI[n] (old instrument, curtailed)
2. American university missing third cut (7)
ABRIDGE
A (American) + [cam]BRIDGE (university, missing third)
3. Satisfactory function adopted by board has lowered resistance (9)
TOLERABLE
(ROLE adopted by TABLE (board)) has lowered R (resistance)
4. Second bishop to be absolved from trouble (5)
OTHER
[b]OTHER (trouble, B (bishop) to be absolved from)
5. Domestic appliance, one of two on boat (4-3)
TWIN-TUB
TWIN (one of two) on TUB (boat)
6. Observant mastermind fully apprehends … (7)
MINDFUL
[master]MIND FUL[ly] (apprehends)
7. … complex chemistry with unlimited scope to produce this sort of test (12)
PSYCHOMETRIC
(CHEMISTRY with [s]COP[e] (unlimited))* (*complex)
10. Conveyances moving Stranraer folk periodically south (12)
TRANSFERRALS
(STRANRAER + F[o]L[k] (periodically))* (*moving) + S (south)
15. Hairdresser starts to interpret criticism of literary technique (9)
STYLISTIC
STYLIST (hairdresser) + I[nterpret] C[riticism] (starts to)
17. International agreement seeking to avoid catastrophe by prohibiting matches? (4,3)
TEST BAN
Double (cryptic) definition
18. Biannual event for horses needing steer to replace finale (7)
EQUINOX
EQUINE (for horses) needing OX (steer) to replace finale
19. Make a fuss over second rate vegetable (3,4)
POT HERB
POTHER (make a fuss) over B (second rate)
20. Finished article relocated in detailed garden improvement (7)
UPGRADE
UP (finished) + GARDE[n] (detailed, A (article) relocated)
22. African native, employing hands, took food inside (5)
RATEL
R L (hands, right and left), ATE (took food) inside
Never heard of RATAFIA or RATEL, and I’d forgotten about a teg, which I’ve only encountered in a crossword some time ago. Couldn’t parse CHOWDER nor ABRIDGE — I was trying to remove the third letter from Cambridge. RESCUER was my favourite.
Thanks, Bobcat & Teacow.
Thanks Bobcat and Teacow.
Lovely puzzle. Super blog.
Top faves: BASEBALLS, TOENAIL, PRUDE and UPGRADE.
ON ICE
Took the def as ‘put off’. The ‘get-as’ combo seems to work as a link.
TOENAIL
Took the def as ‘that could be ingrown’.
Thanks for the blog, very neat set of clues with clever wordplay throughout. PRUDE is very precise , RESCUER I like the use of board , many more….
RAVIOLI I took old instrument as VIOL with I(s) curtailed.
Roz’s parse seems to make sense for RAVIOLI, explaining the otherwise strange inclusion of ‘old’. I was surprised to find ‘old’ was not included in the def for TWIN-TUB – and even more surprised to discover they are still manufactured! I agree this was a very nicely put together puzzle with plenty I could nominate as favourites. HAIRNET, RESCUER, ABRIDGE, STYLISTIC, EQUINOX and UPGRADE all had particularly smooth and tight constructions.
Thanks Bobcat and Teacow
Roz@3, yes, that’s how I parsed RAVIOLI.
An enjoyable start to the Bank Holiday. Like Geoff I had never heard of RATEL ( which I will now put next to OUNCE in my list of “Animal Names I Only Encounter in Crosswords”) and I agree with Roz on the parsing of RAVIOLI. I particularly liked the Spoonerism in 25ac.
Thanks Bobcat and Teacow
I parsed RAVIOLI as Teacow did, but could not figure out how “old” fit in, so upon reflection, I think Roz@3 is correct. I managed to work out all the rest, but found the puzzle challenging overall.
RATEL is just a honey badger , like a big weasel with a thick coat , very fierce for their size, not even scared of lions, popular on wildlife programmes.
Fortunately I got the long anagrams early on, which helped. Have not heard of “Teg”, so “Integer” went unparsed…liked “Imprudent” and “Baseballs”.
Thank you to Bobcat and to Teacow for the blog
I know RATAFIA from Jane Austen (and Georgette Heyer) as one of the drinks offered to ladies in Regency times, and was interested enough to find out more about it – link to a blog with a recipe, entitled Ratafia is not for sissies. And the RATEL surfaced from somewhere when I read the word play.
Thank you to Teacow and Bobcat.
Thanks Bobcat, I enjoyed this even though I didn’t see a feline Nina. Favourites included HAIRNET, BASEBALLS, MINDFUL, and STYLISTIC. I thought the ‘folk periodically’ in TRANSFERRALS was treading on indirect anagram territory. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
I finished but didn’t much enjoy. Too many which I couldn’t properly parse / too convoluted definitions. Found myself solving it a bit like a quick crossword.
Essentially, I thought the cryptic bits were far too cryptic in some of the clues. I don’t like crosswords where you basically work backwards to figure out the parsing at the end.