Welcome to our newest Friday setter, SOLOMON! A tidy challenge for the work week close.
FF: 7 DD: 6
I think a couple of clues could have been structured better but doesnt take away from the overall fun.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ANTENNA |
Insect queen retracts feeler (7)
|
| ANT ( insect ) reverse of ANNE ( queen ) | ||
| 5 | ON A ROLL |
You may find lettuce here, in a purple patch (2,1,4)
|
| double def | ||
| 9 | REPUTABLE |
Highly-regarded butler worked with trained ape (9)
|
| [ BUTLER APE ]* | ||
| 10 | HEELS |
Rats discover the fish (5)
|
| H ( tHe, discovered i.e. without end letters ) EELS ( fish ) | ||
| 11 | CORGI |
American soldier in pursuit of my dog (5)
|
| COR ( my ) GI ( american soldier ) | ||
| 12 | REALISING |
Grasping on a ledge’s front edge, I squeal (9)
|
| RE ( on ) A L ( Ledge, first letter ) I SING ( squeal ) | ||
| 13 | TRIGGER |
Horse straddled by one delivering justice? (7)
|
| GG ( horse ) in TRIER ( one delivering justice , in court – someone who tries ) ; not sure about the parsing | ||
| 15 | ROMANCE |
Love story’s penultimate part taking place at country church (7)
|
| R ( stoRy, penultimate letter ) OMAN ( country ) CE ( church ) | ||
| 16 | DIVESTS |
In seedy bars, virtuous woman strips (7)
|
| ST ( virtuous woman ) in DIVES ( seedy bars ) | ||
| 18 | PIONEER |
Jetty housing a launch (7)
|
| PIER ( jetty ) containing ONE ( a ) | ||
| 21 | MICROWAVE |
What Freddie Mercury carried alongside streets to warm up (9)
|
| MIC ( what freddie mercury carried ) ROW ( street ) AVE ( street ) | ||
| 23 | TENET |
Combined with its reflection, 10 shares Newton’s first principle (5)
|
| cryptic def; TEN+NET ( reflection of 10 ) with N ( Newton, first letter ) held common | ||
| 25 | GRIEG |
Composer’s concert with religious lesson woven through (5)
|
| GIG ( concert ) containing RE ( religious lesson, Religious Education ) / Thanks to commenters below | ||
| 26 | EVERGREEN |
Enduring energy shown by murder suspect with title making comeback (9)
|
| See comments below | ||
| 27 | STERNUM |
Problem absorbing bird in front of cage (7)
|
| SUM ( problem ) containing TERN ( bird ) | ||
| 28 | TINTYPE |
Print money, then sort (7)
|
| TIN ( money ) TYPE ( sort ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | APRICOT |
Cheap ricotta with fruit inside (7)
|
| hidden in “..cheAP RICOTta..” | ||
| 2 | TAPIR |
I’m like a pig — I run and I run (5)
|
| TAP ( ~ something which runs ) I R ( run ) | ||
| 3 | NOTHING |
Cook in thong making a trifle (7)
|
| [ IN THONG ]* | ||
| 4 | AMBERGRIS |
In the morning, Queen Elizabeth boards loaded brigs to get stuff from the sea (9)
|
| AM ( morning ) { ER ( queen ) in ] BRIGS ]* } | ||
| 5 | OPERA |
Note cut from work that’s by Verdi? (5)
|
| OPERAte ( work, without TE – note ) – if my parsing is correct, wonder if alternatives without the double duty would have been preferable | ||
| 6 | ATHEISM |
One article after another is starting to manifest unbelief (7)
|
| A ( article ) THE ( article ) IS M ( Manifest, starting letter ) | ||
| 7 | OBEDIENCE |
Loyalty and honour shown by daughter and niece — that is moving (9)
|
| OBE ( honour ) D ( daughter ) [ NIECE ]* | ||
| 8 | LASAGNE |
Food bag carried by journalist often seen around Kent (7)
|
| SAG ( bag? i think reference is to the sag bag ) in LANE ( journalist seen around clark kent, lois lane ) | ||
| 14 | INVECTIVE |
Abuse inspired Conservative to cover up Cameron’s bottom (9)
|
| INVEnTIVE ( inspired, with C – conservative replacing N – cameroN, last letter ) | ||
| 15 | REPRESENT |
Show produced by theatre company delivered again (9)
|
| REP ( theatre company ) RE SENT ( delivered again ) | ||
| 16 | DAMAGES |
Fine silver clutched by funny men in drag (7)
|
| AG ( silver ) in DAMES ( funny men in drag ) | ||
| 17 | SLOE GIN |
Student entering ground goes in for a drink (4,3)
|
| L ( student ) in [ GOES IN ]* | ||
| 19 | OCTAGON |
Shape of inside-out coat and dress wife’s left (7)
|
| OCTA ( coat, inside out i.e. inner 2 letters moving to either extreme ) GOwN ( dress, without W – wife ) | ||
| 20 | RETINUE |
Following film, spray urine about outside (7)
|
| [ URINE ]* around ET ( film ) | ||
| 22 | A TEAM |
A mate’s managed to create something on the telly (1-4)
|
| A [ MATE ]* | ||
| 24 | NEEDY |
Impoverished English journalist buried in New York (5)
|
| [ E ( english ) ED ( editor ) ] in NY ( new york ) |
I took TRIGGER as an &lit referring to Roy Roger’s horse. In GRIEG, you should have RE not RI (religious education). In 5d, I took the definition as “that’s by Verdi?” but agree that’s not ideal.
Couldn’t parse EVERGREEN also not parsed in blog.
26ac Rev Green is a murder suspect in Cluedo
As TL says a neat puzzle so thanks to him and Solomon.
I forget my cluedo but was rev green a murder suspect with rev turned around and Energy to start gives the answer.
EVERGREEN
Found this online:
Burlington attempted murder suspect Jaiden Green due back in court
Or it could be some other GREEN?
E+VER (REV/title reversed)
Not sure if this is a satisfactory parse.
EDIT: Steven@2 has it! Thanks.
TRIGGER and GRIEG
Parsed as Hovis@1
Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs.
I struggled to get into this but a second pass and it started to yield nicely.
Agree with Hovis@1 about TRIGGER being an &lit and thought it a good one too.
Don’t think there’s double duty in OPERA as I’d say the def is “that’s by Verdi?”. There would be no need to include the “that’s” otherwise as work by Verdi would be sufficient. I did find the clue unsatisfying though.
Bag and sag are directly synonymous (given in Chambers) think of an old jumper that’s gone baggy.
PIONEER has to be my COTD. Lovely clue.
I’m another who took TRIGGER to be &lit and I did clock the REV GREEN trick which is very neat. And I agree with Blah that there is no double duty in OPERA. Crikey – I’m even agreeing with Blah on COTD in PIONEER! I also smiled at the surface for NOTHING, the fun idea behind TAPIR and the very gettable but very smoothly done NEEDY.
Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs
Parsed 15a ROMANCE with “Love story” as the definition and getting the R from paRt’s penultimate letter.
FrankieG@7
ROMANCE
Your parse is neater.
In 7d OBEDIENCE – NIECE isn’t anagrammed. “that is” moving means the IE of NIECE moves before the N to give IENCE.
Thanks and welcome to Solomon and thanks to Turbolegs
15ac I had the same way as Frankie@7
7dn I did not have the same way as Frankie@9, but his parsing makes much better sense of Solomon’s precise choice of words, so I think it is the correct one.
Flew through ¾ then ground to a halt in SW corner, which took as long again to finish. LOIs Damages, Divests Invective and finally, Sternum
I had precisely the same quibbles as already mentioned.
Good blog.
Finished in good time. Couldn’t parse “Greig”, kept on thinking of religious instruction (RI), now understand what woven through means…
Couldn’t parse “Trigger”, thanks to hovis@1
First thought Kent in 8d referred to the South East (SE)…
Particularly liked “Evergreen”.
Very nice puzzle, good surfaces. Thank you to Solomon and to Turbolegs for the blog.
Thanks Solomon for a nice crossword with my favourites being NEEDY, GRIEG, RETINUE, ANTENNA, DIVESTS, and HEELS. I enjoyed all the humourous surfaces. I couldn’t parse EVERGREEN or OPERA so thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
As yesterday there were a few delayed PDMs, but this turned out to be an enjoyable solve. We particularly liked LASAGNE and EVERGREEN.
Thanks, Solomon and Turbolegs.
OBEDIENCE
Not sure what Solomon had in mind. ‘niece-that is moving’ —>NIECE* seems all right
and I don’t see any lack of precision in it.
‘IE moving’: More interesting than a simple anagram but I am unable to say it is more
precise. Sometimes setters indicate the direction of movement. Sometimes they don’t.
So I can’t say this idea is less precise either.
KVa@15 re 7dn: The point as I see it is that the words “that is” are completely unnecessary if the intention is an anagram.
Thanks and appreciation to Turbolegs for the blog, and to everyone who’s commented.
For what it’s worth, my intended parse for 15a ROMANCE was as Turbolegs originally had it, and my intended parse for 7d OBEDIENCE was as FrankieG suggested @9.
Solomon@17: thanks for popping in and settling the outstanding points.
Thanks Solomon@17.
Thanks Pelham Barton@16.
Only here for the parsing cos I got it all but the parsnips. Sternum is just the bone at the front. Not the whole rib cage. Just saying.
I think the definition for STERNUM is – front of cage .