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Hi all. I found the lower half of this puzzle considerably harder than the upper. Indeed, the top was full before the bottom had more than one entry in. The moments of inspiration I needed did then come to enable me to crack the remainder without too much trouble, but I felt lucky and can envisage a parallel universe in which I had a much greater battle. My favourite moment has to be the reveal of the EREMITE in 27a. Thanks Brunel!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most 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 | One upright, holy man with tablets (7) |
| STANDEE — ST (holy man) + AND (with) + E E (tablets) | |
| 5a | Adorn sculpture of stone (7) |
| FESTOON — An anagram (sculpture) of OF STONE | |
| 9a | Appliances generally – can openers for cheap hotels in Eire oddly being included (9) |
| MACHINERY — MAY (can) with initial letters of (openers for) Cheap Hotels, IN, and odd letters of (… oddly) EiRe being included | |
| 10a | Measure rather more covers (5) |
| THERM — RaTHER More covers the answer | |
| 11a | Playing finale, soloist’s state of personal withdrawal (4-9) |
| SELF-ISOLATION — An anagram of (playing) FINALE, SOLOIST | |
| 13a | Preoccupied and shaken, lacking time to overcome brain disease (8) |
| OBSESSED — [t]OSSED (shaken), lacking T (time) surrounding (to overcome) BSE (brain disease) | |
| 15a | With fiddle, uncapped device (6) |
| WIDGET — W (with) + fIDGET (fiddle), missing its first letter (uncapped) | |
| 17a | Prophet’s revered bone, maybe, uncovered on return pilgrimage (6) |
| ELIJAH — rELIc (revered bone, maybe) without outer letters (uncovered) on return HAJ (pilgrimage) | |
| 19a | A bloke runs riot on Circle Line (8) |
| BAKERLOO — An anagram (riot) of A BLOKE R (runs) on O (circle) | |
| 22a | One gauging strength of, e.g., rum hotel served up with more Cola (13) |
| ALCOHOLOMETER — HOTEL anagrammed (served up) with MORE COLA | |
| 25a | Be first to succeed former partner (5) |
| EXIST — IST (first) to succeed EX (former partner) | |
| 26a | Wrapped up leper clad in shreds (9) |
| PARCELLED — LEPER CLAD anagrammed (in shreds) | |
| 27a | One-time recluse to return, revealing himself (7) |
| EREMITE — A reverse hidden word: onE-TIME REcluse to return, revealing himself, i.e. a one-time recluse | |
| 28a | Formally confirm Top comeback for one-time circus performer (3,4) |
| SEA LION — SEAL (formally confirm) + the return (comeback) of NO I (no 1: top) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Conflict involving close contact between big Japanese corporations (4) |
| SUMO — A cryptic definition, in which corporation has to be understood as a large (human) body | |
| 2d | All complainants initially taking oaths, right to drop charges (7) |
| ACCUSES — First letters of (… initially) All Complainants + CU[r]SES oaths, R (right) to drop | |
| 3d | It’s one boring routine (5) |
| DRILL — A double definition | |
| 4d | Cosmetic change finally applied to the old boat (8) |
| EYELINER — The last letter of (… finally) changE applied to YE (the old) and LINER (boat) | |
| 5d | Pull up fish beneath Fal’s banks – caught using this? (3,3) |
| FLY ROD — Reverse (pull up) DORY (fish) beneath FaL’s outer letters (banks) | |
| 6d | Arranges A team’s reserves (4,5) |
| SETS ASIDE — SETS (arranges) + A SIDE (A team) | |
| 7d | Early on, moves on board to generate opportunity (7) |
| OPENING — Two definitions | |
| 8d | One day going over country’s proposal (10) |
| NOMINATION — I (one) and MON (day) reversed (going over) + NATION (country) | |
| 12d | Take tour of sugar producers, possibly, in river islands (10) |
| DODECANESE — DO (take tour of) + CANES (sugar producers, possibly), in DEE (river) | |
| 14d | Pie that’s hashed with last of egg pasta (9) |
| SPAGHETTI — PIE THAT’S anagrammed (hashed) with last of egG | |
| 16d | Yorkshire batter finally scores, bagging a 6 (8) |
| EARMARKS — Last letters of (… finally) YorkshirE batteR and MARKS (scores), containing (bagging) A. 6d = SETS ASIDE | |
| 18d | Expected to catch cold, being lean (7) |
| INCLINE — IN LINE (expected) to catch C (cold) | |
| 20d | Rock singer? (7) |
| LORELEI — A cryptic definition | |
| 21d | When ordered, please pass by (6) |
| ELAPSE — When anagrammed (ordered), PLEASE | |
| 23d | Article on old army character from abroad (5) |
| THETA — THE (article) on TA (old army) | |
| 24d | Some fallen idol rises a god (4) |
| ODIN — Some falleN IDOl is reversed (rises) | |
Top faves: EREMITE and FLY ROD (both for their extended definitions).
Also, liked ELIJAH and EARMARKS (both for their surface reading and the wordplay). I can add LORELEI (a crisp cryptic def) to the list.
Thanks Brunel and Kitty!
I found this fairly smooth sailing until I hit a big old wall on DODECANESE. I’ve not heard of them, but assumed a connection with the dodo, and was pretty chuffed to eventually winkle it out.
Enjoyable Sunday puzzle. Thanks Brunel & Kitty.
L2i: 16d EARMARKS (just not cricket)
and 20d LORELEI – Cluing her as “rock singer” is an old chestnut, but usually there’s some thing else as well: “…learning what Romanians use for money”,
“…learning flower arrangement in Hawaii”. Or even a helpful adjective – “legendary” and/or “German”.
Thanks B&K
I was vaguely aware of the DODECANESE – I think they played a role in one of the World Wars – but STANDEE was new to me and went in very tentatively. Like our blogger, I ran into problems in the Southern half and neither SEA LION nor EARMARKED came to mind, unfortunately. I have the same two favourites as KVa with EREMITE and FLY ROD.
Thanks Brunel and Kitty
Exactly the same experience as Kiity, although the loi was STANDEE as I didn’t think it could be a real word.
[Lorelei always takes me back to the Styx song of the same name and sitting on a Bakerloo line train, stationary in midsummer sun hoping the LP I’d just bought wouldn’t melt before I got home. “Only” forty-nine years ago so probably not worthy of a FrankieG style mention – until next year.]
Thanks Brunel and Kitty.
Similar problem to Pete in that I came across what I thought was a non-real word but for me that was ALCOHOLOMETER. Very proud of myself for remembering the DODECANESE, goodness knows how they’d lodged in the old grey matter! Had a good laugh about the big Japanese corporations and rather liked the care taken with the leper.
Thanks to Brunel and to Miss K for the review.
Re 1d: Corporation: “(Anatomy) informal a large paunch or belly” (Collins)
Thanks Brunel. Like Kitty I found the bottom half more difficult and I failed with the NHO BAKERLOO as well as EARMARKS. All else fell into place with ELIJAH, SUMO, FLY ROD, NOMINATION, and INCLINE being my top picks. Thanks Kitty for the blog.
Thanks both. Needed assistance to complete the intersecting ELIJAH and DODECANESE wherein the former was beating me to make anything out of the ‘revered bone’ although I should have thought of haj as the pilgrimage, and the latter was never taking me to ‘do’ for ‘take a tour of’ – not helped that I knew the name, but not its meaning.
Pete HA3@5 – [Lorelei always takes me back to Roxy Music’s Editions Of You from For Your Pleasure (1973):
‘And as I was drifting past the LORELEI | I heard those slinky sirens wail, whooo’
I may have mentioned it … last year.]
[Frankie@10. Loved early Roxy but don’t know that one. I was too embarassed to buy their LPs in case my mother saw the sleeves. 😊]
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