Turbolegs is on holiday today, and has been unable to drag himself away from the pool long enough to do this morning’s FT, so I have stepped in to take his place. Thankfully, the puzzle was very straightforward, and I managed to complete it very quickly. Apologies for the formatting, but the utility I normally use to blog is currently undergoing some issues.
ACROSS
9 HOAGY CARMICHAEL
Old songwriter working choral magic, yeah! (5,10)
*(choral magic yeah) [anag:working]
10 WAIST
Midsection is within temple (5)
IS within WAT (“temple”)
11 PERSEVERE
40% off perch, hard stick with it (9)
[40% off] PER(ch) + SEVERE (“hard”)
12 HOLY CROSS
Dictator’s completely upset, seeing symbol of faith (4,5)
Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [dictator’s] of WHOLLY (“completely”) + CROSS (“upset”)
14 MASON
Builder like that locked in piece (5)
SO (“like this”) locked in MAN (chess “piece”)
16 FATAL ATTRACTION
Picture, drawing by Big Albert (5,10)
ATTRACTION (“drawing”) by FAT (“big”) + AL (Albert)
Picture in the clue refers to a movie, Fatal Attraction being a 1987 thriller , directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close
19 TACIT
Tom recalled that thing unsaid (5)
<=CAT ("tom", recalled") + IT ("that thing")
21 NEON LIGHT
One unfortunately left in dark — might this help? (4,5)
*(one) [anag:unfortunately] + L (left) in NIGHT ("dark")
23 CASSOULET
Cook locates US stew (9)
*(locates us) [anag:cook]
25 CROWN
Old coin’s head? (5)
Double definition
26 PLOUGHMAN'S LUNCH
Possible meal served at Harrow? (10,5)
Cryptic definition, harrow referring to ploughing in this case rather than the school.
DOWN
1 CHEW THE FAT
We fetch hat that’s designed for talk (4,3,3)
*(we fetch hat) [anag:that's designed]
2 DANIEL
Metal covers in uplifting book (6)
<=(LEAD ("metal") covers IN, uplifting)
3 MYSTICAL
Magic city with small unfinished building (8)
*(city smal) [anag:building] where SMAL is [unfinished] SMAL(l)
4 VAMP
A seductive jazz passage? (4)
A VAMP is an improvised musical accompaniment and also a seductive woman.
5 IMPRESARIO
One wild primrose has impressed a theatre producer (10)
I (one) + *(primrose) [anag:wild] has impressed A
6 SCREAM
Hoot on your bike, cabbie ultimately cutting in (6)
SCRAM ("on your bike!") with (cabbi)E [ultimately] cutting in
7 WATER-SKI
Doctor wears kit to participate in sport (5-3)
*(wears kit) [anag:doctor]
8 BLUE
Low sky (4)
Double definition
13 OUT ON A LIMB
Exposed, hopping round town? (3,2,1,4)
OUT ("around town") + ON A LIMB ("hopping?")
15 NINE TENTHS
Almost all sent in, then out (4,6)
*(sent in then) [anag:out]
17 TUCK SHOP
Stores seen on short trip — one of those selling sweets? (4,4)
TUCKS ("stores") seen on HOP ("short trip")
18 COLD-CALL
Attempt to sell antique, two hundred bags the lot (4,4)
CC (two hundred) bags OLD ("antique") + ALL ("the lot")
20 THOUGH
Brief consideration, nevertheless (6)
[brief] THOUGH(t) ("consideration")
22 GROUND
Football stadium in tiny pieces (6)
Double definition
23 CAPE
Top and bottom of fine cloak (4)
CAP ("top") and [bottom of] (fin)E
24 TANK
Container was pongy when lid removed (4)
(s)TANK ("was pongy" when lid removed)
A typical MUDD effort. I looked at it in bewilderment for a few minutes but then everything fell fairly easily into place. Rather too many anagrams imho but none of the use of woefully obscure words that mars the efforts of some other setters.
Thanks for stepping in with the blog, much appreciated. I seem to prefer Mudd to Paul these days, does not seem to feel the need to show off to the audience.
I thought that there might be a film title mini-theme going on.
Thanks for producing the blog, loonapick. I agree with Roz: I have noted here before that I prefer Mr Halpern’s Mudd persona to his Paul one and this was typical of the enjoyable, imaginative and well-crafted puzzles that I enjoy. WAIST, NEON LIGHT, MYSTICAL, SCREAM, OUT-ON-A-LIMB, NINE TENTHS and the excellent GROUND were my faves today.
Thanks Mudd for the puzzle
I thought this a bit easier than usual for Paul/Mudd.
Liked: WAIST, TACIT, SCREAM, GROUND
Thanks Mudd and loonapick
Thanks Mudd, that was enjoyable with FATAL ATTRACTION, NEON LIGHT, CASSOULET, NINE TENTHS, COLD CALL, and THOUGH being my favourites. I see that I’m in good company (Roz and PostMark) in preferring Mudd to Paul. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
We found this fairly easy; no help or even dictionary checking required. Mind you, we did bung in an unparsed ‘Holy Grail’ for 12ac until crossing letters pointed us towards the correct answer. Elsewhere, we particularly liked GROUND; the word often crops up in clues (usually as an anagrind) so it was nice to see it as an answer, especially clued so neatly.
Thanks, Mudd and loonapick.
What Postmark@4 wrote. So saying, HOAGY CARMICHAEL came close to ruining the puzzle for me.
Thanks Mudd and loonapick
It may be an urban myth but it is claimed that Ian Fleming based James Bond , physically, on Hoagy Carmichael
A wonderful job by Mudd! Not difficult, but lots of fun. Thanks, and thanks to Loonapick for coming out of the bullpen on short notice.
Roz and (Mr)PostMark agreed on something!! And I agreed with both of them!!! (We prefer Mudd to Paul.)
Thanks Mudd for the fun puzzle, and loonapick for the yeoman service at short notice.