This puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hello everybody. No, it’s not the weekend already, sadly. I’m here keeping Bertandjoyce’s seat warm for them.
I enjoyed it very much – it’s a Twin puzzle after all – but I’m running a bit late and have to get to the daily grind, so a bit of a no-frills blog I’m afraid. If you can see more going on than the TAILOR SWIFTIAN top row please share in the comments. Thanks – and thanks Twin!
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 | Follow men’s fashion (6) |
| TAILOR — TAIL (follow) + OR (men) | |
| 4a | I wasn’t worried about Kipling poem being satirical (8) |
| SWIFTIAN — An anagram of (… worried) I WASN’T around (about) IF (Kipling poem) | |
| 10a | Returned list of details with bit of fish – a snapper? (9) |
| ALLIGATOR — Reversed (returned) ROTA (list of details) with GILL (bit of fish) and A from the clue | |
| 11a | Tea service and tea finally on the counter (5) |
| ASSAM — MASS (service) and teA finally reversed (on the counter) | |
| 12a | Element of legalese perhaps avoided by judge (5) |
| ARGON — [j]ARGON (legalese perhaps) without (avoided by) J (judge] | |
| 13a | A Greek lover suppressing vote for Macedonian (9) |
| ALEXANDER — A + LEANDER (Greek lover) surrounding (suppressing) X (vote) | |
| 14a | I passed over sin with Romeo, to give an example (10) |
| ILLUSTRATE — I + LATE (passed) around (over) LUST (sin) and R (Romeo] | |
| 15a | European tribe almost destroyed (4) |
| BRIT — An anagram of (… destroyed) TRIBe without its last letter (almost) | |
| 17a | 100 – 1 = 99? (4) |
| CONE — C (100) and ONE (1) – joined by a dash not a minus sign. Nice! | |
| 19a | For example, Botham’s ball sport dropping peripheral nonsense (3-7) |
| ALL-ROUNDER — [b]ALL ROUNDER[s] (sport) dropping peripheral BS (nonsense] | |
| 22a | As shown by graph, no MP enhanced capital (5,4) |
| PHNOM PENH — Contained in (as shown by) grPH, NO MP ENHanced. Capital of Cambodia | |
| 23a | Look to capture animal – with this? (5) |
| LASSO — LO (look) taking in (to capture) ASS (animal) | |
| 25a | Did lounge, lacking guts to work? (5) |
| IDLED — DID + LoungE without the inner letters (lacking guts) anagrammed (to work) | |
| 26a | Pair protecting bishop with altar cross (9) |
| IRRITABLE — II (pair, Roman style) around (protecting) RR (bishop) + TABLE (altar) | |
| 27a | They’re laid up? (4,4) |
| NEST EGGS — A cryptic definition. The question mark covers the fact that not all nests are up high | |
| 28a | Journalist turned in two articles from a range (6) |
| ANDEAN — Reversal of (… turned) ED (journalist) in AN AN (two articles) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | See you pocketing one crown (5) |
| TIARA — TA–RA (see you, goodbye) taking in (pocketing) I (one) | |
| 2d | Poor say city turned criminal (7) |
| ILLEGAL — ILL (poor) + EG (say) + reversed (… turned) LA (city) | |
| 3d | Sort of skin, say, that is covering square (8) |
| ORGANISE — ORGAN (skin, say) + IE (that is) around (covering) S (square) | |
| 5d | Choristers were storming Elgar’s home (14) |
| WORCESTERSHIRE — CHORISTERS WERE anagrammed (storming) | |
| 6d | Wrap up without a fight (6) |
| FRACAS — SCARF (wrap) reversed (up, in a down entry) outside (without) A | |
| 7d | One shouldn’t trade in booze, reportedly (7) |
| INSIDER — IN + CIDER (booze), soundalike (reportedly) | |
| 8d | E.g. one from a third of miners getting classical inspiration right (9) |
| NUMERATOR — NUM (miners) + ERATO (classical inspiration) + R (right) | |
| 9d | Overpowering crew wave in chorus (14) |
| STEAMROLLERING — TEAM (crew) and ROLLER (wave) in SING (chorus) | |
| 14d | Opening of Nolan movie (9) |
| INCEPTION — Two definitions, the second being the 2010 film | |
| 16d | 75% majority allowed to enter reports (8) |
| BULLETIN — 75% of BULk (majority) + LET IN (allowed to enter) | |
| 18d | Mystery writer not starting with bonus puzzle (7) |
| NONPLUS — aNON (mystery writer) without the first letter (not starting) with PLUS (bonus) | |
| 20d | Make harmless meal, not finished by expert (7) |
| DISABLE — DISh (meal) without the last letter (not finished) + ABLE (expert) | |
| 21d | Mark lifted M&S confectionery, losing head (6) |
| SMUDGE — Reversed (lifted) M&S + fUDGE (confectionery) taking off the first letter (losing head) | |
| 24d | Perhaps Indian flying ace breaking leg (5) |
| OCEAN — An anagram of (flying) ACE going into (breaking) ON (leg) | |
8D had to be NUMERATOR but, being a mathematical dunce, I don’t understand ‘one from a third’ – could someone please explain? Very enjoyable, so thanks Twin and Kitty.
1/3 one is the numerator 3 the denominator
A Kitty blog without those beautiful pics (of course, the intro says it’s a no-frills blog).
Great blog nonetheless. Thanks Ktty.
Loved the puzzle. Thanks Twin.
Faves: CONE and BULLETIN.
NEST EGGS
‘Eggs laid in a nest’ as well as ‘laid up’ in the sense of ‘stored/put in a safe place’. Right?
&littish?
27a NEST EGGS – lay up: ‘…3. ?a1366– To deposit or put away in a place for safety; to store up (goods, provisions); to put by. Often absol. to save money…’
Great puzzle, thanks Twin and Kitty. Thought 99 must he Maxwell Smart’s cone of silence. No? Oh well. Now i do faintly remember it’s an icecream (if they made it to the antipodes I missed them). KVa @3, yes, you lay up a nest egg for future use. The er inserted in steamrolling is a bit hmm, but hey ho, a wave is roller. Great fun, thanks again.
Very nice to see my home county getting a nod with a delightfully appropriate surface. Indeed, plenty of excellent surfaces throughout this smooth puzzle. I particularly liked ARGON, CONE, PHNOM PENH, IDLED, IRRITABLE, ANDEAN, FRACAS and INSIDER.
I am guessing TAILOR SWIFTIAN was a bit of fun to get the party started. Ros Serey Sothea is another, less contemporary, female vocalist possibly indicated by PHNOM PENH LASS – but I suspect not!
Thanks Twin and
Thanks Twin and Kitty
ginf @ 5 The OED has ‘steamroller’, with or without a hyphen, as a verb, but not ‘steamroll’, so Twin is on secure ground.
Thanks both. I had felt NEST EGGS lacked a proper definition, but I am happy to accept the explanations here. Also saw TAILOR SWIFTIAN and began to wonder….there is ALEXANDER O’Neal as well if you accept the row containing CONE ALLROUNDER but that is more likely coincidental.
The NEST EGGS clue is a kind of inverse dd I guess; the same sense of a word/phrase described in two different ways, rather than two different senses of the word. Not really an &lit though because that would require wordplay. So, a double cryptic definition, dcd, maybe? 😀
IDLED certainly is &lit, of course.
Forgive my ignorance, but why does leg = on, and why does sing = chorus?
Still, all in and parsed, even if equivalences were not entirely grokked and ASSAM was a jorum!
Thanks both for the fun
Thank you to Twin for the entertainment and Kitty for explaining IDLED and pointing out what Id missed in the top row.
I particularly liked the clues for CONE, NUMERATOR and ORGANISE.
Thanks Kitty for standing in for us while we are in the States for a family wedding – hence the late comment as we are 5 hours behind.
Thanks also to Twin for an excellent puzzle – we completely missed the significance of the top row. Don’t bother to ask us if there are any other thematic items – we really wouldn’t know.
Ok, Simon @7, I withdraw my hmm 🙂
A very nice puzzle, with PHNOM PENH a super hidden that I only spotted upon realising it couldn’t be an anagram. BULLETIN my last one in as I awaited my brain to work out the parse. I think I managed to name every other Christopher Nolan film before alighting on the right one (which I have seen), which was enjoyably frustrating. I also thought of ‘flake’ instantly for 17a, but CONE took rather longer to come to mind.
AP – ‘leg’ is ‘on’ in cricket. It’s the name for one side of the field. And as a verb, chorus is another word for ‘sing’.
Thanks both.
AP@9
NEST EGGS
The generally safe ‘ish’ doesn’t seem to save me (my post@3) this time.
DCD: Oh yea. 🙂
When does S = square, please?
Fun solve overall. Had to get help for Swiftian and numerator. I like the clue for illustrate; the lightbulb in my head turned on when I realized what “passed” was actually doing.
Thanks Twin & Kitty
(EDIT: I do also wonder where s = square comes from, as I’ve always seen it abbreviated sq)
Thanks to Twin and Kitty
@ Roddy №15. Psi for example pounds per square inch. It’s the 11th abbreviation in Chambers for capital S; so not exactly common
Just wanted to mention Phnom Penh is the best hidden clue (or “one of them” As my family called them) that I have ever seen
Thanks Matthew @17. You say ‘for example’. I can’t think of any others. But even if that’s the only one then I guess it’s valid.
RMS – root mean square in mathematics.
Thanks all for comments, especially those answering questions. It’s nice to know I can abandon the blog for the whole day and that it’s in good hands.