ARTEXLEN kicks off the week…
A very enjoyable Monday morning puzzle with some nice surfaces.
Thanks ARTEXLEN!
ACROSS
1. Secure money from America with reduced grant (6)
BUCKLE
BUCK (money from America) with LE[t] (grant, reduced)
4. Confused hysteria losing head traversing bridge (8)
ANARCHIC
[p]ANIC (hysteria, losing head) traversing ARCH (bridge)
9. Row in middle of doggies feeding (6)
DINING
DIN (row) + IN + [dog]G[ies] (middle of)
10. Insectivore’s leg bearing a long wound (8)
PANGOLIN
PIN (leg) bearing (A LONG)* (*wound)
12. Expanded garden plot accommodates track with space (9)
BROADENED
BED (garden plot) accommodates (ROAD (track) with EN (space))
13. Run after husband’s admitted to affair (5)
CHASE
H (husband) admitted to CASE (affair)
14. Bad time: individual frequently reported confusion on Tube (3,2,5,4)
ONE OF THOSE DAYS
ONE (individual) + OFT (frequently) + ("daze" = DAYS (confusion, "reported") on HOSE (tube))
17. Reggae song fan performing role as idol (7,7)
BUFFALO SOLDIER
BUFF (fan) + (ROLE AS IDOL)* (*performing)
21. Bug found in mayonnaise that’s turned (5)
ANNOY
([ma]YONNA[ise] (found in))< (<that's turned)
22. Vital Frenchman returned to become in charge (9)
ENERGETIC
(RENE)< (Frenchman, <returned) + GET (to become) + IC (in charge)
24. Damage important piece’s patterns (8)
MARKINGS
MAR (damage) + KING'S (important piece's)
25. Knight crossing an eastern river (6)
DANUBE
(DUB (knight) crossing AN) + E (eastern)
26. Diamonds in present turned out to be fakes (8)
PRETENDS
D (diamonds) in (PRESENT)* (*turned out)
27. Uncovers bar area for festivities (6)
REVELS
REVE[a]LS (uncovers, bar A (area))
DOWN
1. Serious setback by old bow snapping (4,4)
BODY BLOW
(BY OLD BOW)* (*snapping)
2. Forgive scam carried out (7)
CONDONE
CON (scam) + DONE (carried out)
3. Love retired editor showing signs of age (5)
LINED
(NIL)< (love, <retired) + ED (editor)
5. Close shave having confounded eastern raids (4,8)
NEAR DISASTER
(EASTERN RAIDS)* (*confounded)
6. Enlisted American detectives to intercept material that’s treasonous (9)
REGICIDAL
(GI (enlisted American) + CID (detectives)) to intercept REAL (material)
7. Explorer taking a track beneath tor (7)
HILLARY
(A + RY (track)) beneath HILL (tor)
8. Changing sides to wipe sign (6)
CANCER
CANCEL (wipe, changing sides, i.e., changing the L (left) to R (right))
11. Without question, finding things easy (12)
UNCHALLENGED
15. Spooner’s smart slender figure (5-4)
FIFTY-NINE
"nifty fine" = FIFTY-NINE (smart (nifty) slender (fine), "Spooner's")
16. Nuts and biscuits (8)
CRACKERS
18. Racer losing lead very close to unfortunate upset (7)
UNNERVE
[r]UNNER (racer, losing head) + V (very) + [unfortunat]E (close to)
19. Enter unwelcome home with host ultimately vulgar (7)
INTRUDE
IN (home) with [hos]T (ultimately) + RUDE (vulgar)
20. Prepare for contest with weapon aloft (4,2)
WARM UP
W (with) + ARM (weapon) + UP (aloft)
23. Picked up large jar (5)
GRATE
"great" = GRATE (large, "picked up")
There was not anything that unusual going on here, but I genuinely had a hard time getting on Artexlen’s wavelength, at first, for some reason, and found this very hard to get started on, until suddenly things started falling in place. The blog looks good.
For 15d I wondered how smart could be naughty until I realised I was 10 short of the right answer. I liked UNNERVE.
Thanks Teacow and Artexlen. Straightforward, but I appreciate the parsing for 14across, and I will forever see ANNOY reversed on the Hellmans jars.
Thanks Artexlen. This seemed difficult at first but gradually everything fell into place except for PANGOLIN & REVELS. My favourites were HILLARY, ANNOY, PRETENDS, UNNERVE, CRACKERS, and NEAR DISASTER. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
Slow to get into but mostly straightforward although we needed a wordfinder for PANGOLIN and DANUBE (and we hadn’t realised that pangolins are insectivorous – who says crosswords aren’t educational?). We didn’t know BUFFALO SOLDIER but it was easily got from the clue. Plenty to like so no real favourite.
Thanks, Artlexen and Teacow.
allan_c @5: American Indians called regiments of black soldiers BUFFALO SOLDIERS due to the colour of their skin. They were part of the US army after the Civil War and were often involved in battles against Native Americans.
I normally find ARTEXLEN easy but I really struggled to tune in to this one, hopefully more a case of me having a 14A than anything else.
I had the opposite experience to Cineraria@1, Tony@4 and possibly others. The answers “rolled off my keyboard” at first then several of the longer clues took much longer to solve. I had a similar list of likes to Tony@4, with virtual ticks against UNERVE (nice surface), ANNOY (very clever), and CRACKERS (made me smile).
Thanks Teacow for showing me how to parse REVELS. PANGOLIN was new to me, but I got it in the end. There are not not too many running around where I live. I also wondered whether Artexlen really expected us to know BUFFALO SOLDIER – the song or the term for US black soldiers. I did find it on the web once I had finally hit upon the correct synonym for fan, and thanks to Tony@6 for the info. It is good to learn (in appropriate amounts)
Thanks Artexlen and Teacow
BUFFALO SOLDIER was a posthumously released single by Bob Marley that reached No 4 in the UK charts, so I’m surprised that it doesn’t seem to be better known by UK solvers.
Simon S@9: your comments prompted me to listen to BUFFALO SOLDIER. It turns out I do know the song. But not being a fan of reggae, I never paid attention to the lyrics and had no idea the song is called BUFFALO SOLDIER nor did I know it was by Bob Marley