A very late blog – sorry!
The regular blogger is having technical troubles, so unfortunately you're stuck with me. I solved this quite quickly, but have been unable to parse 28ac, so any help appreciated.
Thanks, Solomon.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PEACHES |
Can these exercises hurt? Ultimately, yes (7)
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PE (physical education, so "exercises") + ACHE ("hurt") + [ultimately] (ye)S |
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| 5 | VICIOUS |
Six hundred promissory notes? That’s brutal! (7)
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VI (six, in Roman numerals) + C (hundred, in Roman numerals) + IOUs ("prmissory notes") |
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| 9 | LANDROVER |
Both sides on vehicle (9)
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L AND R (left and right, so "both sides") + OVER ("on") Enumeration should be (4,5) |
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| 10 | TETRA |
White tray containing fish (5)
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Hidden in [containing] "whiTE TRAy" |
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| 11 | TITLE |
The Three Amigos say ‘time to wear hat’ (5)
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T (time) to wear TILE ("hat") |
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| 12 | NIETZSCHE |
Creator of Superman zine mingling with the leaders of science-fiction comics (9)
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*(sign the sc) [anag:mingling] where SC is [leaders of] S(cience-fiction) C(omics) |
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| 13 | STRETCHER |
Carry one who’s lying, or who’s just got up? (9)
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When "one's just got up", one may have a stretch and become a STRETCHER |
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| 15 | NO WAY |
Get out of town and head to Russia, leaving country (2,3)
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[head to] R(ussia) leaving NO(r)WAY |
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| 17 | IDLED |
Solomon had managed to get wasted (5)
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I'D ("Solom had") + LED ("managed") |
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| 19 | DELICIOUS |
Tasty coulis I’d blended with the end of pestle (9)
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*(coulis id e) [anag:blended] where E is [end of] (pestl)E |
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| 21 | SERENGETI |
Tiger seen jumping into lion’s territory? (9)
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*(tiger seen) [anag:jumping] |
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| 24 | MAGIC |
Charming old lady rolling small cigarette (5)
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MA ("old lady") + [rolling] <=CIG ("small cigarette") |
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| 26 | OUNCE |
Jump topless for a little bit (5)
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(b)OUNCE ("jump", topless) |
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| 27 | UNDERDONE |
Where lexicographer might put doner kebab that’s not ready (9)
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A "lexicographer might put doner kebab" UNDER (i.e. after) DONE in the dictionary. |
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| 28 | LOWERED |
Cowboy could become depressed after breaking up (7)
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Can't parse this one, sorry! |
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| 29 | ANAGRAM |
Characters shaken, hit by a horse (7)
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RAM ("hit") by A + NAG ("horse") |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PILOT |
Trial of one involved in conspiracy (5)
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I (one) involved in PLOT ("conspiracy") |
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| 2 | AUNATUREL |
Naked and bearing gold, King Cole violated rule (2,7)
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Au (chemical symbol for "gold") + NAT (King Cole) + *(rule) [anag:violated] |
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| 3 | HARVEST |
Gathering mist gathered on top (7)
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Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [gathered] of HAAR ("mist") on VEST ("top") |
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| 4 | SEVEN |
Son put on uniform that’s considered lucky (5)
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S (son) put on EVEN ("uniform") |
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| 5 | VERTEBRAL |
Spinal Tap interminably playing with reverb at the end of dial (9)
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*(ta reverb) [anag:playing] where TA is TA(p) [interminably] at [the end of] (dia)L |
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| 6 | CITIZEN |
Start to cultivate relations with one meditative resident (7)
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[start to] C(ultivate) + IT ("relations") with I (one) + ZEN ("meditative") |
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| 7 | OPTIC |
Hope he got rid of spasm of the eye (5)
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(h)OP(e) with HE got rid of + TIC ("spasm") |
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| 8 | SNAKE EYES |
Following Euros’ final, Harry Kane scrutinises crap score (5,4)
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[following] (euro)S [final] + *(kane) [anag:harry] + EYES ("scrutinises") |
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| 13 | SWISS ROLL |
Sweet treat from Cornwall, perhaps, is second on list (5,4)
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SW (south west, so "from Cornwall, perhaps") + IS + S (second) on ROLL ("list") |
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| 14 | HEDGE FUND |
Money invested in topiary, whimsically, by duke (5,4)
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HEDGE ("topiary") + FUN ("whimsically") by D (duke) |
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| 16 | WRONGDOER |
Dress or gown with red hood? (9)
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*(or gown red) [anag:dress] |
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| 18 | DANSEUR |
He gives a moving performance and cycles Parisian streets backwards (7)
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AN(D) cycles to (D)AN + <=RUES ("Parisian streets", backwards) |
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| 20 | CUMBRIA |
Cold mountainous region in the north- west? (7)
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C (cold) + UMBRIA ("mountainous region" of Italy) |
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| 22 | RENEW |
Revive Frenchman with whiskey (5)
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RENE ("Frenchman") with W (whiskey, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) |
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| 23 | INDIA |
Home help returning in a state (5)
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IN ("home") + <=AID ("help", returning) |
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| 25 | CREAM |
Off-white top (5)
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Double definition |
Liked the clearly-signalled symmetrical Playtex of 28a’s “Cow boy” – LOWER ED
LOi 3d HARVEST – oed.com has haar with variants harr, haur, and even one har in the citations.
[12a NIETZSCHE ‘*(zine the sc)’ – I can never remember where the Z goes. Luckily it was a crosser.]
Thanks Solomon and Loonapick
28ac: I put this in unparsed, but following Frankie@1 I can see that “depressed” is the definition, and the splitting of “Cowboy” into “Cow” + “boy” is signalled in the clue by “after breaking up”.
9ac: Land Rover is given as two words in Chambers 2011 or 2016 p 860, but SOED 2007 p 1541 has Landrover as a single word, defined as “(proprietary name for) a sturdy four-wheel-drive motor vehicle …”.
A fairly straightforward solve, with plenty to enjoy, although we took a while to see the parsing of LOWERED. Favourites were NIETZSCHE, SERENGETI, VERTEBRAL and DANSEUR.
Thanks, Solomon and loonapick.
Thanks for the blog , a lot of clever , neat wordplay .
I did not find this easy. NW corner was last in.
I ticked VICIOUS, CREAM, and being a sucker for a good anagram SERENGETI.
I did not understand LANDROVER as I was interpreting “AND” wrongly. I couldn’t find the har in HARVEST, but guessed what the setter was doing. I thought about LOWERED in the same way as KVa and PB, but disliked “Ed” meaning boy.
Thanks Solomon for a good tight puzzle. And thanks loonapick for stepping in at the last moment with a nice blog.
Thanks Solomon for an excellent set of clues. My top picks were PEACHES, LANDROVER, NIETZSCHE, SERENGETI (liked the surface even though there aren’t any tigers on the SERENGETI), ANAGRAM, SEVEN, SNAKE EYES, and RENEW. I couldn’t parse HARVEST or LOWERED and I don’t think I’ve seen ‘dress’ as an anagram indicator before but I guess that makes sense as in dress=fix. Thanks loonapick for the blog — good work on the fly.
FrankieG @2 – must have been predictive text – in my defence I was rushing to do get something posted
Further tobFrankieG@1, 28A is: LOWER (cow) + ED (boy), after you break up the parts–a lift and separate.
16ac: Chambers 2016 p 469 has dress “to set in order”.
Martyn@6 re 28ac: it was Frankie not KVa, and I only understood it after reading his comment, but decided to expand on his rather terse explanation.
Oh yes. Apologies to both FrankieG and KVa
Thanks Solomon and loonapick.
Liked PEACHES, LANDROVER, STRETCHER, UNDERDONE, LOWERED and HEDGE FUND.
HEDGE FUND
I took ‘topiary, whimsically’ as ‘HEDGE FUN’ (rather than as HEDGE and FUN).
Now I can say “thank you KVa”
😃
Parsed 26a with [p]OUNCE – more appropriate for tigers, lions and ounces – but [b]OUNCE works better for Tiggers. Parsed 14d HEDGE FUND as KVa@12.
Cineraria@9, 28a is a Playtex, not a ‘lift and separate’.
Definitely (b)OUNCE for me , I thought of student dance nights.