The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hello all. Not an easy one this. I started well but soon hit the buffers. In the end I was pleased to very nearly finish, with my error in the very last clue (25d) coming from knowing only one of the two meanings required. Having to pick an answer based on half of the clue, I naturally went the wrong way.
I suspect I won’t be alone in not quite making it, so well done if you did! Thanks Wiglaf.
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 | Live donkeys and squirrels (7) |
| AMASSES — AM (live – I live, I am) + ASSES (donkeys) | |
| 5a | Someone from Africa united Gabon with Angola (7) |
| UGANDAN — U (united) + G (Gabon, IVR) + AND (with) + AN (Angola, IVR) | |
| 9a | French banker with billions in US capital (5) |
| BOISE — OISE (French banker – river) with B (billions) | |
| 10a | Some birds love to get instruction in developing chests (9) |
| OSTRICHES — O (love) + RI (instruction – Religious Instruction) in an anagram of (developing) CHESTS | |
| 11a | Drunk is ready to drive off (6,2) |
| TANKED UP — Two definitions, the second of which I thought was whimsical (it’s not in Chambers) but it is in Oxford | |
| 12a | Joe has both hands on her (4) |
| GIRL — GI (JOE) has next to it (has … on) R and L (both hands) | |
| 14a | Match design of white gear (5,4) |
| AGREE WITH — An anagram of (design of) WHITE GEAR | |
| 16a | Woman swims regularly in pool (5) |
| OASIS — Regular letters of (… regularly) wOmAn SwImS | |
| 17a | Part of single comment to the audience (5) |
| ASIDE — A–SIDE (part of single) | |
| 19a | A Parisian died to save earth, though no longer worshipped (9) |
| UNDEIFIED — UN (a, Parisian) + DIED around (to save) E (earth) and IF (though) | |
| 21a | My husband’s caught a salmon (4) |
| COHO — COO (my) in which H (husband)’s held (caught). A pacific salmon. | |
| (There are so many salmon words – parr, smolt, etc. – that I thought of supplying a list, but I got a little way in and lost the will to keep swimming upstream!) | |
| 22a | A US singer initially opted to go for a state of temporary inactivity (8) |
| ABEYANCE — A + BEY[o]NCE (US singer) with the first letter of (initially) Opted replaced with (to go for) A | |
| 26a | Nigel Short, a foreign agent to be kept enslaved (2,7) |
| IN BONDAGE — All but the last letter of (… short) NIGEl, A anagrammed (… foreign) with BOND (agent, 007) put inside (to be kept) | |
| 27a | Contact a Brontë in short clothes (5) |
| EMAIL — A, which EMILy (Brontë) in short envelopes (clothes) | |
| 28a | It could be if that makes you a natal worker (7) |
| MIDWIFE — The middle part of (MID)–WIFE could cryptically give IF | |
| 29a | Coppers given relief for illness (7) |
| DISEASE — DIS (coppers) + EASE (relief) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Some quondam Boanerges’s stand (4) |
| AMBO — Some quondAM BOanerges’s. | |
| I know this word only from crosswords, and probably (going only from memory, so you may correct me) just from barred puzzles | |
| 2d | Pilot finds a sex appliance after clearing out bedroom (7) |
| AVIATOR — A + VI[br]ATOR (sex appliance) after removing (clearing out) BR (bedroom). | |
| BR for bedroom is a new abbreviation for me (and I have resisted the temptation to word that comment in the first way which occurred to me …) | |
| 3d | European minister rudely interrupted by European president (10) |
| STEINMEIER — An anagram of (… rudely) E (European) MINISTER with insertion of (interrupted by) E (European). President of Germany | |
| 4d | UK charity in need of square deal (5) |
| SCOPE — S (square) + COPE (deal) | |
| 5d | Virgin sees sense in nude dancing (9) |
| UNTOUCHED — TOUCH (sense) in NUDE anagrammed (dancing) | |
| 6d | Old war correspondent has exposed women (4) |
| ADIE — Missing outer letters (exposed) lADIEs (women) | |
| 7d | Canvas had to be put over Mexican bloomers (7) |
| DAHLIAS — SAIL (canvas) + HAD reversed (to be put over) | |
| 8d | Sad aliens, sadly, talked through their noses (9) |
| NASALISED — SAD ALIENS anagrammed (sadly) | |
| 13d | Still unable to poo? (10) |
| MOTIONLESS — Two definitions, the second quirky | |
| 14d | Chairman’s failed theory regarding workers’ co-op groups (9) |
| ANARCHISM — An anagram of (… failed) CHAIRMAN’S | |
| 15d | Cast a shadow over one dead traitor on ecstasy (9) |
| INUMBRATE — I (one) + NUMB (dead) + RAT (traitor) + E (ecstasy) | |
| 18d | Crane nested in Greenwich abode (7) |
| ICHABOD — The answer is inside (nested in) GreenwICH ABODe. Ichabod Crane is the main character in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving | |
| 20d | Japanese art form for which furniture store holds a lot of store (7) |
| IKEBANA — IKEA (furniture store) holds all but the last letter of (a lot of) BANk (store) | |
| 23d | The old lady oddly admits: “I give up” (5) |
| YIELD — YE (the old) and LaDy oddly takes in (admits) I | |
| 24d | Opposed to Sophocles play having gone off (4) |
| ANTI — ANTI[gone] (Sophocles play) having GONE removed (off) | |
| 25d | Down the tube (4) |
| FLUE — Two definitions. The first is soft down or fur. | |
| Not knowing the second definition I opted for BLUE here, but I won’t let that get me down! | |
Same mistake as our blogger with the nho second def for FLUE, meaning BLUE went in with fingers crossed. I was also on the wrong direction with ADIE taking ‘has exposed’ to give me the A and racking my brains to explain women = DIE! Some tricky vocabulary in both solutions and synonyms as well as some cunning constructions. The anagram spot for ANARCHISM is excellent; likewise the ‘white gear’/AGREE WITH combo and the alternation spot for OASIS makes it my COTD. OSTRICHES is potentially cheekily clued for this day and age with a surface that takes me right back to Carry on Camping; to my embarrassment, I ‘discovered’ the surname of the German president which results from another very clever anagram.
Thanks Wiglaf and Kitty
Yes, I’m another that “blue” it. I also got briefly tangled up wondering if 26a was somehow referencing the snooker player Nigel Bond.
Thanks to Wiglaf and Kitty
Another DNF here, having guessed that either Kingsley or Martin Amis could have been a war correspondent. The word play doesn’t work either. So not my finest moment.
Well, flue as cylindrical pipe chimney is common, but nho of it as down or fur. Hey ho. Made a mess of the NW, failing on amasses, and hence also on aviator, and dnk the German fellow. Never mind, better next time, thx Kitty and Wiglaf.
Ginf@4 The German President is different from the Chancellor and less high profile.
COTD: ANARCHISM (Liked the Mao subtext).
Other faves: UGANDAN, IN BONDAGE and YIELD.
Never averse to Googling to cross-check if a word exists. So ADIE, FLUE etc
could be filled in and parsed.
Thanks Wiglaf and Kitty.
Kitty: Here in the US anyway, BR for bedroom is extremely common in real-estate listings. As in, “2 BR condo”. (My husband and I live in a very large 1BR; there’s an extra room that is definitely not a bedroom.)
Anyway, allow me to join Team Blue. I also had not heard of SCOPE or STEINMEIER, though that’s the only anagram of those letters that results in a name. As pointed out above, the president of Germany is actually a fairly minor role; Olaf Scholz (the Chancellor) is the name in the papers, hence the one I know. I can’t name the governor-general of Canada either. So yes, this was a toughie.
Thanks both. Too many obscurities here for my complete enjoyment, with gettable answers clued I thought as though the setter wanted to gain the upper hand, examples being the already much referenced FLUE and SCOPE – the latter I read is listed as UK’s 95th most popular charity….evidently other good causes are available.
Well this needed a lot of visits during the day, and I enjoyed it despite needing a reveal for STEINMEIER. Not only did I not know the German president’s name, I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t even know they had one! And that’s despite taking a passing interest in international politics. No idea how that passed me by…
I guessed ADIE right from the start but it only went in once I had the checkers and I needed the blog for the clear-when-you-see-it parsing; FLUE also went in from the checkers so I guess I won the commenter’s trophy today, though not on merit because I hadn’t heard of the other meaning. Embarrassingly I also needed the blog for ANARCHISM, not the for technical bit (the checkers left little other choice) but because I failed to twig that it was an anagram of “chairman”! Brilliant spot.
Those hiccups aside, I was on the right wavelength and I found it to be a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed ABEYANCE (made me lol), OSTRICHES, ICHABOD, MIDWIFE and AMASSES.
TILT was R. Oise; I’ve filed it next to R. Ouse
Thanks both
[Another TILT, I mean]
Wow a real struggle for me a DNF by a country mile giving up with barely a third done. Thanks kitty and grudgingly to the setter.
Couldn’t get BOISE or STEINMEIER, and also opted for BLUE when faced with two possibilities, each of which (I mistakenly thought) only fitted one part of the clue.
You live and learn.
I liked that I-H-B– turned out to be ICHABOD rather than INHABIT.