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MUDD kicks off the week…
A neat and enjoyable puzzle. Perfect for a Monday morning.
Thanks MUDD!
ACROSS
1. Two creatures, one of the two on the field? (7,3)
CRICKET BAT
CRICKET BAT (two creatures)
7. Prolific toper (4)
LUSH
9. Remnant in time held in reserve (4)
STUB
T (time) held in SUB (reserve)
10. See where tundra ends after melting (10)
UNDERSTAND
(TUNDRA ENDS)* (*after melting)
11. Place importance on second lock (6)
STRESS
S (second) + TRESS (lock)
12. Show it with dance I created (8)
INDICATE
(IT with DANCE I)* (*created)
13. Dignified exclamation of surprise (8)
GRACIOUS
15. Ultimately, evangelism biblical vessel for gospeller (4)
MARK
[evanelis]M (ultimately) + ARK (biblical vessel)
17. A short jumper, some style! (4)
AFRO
A + FRO[g] (jumper, short)
19. Particular blow when part of shoe damaged (8)
UPPERCUT
UPPER (part of shoe) + CUT (damaged)
22. Ultra-hot reprimand? (8)
ROASTING
23. Distant, due to me reminiscing, looking back somewhat (6)
REMOTE
([du]E TO ME R[eminiscing])< (somewhat, <looking back)
25. Old footballer in team quit (6,4)
INSIDE LEFT
IN + SIDE (team) + LEFT (quit)
27. Bottle – or part of one? (4)
NECK
Double (cryptic) definition
28. New statements – those new and old? (10)
TESTAMENTS
DOWN
2. Muscle deterioration going over a peak (7)
ROTATOR
ROT (deterioration) going over A + TOR (peak)
3. First of communications fit for message (5)
CABLE
C[ommunication] (first of) + ABLE (fit)
4. Paint nuts on muesli (8)
EMULSION
5. Move to impound first of imports, bootleggers revealing gear? (6,9)
BUDGIE SMUGGLERS
BUDGE (move) to impound I[mports] (first of) + SMUGGLERS (bootleggers)
6. Denunciation, one having cut business (6)
TIRADE
I (one) having cut TRADE (business)
7. One dragging feet in treacle, unfortunately, about sacred mantra (9)
LATECOMER
(TREACLE)* (*unfortunately) about OM (sacred mantra)
8. US politician atones for beating up Republican (7)
SENATOR
(ATONES)* (*beating up) + R (Republican)
14. Hybrid kiln destroyed chemical bond (5,4)
CROSS LINK
CROSS (hybrid) + (KILN)* (*destroyed)
16. Little work to repeat that’s difficult (8)
OPERETTA
(TO REPEAT)* (*that's difficult)
18. Take noticeable steps with fluid measure? (7)
FLOUNCE
FL (fluid) + OUNCE (measure)
20. Tense when winning, very close (7)
UPTIGHT
UP (winning) + TIGHT (very close)
21. Straight mould ruined, by the sound of it? (6)
DIRECT
"die wrecked" = DIRECT (mould ruined, "by the sound of it")
24. Inspector in uniform, or sergeant (5)
MORSE
[unifor]M OR SE[rgeant] (in)
A fine outing from Mudd this Easter Monday with just the right level of difficulty.
Took a while to get the right ‘jumper’ in 17 and I considered ‘suit’ first for 26 but crosswordland’s favourite inspector (24) helped here.
Besides that inspector, I liked 4, 5 (the clue not the garment, you understand!) and 18 best of all.
Thanks to Teacow and Mudd.
Another who toyed with suit for 26 (and also cork for NECK) I liked the ruined mould.
Quite a few anagrams, but well-crafted, so not a criticism.
Some of the surfaces are rather clunky, but I know that many solvers don’t mind this.
“Paint nuts on muesli”, is not my kind of clue, for example.
FLOUNCE, 18(d), is a nice idea, but “fluid measure”=”fluid ounce”, is a bit uninspired?
15(ac), “biblical vessel” = ARK. Hmm. Not overly cryptic.
I always enjoy Mudd’s puzzles, this one didn’t quite float my boat. Apologies, M, thanks Teacow.
Very enjoyable. The sacred mantra was my only unknown.
I enjoyed this and found it straightforward, having made good choices with my jumper and other fashion.
We saw an almost identical bottleneck somewhere last week didn’t we? Here or The Guardian.
Thanks MUDD and Teacow.
Thanks for the blog , neat and conxise and very suitabla for everybody I hope .
Always nice to see a Mudd puzzle.
Some good puzzles without resorting to ridiculous obscurities
Very nice, I came up short on a few, and it took me a while to tune in, but yes, this was fun.
Thanks to MUDD and Teacow.
Enjoyable, with just the right level of challenge for a bank holiday diversion. Nice to find a jumper that wasn’t ‘roo’. We liked CRICKET BAT and TESTAMENTS.
Thanks, Mudd and Teacow.
Yes ditto re 5d, Diane @1, not the most edifying of cultural contributions! (Still, there’s always Dames Nellie and Edna, and throw in Clive, Germs, Geoffrey R. and the Private Eye bloke, et a few als).
Re 20d, uptight itself used to mean very close, as in the song Uotight, everything is alright. Nice Easter Monday puzzle, thanks Mudd and Teacow.
I did this late at night waiting at the airport for a badly-delayed flight. I found it slow going, but that may have been my state of mind more than the puzzle. Typical Mudd with some great anagrams and double definitions resulting in an enjoyable experience.
Liked UNDERSTAND, GRACIOUS, ROASTING, RAGE, and DIRECT
I thought he missed a trick with BUDGIE SMUGGLERS. By using gear as the definition he robbed a funny name of all humour. NHO CROSS LINK and a bit of a lucky guess. Do not understand how bottle is NECK – not in my dictionary app. Never seen INSIDE LEFT, nor LATE COMER as a single word, and I needed some time to find each
Thanks Mudd and Teacow
Martyn. I think both can mean ‘courage’. BOTTLE clearly can. I reckon Churchill’s famous quote “Some chicken, some neck” has ‘neck’ meaning courage.
Perfect for the financial times
Doable in a satisfactory time with excellent clueing, no bewildering parsing, unknown words or or mysterious definitions
Magic!