I did not find this puzzle particularly difficult to solve, although paradoxically, I did find myself mulling over the parsing quite a bit.
I thought that a theme might be complicating the clues, but I cannot see a common element. Pilgrimage sites? Literature? Perhaps we will find some clarity in the comments.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | BRAILLE |
That which may be read with feeling (7)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 9 | ECHIDNA |
Burrowing monotreme can hide bananas (7)
|
| Anagram of (bananas) CAN HIDE | ||
| 10/7D/24 | TUNBRIDGE WELLS |
Time poorly occupied by game initially staged in town (9,5)
|
| T (time) + {UNWELL (poorly) around (occupied by) BRIDGE (game)} + first letter of (initially) S[TAGED] | ||
| 11 | IMPEACH |
Neo’s juicy fruit charge (7)
|
| I’M (Neo’s) + PEACH (juicy fruit) | ||
| 13 | LEMUR |
Creature in the wall at Avignon? (5)
|
| LE MUR (the wall at Avignon, i.e., in French) | ||
| 14 | GERMANE |
Appropriate European base (7)
|
| GERMAN (European) + E (base) | ||
| 15 | INCUR |
As not taking sides, you are to suffer (5)
|
| [S]INC[E] (as) minus outside letters (not taking sides) + U (you) + R (are) | ||
| 18 | MIDDLE ENGLAND |
Dancing legend seen in bank that was for the well-to-do (6,7)
|
| Anagram of (dancing) LEGEND inside (seen in) MIDLAND (bank that was, i.e., Midland Bank plc, acquired by HSBC in 1992 and discontinued as a brand in 1999). As an American, I am not sure that I completely understand this clue, in that I understand “Middle England” to refer to the socially conservative middle class, but “well-to-do” to refer to the wealthy. I suppose there is some overlap? | ||
| 22 | CHOPS |
Jaws composer’s not popular (5)
|
| [Frédéric] CHOP[IN]’S (composer’s) minus (not) IN (popular) | ||
| 23 | RAW DEAL |
Short end of stick in green wood (3,4)
|
| RAW (green) + DEAL (wood) | ||
| 25 | CAPRI |
Island’s better class of religion (5)
|
| CAP (better) + RI (class of religion, i.e., religious instruction) | ||
| 27 | LAPEL |
Some flap elevated — on jacket? (5)
|
| Hidden in (some) [F]LAP EL[EVATED], with a bit of &lit flair to the clue overall | ||
| 29 | TALIBAN |
Ground battalion loses to Afghan fighters (7)
|
| Anagram of (ground) {BAT[T]ALI[O]N minus (loses) TO} | ||
| 30 | RUT |
Aggressive behaviour Proust periodically exhibited (3)
|
| Alternate letters of (periodically exhibited) [P]R[O]U[S]T | ||
| 31 | OSMOSIS |
Slow absorption of current entering large Scottish bog (7)
|
| I (current) inside (entering) {OS (large, i.e., outsize) + MOSS (Scottish bog)} | ||
| 32 | ENSURED |
Reprimanded leader booted out? It’s guaranteed (7)
|
| [C]ENSURED (reprimanded) minus first letter (leader booted out) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | VALPARAÍSO |
Soldier is in old office over in Chilean city (10)
|
| {PARA (soldier) + IS} inside (in) {O (old) + LAV (“office”)} inverted (over) | ||
| 2 | BETHLEHEM |
Be left within the border’s West Bank location (9)
|
| BE + {L (left) inside (within) THE} + HEM (border) | ||
| 3 | VENOM |
Spite from MI5 on the rise? (5)
|
| {M +ONE (I) + V (5, in Roman numerals)} all inverted (on the rise). Nice clue | ||
| 4 | THE TRIAL |
Book thrown at Hitler (3,5)
|
| Anagram of (thrown) AT HITLER, by Franz Kafka | ||
| 5 | IDOL |
Bachelor’s last words with line for hero (4)
|
| I DO (bachelor’s last words, i.e., before becoming a husband) + L (line) | ||
| 6 | MAESTRO |
Staff run out to welcome English genius (7)
|
| {MAST (staff) + RO (run out) |
||
| 8 | LHASA |
High city wall has anoxic guards (5)
|
| Hidden in (guards) [WAL]L HAS A[NOXIC], in Tibet | ||
| 16/12 | CANTERBURY TALES |
Husband leaves pipe say with butler dressed for work (10,5)
|
| C[H]ANTER (pipe) minus (leaves) H (husband) + anagram of (. . . with . . . dressed) {SAY + BUTLER}, by Geoffrey Chaucer | ||
| 17 | UNWRITTEN |
Such a law as presumably not found among statutes (9)
|
| Cryptic definition, in that statutes are written enactments | ||
| 19 | DISCLOSE |
Roman god with secret to reveal (8)
|
| DIS (Roman god) + CLOSE (secret) | ||
| 20 | SCOLLOP |
Endless fish son served up as seafood (7)
|
| {POLLOC[K] (fish) minus last letter (endless) + S (son)} all inverted (served up). SCALLOP/POLLACK would also work here. | ||
| 21 | CLONED |
CD including single completely copied (6)
|
| CD around (including) LONE (single) | ||
| 26 | PURSE |
Son splits total prize money (5)
|
| S (son) inside (splits) PURE (total) | ||
| 28 | PIMP |
Solicitor first in pact with Devil (4)
|
| First [letter] in P[ACT] + IMP (devil) |
Yes I entered scallop, thinking Pollock’s the artist, but there’s no telling with fishes, just about anything pronounceable will be one. I wondered too about Middle England’s wealth [here, mercifully, the comfortably off Middle has deserted the Deniers and delivered us a Labor landslide]. Nice puzzle, ta Neo and Cineraria.
Thanks Neo for a great set of clues. My top picks were LEMUR, CHOPS, TALIBAN, ENSURED, THE TRIAL, CLONED, & PIMP. Some of the parsing took a bit of time but it eventually fell into place. I was a bit surprised to see ‘son’ used twice for S (20d & 26d) when other alternatives are available. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
Not much to add to Tony@2.
I am afraid I also wondered about Middle England.
Thanks Neo and Cineraria
Hard work. Loved the trial, idol, pimp. I am moving house and will ask my solicitor if he thinks of himself as a pimp.
Did not love echidna (straight to google), tunbridge wells (split into three words), middle England (not necessarily wealthy), Canterbury tales (“work” of little help as a definition and chanter/pipe pretty obscure)
1d I had oval as the office in question, not lav.
Hmm. I enjoyed the puzzle – lots of neat clues with CANTERBURY TALES being my last one in as I wasn’t going to enter it until I’d got the parse. Spent too long trying to find a full anagram before remembering the bagpipe. But I did feel somewhat cheated when entering the final letter to be greeted by the ‘you’ve made a mistake’ message. To have two completely viable solutions to what turned out to be SCOLLOP seems unfair. In Chambers both POLLACK and SCALLOP are given as the primary spellings with POLLOCK/SCOLLOP the secondary. I cannot recall ever having encountered the shellfish, in recipe, fishmonger or restaurant, with the O spelling.
Thanks both
James @4. Definition 18 of ‘office’ in Chambers is ‘a euphemism for lavatory’. ‘Oval’ doesn’t work as this would have the L & V swapped.
I’ve only seen the SCALLOP & POLLOCK spellings so wasn’t sure which to go for. Decided SCOLLOP looked the most likely but now see both options work. Maybe Neo will comment on MIDDLE ENGLAND.
Thanks Neo and Cineraria
6dn: I took the RO together as the abbreviation for “run out”, a form of dismissal in cricket, as given in Chambers 2016 p 1346. I could not find O on its own for “out”.
PB @7: I missed spotting that bit in the blog ref MAESTRO. Completely agree that ‘run out’ = RO is what Neo would have had in mind.
My late father-in-law was a MAESTRO. He was bright, but he certainly wasn’t a genius, so I would quibble about the definition for that clue.
We’re also in the SCALLOP camp.
Otherwise a fun puzzle.
Thanks both
Agreed it was fun today but I couldn’t parse CANTERBURY TALES.
Neo can be forgiven for assuming that a bachelor’s last words are “I do” because everybody assumes that they are, but the actual words used in the traditional marriage service are “I will”. I expect there are modern versions which now use “I do”.
I couldn’t pen 4D initially as there’s also a book called The Trail.
Another for Scallop
Canterbury and Tunbridge Wells are both in Kent (South-east England for GDU) and could easily be seen as archetypical Middle England.
I thought it clever to have Middle England right across the middle of the crossie.
Late to this. I entered SCALLOP, and was surprised to find I didn’t get it right; I’m another who has never seen it with the O spelling.
Pelham @7: O for “out” (or more commonly outs, but the singular works too) is common in baseball scoring. Maybe Chambers doesn’t read baseball score sheets?
Incidentally, my brother lives in Valparaiso…but the one in Indiana, not the one in Chile. Don DeLillo (well-known to fans of the postmodern) wrote a play called Valparaiso, featuring a poor traveler who confuses the two.
Never got MIDDLE ENGLAND because I just didn’t know that definition. I wrote many answers in without really knowing the parsing so thank you very much everyone and Neo.