Guardian 29,815 – Maskarade

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Quite an easy one today, though there are a couple of names that may have beeen unfamiliar to some. Thanks to Maskarade.

 
Across
1 COMMENT Maiden with chaps in bed – ‘Here’s How’ in French (7)
M (maiden [over], as in cricket) + MEN in COT
5 PARSNIP Vegetable to cut, cut and cut (7)
PAR[e] (cut, cut) + SNIP (another cut)
9 IGLOO One grand by John Snow house (5)
I + G + LOO (toilet, john)
10 KILOMETRE Juliet’s follower encountered sapper at a distance (9)
KILO (follower of Julet in the NATO alphabet, though the correct spelling of the latter is “Juliett”) + MET + RE (Royal Engineer, sapper)
11 WASHINGTON POST March newspaper (10,4)
Double definition – a March by John Philip Sousa, and the newspaper owned by Jeff Bezos, which disgracefully caved in to Trump during the 2024 presidential election by not endorsing any candidate
13 ERNE Sea eagle in summer nest (4)
Hidden in semmER NEst
14 TELEMANN Composer who repairs the box, we’re told (8)
Sounds (a bit) like “telly man”
17 MEDIATOR Press and TV nonsense repelled broker (8)
MEDIA (press and TV) + reverse of ROT
18 STOA Walkway seen from Piraeus to Athens (4)
Hidden in piraeuS TO Athens
21 CORNISH PASTIES Eats with chips.? No sir! Not normally oggies (7,7)
(EATS CHIPS NO SIR)*
23 LIE IN WAIT New militia lacking its leader is deployed to ambush (3,2,4)
Anagram of NEW [m]ILITIA
24 PETAL Piano, not in time, backing viola’s piece (5)
P + reverse of LATE, with viola referring to the flower
25 INDWELL Forever remain popular, a touch dizzy and healthy (7)
IN (popular) + D[izz]y+ WELL
26 EXPRESS Train former journalists (7)
The former journalists are EX-PRESS
Down
1 CRIB Copy in bed (4)
Double definition
2 MY LEARNED FRIEND Description of lawyer meanly inferred, possibly, by defendant, initially (2,7,6)
(MEANLY INFERRED)* + D[efendant]
3 EPOCHS Record expressions of impatience for ages (6)
EP (record) + OCHS (Scots expressions of impatience)
4 TAKING Receiving thanks, man! (6)
TA (thank you) + KING (chess man)
5 PALM TREE Source of dates from Lampeter (4,4)
LAMPETER*
6 REMINDER Memo – ‘What’s left when adult leaves?’ (8)
REMAINDER less A
7 NATIONAL THEATRE Plays for England here – and the rest of us (8,7)
This seems to be just a rather long barely-cryptic definition, though “plays for England” is trying to mislead us into thinking of sport
8 PRETTY NEAR Close partner, yet not so (6,4)
(PARTNER YET)*
12 VERMICELLI Liver and lime mixed with cold pasta (10)
Anagram of LIVER + LIME + C
15 PATIENCE Bunthorne’s Bride is game (8)
Double definition – Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience is subtitled Bunthorne’s Bride , though in fact Bunthorne ends up still single; as others pair off, the company sings “Greatly pleased with one another/To get married they decide/Each of them will wed the other/Nobody be Bunthorne’s Bride!”
16 MOTHBALL Postpone work on aircraft delivery (8)
MOTH (Gypsy Moth, early aeroplane) + BALL (delivery in cricket)
19 WATTLE What’ll suggest fencing material? (6)
Sounds (exactly, this time) like “what’ll”
20 STEP-UP In haste, pupils advance (4-2)
Hidden in haSTE PUPils
22 PLUS Additional luxurious fabric is trimmed (4)
PLUS[h]

16 comments on “Guardian 29,815 – Maskarade”

  2. I occasionally read on here of people claiming to have done a “write-in”, never thought I would do one of those! Today was my first, more or less. Liked wattle, although indwell was a jorum for me. Fun start to the day.

  3. Crosswords like these feel purer. You can see the wordplay, appreciate the misdirection and the smoothness of the surfaces. I like a challenge too, but a puzzle like this is a joy.

    I liked PARSNIP, KILOMETRE, PRETTY NEAR and MOTHBALL (also Tiger Moth)

    Thanks Maskarade and Andrew

  4. Very pleased to have one I could finish fairly quickly, after my long and largely fruitless struggles with Paul’s yesterday!

  5. Dave @1: I entered “slip-up” thinking of “advance” as a reversal indicator. It got killed by a “T” crosser… Didn’t know MOTHBALL or WATTLE, had to look up the opera and oggies, – outside my GK… Pleasant solve overall; also liked TELEMANN.

    For NATIONAL THEATRE, I thought of it as a double definition, the second part referring to something like “on a national stage”.

    “Caved in to Trump by not endorsing any candidate” is funny (don’t want to start a political debate). Thanks Maskarade and Andrew

  7. Didn’t know the word INDWELL, though the wordplay made the answer obvious. Otherwise not too much to detain you, though needed the crossers for CORNISH PASTIES and for PATIENCE, not being a G&S aficianado, so thanks to the blogger for the explanation and slight correction. Liked WASHINGTON POST. Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew

  8. Very non-spiky for a Wednesday.
    Of course, I misled my self by putting Pushback for 16d. But that’s my failing, as usual.
    On the other hand, 7d seemed so simple I wasn’t sure I had the right idea.

  11. Good spot, Dave E @1, missed that.

    I know it irks some newcomers when others crow how easy a puzzle was… so I won’t.

    I enjoyed this very much, many thanks Maskarade.

  12. LIE IN WAIT and PRETTY NEAR were my favourites. I am not a fan of ‘from’ as an anagram indicator in PALM TREE – I see no sense of disruption or change in the word and if the setter’s able to use it in this context then why not dispense with other indicators, shove in ‘from’ and let the solver work out for themselves which device is being used.

    Thanks both

  15. Have seen Bunthorne in a cw context but never wondered about its origin and, like Tomsdad @7, not up with G&S [despite singing the judge part in T by J at school]. As for others today, nothing too gnarly here, although i did look up oggie, and dnk about wattle fences (here, settlers’ cottages had wattle-and-daub walls). All good, thanks EnA.

  16. “oggies” were new to me (and I assume the extra full stop is a typo?) and I am another who is not up with the G&S works so clues about them are as opaque to me as cricket is to some others. “Washington Post” is one of those double definitions which is not really a double definition as the march was written for the newspaper and named after it. A snatch of it appears in Sondheim’s “Assassins” (in the song “How I saved Roosevelt” along with another Sousa piece) which made it familiar.

    I thought “indwell” a very fair example of cluing a word the setter would know to be unfamiliar. Some lovely anagram spots and I too went for “slip up” with no clear parsing before the crossers put me right. I await a clearer explanation of National Theatre – all I have is a vague definition intended to mislead. Who are “the rest of us”?

    All good fun, fair and clear and thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.

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