Child’s play from Kairos this Monday morning
Not that I found the puzzle easy – far from it in parts – but as someone who never, ever – I mean not EVER – notices a theme while solving, even I couldn’t miss the finished grid giving us heads, shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes)… and eyes and ears and mouth and nose… And since it brings back such vivid memories that I now can’t get the damn thing out of my head, I’m going to inflict the same fate on you.
Aside from that, there was some delightful cluing here, especially the anagrams for OSCILLOSCOPE, ESSENTIALS, EPISODIC, the old ushers dressed up as bears, and the excellent CASPIAN SEA. Many thanks to Kairos.
Moh’s somewhat frivolous, not to mention fatuous, cruciverbial hardness scale rating: Calcite
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SUNBEAM |
Ray has closure about a foreign bishop (7)
|
| SEAM (closure) around UN (a foreign) B | ||
| 5 | ELEVENS |
Edward Lear originally quits teams (7)
|
| E + L (Edward Lear originally) + EVENS (quits, as in ‘we’re quits’) | ||
| 9 | HEADS |
Call for toilets (5)
|
| Double definition – the first referring to calling heads or tails, the second to latrines on a ship | ||
| 10 | UNCORDIAL |
Loud cairn barking is hostile (9)
|
| Anagram (barking) of LOUD CAIRN | ||
| 11 | SECOND HAND |
Used to transfer rating (6,4)
|
| SECOND (transfer, as in a secondment) + HAND (rating, in a nautical context) | ||
| 12 | NOSE |
Reportedly recognises Bill (4)
|
| Soundalike of ‘knows’ | ||
| 14 | FIRST READING |
Introductory procedure to exchange university degree (5,7)
|
| READING (a university, as well as what one is supposed to do there) and FIRST (degree) exchanged, def referring to parliamentary procedure | ||
| 18 | OSCILLOSCOPE |
Unfortunately lose piccolos and another instrument (12)
|
| Anagram (unfortunately) of LOSE PICCOLOS | ||
| 21 | EYES |
Looks over Disneyesque region (4)
|
| Hidden in disnEYESque | ||
| 22 | FLAK JACKET |
Clothing that defies criticism? (4,6)
|
| Cryptic def, using flak in the sense of criticism, rather than, you know, actual flak | ||
| 25 | RETROCEDE |
Hand back old children we hear (9)
|
| RETRO (old) + soundalike of ‘seed’ (children we hear) | ||
| 26 | SEWER |
One who joins partners in series (5)
|
| E + W (east and west, partners in bridge) inside SER, to give someone who sews/joins things together. It’s unfortunate that this solution crosses with 19d, SKEWER | ||
| 27 | SADISTS |
Savages police officers in assessments (7)
|
| Insertion of DIS (detective inspectors, so police officers) into SATS (Standard Assessment Tests, used to measure primary school children’s progress in England. And indeed they are quite sadistic for both pupils and teachers) | ||
| 28 | SPARRED |
Fought the German charges when retreating (7)
|
| Reversal (when retreating) of DER (the German) + RAPS (charges) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SCHISM |
Breach of school doctrine (6)
|
| SCH (school) + ISM (doctrine) | ||
| 2 | NUANCE |
Pest is leaving shade (6)
|
| NU[is]ANCE (is leaving nuisance, pest) | ||
| 3 | ESSENTIALS |
Is last seen mixing food and drink? (10)
|
| Anagram (mixing) of IS LAST SEEN | ||
| 4 | MOUTH |
Chops with sauce (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | ECCENTRIC |
Type of gear that’s city-focused! (9)
|
| EC (East Central London, the postcode area that covers most of the City of London) + CENTRIC (suffix that implies ‘focused’) | ||
| 6 | EARS |
Cockney tries bits of cereal (4)
|
| Cockney version of [h]EARS (tries) | ||
| 7 | EPISODIC |
Broadcast is copied in parts (8)
|
| Anagram (broadcast) of IS COPIED | ||
| 8 | SELVEDGE |
Transport to carry five around European border (8)
|
| Separate insertions of V and E into SLEDGE. Selvedge (also spelled selvadge), a NHO for me, is the narrow edge of fabric, created on a shuttle loom, that prevents the material from fraying. Nothing to do with greengrocers, disappointingly | ||
| 13 | CASPIAN SEA |
Fluid Asian space (7,3)
|
| Anagram (fluid) of ASIAN SPACE, and an &lit, even if the thing doesn’t quite fall entirely within Asia | ||
| 15 | SHOULDERS |
Old ushers dressed up as bears (9)
|
| Anagram (dressed up) of OLD USHERS | ||
| 16 | FOREARMS |
Prepares material stocked by homesteads (8)
|
| Insertion (stocked by) of ORE (material) into FARMS | ||
| 17 | ACCEPTED |
Orthodox church priest interrupts work by editor (8)
|
| Insertion (interrupts) of CE (Church of England) + P (priest – yes, it’s in Chambers) into ACT (work) + ED | ||
| 19 | SKEWER |
Spike and Kelvin infiltrating municipal facility (6)
|
| Insertion (infiltrating) of K into SEWER | ||
| 20 | STORED |
Kept fourth shop in a row? (6)
|
| The fourth in a row of shops might whimsically be referred to as STORE D | ||
| 23 | KNEES |
Cries when Nationalist brought up attacks (5)
|
| KEENS (cries), with the N brought up | ||
| 24 | TOES |
Rubbish removed from caves’ extremities (4)
|
| [grot]TOES minus the grot (rubbish). I can’t let this pass without a nod to my favourite Beatle, who supposedly popularised the word ‘grotty’ in the film A Hard Day’s Night |
SECOND HAND, ECCENTRIC and CASPIAN SEA were my faves.
Yea. Calcitish.
Thanks moh and Kairos.
This made an enjoyable start to the week with a theme that even I could spot although I did enter CHEEK at first for 4d. This was also remarkable for the brevity of the clues – all fewer than 8 words.
I agree with KVa’s top picks @1.
Many thanks to Kairos and to moh.
I liked OSCILLOSCOPE and CASPIAN SEA. nho SELEVEDGE which is clued quite trickily for an unusual word.
Thanks Kairos and moh