I was really struggling with today’s challenge from Peto until I was nearly three-quarters done, when the remaining solutions seemed to fall into place all at once. I found the clues quite good overall.
I have noted what I believe is a minor editing goof in 14A that makes the clue a little confusing.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LAWSUITS |
Rules covering bureaucratic functionary’s actions (8)
|
| LAWS (rules) around (covering) SUIT (bureaucratic functionary) | ||
| 5 | NAUSEA |
Feeling of loathing when not available to take drugs away at first (6)
|
| N/A (not available) + USE (to take drugs) + first letter of (at first) A[WAY] | ||
| 9 | PARLANCE |
Standard fastener gripping Nationalist leader in a manner of speaking (8)
|
| PAR (standard) + LACE (fastener) around (gripping) first letter of (leader [of]) N[ATIONALIST] | ||
| 10 | GROCER |
My return interrupting German shopkeeper (6)
|
| COR (my) reversed (return) inside (interrupting) GER. (German) | ||
| 12 | ENDUE |
Supply with oddly missing beans directly (5)
|
| Even letters of (oddly missing) [B]E[A]N[S] + DUE (directly) | ||
| 13 | TROUSERED |
Pocketed note about rabble follower close to dad (9)
|
| TE (note) around (about) ROUSER (rabble follower, i.e., rabble-rouser) + last letter of (close to) [DA]D | ||
| 14 | PIECES |
Examples of types of mushroom mostly found in baked dishes (6)
|
| CE[P] (type[s] of mushroom) minus last letter (mostly) inside (found in) PIES (baked dishes). I think “types” (plural) must be a typo. | ||
| 16 | EPISTLE |
Letter of introduction initially spelt wrongly without ‘e’ at the end (7)
|
| {Anagram of (wrongly) SPELT around (without) first letter of (initially) I[NTRODUCTION]} + E [“at the end”] | ||
| 18 | SCHOOLS |
Head of Siemens becomes less enthusiastic about earliest of hybrid trains (7)
|
| First letter of (head of) S[IEMENS] + COOLS (becomes less enthusiastic) around (about) first letter of (earliest of) H[YBRID] | ||
| 20 | REGIME |
Government of independent ruler in retrospect admitting endless conceit (6)
|
| EMIR (independent ruler) reversed (in retrospect) around (admitting) EG[O] (conceit) minus last letter (endless) | ||
| 22 | LOUISIANA |
State of Scotsman described by girl (9)
|
| IAN (Scotsman) inside (described by) LOUISA (girl) | ||
| 23 | STAKE |
Appropriate to pursue son’s concern (5)
|
| S (son) + TAKE (appropriate) | ||
| 24 | EYELID |
Protective cover essential to crocodile? Yes in retreat (6)
|
| Hidden in (essential to) [CROCO]DILE YE[S] reversed (in retreat) | ||
| 25 | RIDICULE |
Josh to deliver one tricky clue (8)
|
| RID (to deliver) + I (one) + anagram of (tricky) CLUE | ||
| 26 | SUDDEN |
Unexpected in study on south of France (6)
|
| SUD (south “of France,” i.e., in French) + DEN (study) | ||
| 27 | RESTLESS |
Worried about stress after changing sides (8)
|
| RE (about) + ST[R]ESS with L (left) substituted for R (right) (after changing sides) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LAPSED |
Business transaction set up around Pisa oddly became void (6)
|
| DEAL (business transaction) inverted (set up) around odd letters of (oddly) P[I]S[A] | ||
| 2 | WORLD WITHOUT END |
Red-hot twin would dance for ever (5,7,3)
|
| Anagram of (dance) RED-HOT TWIN WOULD | ||
| 3 | USAGE |
American spy books ignored customary practice (5)
|
| US (American) + AGE[NT] (spy) minus (ignored) NT (books) | ||
| 4 | TACITUS |
Understood by useless Roman orator (7)
|
| TACIT (understood) + U/S (useless, i.e., unserviceable) | ||
| 6 | ARRESTING |
Striking soldiers heading north remain popular? Good (9)
|
| RA (soldiers) inverted (heading north) + REST (remain) + IN (popular) + G (good) | ||
| 7 | SECURITY MEASURE |
I curtsey trembling with some degree of alarm perhaps (8,7)
|
| Anagram of (trembling) {I CURTSEY} + MEASURE (some degree) | ||
| 8 | ABRIDGED |
Shortened game after a delay at the start (8)
|
| A + BRIDGE (game) + first letter of (at the start [of]) D[ELAY] | ||
| 11 | WORE |
Had on with open hostility in speech (4)
|
| Homophone of (in speech) WAR (open hostility) | ||
| 15 | CROSSFIRE |
Intense passion on X? Better not get caught up in it (9)
|
| CROSS (X) + FIRE (intense passion) | ||
| 17 | PSALTERS |
Actively press to include key hymnbooks (8)
|
| Anagram of (actively) PRESS around (to include) ALT ([computer] key) | ||
| 19 | SCAR |
Cliff’s lasting effect of grief (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 20 | REALISE |
Fetch each student held captive by rebel (7)
|
| {EA. (each) + L (student)} inside (held captive by) RISE (rebel) | ||
| 21 | RECESS |
Niche site originally looking into development of Cree society (6)
|
| First letter of (originally) S[ITE] inside (looking into) {anagram of (development of) CREE + S (society)} | ||
| 23 | SWIFT |
Examine closely to maintain weight in fast (5)
|
| SIFT (examine closely) around (to maintain) W (weight) |
Heavy on charades or half-charades and light on variety with a few iffy synonyms. I also found this the going slow
Ticked EPISTLE
i could not parse GROCER or LOUSIANA. Thanks for explaining those and why useless is US. Tell me, in 25, how is deliver = RID?
Thanks Peto and Cineraria
Martyn@1: Deliver us from evil, for instance. U/S is an abbreviation for “unserviceable” = useless.
Last few bits in the SE — regime, measure and restless — took an age for some reason, just random brain glue probably. Apart from that and a couple of obliquities, eg realise for fetch and Emir for ruler, it was pretty smooth. Thanks to Peto and Cineraria.
Yes it’s all obvious when you have the answers but not easy. Liked world without end!
Thanks Peto and Cineraria
4dn further to comment 2: Chambers 2016 p 1723 gives U/S only as “unserviceable”, which is near enough to “useless” for me, but Collins 2023 p 2189 (also as U/S) and ODE 2010 p 1958 (in the form US) both give “useless” explicitly as a second meaning.
I struggled with some of the synonyms (fetch/realise) but I’m sure they are OK by the dictionary, and the SE corner took some time. Managed several answers without having a clue on how they parsed (nothing unusual in that!) – Plus I need to brush up on my mushroom knowledge.
20dn: The relevant usage examples in Collins 2023 are the table fetched six hundred pounds (p 725) and this table realized £800 (p 1659).
Late to this but managed to finish after a slow start. Happily, not knowing the U/S abbreviation didn’t prevent me from finding TACITUS though I should have consulted the resident mariner who would have elucidated me!
Shame about the suspected typo in PIECES.
My favourites today were TROUSERED, CROSSFIRE and SCHOOLS for the misdirection.
Thanks both to Peto and Cineraria.
Slow going but with quite a bit of lateral thinking and delayed PDMs we got it all unaided. PSALTERS was our favourite.
Thanks, Peto and Cineraria.
Just the one quibble today! Tacitus was a Roman historian, and although he frequently records speeches supposedly made by historical characters which in all probability he made up himself, I don’t think he was particularly renowned as an orator. As a consul he no doubt made the odd speech. I may be wrong but I don’t think we have a record of any he made.
I understood u/s to stand for “unfit for service” but all my reference books give “unserviceable”. I’m happy with “useless” as a pointer to either.
4dn: Collins 2023 p 2011 gives Tacitus as “Roman historian and orator, famous as a prose stylist.”
on 14a maybe the description is “examples of types” instead of “examples”? I guess it would mean the same thing – just giving the benefit of doubt to the setter
Pelham Barton @11. I just hope his speeches weren’t as difficult to translate as his Annals. These puzzles are a cinch by comparison!
HM@12: I considered that, but I don’t know what “examples of types” would even mean. In Chambers, “example” is one of the definitions of “piece,” and “type of edible mushroom . . . ” is part of the definition of “cep.” There are (rarely) mistakes in the clues, but in general, I try very hard not to blame the setter or the editor for my inability to parse a clue as printed.
I am happy to report the glitch in 14a was lost on me as I could not recall cep as a type of mushroom anyway (I am sure I have heard the name cep some time in the dim, dark past, possible in a crossword. I have only ever known them in real life as porcini). And, frankly, the error is pretty minor.
I didn’t know of U/S as a possibility for “useless” to give the US in TACITUS. I parsed “useless” as use less, that is, take less of use to give US.
Excellent puzzle and blog.
14ac is wrong. A psalter contains only psalms. It does not contain hymns. Psalms are found in a psalter, hymns are found in a hymn book.
Julian@17: A psalm is a hymn.