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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29850.
Mostly Imogen in an unbuttoned mood, although 20D SKILLY was new to me (as was its longer form, skillygalee), and the NW corner was last to fall. In all, a very satisfying crossword.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PROVERBS |
Gnomes check bank (8)
|
| A charade of PROVE (‘check’) plus RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland, ‘bank’). GNOMES as pithy sayings. | ||
| 5 | PHONIC |
Voiced foreign drama turned into film (6)
|
| An envelope (‘into’) of HON, a reversal (‘turned’) of NOH (Japanese ‘foreign drama’) in PIC (‘film’). | ||
| 9 | PANICKING |
Preparing a case to tour part of UK, but losing it completely (9)
|
| An envelope (‘to tour’) of NI (‘Northern Ireland, ‘part of UK’) in PACKING (‘preparing a case’). | ||
| 11 | ROUST |
Stir up nonsense about fellow compilers (5)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of US (‘fellow compilers’) in ROT (‘nonsense’). | ||
| 12 | DENG XIAOPING |
One on march that was long ago ending with pix to be developed (4,8)
|
| An anagram (‘to be developed’) of ‘ago ending’ plus ‘pix’. The Long March was a retreat by the Chinese Red Army in 1934-35. | ||
| 15 | UPON |
Second word of fairy story you ponder somewhat (4)
|
| A hidden answer (‘somewhat’) in ‘yoU PONder’, for the second word of “Once upon a time”. | ||
| 16 | FOREFATHER |
In front, rich female relative (10)
|
| A charade of FORE (‘front’) plus FAT (‘rich’) plus HER (‘female’). | ||
| 18 | OLD PALS ACT |
Undue influence to get long-established group on the stage? (3,4,3)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 19 | GNUS |
Information would give one traditional pronunciation of these creatures (4)
|
| Can sound like (‘one traditional pronunciation’) NEWS (‘information’). | ||
| 21 | SITTING DUCKS |
Committee meeting avoids addressing what should be easy to dispatch (7,5)
|
| A charade of SITTING (‘committee meeting’) plus DUCKS (‘avoids’). | ||
| 24 | ROAST |
Get very hot right in front of kiln (5)
|
| A charade of R (‘right’) plus (‘in front of’) OAST (‘kiln’ for drying hops). | ||
| 25 | SATELLITE |
Miranda, for one, such a dish (9)
|
| Double definition: a low-orbit artificial satellite, no longer active, and an antenna for receiving transmissions. | ||
| 26 | SENTRY |
Guardian’s small admission (6)
|
| A charade of S (‘small’) plus ENTRY (‘admission’). | ||
| 27 | GRAY’S INN |
Granny is moving in London society (5,3)
|
| An anagram (‘moving’) of ‘granny is’. Gray’s Inn, in addition to being a location in London, is an association of barristers and judges, one of four Inns of Court. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PUPA |
Dog at a non-feeding stage (4)
|
| A charade of PUP (‘dog’) plus ‘a’. | ||
| 2 | OINK |
Circle something in pen, which sounds like this? (4)
|
| A charade of O (‘circle’) plus INK (‘something in pen’), with a definition which refers back to ‘something in pen’, with a different meaning of ‘pen’, namely a sty containing a pig. | ||
| 3 | ESCHEW |
Avoid getting key cut (6)
|
| A charade of ESC (‘key’ probably top left on your keyboard) plus HEW (‘cut’). | ||
| 4 | BRIDGE OF SIGHS |
Large-sounding cross, a tourist attraction (6,2,5)
|
| A charade of BRIDGE (‘cross’) plus OF SIGHS, sounding like (-‘sounding’) OF SIZE (‘large’); the original (and the most prominent ‘tourist atteaction’) is in Venice. | ||
| 6 | HORMONAL |
Initially happy over normal changes produced by chemicals in body (8)
|
| There are various essentially equivalent ways to identify the wordplay, such as: a charade of H (‘initially Happy’) plus O (‘over’) plus RMONAL, an anagram (‘changes’) of ‘normal’ | ||
| 7 | NOURISHING |
Wholesome common sense in short supply, old PM no good (10)
|
| A charade of NOU[s] (‘common sense’) minus its last letter (‘in short supply’) plus RISHI (Sunak, ‘old PM’) plus NG (‘no good’). | ||
| 8 | CATEGORISE |
Classify as Burmese, say? I rebel (10)
|
| A charade of CAT (‘Burmese, say’) plus EGO (‘I’) plus RISE (‘rebel’). | ||
| 10 | GEIGER COUNTER |
Rogue erecting false detector (6,7)
|
| An anagram (‘false’) of ‘rogue erecting’. | ||
| 13 | OUT OF SORTS |
Peaky, unable to make new arrangements? (3,2,5)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 14 | GOODS TRAIN |
Transporter’s commendable exertion (5,5)
|
| A charade of GOOD (‘commendable’) plus STRAIN (‘exertion’). | ||
| 17 | CANISTER |
Perhaps tea here from American is terrible (8)
|
| A hidden answer (‘from’) in ‘AmeriCAN IS TERrible’. | ||
| 20 | SKILLY |
Thin gruel, bad to fill TV channel (6)
|
| An envelope (‘to fill’) of ILL (‘bad’) in SKY (‘TV channel’ – but Sky is much larger than just a channel). | ||
| 22 | WIFI |
Wife provided with one means of communication (4)
|
| A charade of W (‘wife’) plus IF (‘provided’) plus I (‘one’). It is unfortunate that the first word of the clue is so near the answer. | ||
| 23 | WEAN |
A new fancy to have a change from milk (4)
|
| An anagram (‘fancy’) of ‘a new’. |
Thanks, PeterO, for putting me back on the straight and narrow with some of my parsing. I was a little careless with some of the answers, using the check button after entering a word, without fully parsing. So, for example, with CAT EG _ RISE, I saw the CAT and EG and RISE and didn’t bother with the rest; now I see it should have been EGO. Perhaps I should go back to doing the paper version.
Thanks also Imogen: I was expecting a toughy, but it turned out to be easier, for me.
Thanks PeterO.
I liked the way Imogen clued the aural wordplay/homophone (for some) of NEWS/GNUS with one traditional pronunciation. It’s not in my dialect, but in several British and American ones. (The linguistic term for this is “yod-dropping”, where the “/j/” (y) sound is either included or omitted.)
I knew of SKY as a Channel, so that was helpful, as I’d didn’t know of SKILLY.
SITTING DUCKS my favourite for wordplay, definition and humour.
The UK clues held me up. I somehow managed GRAY’S INN from the deepest recesses of my memory (probably a previous crossword), although I couldn’t remember what it was. The Scottish bank was my downfall, leaving PROVERBS unsolved. Challenging too was the Miranda satellite, and I spent too long trying to justify ROUSE for 11a — I’ve never heard of ROUST. OLD PALS ACT and SKILLY were new to me too.
So a few speed humps, but generally good fun.
Paddymelon @2, 19a reminded me of a friend who told me he always set his clock radio to wake to the grieving wildebeest. It took me a while to realise he meant the morning news.
🙂 Geoff @4.
I thought Miranda was. a reference to a moon/satellite of Uranus. I didn’t parse PHONIC, thanks for the explanation and thanks to setter.
Quite a fun Imogen with the sighseable bridge winning the GoD (groan of the day), ta both.
Dod @6 – that was my thought too. The satellite of Uranus was discovered quite a bit earlier than the launch of the artificial satellite
thanks I and P! I thought that the DENG anagram was a remarkable – though it’s usually associated with our comrade Mao. (editorial comment: I find that Imogen’s surfaces are very pleasing, unlike our other comrade Paul)