I think this is Alia’s fourth appearance in the cryptic slot, later in the week this time.
Alia dropped in to the blog of the most recent puzzle and said, ‘… difficulty-wise, I’m generally aiming for easy end, both on request and because I like the challenge of writing what I hope are easy-ish clues with plausible surfaces’. I have enjoyed all of Alia’s puzzles so far and I think that aim has been met again today.
There are some ‘easy-ish’ clues, especially the familiar 10 across ISLANDER, 25ac INWARD, 3dn ADVENT and 7dn FLEECE, some impressive anagrams, especially those at 8 and 26 across and some particularly nice wordplay and witty surfaces, one or two of which do need some knowledge of UK geography, dialect or pronunciation, which may be a step too far for some of our overseas friends. I hope they will see the joke, smile and forgive.
I had ticks for SAN ANDREAS FAULT, THE NET, TRANSEPT, HOMEBREW, CIRCUMNAVIGATED, CANNIEST, ALFRESCO, TOOK IN and SO WHAT.
Thanks to Alia for an entertaining puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
8 Second fantastically safe and natural feature of California (3,7,5)
SAN ANDREAS FAULT
S (second) + an anagram (fantastically) of SAFE AND NATURAL
9 Scrape some cedar bark back (6)
ABRADE
Hidden reversal (back) in cEDAR BArk
10 I speak badly of Robinson Crusoe, for example (8)
ISLANDER
I SLANDER (speak badly of)
11 Mum’s heading inside to make a meal (5,3)
CREAM TEA
M[um] in CREATE (make) + A
12 Popular surfing location in those days ultimately became old-hat (3,3)
THE NET
THEN (in those days) + [becam]E [old-ha]T
13 Untidy spot packed with rubbish (7)
SCRAPPY
SPY (spot) round CRAP (rubbish)
16 Extraordinarily storied journos (7)
EDITORS
An anagram (extraordinarily) of STORIED
19 Support crews somewhere in the West Midlands (6)
STAFFS
Double definition – Staffordshire is a county in the West Midlands
21 Intricate pattern covering tip of sunbittern’s wing (8)
TRANSEPT
An anagram (intricate) of PATTERN round S[unbittern] – clever wordplay: just look at the intricate pattern on the wings of this bird – a new one for me
24 Dude taking ecstasy with cheap beer? (8)
HOMEBREW
HOMBRE (dude) round E (ecstasy) + W (with)
25 Private place to find patients? (6)
INWARD
IN WARD
26 Avoided dealing with horribly crude TV magician (15)
CIRCUMNAVIGATED
An anagram (horribly) of CRUDE TV MAGICIAN
Down
1 Unsophisticated port found in pub and clubs (8)
BARBARIC
BARI (Italian port) in BAR (pub) + C (clubs) – ‘unsophisticated’ seems a rather mild definition
2 Weapon stored in rack at an armoury (6)
KATANA
Hidden in racK AT AN Armoury – a new word for me
3 Commercial opening some time in December (6)
ADVENT
AD (commercial) + VENT (opening) – this year, Advent (just) begins in November
4 Southern British artist, completely, endlessly influential (7)
SEMINAL
S (Southern) + EMIN (British artist) + AL[l] (completely, endless)
5 Remote institute scheduled to receive nothing (8)
ISOLATED
I (Institute) + SLATED (scheduled) round O (nothing)
6 Nice, redeveloped street around the outskirts of Ashington is Northumberland’s best (8)
CANNIEST
An anagram (redeveloped) of NICE ST round A[shingto]N – more clever wordplay: Ashington is a town in Northumberland, where ‘canny’ is dialect for good / nice: the placing of the capitalised Nice was a momentary misdirection, which raised a smile
7 Rip off winter clothing (6)
FLEECE
Double definition
14 Fancy loafers featuring stitching in the middle or outside (8)
ALFRESCO
An anagram (fancy) of LOAFERS + the middle letter of stitChing
15 Cut of meat, done right, starts to absorb marinade immediately (8)
PASTRAMI
PAST (done) + R (right) + A[bsorb] M[arinade] I[mmediately]
17 Witty banter about standard hold-up for a driver? (8)
REPARTEE
RE (about) + PAR (standard) + TEE (hold-up for a driver)
18 Small cloth soaked in water put over cooking pot (7)
STEWPAN
S (small) + a reversal (put over) of NAP (cloth) + WET (soaked in water)
20 Heard ‘please, eat!’ in Lancashire – and ate! (4,2)
TOOK IN
Sounds like (heard) ‘tuck in’, (‘please, eat’) as it might be heard in Lancashire: this is no dodgy homophone! (a too-hasty comment, which I retract: please see Crispy @2)
22 In reality, Italian wine’s full of iodine (2,2,2)
AS IT IS
ASTI’S (Italian wine is) round I (iodine)
23 Very wide bowler? Yeah, and … ?! (2,4)
SO WHAT?!
SO (very) W (wide) + HAT (bowler? – definition by example, hence the question mark) – a neat surface: ‘wide’ is a cricketing term for a bowling delivery
When you see a three letter word in a solution, guessing “and”, “the” or “for” are always worth trying, especially in an anagram. 8ac made a refreshing change.
Eileen – I beg to differ about 20 down not being a dodgy homophone. I lived in Lancashire (on the dark side, as I call it), and TOOK IN would have been pronounced TOO KIN, rather than rhyming with TUCK IN.
I thought this was great fun – as Eileen says, a mix of the fairly straightforward but with a nice sprinkling of spicier constructions. HOMEBREW and SO WHAT probably my favourites. I wonder if anyone else toyed with ‘scrotum’ for 13ac? No? Probably just me!
Thanks Alia and Eileen for the ever-excellent blog.
Thanks Alia and Eileen
Mostly straightforward, though I didn’t parse CREAM TEA or HOMEBREW. KATANA a jorum for me too.
Favourite REPARTEE.
I live in East Lancs, and I’ve never heard “tuck” pronounced TOOK. Is it a Liverpool thing?
20A TOOK IN certainly raised a smile with this Southerner! I was totally misled, at first, by 12A and tried, unsuccessfully, to justify THE MED – but different surfing was needed. Thanks to Alia for a pleasant start to the day and to Eileen for the helpful blog.
Top picks: S A FAULT, THE NET, REPARTEE and STEWPAN.
Thanks Alia and Eileen.
I thought NAP was a feature of a cloth rather than the cloth itself? Happy to be corrected.
Enjoyed this puzzle after being bamboozled by Paul yesterday.
Well, this expat originally from Lancashire enjoyed TOOK IN (I disagree with Crispy @2 and Muffin @4 – East Lancs is Yorkshire innit?) so it wasn’t a step too far for this overseas friend Eileen.
Some lovely very smooth surfaces made this a real pleasure for me.
I took the definition in 6d to be “Northumberland’s best”. Thanks Alia for a most enjoyable puzzle.
Crispy @2 – point taken! I have to go out soon and will be out all day, so I’ll delete my comment on the blog. (It would certainly be true here in Leicestershire!)
Thanks, Willbar @9 – apologies for the missing underlining.
SteveThePirate @7, The Big C has
nap
noun
1. A woolly surface on cloth, now (distinguished from pile) such a surface raised by a finishing process, not made in the weaving
2. The woolly surface removed in the process
3. A cloth with such a surface
4. A downy covering or surface on anything
5. Bedding or a bedroll (Aust informal)
Thank you Tim C #11. Sadly I rely on t’internet dictionaries which only had the feature definition. One day someone will buy me a Chambers. Santa Ahoy!
Despite plenty of anagrams, this didn’t seem easy at all – probably because of the unfamiliar (to me) vocabulary. A few were wild guesses (mostly confirmed by dictionary); STEWPAN, REPARTEE and HOMEBREW were the LOI, which held me up for quite a while. I liked the clueing overall; favourites TRANSEPT and ISLANDER. Thanks Alia and Eileen!
Enjoyable puzzle. Very Quiptic-like in parts with some clues requiring more thought so it ended up being a very good challenge! I like Alia’s aim of writing plausible surfaces 🙂
Favourites: CIRCUMNAVIGATED, TOOK IN (which sent me down a delightful rabbit hole on youtube listening to wonderful Lancashire and Yorkshire accent videos); SO WHAT; HOMEBREW.
New for me: STEWPAN.
Pastrami isn’t a cut of meat, any more than bacon is…
Loved TOOK IN. We moved from London to the north when my daughter was 4, and after couple of months during which she went to preschool she watched me replacing a cracked window pane: “What’s that stuff Daddy?” she asked. “It’s putty.” Peals of laughter: “No, silly, it’s pooteh!” We’d arrived.
I commented on the G thread last night that I thought the UK clues referenced by Eileen might be too obscure for overseas friends, but I’m pleased to say that follow-up comments proved the opposite.
This is probably the first time I have solved from top to bottom in proper sequence, which felt like an achievement in itself.
I loved the long anagrams plus CREAM TEA, HOMEBREW, BARBARIC, CANNIEST, ALFRESCO and REPARTEE. Straightforward solve but great fun.
Ta Alia & Eileen.
Nice approachable puzzle. Our blogger notes that there is some required UK GK for overseas solvers to tackle: well, the setter gave them the SAN ANDREAS FAULT to even things out 🤣🤣🤣. I was only held up by the last two in – HOMEBREW with dude = HOMBRE and STEWPAN with the cloth which I have encountered but did not recognise. Crossers helped me out with both.
The Californian feature is a lovely anagram, as is CIRCUMNAVIGATED. Other faves inc BARBARIC, CANNIEST, ALFRESCO and REPARTEE.
Thanks both
TOOK IN needs a Northern pronunciation for “tuck” and “standard” for “took” which is fine. I justified PASTRAMI on the basis that it is meat cut, rather than a cut of meat. Has the Guardian editor listened to those who have asked for a greater spread of difficulty.
So much to like – the ‘safe and natural’ FAULT, the intricate TRANSEPT (- thank you Eileen for the link, I had no idea just how beautiful a sunbittern is!), and the canny use of ‘nice’ in the fodder for CANNIEST & ‘marinade’ in PASTRAMI.
Thanks to Alia and Eileen.
Great stuff with the long anagrams getting a chef’s kiss. I knew KATANA being a fan of anime and manga.
TRANSEPT was new to me, just glad it was an anagram and that was the only arrangement that looked like a word.
HOMEBREW last in and one of the favourites alongside the anagrams. Although my homebrew isn’t cheap especially with the days off work you would need to take after consuming it.
Thanks Eileen and Alia. Agree with others a fairly straightforward puzzle with a few tougher bits.
I’m quite enjoying Alia, hope they are sticking around for a while.
Very enjoyable. I spent a bit of time thinking of surf (board) locations but otherwise nice and straightforward. Thanks.
Scolopax@15: well, in the sense that (like bacon often is) it is sliced then I think it is a “cut of meat”, even if it’s not one of the set which includes haunch, rump, shoulder, belly, etc.
I really enjoyed these clues — the surfaces were very well crafted and satisfying.
Interesting to see the comments where people took a while or struggled for different reasons, as this was the most straightforward one for me all week, I think (especially after yesterday). Not intended as a boast, just an observation on the variety of experiences we have when solving.
Great fun, anyway.
Nothing to complain about, though I failed on THE NET, bunging in THE WEB without parsing. Having worked on this stuff for many years I tend to forget that some people think the Internet and the Web are the same thing.
Re 19ac – I thought that could have been a triple definition if the wording has been “supports crews somewhere in the W. Midlands”. Anyway, a bit lemon squeezy but a decent challenge in SW. Thank you Alia and Eileen.