A fun challenge from SOLOMON!
FF: 9 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FAIR |
Cup dispensers I dry, once unwrapped and clean… (4)
|
| FA ( cup dispensers, Football Association ) I R ( dRy, unwrapped i.e. without end characters ) | ||
| 3 | HARBOURAGE |
…start to hurl cups around contemporary-era shelter (10)
|
| H ( Hurl, first letter ) ARB ( reverse of BRA, cups ) OUR AGE ( contemporary era ) | ||
| 10 | BEEKEEPER |
One who likes Queen but is wary of Sting? (9)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 11 | PIECE |
Song, perhaps ‘The Sound of Silence’ (5)
|
| sounds like PEACE – sound of silence | ||
| 12 | EZEKIEL |
Visionary priest’s frightened outburst about Zadok’s initial, corrupt lie (7)
|
| [ EEK ( frightened outburst ) around Z ( Zadok, first letter ) ] [ LIE ]* | ||
| 13 | ENGLISH |
Move shingle from these shores? (7)
|
| [ SHINGLE ]* | ||
| 14 | ALGAE |
A gal swimming close to me weed in the sea (5)
|
| [ A GAL ]* E ( mE, last letter ) | ||
| 15 | TRUMP CARD |
Tesla getting behind funny guy that’s likely to win (5,4)
|
| T ( tesla ) RUMP ( behind ) CARD ( funny guy ) | ||
| 17 | LOGOTYPES |
Record books sure to include Apple’s core corporate symbols (9)
|
| LOG ( record ) OT ( books ) [ YES ( sure ) containing P ( apPle, core i.e central character of ) ] | ||
| 19 | ELBOW |
Part of the body below nuts (5)
|
| [ BELOW ]* ; solomon getting cheeky 🙂 | ||
| 21 | GRANDMA |
Old lady that’s two thousand and one?! (7)
|
| GRAND ( thousand ) M ( thousand, roman numeral ) A ( one ) | ||
| 23 | TRAFFIC |
Vehicle reversing skirts loud F1 cars (7)
|
| TRAC ( vehice = CART, reversed ) containing [ F ( loud ) FI ( F1 ) ] | ||
| 25 | THING |
Bag or other container containing hot shelled egg (5)
|
| [ TIN ( container ) containing H ( hot ) ] G ( eGg, shelled i.e. without end characters ) | ||
| 26 | CHOCOLATE |
Hot, welcoming brown drink drunk by cold European? (9)
|
| { COLA ( brown drink ) in HOT } in [ C ( cold ) E ( European ) ] | ||
| 27 | RESTAURANT |
Where exhausted runner eats tuna melts? (10)
|
| [ RR ( RunneR, exhausted i.e. nothing inside ) EATS TUNA ]* | ||
| 28 | PORT |
Unopened squash, say, left on the QE2 (4)
|
| sPORT ( squash, say, without first letter ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FABLE |
Extract from Beowulf, a bleak myth (5)
|
| hidden in “..beowulF A BLEak..” | ||
| 2 | ICEBERG |
I see upside-down grebe that has a large bottom (7)
|
| I C ( ~see ) [ reverse of GREBE ] | ||
| 4 | APPAL |
Outrage relating to the Pope’s pages getting stuck together (5)
|
| PAPAL ( relating to the pope, with the first P ( page ) moving down to join the second P ) | ||
| 5 | BARBECUES |
One leaving leggy model with signs for summer parties (9)
|
| [ BARBiE ( leggy model, without I – one ] CUES ( signs ) | ||
| 6 | UNPEG |
Detach dried trousers, perhaps, and amputate leg? (5)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 7 | AMERICA |
Leader from medieval Spain’s conquering force within continent — this one? (7)
|
| [ M ( Medieval, first letter ) E ( spain ) ] replacing F ( force ) in AfRICA ( continent ) | ||
| 8 | EYESHADOW |
Naked men get shy dancing and initially perform with make-up (9)
|
| [ EE (‘.. mEn gEt..’, naked i.e. without end letters ) SHY ]* A ( And, initially ) DO ( perform ) W ( with ) | ||
| 9 | RESIDENT |
Party bound by lease? (8)
|
| &lit; SIDE ( party ) in RENT ( lease ) | ||
| 14 | ALLIGATOR |
Gorilla tossing bottles at another zoo animal? (9)
|
| [ GORILLA ]* containing AT | ||
| 15 | TAP DANCER |
Entertainer hit on horny northerner ‘out on the pull’ on Christmas Eve (3,6)
|
| TAP ( hit ) DANCER ( horny northerner out on the pull on christmas eve, one of the reindeer of santa claus ) | ||
| 16 | PEEKABOO |
After exercise, the lifting of roast ducks is child’s play (8)
|
| PE ( exercise ) EKAB ( reverse of BAKE, roast ) OO ( ducks, zeros ) | ||
| 18 | GOALIES |
Matches involving ‘The Greatest Footballers’ (7)
|
| GOES ( matches ) containing ALI ( the greatest, muhammad ali ) | ||
| 20 | BUFFALO |
Look after Polish and American cattle (7)
|
| BUFF ( polish ) A ( american ) LO ( look ) | ||
| 22 | DOGMA |
Belief in God arising seconds from impending fatality (5)
|
| DOG ( reverse of GOD ) MA ( second letters of ‘..iMpending fAtality’ ) | ||
| 23 | THORN |
Spike Milligan’s behind superhero movie put on (5)
|
| THOR ( superhero movie ) N ( milligaN, last letter ) | ||
| 24 | CHEST |
Queen Elizabeth abandoning walled city where jewels are kept? (5)
|
| CHESTer ( walled city, without ER – queen elizabeth ) |
Amazed I managed to finish this, although I did use a word fit to get RESIDENT. I initially entered BOWEL for 19a (anybody else?).
I’m often told I can’t tell my bowel from my elbow. Or something like that, at least
I struggled through this – I still don’t get why books = my
Or why bag is thing …
I guess I’ll get there one day
I struggled through this – I still don’t get why books = nt
Or why bag is thing …
I guess I’ll get there one day
Another tricky but enjoyable one. Loved elbow, grandma. Thx both.
Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs
17ac: OT = Old Testament = “books” of the bible. NT also works similarly as New Testament. These are certainly worth remembering as crossword staples.
25ac: Collins 2023 has
p 150 bag 11 slang a person’s particular taste, field of skill, interest, activity, etc: blues is his bag;
p 2054 thing¹ 11 informal a mental attitude, preoccupation or obsession.
25ac further to 6: on reflection, the following meaning for thing¹ in Collins 2023 p 2054 is a better fit:
13 an activity or mode of behaviour satisfying to one’s personality (esp in the phrase do one’s (own) thing).
“He jumped fair/clean over the …” Is that how they equate, or …?
1ac: I think the most obvious definition from Collins 2023 is clean 14 sport played fairly and without fouls (p 384), but there are probably other senses that work as well. As an example, in boxing, a fair/clean fight, perhaps.
Yep, the fight e.g. is much better, PB @9
Further to 9, if we go to Chambers 2016 p 553, we have fair¹ adj bright; clear; clean; free from blemish; …
Thanks Solomon. I found this on the difficult end of the Solomon scale and I eventually revealed a number of solutions. I still enjoyed much of this including BEEKEEPER, GOALIES, BUFFALO, and EYESHADOW. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
I thought this was a superb puzzle, with so many clever surfaces. I would class 6down as a double definition, one by example and the other cryptic. I wonder if Solomon already had Admin@2’s comment in mind for 19across?
Yes, many great surfaces, but so many cryptic definitions and fiddly charades saw quite a bit of brute-force solving (solve first, parse later or not at all). I ticked ALLIGATOR, BUFFALO and PIECE.
Thanks Solomon and thanks Turbolegs for a thorough blog of a difficult puzzle
The only one I still don’t understand is what dried trousers have to do with unpegging anything!
Thank you all
Thanks for the blog , puzzles like this just my bag .
Anil@15 I am a great fan of washing lines , peg the wet clothes out and let nature work its magic , unpeg them when they are dry .
I made (for me) an astonishingly quick start but after doing about two thirds in record time I ground to a halt. It has taken me till now to understand 6d and there were several others (some of which I got) where the parsing was too fiendish for me to work out without this blog, so thanks as usual. I liked EZEKIEL, but it was one of the easier ones.
I got stuck parsing 15a because I assumed it was T + getting behind[it] RUM (for “funny”) which left me with trying to find a word PCARD meaning “guy”.
I thought 7D AMERICA was harder than 6D UNPEG. I mean, it looked an increasingly obvious answer, but the parsing beat me. Generally, quite a tough solve after a straightforward Guardian today.
Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs
Got it finished but with several clues unparsed even though the synonyms were clear enough. NE corner (HARBOURAGE, AMERICA, EYESHADOW) particularly tricksy. But some nice clues here, notably CHOCOLATE, PEEKABOO, PORT. Thanks Solomon
Superb