Thank you to Chandler. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
8. Casual household (8)
FAMILIAR : Double defn: 1st: …/informal, as in “he greeted her in a casual way”; and 2nd: …/widely known, as in, “… became a household name after this incident”.
9. Dislike trio of characters leaving for lack of enthusiasm (6)
APATHY : “antipathy”(dislike/aversion to) minus(… leaving) “nti”(trio of characters/letters).
10. Produce green bananas at back of store (8)
GENERATE : Anagram of(… bananas/mad) GREEN + AT + last letter of(back of) “store”.
11. Fancy meal in US city to be specific (6)
NAMELY : Anagram of(Fancy) MEAL contained in(in) NY(abbrev. for New York, city in the US).
12. Detest photo created behind cricketer still showing fear? (6,2,3,4)
ROOTED TO THE SPOT : Anagram of(… created) DETEST PHOTO placed after(behind) ROOT(Joe, English cricketer).
Defn: Frozen/still with fright/fear.
15. View complication with no end of disgust (5)
ANGLE : “tangle”(a complication/a muddle) minus(with no) last letter of(end of) “disgust”.
Defn:…/a particular way of considering something.
16. Sign jazz musician is wanting grand (5)
MINUS : “Mingus”(Charles, American jazz double bassist) minus(is wanting) “g”(abbrev. for “grand”/£1000 or $1000).
20. Plane then flying east of continent is type of jumbo (7,8)
AFRICAN ELEPHANT : Anagram of(… flying) PLANE THEN placed after(east of, in an across clue) AFRICA(one of earth’s continents).
The one with big ears (shaped like the African continent):
21. Evidence of cold hospital put in place by English and US company (6)
PHLEGM : H(abbrev. for “hospital”) contained in(put in) PL(abbrev. for “place”, as in street addresses) plus(by) E(abbrev. for “English”) + GM(abbrev. for General Motors, a US car manufacturing company).
23. Rex probes risky rooms for guests (8)
PARLOURS : R(abbrev. for “Rex”) contained in(probes) PARLOUS(an archaic term for “risky”/perilous).
Answer: …/rooms in public buildings for receiving guests.
25. Find uncovered opening for coin (6)
INVENT : “Find” minus its 1st and last letters(uncovered) + VENT(an opening for fluid to pass out of or into a confined space).
Defn: …, as in “to coin a new word or phrase”.
26. Four points to keep plant in unlicensed establishments (8)
SHEBEENS : S,E,N,S(four abbrevs. , respectively, for 3 of the 4 main compass points) containing(to keep) HEBE(a flowering plant or shrub native to New Zealand).
Defn: … selling alcohol.
Down
1. Unconventional romance for old premier (7)
CAMERON : Anagram of(Unconventional) ROMANCE.
Answer: …, David, former Prime Minister of the UK.
2. Inspector, one from Baltic area formerly, opposed to triflers (10)
DILETTANTI : DI(abbrev. for “Detective Inspector”) + LETT(formerly/an old term for a Latvian, a person from the Baltic state of Latvia) + ANTI(opposed to/against).
Defn: Persons who have interest in a particular subject without real commitment to or knowledge of it.
3. Grim leap on and off for lizard (4)
GILA : 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th letters of(… on and off) “Grim leap”.
Defn: A large ….
… monster.
4. Latitude following English actor given award (7)
FREEDOM : F(abbrev. for “following”) + REED(Oliver, English actor) plus(given) OM(abbrev. for the Order of Merit, an award from the UK monarch).
5. Base for shuttles? (6,4)
LAUNCH SITE : Cryptic (slightly) defn: Reference to space shuttles.
6. Lack of wind in local mountains (4)
CALM : Hidden in(in) “local mountains”.
7. Mum has to set aside small vegetable (7)
SHALLOT : SH!(request of someone to be silent/mum) plus(has) ALLOT(to set aside for a particular purpose).
13. First person’s held up in this deal arranged for chef (5,5)
DELIA SMITH : Reversal of(… held up, in a down clue) I’M(contraction of “I am”/”first person is” with the first person pronoun substitution) contained in(in) anagram of(… arranged) THIS DEAL.
Answer: English chef and TV presenter.
14. State about to feature in a UK shoot for broadcast (5,5)
SOUTH KOREA : RE(with regard to/about) contained in(to feature in) anagram of(… for broadcast) A UK SHOOT.
17. Asian bread in a fine country snubbed by India (7)
AFGHANI : A + F(abbrev. for “fine”) + “Ghana”(country in Africa) with its last letter replaced by(snubbed by) I(letter represented by “India” in the phonetic alphabet).
Answer: …, the unit of money/bread in Afghanistan in Asia.
18. Hate dish endlessly covered by exotic seeds (7)
DESPISE : “pie”(a baked dish) minus its last letter(endlessly) contained in(covered by) anagram of(exotic) SEEDS.
19. Popular advertising with pointer in the East End describing a good book? (2,5)
IN PRINT : IN(popular/fashionable) + PR(abbrev. for “public relations”/advertising to build a positive public image or reputation of an individual or organisation) plus(with) ‘INT(“hint”/a pointer or clue, with the “h” dropped in Cockney/London’s East End pronunciation).
22. Detectives entering Surrey estate (4)
EYES : Hidden in(entering) “Surrey estate”.
Answer: … as in “private eyes” or private investigators/detectives.
24. Reportedly, study part for a clarinet (4)
REED : Homophone of(Reportedly) “read”(to study a particular subject in university).
Defn: .. that vibrates to produce its sound.
… fixed to the mouthpiece of the instrument.
Tough puzzle.
New for me: HEBE and SHEBEENS (26ac).
Thanks Chandler and scchua
I found the bottom much harder than the top; the SW in particular.
FOI AFRICAN ELEPHANT!
Thanks scchua.
I think the definition in 9a should be “lack of enthusiasm” rather than dislike.
Decent puzzle. For me, it was one which fell into place gradually at first and then progressed faster as more crossers were entered, which is how it should be.
In fact a dnf, as instead of IN PRINT I had “on trend” which could more or less be defined as ‘popular’, fitted the crossers, and contains NT which might be the ‘good book’ – I came here looking for the full wordplay, only to find I’d got it wrong.
Favourite was DILETTANTI.
Thanks scchua and Chandler.
An enjoyable romp. Ticks for Joe Root, the asian bread and DILETTANTI which I hadn’t seen before in that form – are we the cruciverbalisti?
Cheers S&C
My faves: ROOTED TO THE SPOT, INVENT and DESPISE.
LAUNCH SITE
Looks barely cryptic (as the blog says in a way).
Base of shuttles=S, Launch Site=S? Must be a coincidence.
AFGHANI
Read the ‘country snubbed by India’ part as ‘GHANa shortened +I (by/near India)’
(I was mindful it was a down clue, but have seen clues using ‘by’ in such a fashion).
The blogger’s parsing could well be the intended one.
Thanks Chandler and scchua.
I think “lack of enthusiasm” should be underlined for 9a. A bit of an unhelpful grid. DILETTANTI my favourite.
Thanks Crispy. Underlined the wrong end of the clue! Blog corrected.
Another “On Trend” here. I spent ages trying to imagine a cockney saying ‘orend’ and meaning something relating to pointers!
Beaten by MINUS but overall enjoyed this.
Thanks to Chandler and scchua
AFRICAN ELEPHANT was a bit of gift to give a decent toehold, in what was a challenging puzzle. My favourites were FAMILIAR, APATHY, RTTS, PHLEGM, DILLETANTI, SHALLOT (SH for mum) and AFGHANI, which I parsed as KVa @6.
Ta Chandler & scchua.
I enjoyed this overall but 9a (trio of characters) and 26a (four points, with one of them repeated) felt like rather thin cluing. I can’t really read 5d as being cryptic. But I very much liked rooted to the spot (12a) and African elephant (20a)
I wondered if the juxtaposition of FREEDOM (SpaceX) and LAUNCH SITE was purely coincidental.
Strggled for ages over the 2nd bit of LAUNCH SITE, mainly as I’d never heard of Charles Mingus, which I feel is a bit of a stretch.
Very grateful for the two relatively easy long across clues to get a toe-hold.
Mostly pretty clever (I liked INVENT and PHLEGM in particular) but the def for IN PRINT really doesn’t cut it in my opinion. A book being in print has little to do with it being good.
W@13 I also had to um and ah about Charlie Mingus 🙂
I totally agree with poc.
An odd combination of easy and tricky: with 1d and 3d, I feared this was going to be a write-in but some of the synonyms subsequently turned out to be really difficult. ‘English actor’ – well, there have been quite a few of those over the centuries so REED was not the easiest to call to mind (died in 1999 and had his heyday in the 70’s). Like William @13, MINGUS was also difficult though I have at least heard of him. And ‘American company’ for GM – whilst accurate and fair – was a third tough ask. And I never spotted ‘parlous’ leading to PARLOURS. So one to the compiler today.
Thanks both
I couldn’t quite finish this one but I enjoyed what I did. I liked MINUS. I saw Charlie Mingus at Ronnie Scotts when I was 16. The boyfriend and and I, both of us looking about 12 though no one seemed bothered, sat right at the front and sipped the cheapest alcoholic drink on offer than went home on the milk train. It was a night to remember.
Comment #19
Thanks for the blog sschua. For 24A I had tin for coin (money), so opening for coin being “tin vent”, and thought find might be a weak synonym for invent, find a solution, invent a solution. The blog parsing is far less stretched.
Thanks Chandler and sschua. Fun and informative. Favourite DILETTANTI. I got AFGHANI from ASIAN, but needed sschua’s parse to educate me that it was the currency to explain bread. Before I got PARLOURS as the crosser, I was looking for ?N ?OUND (cockney pointer, i.e. dog), then, like some others spent some time trying to fit ON TREND to the clue before realising (H)INT is cockney pointer – agree that “describing a good book” is a bit of a definition stretch for IN PRINT – but got there in the end.
Amma@18 That brings back happy memories for me too.
I probably would have been able to finish if I’d put EYES and REED in the correct places. Doh! My favourite was ROOTED TO THE SPOT.
Thanks, Chandler and scchua.
I feel that with clues like the one for 5d, the surface must at least suggest a misdirection, something at which e.g. Vulcan excels. As for the reference to David Cameron in 1d, I always thought his name was ripe for a crossword clue inasmuch as it is an anagram of “random advice”.
Usual thanks to Chandler and scchua.
I think the idea of LAUNCH SITE was that the clue was meant to mislead us by making us think of shuttles in weaving. This can be the problem with cryptic definitions — if the solver immediately thinks of the other meaning (space shuttles in this case) then the clue doesn’t seem cryptic at all.
Pleasant puzzle, thanks Chandler and scchua.
Hard work. I didn’t enjoy SHEBEENS – if part of the wordplay is “four points”, it’s confusing that (a) they are not four different ones and (b) that two of them are also repeated in the word to be inserted. I also had trouble with parsing APATHY with its random trio of characters to be deleted, and neither of the two defs of FAMILIAR sprang readily to mind. But I did know Messrs. Mingus and Reed.
However, I did like AFRICAN ELEPHANT, DILETTANTI and (eugh!) PHLEGM.
Petert @22, Amma @18 Lucky you! Mingus is one of a handful of musicians I wish I had seen live – Stan Getz, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman. Bill Evans … But in August 1972, when Mingus did his residency at Ronnie Scott’s, I was still marooned in Glasgow and didn’t arrive in the south of England until a few months later. However, while I have never seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion*, I have seen Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Cecil Taylor, Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, the MJQ and others.
* Forgive the gratuitous Blade Runner reference. I’m having a slightly wacky morning.
Managed it, though I did treat 25 as a double definition combined with a cryptic clue, assuming there was a word _INVENT_ which I couldn’t bring to mind. I mean, ‘Find coin’ would almost have worked on its own. Doh.
A solid puzzle -SHALLOT is a lovely clue!- but I share some of the quibbles above. Chiefly the “three characters” in APATHY and “four points” in SHEBEENS (nice new word!) were a tad too self-service for my taste.
Nonetheless: fun was had! My earworm for the day is less chic than Mingus, but I’ll take the slightest provocation to mention King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Thanks Chandler and scchua!
Good crossword with a somewhat nasty grid. I liked the PHLEGM in cold hospital, PARLOURS where risky was not an anagrind, DELIA SMITH’s arranged deal, and the AFGHANI bread.
Thanks Chandler and scchua.
Hmmm. Bit of a curate’s egg for me. While there was plenty to enjoy, some of the GK doesn’t seem very G. I was fortunate to call to mind the actor REED and sympathize with those who did not. Charlie Mingus was familiar to me, again I’m not sure he is widely known outside of jazz fans. Joe Root is the only contemporary cricketer I can name, for his frequent appearances in the cryptic rather than at the crease.
“An old term for a Latvian” feels perilously close to “Bolivian poet” territory.
26A combining a slang term not used in England with a flower found in New Zealand plus very loose cluing (“four points”) IMO should not have passed muster with the editor. When the GK is that obscure, the alternate path to the answer needs to be tighter.
Got almost none of this last night, needed the check button a lot this morning. I did know SHEBEENS.
23ac reminds me of Touchstone in As You Like It teasing a local yokel for not being a courtier and therefore (he says) damned –“thou art in a parlous state, shepherd.” Only usage of the word I can recall at the moment.
Julian @31. Hebe is / are also pretty common in the UK. Being told that it is native to NZ was new to me.
Julian @31
Hebes come from NZ, but they are commonly grown in English gardens.
(We crossed, Crispy.)
My wife and I went on a trip to NZ to see ferns. Another member of the party went for the hebes.
Thanks to Chandler for the crossword. I particularly liked the clue for ANGLE at 15 across. Great surface.
And thanks also to scchua for the blog. I really like the way you lay out the blog – very clear and informative. And pictures too!
One of the pictures reminded me of the old trick queston:
Which has the bigger ears – an African or an Indian elephant?
Answer – an Indian elephant. Because it’s an elephant. An African’s ears are the same size as yours or mine.
Thanks too to Amma@15. What a great story!
Julian @31 West Indian and Irish SHEBEENS were definitely a post-club thing in my dissolute youth in Southampton in the 80s and there’s no indication in Chambers that the word is slang. I did have to look up HEBE though 🙂