Hello crossword fans
A grid by Bluebird today.
I thought this was a workaday puzzle (in a good way). The clueing was largely straightforward and all of the clues seemed to have a similar level of difficulty, so nothing stood out overall as favourite or groanworthy!
Definitions are underlined.
ACROSS |
||
| 1 | DIRE STRAITS |
Group of artists in a cryptic crossword? (4,7)
|
| Cryptic clue: Dire Straits = ARTIST | ||
| 7 | GEL |
Setter‘s leg-over? (3)
|
| Reversal (over) of LEG = GEL | ||
| 9 | AURAE |
Distinctive characters about to abandon race with gold (5)
|
| About [C] to abandon [removed from] race [RAE] with gold [AU] | ||
| 10 | INCESSANT |
Unabating insect swarms surrounding hospital (9)
|
| Anag (“swarms”) INSECT surrounding hospital [SAN = Sanitorium] | ||
| 11 | ABSENCE |
Scarcity of baked beans since Jesus was born (7)
|
| Anag (“baked”] BEANS since Jesus was born [CE] | ||
| 12 | PAINTER |
Artist’s secretary seen west of Bury (7)
|
| Secretary [PA] seen west [left of] Bury [INTER] | ||
| 13 | GLISSANDI |
Slidings played across the middle of piano (9)
|
| Anag [“played”] SLIDINGS across [around] the middle of piano [A] | ||
| 15 | IDOL |
Star from One Direction’s first disc #1 in Latvia (4)
|
| One [I] direction’s first [D] disc [O] #1 in Latvia [L] | ||
| 18 | OATH |
Rats, for example, really dislike being skinned (4)
|
| Really like [LOATHE] being skinned [ |
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| 19 | VENTRALLY |
Opening strokes on one’s belly? (9)
|
| Opening [VENT] strokes [RALLY] | ||
| 21 | NATURAL |
Twisting brown river untouched by civilisation (7)
|
| Twisting [back to front] brown [TAN = NAT] river [URAL] | ||
| 23 | SACKING |
Getting rid of cheap material (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | GENERATOR |
Wilder bird of prey losing power it produces (9)
|
| Wilder [GENE] bird of prey losing power [RA |
||
| 26 | ERASE |
Wipe clean before entertaining discontented artists (5)
|
| Before [ERE] entertaining [around] discontented artists [A |
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| 27 | TWO |
Till broken by whiskey company? (3)
|
| Till [ TO] broken by [around] whiskey [W] | ||
| 28 | THERMOSTATS |
Resident Medical Officer probes the data for in-house regulators (11)
|
| Resident Medical Officer [MO] probes [inside] the data [ THE STATS] | ||
DOWN |
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| 1 | DRAMA |
Doctor with a degree in theatre studies? (5)
|
| Doctor [DR] with a degree [A MA] | ||
| 2 | RA RA SKIRT |
Taking terrible risk, 20 devoid of top and other clothing (2-2, 5)
|
| Taking [around] anag. [“Terrible”] risk [=SKIR] 20 devoid of top [ |
||
| 3 | STERNEST |
Strictest designation after Hemingway enters the canon? (8)
|
| Cryptic: if Hemingway entered the canon he would be designated as St. Ernest! | ||
| 4 | RAISE |
Struggling artist offloading two Teslas with electronic hoist (5)
|
| Anag [“struggling”] ARTIST offloading [removing] two Tesla’s [ T T] with electronic [E] | ||
| 5 | INCEPTION |
Opening feature? (9)
|
| Double definition. Inception is the 2010 feature film by Christopher Nolan | ||
| 6 | SISKIN |
Bird is in hide (6)
|
| Is [IS] in hide [SKIN] | ||
| 7 | GRANT |
Admit that, ultimately, the old lady must come first (5)
|
| That ultimately [T] the old lady [GRAN] must come first | ||
| 8 | LITERALLY |
Lines representing reality outside without using metaphor (9)
|
| Lines [LL] representing [anagram] REALITY outside | ||
| 13 | GOOD NIGHT |
Depart this life? O, dead beheaded warrior, farewell! (4,5)
|
| Depart this life [GO] o dead [O D] beheaded warrior [ |
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| 14 | NOVELETTE |
Insignificant volume? Turn the fourth of controls to eleven (9)
|
| Anag [“turn”] fourth of controls [T] + ELEVEN | ||
| 16 | DALAI LAMA |
Famous Buddhist artist, straddling a pack animal, topless (5,4)
|
| Artist [DALI] straddling [around] a[A] pack animal [LLAMA] topless | ||
| 17 | BRACKETS |
Black bats (these ones?) (8)
|
| Black [B] bats [RACKETS] | ||
| 20 | ARARAT |
Mount new art after artist ruined atelier’s openings (6)
|
| New ART [anag] after artist ruined ateliers openings [first letters = ARA] | ||
| 22 | TANGO |
Dance move at the end of function (5)
|
| Move [GO] at the end of [behind] function [TAN = tangent] | ||
| 23 | SCRAM |
Go away and cry when one’s bottom is pinched (5)
|
| Cry [SCREAM] when one’s bottom [E] is pinched [removed] | ||
| 24 | GUESS |
Stab to remove articles from battered sausage (5)
|
| Remove articles [A A] from battered [anag] SAUSAGE |
Living under my rock as I do, had never heard of the film but INCEPTION couldn’t really be anything else. Spent too long looking for AD + anagram of BEANS.
Leedsclimber you may have missed ‘to’ from the fodder in 14d.
Otherwise rattled this off pleasurably
Thanks to both
Quite a few artists here.
I agree with Petert; I think I see 15.
Ditto Doofs re Inception, a movie I’d nho. [Otoh, we had a nostalgia night here the other week and re-watched Local Hero — the Dire Straits soundtrack is a delight]
Thanks Bluebird and Leedsclimber. With regard to 11, I for one wonder about the ascendance of CE/BCE over AD/BC. Is it just a matter of “correctness”? Are not the identical epochs indicated?
Made heavy weather of this in places, not aided by putting NOVELETTA and GLISSANDO despite not fitting the available fodder.. ah well…
Thanks Bluebird and Leedsclimber
Thanks Bluebird for a reliably good crossword. I found this difficult in spots and revealed BRACKETS and VENTRALLY but all else fell into place with my favourites being DIRE STRAITS, PAINTER, OATH, NATURAL, GENERATOR, and SCRAM. I noticed the word ‘artist’ repeated in some clues so that pointed to an obvious theme; I found a number but not 15 as PostMark reported. Thanks Leedsclimber for the blog.
I think there may be 16. Enjoyed the. puzzle. Thanks Bluebird and Leedsclimber