Quite a few helpful anagrams to get things going here, and not too many difficulties after that. Thanks to Brummie for the puzzle.
| Across | ||||||||
| 8 | OVERHAUL | Halve our shuttle service (8) (HALVE OUR)* |
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| 9 | ANNEX | Appropriate names acquired by a partner in the past (5) Two N[ame]s in A EX (partner in the past) |
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| 10 | EDGE | Having no end to continental shelf is an advantage (4) LEDGE (shelf) less [continenta]L |
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| 11 | HEAT SHIELD | Side with health arrangement for capsule protection? (4,6) (SIDE HEALTH)* – a heat shield protects a space capsule during re-entry |
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| 12 | INFIRM | Accepted company is failing (6) IN (accepted) + FIRM |
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| 14 | APTITUDE | Bent aide put off protecting territorial head (8) T[erritorial] in (AIDE PUT)* |
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| 16 | WEATHER | Get through Don’s confiscated article (7) THE (definite article) in WEAR (don, as clothes) |
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| 18 | UNKEMPT | Dishevelled, drunk, empty? Dry out! (7) drUNK EMPTy less the outer DRY |
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| 21 | HAIRGRIP | Musical stagehand’s lock retainer (8) HAIR (musical) + GRIP (stagehand, a title often seen in film credits) |
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| 23 | OUTAGE | Power failure abroad goes on a long time (6) OUT (abroad) + AGE (a long time) |
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| 24 | SCHEMATIST | Diagram maker matches its bends (10) (MATCHES ITS)* |
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| 26 | SILK | Lawyer – southern kind (4) S + ILK – ilk doesn’t “really” mean kind: it’s a Scots word meaning “same”, but it’s pretty much a lost cause to insist on this |
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| 27 | RIVEN | Forced to dispose of top cut (5) DRIVEN (forced) less its first letter. Some might think this would only work for a down clue, but “top” can mean something that comes first, so I think it’s ok |
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| 28 | HAIRLESS | Husband: stuffy, with nothing up top (8) H[usband] + AIRLESS |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | EVIDENCE | King’s is turned by informer (8) To Turn King’s EVIDENCE is to testify as an accomplice or informer |
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| 2,5 | FREE PASS | With which to get into a house, say on the house? (4,4) Not sure, but I think this is just an extended definition, playing on two different uses of “house” |
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| 3 | FATHOM | Sound at heart if at home (6) Hidden in iF AT HOMe (in fact the central letters, hence “at heart”) |
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| 4 | FLEABAG | Scruffy type’s flab spread with age (7) (FLAB AGE)* |
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| 6 | INDICTMENT | Medic in ground with TNT charge (10) (MEDIC IN TNT)* |
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| 7 | EXILED | Food shop with cross on top of entrance, elevated and barred (6) Reverse of DELI + X (cross) + E[ntrance] |
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| 13 | INTERWEAVE | Engrave ‘swell’ over end of the combine? (10) INTER (to bury, en-grave) + [th]E in WAVE (swell) |
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| 15 | TIN EAR | What can cause a failure to appreciate music? An organ can at first (3,3) TIN (can) + EAR (organ) |
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| 19 | PUGILISM | Is lip/gum hurt by this activity? (8) (IS LIP GUM)* &lit |
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| 20 | UPRIGHT | Piano makes you elated – just (7) UP (elated) + JUST (right) |
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| 22 | ACCORD | Agreement to link air conditioning with cable (6) AC + CORD |
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| 23 | OBTAIN | Get boat moving with current (6) BOAT* + IN (current, as an adjective) |
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| 25 | AIN’T | To collapse after fellow’s gone is not common (4) FAINT less F – AIN’T is an informal of “common” version of “is not” |
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| 26 | SILD | Fish is brought up by line at depth (4) Reverse of IS + L + D |
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Standard stuff from Brummie. Ticks for INTERWEAVE, WEATHER and FATHOM
Shrug for FREE PASS
Cheers A&B
I found this tough going, but on reading your blog, I cant really see why this should have been.
Thanks Andrew and Brummie
Thanks Brummie and Andrew.
FREE PASS
I was thinking if there was more to the clue like our blogger.
Arrived at the same conclusion: It’s an extended def/a cryptic CAD.
EVIDENCE
Didn’t know the usage. Had to Google.
Liked the clue.
I didn’t understand EVIDENCE, and still don’t. SILD was my unknown — my goodness, aren’t there a lot of fishes?
Enjoyable and the right difficulty level for this little black duck.
What Dave @2 said.
FREE PASS I read as a semi-cryptic double definitiony
1. permission to enter c.f. Dracula “Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!”
2. Liberty to take freely
Needed to check what King’s Evidence meant and the NW was a bit of a word salad for me but it didn’t seem to stall me in the end.
I agree with Dave E @2: looking back, I’m unsure why this felt such a slog while I was working my way through it.
UNKEMPT and FATHOM were satisfying; I also liked HAIRLESS and the pleasingly succinct SILK.
Thanks Andrew and Brummie
Geoff Down Under @4 to turn King’s evidence is to give evidence for the prosecution when you have been one of the defendants in a trial.
You get a reduced sentence, but you can often be the result of a revenge attack by your former accomplices
I failed to solve 3d and 11ac (apart from guessing the word SHIELD) and I could not parse 26d – because I incorrectly entered SOLE!
1d is one of those types of clue/answers that takes me a bit longer than is necessary because for all my life until a few years ago, it was always a matter of turning Queen‘s evidence. I think that the only time I ever heard the phrase being used was in TV shows.
Geoff@4 – yes, many types of fish! Almost as many as car brand names 😉
I took (s)ilk to be as in “of that ilk” meaning like that/of that kind/type so was quite happy with it. But now I realise I never knew exactly what ilk meant on its own
Still happy with the clue though
A bit of a toughie today, and ultimately beaten by a few at the end. INTERWEAVE and SILK were a highlight.
A notch up from the last two days, I really enjoyed this, the first few in from helpful anagrams. Particularly liked UNKEMPT, loi was INFIRM. Completed in two separate helpings about ten hours apart. Many thanks Brummie and Andrew…
Like Dave Ellison@2, Crispy@5 and Wellbeck@7, I found this tricky but now I’m not sure why.
Could it be that – compared with yesterday’s ALIA with its lovely smooth surfaces – some of the clues here were a little bit clunky? (The clues for INTERWEAVE and EXILED, for example.)
That said, I really liked the clues for OBTAIN and PUGILISM.
Thanks to both Brummie and Andrew.
The 8 anagrams helped things along. I liked the hidden UNKEMPT and FATHOM. I had to reveal WEATHER though. Two HAIRs in the grid. This is what the ODE has to say about ilk: Today ilk is used in phrases such as ‘of his ilk ’ and ‘of that ilk ’ to mean ‘type’ or ‘sort’. This sense arose out of a misunderstanding of the earlier, Scottish use in the phrase of that ilk, where it means ‘of the same name or place’. For this reason, some traditionalists regard the modern use as incorrect. It is, however, the only common current sense and is now part of standard English
Thanks Brummie and Andrew.
Tough but nothing that a REVEAL button can’t do.Thanks to Reveal and Button.🤭
Had to reveal EVIDENCE in what was in spite of the numerous anagrams quite a tough Brummie puzzle.
Liked HAIRLESS and TIN EAR
Thanks Andrew and Brummie
Legal theme? Indictment,Silk, Evidence? Maybe not…..
I think maybe the idea of the first “house” in 2,5 is to suggest a theatre, ie you get to see a show for nothing with a FREE PASS.
This was good fun. UNKEMPT was very clever and PUGILISM was a great clue-as-definition.
Many thanks Brummie and Andrew.
27A. The Greeks gave us a precedent for “top” = “initial letter”; hence “acronym”.
Lovely puzzle with so many anagrams! But high praise for UNKEMPT, INTERWEAVE and AINT.
Thanks Brummie and Andrew
Blissfully unaware that the relationship between “sound” and “fathom” was (and probably still is) one of synonymity. Clearly must spend more time measuring the depth of rivers.
Well, I’m upside-down again today. I found this reasonably straightforward and yet still enjoyable. I wrote in EVIDENCE for 1D but couldn’t quite parse the grammar. In hindsight it’s clear enough.
And as usual I had not heard of the fish, but the wordplay was clear enough, so I consider it fair game.
I got stuck right away on OVERHAUL since “shuttle” didn’t seem like of anagram indicator. And I missed the crosser, EVIDENCE, since we don’t have a kin here [yet] in the U.S. But the rest went in smoothly.
Shakespeare clearly understood FATHOM as signifying also a measure of terrestrial depth, so FATHOM and ‘sound’ are in an unusual ‘turf and surf’ juxtaposition when Prospero renounces his ‘rough magic’ at the end of The Tempest:
… I’ll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I’ll drown my book.
Very nice, EVIDENCE was first in but my ex-profession helped. Turning QE seems to have been around forever, so it was interesting to think about how things change, a bit like Roz extracting the Michael out of my beloved QPR/KPR (we broke lent last Saturday, thankfully). PUGILISM, INTERWEAVE and UNKEMPT were top of a long list.
Balfour, I always appreciate your literary references, keep up the good work.
Ta Brummie & Andrew.
Took a couple of sessions to complete. Many very satisfying challenges. 13d INTERWEAVE is a beautiful word and nicely clued (even though the surface is dicey). A number of misdirecting definitions gave some delightful pdm’s, like 8a OVERHAUL (“service”), 9a ANNEX (“Appropriate”), 14a APTITUDE (“Bent”), 16a WEATHER (“Get through”), 3d FATHOM (“Sound”), 20d UPRIGHT (“Piano”), 25d AIN’T (“is not common”)
15d TIN EAR, as an organist I can’t agree with this surface! 🙂
8a OVERHAUL I was resisting the anagram because I (still) can’t see “shuttle” as an anagrind. Shuttle is about moving between two points — seems too much of a stretch. Could it be a misprint for “shuffle”?
Like Andrew I wasn’t sure about 2/5 FREE PASS. An interesting idea, but doesn’t lead to a confident solution
Thanks Admin for taking care of what I assume is a raft of spam posts
With reference to Sild, next time you are in your local supermarket have a look in the tinned section for tuna, sardines, and pilchards etc and I’m sure you will find some sild.
FREE PASS: I can understand that it’s free, so on the house – and you might need a pass to get in, but are there really two definitions for free pass here?
Otherwise fairly straightforward – I liked ‘engrave’ for inter.
Thanks to setter and blogger both.
Pleasant puzzle – the copious anagrams helped the solve. My pick: ANNEX, UNKEMPT, PUGILISM. ‘Engrave’ for ‘bury’, hence INTER, is ingenious (odd surface, though).
SILD is the standard Norwegian word for herring, but only seems to be used in English for small herrings in cans. Perhaps this is just a marketing euphemism, like brisling for canned sprats, or the former usage of rock salmon for various species of small shark.
Thanks to Brummie and Andrew
Thank you, AlanC @28. However, chapeau to Lord Jim on Monday, who beat me to it with PAPS, quoting from Guyon’s passage through the Bowre of Blisse in Book II of The Faerie Queene, Canto XII.
Enjoyable puzzle. Liked UNKEMPT a lot.
Claiming that ILK doesn’t mean ‘kind’ falls into the category of “arguing with dictionaries”, as it’s the first definition in Chambers and Collins 😁 Language evolves, and dictionaries catch up with usage.
Thanks Brummie and Andrew
Did anybody else put in an unparsed “sole” for the fish? I was afraid not. How about trying to work “pill” into the one about the capsule?
Never seen “shuttle” as an anagram indicator before, but I guess it’ll do.
Harder than yesterday’s. Southeast totally filled in last night, southwest and northeast partly, northwest not at all. A game of quarters.
Any chance the blog could be in black and white instead of dark grey and white? It’s a bit of a strain to read for my elderly eyes.
Thanks to Brummie and Andrew.
Valentine@35 see michelle@9
Thanks for the blog , UNKEMPT and FATHOM great examples of a precise hidden clue , AINT was very neat .
I am with Lord Jim @ 18 for both uses of house , a FREE PASS to the theatre gets you into the house on the house .
[AlanC @28 , KPR broke their Lent fast disgracefully , it is meant to be a test of character for 40 days . They were not even giving up something important like chocolate .
I do agree with your penultimate sentence . ]
[Roz @37: I had to take charge of the changing room but with you on the chocolate]
Balfour @33. Your welcome, The Fairie Queene was my first text at QUB and I wondered if I’d chosen the right subject 😊
You’re.
I couldn’t fathom how to parse 3d until I decided to sound out my friend Mr Google
Thanks Brummie and Andrew
In stark contrast to Alia yesterday, it seems that Brummie isn’t particularly bothered that his surfaces make sense.
Very decent puzzle. I spent a happy 30 seconds in 16 trying to discover how a castrated male sheep could be a don before the penny dropped.
Enjoyed muchly. Thanks, Brum & Andrew.
[Balfour @33: I do like to contribute the occasional quotation where one comes to mind and I manage to track it down, but there’s no way I can compete with your range of knowledge of literature, or your amazing memory!]
I can’t understand why ‘confiscated ‘ means ‘put inside ‘ in 16a. It seems to indicate something taken away.
Thanks to Brummie and Andrew
StephenM @45 Think of it as ‘taken possession of’ and it works just fine.
[Lord Jim @44 That is very gracious of you. These days I sometimes cannot remember why I have gone through to the kitchen, but my longer-term memory happily seems to be more or less intact.]
I thought it was hard despite the anagrams and hiddens. SILD was a real struggle. I battled through but never experienced the thrill of acceleration. I liked OBTAIN, INTERWEAVE, UNKEMPT and PUGILISM. Looking back, I can still see why it was hard and haven’t changed my mind.
Thanks Brummie and Andrew
Unlike some, I found this a lot easier than yesterday. There were a good half dozen in Alia’s puzzle that had me stumped and I had to come back to them several times before giving up one short of completion.
This one by Brummie was much more straightforward, possibly due to the clunkiness of the surfaces (Clyde@13). Smooth surfaces are like a sheet of ice – I can’t seem to get a grip.
Thanks to Brummie and Andrew.
Thanks Andrew and Brummie! This was a middle of the road difficulty for me. I was unfamiliar with turning King’s evidence, and I struggled to make sense of the possessive in the clue, but eventually decided I couldn’t think of any other word besides EVIDENCE that would fit. I was also puzzled on just how to parse FREE PASS, but it seems I’m not alone in that. I particularly liked HAIRGRIP, WEATHER, and UNKEMPT for their fluent surfaces.
Quite an ominous [yet] in your post,
Nakamova@26. Of course here the equivalent is “state’s evidence”, where the most notorious “turners” are mafiosos such as Sammy “The Bull” Gravano and Joseph “The Animal” Barboza. To my knowledge, no record of Woody Allen’s Albert “The Logical Positivist” Corillo having done so.
Can I please ask what the connection is between APTITUDE and BENT (14a)?
Steffen, they both mean a natural ability.
Steffen@51 – “Bent” (as a noun) can mean “a natural ability or natural interest” for some topic or activity (per Collins online). So if you have a “bent” for music, you have an “aptitude” for it.
(I took so long typing, AlanC beat me to it.)
EVIDENCE is the strangest cryptic clue I think I’ve ever encountered as it doesn’t include either definition or wordplay. Then you get brilliance like OBTAIN and SILK. It really is a funny old game.
This was a fairly quick bathtime solve. As always, I was annoyed with myself for not immediately seeing the hidden UNKEMPT, which was particularly neat. I’m with others in enjoying that one. Thanks for the info re ‘ilk’. Of course, words do change their meaning, and like others my age, I do sometimes find it difficult to go with new meanings as they evolve, but I soon talk myself out of that line of thinking!
Thank you Alan & Eleanor
TomK #54. Bathtime solve? How do you keep the paper from getting soggy or gadgets going on tne blink? Or is thst your best time for solving in your head?
Paddy, I always do crosswords on my phone. And if I’m in the bath, I do them very carefully….!
TomK #58 🙂
Mandarin@53: the clue for EVIDENCE “doesn’t include either definition or wordplay” and yet I solved it in a trice. Whereas some of Alia’s “smooth” surfaces (Tuesday) took me several revisits.
It certainly is a strange game.
Does anyone know why I occasionally get access denied messages from the server? It seems to be intermittent but regular enough to be an irritation. It used to be consistently ok but over the last few months I’m getting the error at least sometime during a week of commenting. I sometimes clear cookies or uncheck and recheck the remember me box and it then seems to work but it feels like something is not quite right with the state handling on FifteenSquared server-side?
PS Tried to comment on this puzzle and now seem to be in a moderation state (I think I’m comment #60) after doing the uncheck/recheck remember me.