Tramp’s puzzles are always fun to solve and blog, and this was no exception. A couple of tricky bits of parsing, and an ingenious long anagram, which is something of a trademark of this setter. Thanks to Tramp
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | APPEASE | Take off clothing quietly – like sex naked and calm (7) P (quietly) in APE (to copy, take off) + AS (like) + [s]E[x] |
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| 5 | BLIGHTY | England through winning match (7) LIGHT (a match, as in “have you got a light?”) in BY (through) |
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| 10 | PERU | Land every uppercut in left side (4) PER (every) + the left side of Uppercut. The letters of Peru are found in order in uPpERcUt, and I spent some time trying to justify this as the wordplay |
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| 11 | E-CIGARETTE | I get erect when excited hugging adult that might be hot in drag? (1-9) A in (I GET ERECT)* |
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| 13 | DISMALLY | Home-improvement work with little drilling, sadly (8) SMALL in DIY |
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| 14 | PLACE CARD | Lay down part of hand – one folded at table? (5,4) PLACE (lay down) + CARD (part of a hand) |
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| 16 | LIBRA | Supporter following most of top stars (5) LI[d] + BRA |
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| 17 | SPAIN | Holiday resort surrounded by country (5) SPA (holiday resort) + IN (surrounded by) |
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| 19 | BIG CHEESE | Older children learn about English name (3,6) BIG (older, as in “big/older brother”) + CH[ildren] + reverse of SEE (learn) + E[nglish] |
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| 23 | JACKPOTS | Bowls over grass to get prizes (8) POT (cannabis, grass) in JACKS (as used in the game of Bowls) |
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| 24 | UPSIDE | Winning team getting advantage (6) UP + SIDE |
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| 26 | REMAINDERS | Unsold books and souvenirs outside front of airport (10) A[irport] in REMINDERS (souvenirs). Remainders are unsold books offered at a lower price |
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| 27 | ACTS | Book performers (4) Double definition |
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| 28 | CURTEST | Extremely short experiment on rat (7) CUR (rat) + TEST |
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| 29 | TRIPODS | School gripped by teacher retiring after last of one-night stands (7) [one-nigh]T + POD (school, of fish) in reverse of SIR (teacher) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | PREVAIL | Can holding on then playing, win? (7) RE (on) + V (versus, playing) in PAIL (a can) |
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| 3 | EQUIP | Prepare ecstasy and crack (5) E + QUIP |
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| 4 | SCEPTIC | One questioning pussy stopped by opening of catflap (7) C[atflap] in SEPTIC (full of pus, or “pussy”) |
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| 6 | LIAISE | Contact newspaper: passage having line moved to top (6) I (newspaper) + AISLE with L moved to the top |
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| 7 | GRENADINE | Enraged drunk covering up wearing syrup (9) IN (wearing) in ENRAGED* |
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| 8 | TUTELAR | Protecting a turtle at sea (7) (A TURTLE)* – this word reminds me of the lines “Three little maids who, all unwary/Come from a ladies’ seminary/Freed from its genius tutelary/Three little maids from school” from The Mikado |
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| 9,12 | KIDDERMINSTER CARPET | Flooring Keir Starmer – depict end, primarily lost to Reform (13,6) Anagram of KEIR STARMER DEPICT [e]ND. Kidderminster was the centre of the carpet industry in the 18th century, and Kidderminster Carpet was “a reversible carpet with no pile, with the pattern showing in opposite colours on the two faces” |
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| 15 | CLICKBAIT | Attention-seeker online to get on with bachelor needing sex (9) CLICK (get on) + BA + IT (sex) |
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| 18 | PLATEAU | Item of crockery placed on gold table (7) PLATE + AU |
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| 20 | COURSER | Horse and cocaine runs through old addict (7) C[ocaine] + R[uns] in O[ld] USER |
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| 21 | SEDATED | Relaxed and went out after a lot of sex (7) SE[x] + DATED (went out) |
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| 22 | POUNDS | Folds money (6) Double definition – the first as in folds/pounds for animals |
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| 25 | SCAMP | Rogue to con prince (5) SCAM + P[rince] |
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Thanks Tramp for the fun and Andrew for clearing up the parsing
I hadn’t thought of pounds as in sheep etc folds, and despite being a G&S fan did not know that meaning of tutelar
Specially liked clickbait.
Thank you Andrew. The long anagram at 9/12 was brilliant. Didn’t know KIDDERMINSTER CARPET but figured it out. A deficit in GK meant I couldn’t see the possibilities, but determined not to put it in an anagram solver, well not all of it.
Happy to solve this and parse with my own little brain, although it was a bit stretched by Tramp
I went down a rabbit hole with GRENADINE. Thought it had to be something to do with wig/syrup, slang from cryptics. Wigged with something in the middle? Wrong! So much simpler, mostly an anagram, and I did know ”in” meant wearing,
Same experience as paddymelon, searching around the wig-related corridors of my brain and finding nothing. And then the penny dropped ref GRENADINE. Ref the long anagram, it is not often I can take pleasure from being within 20 miles of KIDDERMINSTER – not normally something to crow about – but it does mean I am familiar with the CARPETs.
A slow start with CLICKBAIT being my first in but everything solved in the end – and nearly everything parsed. I never got my head around how BIG CHEESE was put together. The usual high quality cluing we’d expect from this setter. And ‘sex’ three times before breakfast to boot.
Thanks both