As anticipated, this was an enjoyable challenge from Klingsor today.
Some excellent surfaces caused a fair amount of head-scratching over the parsing of several clues – 23a and 26a in particular.
We had to use an electronic check to confirm the entries at 13a and 20d, as we had not come across the terms before, but in each case the wordplay was clear and if we weren’t blogging we would probably not have worried about it.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Concentrate on replacing article in range (8) | |
| COMPRESS | RE (on) replacing ‘a’ (article) in COMP |
|
| 6 | Gold rush could be magnificent (6) | |
| AUGUST | AU (gold) GUST (rush) | |
| 9 | A cut might feel badly needed for this opera (3,5,5) | |
| THE MAGIC FLUTE | An anagram of A CUT MIGHT FEEL – anagrind is ‘badly’ | |
| 10 | Medium-dry champagne initially abandoned as a failure (6) | |
| DEMISE | DEMI-SE |
|
| 11 | Violence in Turkey perhaps reported by quiet amateur (4,4) | |
| FOUL PLAY | A homophone (‘reported’) of FOWL (‘Turkey perhaps’) P (quiet) LAY (amateur) | |
| 13 | Supplier of claret wine and beer’s home around five (6,4) | |
| PORTAL VEIN | PORT (wine) + ALE (beer) IN (home) around V (five) | |
| 15 | Bess’s lover misses the first wild celebration (4) | |
| ORGY | ||
| 16 | Cliff Richard album contains singles originally rejected (4) | |
| SCAR | The first or ‘original’ letters of Richard Album Contains Singles reversed or ‘rejected’ | |
| 18 | Not a chap holding rank below duchess? (10) | |
| NOBLEWOMAN | NO MAN (‘not a chap’) round or ‘holding’ an anagram of BELOW (anagrind is ‘rank’) | |
| 21 | Fine wine including muscat regularly is sweet stuff (8) | |
| FRUCTOSE | F (fine) ROSE (wine) round or ‘including’ the alternative or ‘regular’ letters of mUsCaT | |
| 22 | In retreat, forces rapidly cover a great distance (6) | |
| PARSEC | Hidden or ‘covered’ backwards (‘in retreat’) in forCES RAPidly | |
| 23 | A short one contributes to new patient’s getting restless after little time? (9,4) | |
| ATTENTION SPAN | Cryptic definition (or ‘&lit?) – A + ON |
|
| 25 | Harry Potter’s first book for audio (6) | |
| PESTER | P (first letter of ‘Potter’) + homophone (‘for audio’) of ESTHER (book – in the Old Testament) | |
| 26 | Fawning rubbish entertains one on day off (8) | |
| TOADYISH | TOSH (rubbish) round or ‘entertaining’ I (one) after or ‘on’ an anagram of DAY (anagrind is ‘off’) | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | Just after Thursday I will be very busy (2,3,2) | |
| ON THE GO | ON (just after) TH (Thursday) EGO (I) | |
| 3 | Ancient priest gets involved with choir (11) | |
| PREHISTORIC | An anagram of PRIEST and CHOIR – anagrind is ‘gets involved’ | |
| 4 | Steer clear of commercial breaks almost always (5) | |
| EVADE | AD (commercial) in or ‘breaking’ EVE |
|
| 5 | Fellows in small river show sign of cold (7) | |
| SNIFFLE | FF (fellows) in S (small) NILE (river) | |
| 6 | Illness stops a criminal obtaining wealth (9) | |
| AFFLUENCE | FLU (illness) in or ‘stopping’ A FENCE (criminal) | |
| 7 | Antelope droppings turned up, first off (3) | |
| GNU | ||
| 8 | Woman gets sex, having affair (7) | |
| SHEBANG | SHE (woman) BANG (sex) | |
| 12 | Review case of hunter happy to go shooting (11) | |
| PHOTOGRAPHY | An anagram of H and R (first and last letters or ‘case’ of ‘hunter’) and HAPPY TO GO – anagrind is ‘review’ | |
| 14 | Someone disabling networks? The deeds are his! (9) | |
| LANDOWNER | Someone disabling networks might be described as a LAN (local area network) DOWNER | |
| 17 | Be concerned about badger slaughter (7) | |
| CARNAGE | CARE (be concerned) about NAG (badger) | |
| 19 | Aviator in a spot repressing rising anger (7) | |
| BLERIOT | BLOT (spot) round or ‘suppressing’ IRE (anger) reversed or ‘rising’ – a reference to Louis Bleriot, the pioneer aviator | |
| 20 | State backed tabloid? That’s the way into hell! (7) | |
| AVERNUS | AVER (state) SUN (tabloid) reversed or ‘backed’ | |
| 22 | Start to parley with a Chinese native (5) | |
| PANDA | P (first letter or ‘start’ of ‘parley’) AND (with) A | |
| 24 | Nip round between times (3) | |
| TOT | O (round) between TT (times) | |
As you say, an enjoyable challenge. PORTAL VEIN was easily got from checking letters, and confirmed in Chambers where, for good measure, I confirmed that ‘claret’ is ‘old slang’ for blood.
Was the positioning of SNIFFLE and afFLUence i adjacent clues intentional or just co-incidence, I wonder?
Thanks, Klingsor and B&J
Cue discussion on how much people actually remember from crosswords:
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2016/05/27/independent-9241-by-phi/
Fortunately I did remember PORTAL VEIN, so it went in quite quickly.
Thanks Klingsor and B&J
Phi @ 2: that’s a very interesting comment. One thing that strikes me fairly often is how frequently identical or similar solutions appear within a narrow time-frame, given that setters are operating (I assume) in isolation, and that the date a puzzle is published may bear no relation to the date it was written.
Recent examples, in the graun and elsewhere include versions of KO/KAYO (four times in about a month) and STEVEDORE (three occurrences in about as many weeks).
I guess it’s a version of the part of chaos theory that seeks to explain bunching on motorways. Or an extended version of morphic resonance.
Absolutely top rate. Klingsor’s cluing leads as ever to a really enjoyable solve. Particularly liked NOBLEWOMAN, TOADYISH, SHEBANG, LANDOWNER to name a just a few.
Thanks Klingsor and to Bertanjoyce.
Yes, a good Saturday puzzle, with some enjoyable clues which I had to think about. I liked the &lit at 23 and NOBLEWOMAN. Had never heard of AVERNUS, but goes in to the ever-expanding “Cryptic words” file.
Talking about how the same word can appear several times over a short period, PARSEC has also had a bit of a run in various places lately.
Now off to tackle Nimrod…gulp!
Thank you to Klingsor and B&J.