A very entertaining puzzle full of gentle humour and misdirection. Thank you Redshank.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MASSEUR | This male uses a liquid on your back (7) |
| anagram (liquid) of M (male) USES a on youR (back, last letter of) | ||
| 5 | TIPTOP | Excellent clue to start of puzzle (6) |
| TIP (clue) with TO and then Puzzle (starting letter of) | ||
| 8 | NEURALGIA | Dissolve a granule with iodine for this? (9) |
| anagram (dissolve) of A GRANULE with I (iodine) – a quick glance through some Google results shows neuralgia is linked to iodine, though as a cure or side-effect of treatment is not immediately clear. | ||
| 9 | ATRIA | Bloody Chambers! It’s an endless nuisance (5) |
| A TRIAl (nuisance, endless) – blood-filled chambers in the heart | ||
| 11 | FIBRE | Lie on wool for one (5) |
| FIB (lie) and RE (regarding, on) – for one type of fibre | ||
| 12 | LOOK AFTER | Attractive woman hires a daily nurse (4,5) |
| LOOKER (attractive woman) contains (hires) A FT (daily, newspaper) | ||
| 13 | STRIKERS | They walk out forwards typically (8) |
| double definition | ||
| 15 | STADIA | Coach said to welcome volunteers in grounds (6) |
| anagram (coach) of SAID contains (to welcome) TA (Territorial Army, volunteers) | ||
| 17 | ARMPIT | Buried weapons here in sweater? (6) |
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 19 | UNEDITED | Big hack chops joint that’s raw (8) |
| ED (editor, big hack) inside (chops) UNITED (joint) | ||
| 22 | IN THE CLUB | Expecting chic lech to misbehave in bath? (2,3,4) |
| IN (chic) then anagram of LECH in TUB (bath) | ||
| 23 | LAYER | Solicitor neglects wife in bed (5) |
| LAwYER missing W (wife) | ||
| 24 | NERVE | Bottle last of gin the day before hosting royal (5) |
| giN (last letter of) then EVE (the day before) containing R (royal) | ||
| 25 | PNEUMATIC | Putin came out, all puffed up (9) |
| anagram (out) of PUTIN CAME | ||
| 26 | WRITHE | What worms do with their cast (6) |
| W (with) and anagram (cast) of THEIR | ||
| 27 | Y-FRONTS | Yankee Republican faces guards, keepers of crown jewels (1-6) |
| Y (yankee) then R (republican) inside (with…guarding) FONTS (type faces) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MANIFESTATION | A sign famine ran riot at Waterloo, say? (13) |
| anagram (ran riot) of FAMINE the STATION (Waterloo say) | ||
| 2 | SLUMBER | Sleep soundly at first like logs (7) |
| Soundly (first letter of) and LUMBER (like logs) | ||
| 3 | ERASE | Deliver a sermon, some of it cut (5) |
| found inside (some of it) delivER A SErmon | ||
| 4 | REGULARS | Force members to become frequent customers (8) |
| double definition. The two meaning seem very closely related to me. | ||
| 5 | TEA POT | Milk supplier, crossing river, leaves container (6) |
| TEAT (milk supplier) contains (crossing) PO (river in Italy) | ||
| 6 | PLAY-ACTED | Pretended place amateur sailed lacks harbour (4-5) |
| PL (place) A (amateur) and YATChED (sailed) missing H (harbour) | ||
| 7 | OERSTED | Field measure long ago appeared in dictionary (7) |
| ERST (formerly, long ago) in OED (Oxford English Dictionary) – a measure of magnetic field strength | ||
| 10 | AIRS AND GRACES | Cardigans are knitted by son – snobs put them on (4,3,6) |
| anagram (knitted) of CARDIGANS ARE then (son) | ||
| 14 | KNIFE REST | Cook tinkers, installing iron piece in carvery (5,4) |
| anagram (cook) of TINKERS contains FE (iron) | ||
| 16 | SNOBBERY | B. Bryson works about English snootiness (8) |
| anagram (works) of B BRYSON containing (about) E (English) | ||
| 18 | MATURER | More red or less green? (7) |
| could be more red like a tomato, or less green like an experienced person | ||
| 20 | TRY IT ON | He leaves 31 swimming to do what sharks do (3,2,2) |
| anagram (swimming) of ThIRTY ONe missing HE | ||
| 21 | ELAPSE | Go by circuits connecting tablets (6) |
| LAPS (circuits) between (connecting) E and E (tablets, of ecstasy) | ||
| 23 | LEMUR | Primate violates rule about Mass (5) |
| anagram (violates) of RULE containing (about) M (mass) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks, PeeDee – I agree entirely with your preamble.
My favourites today were the Bloody Chambers[!], WRITHE, Y-FRONTS, SLUMBER, AIRS AND GRACES – all for the surfaces – and TRY IT ON.
Many thanks to Redshank – I really enjoyed it
What Eileen said!
I was a bit lazy and wrote in AORTA instead of ATRIA-my bad. Nice puzzle.
Thanks Redshank and PeeDee
22ac: I parsed this as IN (chic), followed by HECL (anagram of “lech”) in TUB (bath), just taking “Expecting” as the definition.
I should also have noted that 27ac needs to be Y + R in FONTS ([type]faces).
Thank you for the corrections Pelham. Fixed now.
Thanks PeeDee and Redshank.
Superb puzzle. Not one dud clue.
Misdirections (as in ATRIA, STADIA) enhanced the solving experience.
Great surfaces as in sweater, Putin, LOOK AFTER, LAYER and TIPTOP…
One of my favorite setters!
One of mine too!
🙂
Good challenge – I was struggling with some on the west when the fresh eyes of Mrs W arrived and it succumbed without much further resistance. Favourites were 26 & 27a – 26 for the surface and well disguised anagram and 27 for its surface and wit. Thanks to Redshank and PeeDee.
Thanks Redshank and PeeDee
A typically entertaining puzzle provided again by this setter which took just under the hour to get through.
Initially went down the AORTA path at 9a and it was only by not resolving the plurality and lack of wordplay support of it that caused the rethink to ATRIA. I couldn’t fully understand the definition for NEURALGIA, especially with the use of iodine to do anything about it.
Thought that ARMPIT was a crackup when I eventually twigged to the ‘sweater’ part of it and like WhiteKing, I also chuckled at WRITHE (very clever wordplay) and Y-FRONTS.
OERSTED was only vaguely familiar as a word and had to check up on its definition to understand it as a ‘field measure’ – it was the last one in.
I thought this was an excellent puzzle that has helped me pass the time while waiting for a delayed flight to SFO. Anyway, I think the two definitions of REGULARS (4d) are quite different…. soldiers vs. cafe denizens.