Quite a tough puzzle in places with some neatly deceptive clues.
22D was a good example. It had me looking to put MB inside some word for blue for quite a long time. Being a computer programmer, I also liked 1D – nice to see a clue which seemed to be wholly about computers but actually referred to the insect meaning of the word.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CHAMPERS | Sparkling wine in the bottom of picnic baskets (8) |
| [Picni]c + hampers | ||
| 5 | SAMPLE | A piece of sausage has more than sufficient taste (6) |
| S[ausage] + ample | ||
| 9 | COLDPLAY | A group of unemotional acts? (8) |
| Cold(=unemotional) + acts(=play, which is usually composed of several such). | ||
| 10 | BOUNCE | University head tackles upturn following a decline (6) |
| U(niversity) in (tackled by) bonce | ||
| 12 | DIACRITIC | Accent possibly declared “awful” by reviewer (9) |
| Hom of dire + critic | ||
| 13 | ABATE | A temptation said to diminish (5) |
| Hom of a bait | ||
| 14 | FAIR | Likely to be free from rain (4) |
| DD – likely does appear in dictionaries as a synonym for fair. | ||
| 16 | TRIP OUT | Take a journey away from home to see weird things (4,3) |
| Trip(=take a journey) + away from home(=out) | ||
| 19 | EPITOME | Good example I found in a record book (7) |
| I In Ep + tome | ||
| 21 | BONG | Pipe making a hollow sound (4) |
| Bong – bong being a pipe used for taking drugs. | ||
| 24 | TITLE | A certain book regularly talked about sex (5) |
| Odd letters of TaLkEd around it | ||
| 25 | SOURDOUGH | Fancy bread is essentially excessive given the money we have (9) |
| Middle letter of exceSsive + our dough | ||
| 27 | AGREES | A grand prophet goes west to get suits (6) |
| A + g(rand) + seer< | ||
| 28 | ADOPTION | Backing fixed to an iPod (8) |
| (To an ipod)* | ||
| 29 | LOLITA | Controversial book that’s funny and primarily intended to aggravate (6) |
| Lol (internet slang for Laugh out Loud or Lots of Love, if you’re David Cameron) + initial letters of “intended to aggragate”. | ||
| 30 | CRITTERS | Restrict flying animals (8) |
| Restrict* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CICADA | Bug firstly cleared Internet cache and, finally, deleted data (6) |
| Initial letters of “cleared Internet cache and” + last letters of “deleted data”. | ||
| 2 | ALL DAY | A large lady jogging from dawn to dusk? (3-3) |
| A + l(arge) + lady* | ||
| 3 | PIPER | Musician‘s support includes piano (5) |
| Pier around p(iano) | ||
| 4 | ROASTER | It helps you brown a roll on the outside (7) |
| A in roster | ||
| 6 | ADORATION | A girl who likes explorations into kinky love (9) |
| A + Dora (referring to Dora the Explorer, an American children’s series) + into* | ||
| 7 | PENTAGON | Compound to go behind a military building (8) |
| Pen(=compound for keeping animals etc) + tag on (I suppose you might say something like “he tags on at the end”) | ||
| 8 | ELEVENTH | Cook vehemently cutting my position as last batsman (8) |
| Vehe[m]entl[y]* (cutting my = my removed) | ||
| 11 | SCOT | National frontrunner absent from Gold Cup venue (4) |
| [A]scot – did think the Gold Cup was at Cheltenham but apparently that’s the Cheltenham Gold Cup, whereas the Ascot version is properly just called the Gold Cup. | ||
| 15 | ATONEMENT | Making up a character intended to be heartless (9) |
| A + tone + me[a]nt | ||
| 17 | MEATBALL | Dumb American left after food without tab being sorted (8) |
| L(eft) after meal around tab* | ||
| 18 | LITTORAL | Beachside place serving up endless tortillas (8) |
| (Tortilla[s])* | ||
| 20 | EASE | Kid has no time to relax (4) |
| [T]ease | ||
| 21 | BLUNDER | Belt occasionally put on beneath a slip (7) |
| Odd letters of belt + under | ||
| 22 | NUBILE | Attractive doctor in blue (6) |
| (In blue)* | ||
| 23 | THANKS | Appreciation shown by an actor wanting an award (6) |
| T[om] Hanks – actor with OM (Order of Merit) removed | ||
| 26 | DEPOT | Warehouse often got smashed up (5) |
| Toped<. Often I suppose on the grounds that a depot is not always a warehouse. | ||
*anagram
Bit of a monster from Gila for a Monday, I thought. Not helped by not knowing, inter alia, of Dora the Explorer (so I was shamefully driven into trying to parse ‘fellation’ for ‘kinky love’).
I think in 26, DEPOT, the ‘often’ goes with ‘got smashed up’, in that a toper is a habitual drinker.
Thanks to Neal & Gila.
I really enjoyed this. Apart from SOURDOUGH? and BONG, which took me ages as they are less familiar and I didn’t know the drug-related sense of the latter, and also FAIR,my LOI……..I cannot wholeheartedly agree with either of the definitions……it didn’t seem too bad. Admittedly I did know of Dora, but it took some time for the PDM.
Enjoyable puzzle which I think well summed up by Neal’s first sentence. No particular fave today so special mention goes to the surfaces in general. Oh, and I wondered if there was something ninatic or thematic going on what with the grid and some of the words used, but couldn’t see owt in the end as is my habit. Cheers to The Monster for the puzzle and to Neal for the blog.
A challenge, though not impossible. But I must admit using a wordfinder for 6dn, then kicking myself for not remembering watching Dora the Explorer videos with my grandchildren.
I thought for ages that 21ac had to be either BOOM or BONG and when it appeared to be BONG I had to google it for the ‘pipe’ meaning.
7dn took a long time as I was trying to think of a chemical compound; eventually I decided ‘pentan’ might be an alternative spelling of ‘pentane’ and the clue was instructing you to insert ‘go’ after the A, so I got the right answer for the wrong reason.
But I was awake to the use of ‘doctor’ as an anagrind in 22dn.
Re 14ac I have come across FAIR – or, rather, FARE – as a dialect word for ‘likely’
Lots to like here, especially BOUNCE, DIACRITIC and LOLITA.
Thanks, Gila and NealH
This was a bit tough in places but the scrupulously fair clues made it a worthwhile and most enjoyable challenge. I confess I’d never heard of Dora the Explorer and I suppose “A girl into kinky love” would in itself suffice as a clue; on the other hand, I appreciate it when a puzzle also serves to expand one’s general knowledge.
Thanks to both Gila and NealH.
Got stuck on the top right corner and had to cheat to get 7dn.
I had heard of Dora the explorer and immediately thought of her when reading 6dn and got that immediately, but what was annoying was how long it took me to get 25ac, even though I was actually preparing a sourdough loaf at the time.
So did we Dormouse although when we found the answer PENTAGON, there was nothing to complain about!
We didn’t know Dora the Explorer either.
Maybe things seemed more tricky because there were few links between the four corners.
Thanks to NealH and Gila.