The Peter/Pierre combo again hits the Sunday Indy slot. Lots of well-constructed clues and some clever misdirections. Bravo, Peter.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx) anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Royal Institution getting bass and musicians award for achievement
RIBBAND
The most common spelling is of course RIBAND, but the wordplay led very clearly to the double B, and on inspection, my SOED gives this as an alternative’. So it’s a charade of RI, B and BAND.
5 Police force welcoming popular copper’s attitude
MINDSET
An insertion of IN DS (Detective Sergeant) in MET for London’s ‘police force’.
9 Cooking pots contain dregs of Bolognese sauce
PESTO
An insertion of E for the last letter of ‘Bolognese’ in (POTS)*
10 One working with Asian swimming across eastern part of Mediterranean
IONIAN SEA
(I ONE ASIAN)*
11 Cook goes with net to catch chicken in ancient monument
STONEHENGE
An insertion of HEN in (GOES NET)*
12 Permit 6 to visit South Africa
VISA
A charade of VI for the Roman numeral for ‘six’ and SA.
14 Medium crayon vital for editing?
CLAIRVOYANT
(CRAYON VITAL)*
18 Clutching money, innocent abroad is lacking in self restraint
INCONTINENT
An insertion of TIN, a slang word for ‘money’ in (INNOCENT)* with ‘abroad’ as the anagrind.
21 God makes mistakes over replacing king
EROS
Peter is asking you to replace R for ‘king’ with O for the cricket ‘over’ in ERRS to give you the Greek god of sexual attraction.
22 Son gets awfully hot temper from family member …
STEPMOTHER
S plus (HOT TEMPER)*
25 … one sitting round fire close to tent is one of a kind
SINGLETON
And for once you do have to pay attention to the ellipses, because ‘one’ is referring to a ‘family member’, in this case, SON. So it’s an insertion of INGLE and T in that.
26 Light seen in Kent orchard
TORCH
Hidden in KenT ORCHard.
27 Saint Peter prepared to carry the top of Christ’s ceremonial staff
SCEPTRE
A charade of S and C in (PETER)*
28 Instrument made by halfwit attending secondary school
COMPASS
A ‘halfwit attending secondary school’ might be a COMP ASS, as in ‘comprehensive’ school.
Down
1 Father tucked into remnants of meal
REPAST
An insertion of PA in REST.
2/8
Fixed bayonets at port leading to political protest
BOSTON TEA PARTY
(BAYONETS AT PORT)* Clever clue.
3 Teenager makes smell after beer-drinking party
ADOLESCENT
An insertion of DO in ALE followed by SCENT.
4 Determination to jump into river? On the contrary
DRIVE
An insertion of R in DIVE.
5 Babe finally tucked up in manger rocked by extremely impressive collection of animals
MENAGERIE
An insertion of E for the final letter of ‘babe’ in (MANGER)* followed by IE for the outside letters of ‘impressive’.
6 Article about a new type of bread
NAAN
A charade of NA for AN reversed followed by A and N.
7 Eatery in university implicated in outbreak of rash and Irritable Bowel syndrome
SUSHI BAR
An insertion of U in (RASH IBS)*
8 See 2
13 By which to find what went wrong with parking at most hectic northern subway?
POSTMORTEM
Since it’s a down clue, it’s P plus (MOST)* and METRO reversed.
15 Get-up worn by little child meeting Latin philosopher
ARISTOTLE
An insertion of TOT and L for ‘Latin’ in ARISE. Nice misdirection, since of course Aristotle was a Greek philosopher.
16 Complaints made by side beaten crossing oceans
DISEASES
An insertion of SEAS in (SIDE)*
17 Soprano caught top of nail in make-up sponge
SCROUNGE
A charade of S, C and N inserted in ROUGE.
19 Publisher passionate about language
SHERPA
Hidden in publiSHER PAssionate. I never knew that SHERPA was a language, but I do now.
20 Underwear worn by Her Majesty’s composer
BRAHMS
To make this work, I think it has to be HR in BRAS. Best friends with LISZT.
23 Latin American ditching his alarm …
PANIC
[HIS]PANIC
24 … in place of endless idleness
SLOT
Now you can ignore the ellipses. It’s SLOT[H]
Many thanks to my namesake for this morning’s puzzle.
There’s a lot of new setters in the Indy nowadays (tomorrow there’s another one) but Peter is one of those who’s spot on for the easier Sunday spot.
All very enjoyable.
10ac, however, should read as: I (one) + ON (working), plus (ASIAN)* around E (eastern).
Can’t say I liked the use of very similar anagram indicators in 9ac and 11ac.
Apart from that, very much up to the (IMO, high) Everyman standard.
Thanks, Peters.
Lots of anagrams, which made it a little pedestrian in places, though still enjoyable. Favourite was BRAHMS. LOI was RIBBAND, which I wasn’t familiar with.
Agree with Sil@1 re 10a. Minor error in 20d – it should read ‘bras around HM (Her Majesty)’. For 5a, I parsed copper’s as d’s, as in the old pennies, but either way works.
I’m one who didn’t pay attention to the ellipsis, so missed the parsing of SINGLETON. Held up at the end by the hidden SHERPA, which I’d also not heard of as a language. (BTW – instant word association for ‘sherpa’?). Some nice surfaces especially those for SUSHI BAR and my pick of the day BRAHMS which I parsed slightly differently as ‘Underwear’ (BRA) worn by’ (=’on’) ‘Her Majesty’s’ (including the ‘s’) (HMS).
Thanks to Peter and his Gallic counterpart.
a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle from Peter. Genovese rather than Bolognese, perhaps? Many thanks to him and to Pierre
What more can one say? Nice one, Peter, and thanks, Pierre.
I’ve nothing more to say, either, except many thanks, both.
I’ll join Eileen and Mr C in the nothing more to add camp. Thanks to English Pete for the puzzle and his continental counterpart for the blog.
Many Thanks Peter
very enjoyable, my favourites were IONIAN SEA, INCONTINENT, BOSTON TEA PARTY, ADOLESCENT and I particularly liked the hidden SHERPA which took me a while to see even after I’d guessed the answer from checkers.
Thanks also Pierre