The Saturday schedule and the blogging cycle is aligned! I get Klingsor again same as I did at his last Saturday outing, which is no bad thing.
This time, solving started as before with more than half the grid filled on the first pass, but the last few half dozen or so answers I found very tricky. Indeed there were several whose wordplay was not clear till writing this blog. There remains one clue where I really don’t understand the wordplay: 22A CUSTER surely is the answer from the crossing letters and the assumption that “General” must be the definition (I cannot imagine “90%” being the def.). Update: Eileen has helped out at comment #1
Top row 1A and 6A are a palindrome of bottom row 25A and 26A – I’m not sure of the relevance of this but it helped confirm the answers (I was a bit doubtful of 1A STRESSED until I noticed).
Otherwise, no obvious theme that I can see – how many times have I said that?
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | STRESSED | Bob cuts leaves back under pressure (8) S[hilling] (Bob) inside DESERTS< (leaves, back) |
| 6 | DIAPER | One’s impressed by padre changing nappy (6) I (one) inside (is impressed) PADRE* AInd: changing. First One In. |
| 9 | SELF-CONTAINED | Independent‘s description of damsel flirting? (4-9) Rev. Hidden: Self is contained in damSEL Flirting |
| 10 | WEIRDO | Oddball hitched around Ireland, having nothing (6) WED (hitched) around IR[eland] + O (nothing) |
| 11 | TELEMARK | Skiing manoeuvre set standard (8) TELE (? Set – is this Telly – no HInd?) MARK (standard) |
| 13 | MAKE NO ODDS | Mother’s done OK, somehow getting borders for dresses to be all the same (4,2,4) (MA (mother) DONE OK)* AInd: somehow, then D[resse]S |
| 15 | STEM | Staunch supporter (4) Double Def. |
| 16 | ACNE | Teenage problem embraced by Isaac Newton (4) Hidden in isaAC NEwton |
| 18 | ENDANGERED | Stop getting furious like a Siberian tiger! (10) END (stop) ANGERED (furious) |
| 21 | SUITABLE | Durable clothes you said? I’ll go in for fitting (8) U (You, said) and I, inside STABLE (durable) |
| 22 | CUSTER | General Assembly’s first cut by 90% (6) ???? Update: Eileen has helped out at comment #1: MUSTER (assembly) swap M (1000) for C (100). Coo! Tricky |
| 23 | KISS AND MAKE UP | Unruly as kids, initially needing slap to stop fighting (4,3,4,2) (AS KIDS + N[eeding])* AInd: unruly, then MAKE-UP (slap) |
| 25 | REPAID | Relief after agent returned (6) REP (agent) AID (relief) |
| 26 | DESSERTS | Fancy dress set for Charlotte and Madeleine? (8) (DRESS SET)* AInd: fancy. Def by example thus use of “?” |
| Down | ||
| 2 | TESSERA | Hardy girl takes a long time to find password (7) TESS (Hardy girl) ERA (a long time) I had to check this definition knowing the the main meaning as a mosaic tile. Password is there in Chambers as a secondary def. |
| 3 | ENLARGEMENT | General deployed soldiers close to target it’s blown up (11) GENERAL* AInd: deployed, MEN (soldiers) [targe]T |
| 4 | SOCKO | Knockout in South Carolina boxing ring followed by knockout (5) SC with O in it, then KO |
| 5 | DENOTED | Indicated what’s needed to get code from coed? (7) DE NOT ED. To write CODE instead of COED you need to write DE not ED |
| 6 | DEADLY SIN | Sloth for one is extremely sedate and idly disposed (6,3) (S[edat]E AND IDLY)* AInd: disposed |
| 7 | ANN | Immediately save old woman (3) ANON (immediately) – O[ld]. Last One In. ANON is nearer soon than immediately surely? |
| 8 | ENDORSE | Back ‘Arry’s filly perhaps after tip (7) END (tip) ‘ORSE (unaspirated h’equine as spoken by an unaspirated Harold) |
| 12 | MISE EN SCENE | Setting cryptic in essence occupies Klingsor (4,2,5) (IN ESSENCE)* AInd: cryptic, inside ME (Klingsor) |
| 14 | OVERBOARD | Ended row about book with daughter, having taken the plunge? (9) OVER (ended) OAR (row) around B[ook] then D[aughter] |
| 17 | CHUCKLE | Maybe Finn fruitlessly supports college for a laugh (7) C[ollege] HUCKLE[berry] I liked “Finn fruitlessly” |
| 19 | DREADED | Having Rasta hairstyle is terrifying (7) Double Def. |
| 20 | EYE-SPOT | Plant disease especially found in small island (3-4) ESP[ecially] inside EYOT (small island) |
| 22 | CLASS | Change sides in insensitive style (5) CRASS R/L |
| 24 | SPA | First of seasons each year is spring (3) S[easons] P.A. |
I decided I wasn’t going to be able to finish this, so came here for some help and found I was right! Thanks, beermagnet – and Klingsor [I enjoyed what I could do!].
I did manage to parse CUSTER: mUSTER [assembly] with its first letter changed to C [reduced by 90%].
Thank you Eileen. I was really stuck on Custer
Lovely stuff! 22a was my last one in but did like it once the penny dropped. I think Klingsor writes beautiful surfaces. I also take ANON to mean soon, not immediately. TELE for television is fine. Never met telemark before. Have met 12d before but had to dredge it out of memory.
telemark is an elegant turn on cross-country skis when going downhill – lovely to watch!
i stupidly wroye in Make on odds (where did that come from?) which gave me problems with 14d – i only saw the mistake when i came here.
Thanks Eileen for muster – i was heading for cluster, etc.
love MISE EN SCENE, SELF CONTAINED, DENOTED, DESSERTS – also ANN!
great stuff many thanks Klingsor and beermagnet
Great puzzle, I thought. I got off to a flyer, and then gradually slowed down as the clues got tougher which made it a nice solve. Didn’t quite complete (beaten by 11a, 22a) and missed the clever palindrome, but enjoyed the puzzle all round so honours today go to that solve and to all the lovely surfaces. Thanks to Klingsor for the puzzle and to BM for the blog.
Satisfying to have worked out CUSTER, thanks to having seen ‘muster’ for ‘assembly’ somewhere else recently. Of the rest, TESSERA was new and couldn’t parse STRESSED. I liked DENOTED and SELF-CONTAINED as well. Missed that palindrome – v. clever.
Thanks to Klingsor and beermagnet
Somehow Isaac Newton and spotty teenagers will always be linked from now on….
Missed the palindrome of course.
Thanks to S&B
Couldn’t parse CUSTER and missed the palindromic pairs. If I’d realised what was going on there I’d have got 25ac right; as it was all I could think of was REWARD, feebly parsed as reward = relief and backwards is ‘drawer’ – someone who draws something – such as a pint of (real) ale – might be an agent.
Apart from that I liked this, particularly SELF-CONTAINED, ENDANGERED, CHUCKLE and CLASS.
Thanks, Klingsor and beermagnet.