Paul’s usual blend of wit and ingenuity.
I only remembered that I was down to blog this puzzle on Friday evening; luckily the completed grid was still in the recycling box. Apologies if the explanations are a little terse. I seem to remember that Timon and I solved it in the customary hour with our only question mark relating to 23 down. Thanks as usual to Paul for the entertainment.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HALFWIT | Charlie‘s ban on banter, perhaps … (7) |
| Banter is wit, and ban is half of banter. | ||
| 5 | EGGHEAD | … quite the opposite, as good man breaking oath of old (7) |
| G HE in EGAD. The definition is by reference to the previous solution, alluded to by the ellipses. | ||
| 9 | REGAL | Splendid local offering sent back (5) |
| LAGER (rev). | ||
| 10 | REQUISITE | Necessity is in recompense (9) |
| IS in REQUITE. | ||
| 11 | CHOCOHOLIC | One hooked on bars? (10) |
| Just a cryptic definition: more Rufus than Paul, we thought. | ||
| 12 | DAL | In Hyderabad, a legume? (3) |
| Hidden in “Hyderabad a legume”. | ||
| 14 | CHASTISEMENT | Criminal snatches item, getting reprimand (12) |
| *(SNATCHES ITEM). | ||
| 18 | MOTORWAY EXIT | Unfortunately, I’m too warty to impress old lover, a turn-off (8,4) |
| EX in *(IM TOO WARTY). | ||
| 21 | RAG | Mock paper (3) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 22 | NOT CRICKET | Unsportingly unsporting? (3,7) |
| Sort of a double cryptic definition. | ||
| 25 | TRACEABLE | In list, people may be found (9) |
| RACE in TABLE. | ||
| 26 | UTTER | Total idiot missing introduction (5) |
| (N)UTTER. | ||
| 27 | SPANDEX | First of patients, moreover, carried by the other make of stretcher (7) |
| (P AND) in SEX. | ||
| 28 | ORDERLY | In European airport, wine on the counter regulated (7) |
| RED (rev) in ORLY. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HORACE | University out of time on brilliant poet (6) |
| HO(U)R, ACE. | ||
| 2 | LEGION | Many, for example, feeding cat (6) |
| EG in LION. | ||
| 3 | WILLOWHERB | Plant is expected to hang initially within straggly bower (10) |
| WILL (is expected to), H in *BOWER. | ||
| 4 | TORSO | Middle of body approximately below top in theory (5) |
| T(heory) OR SO. | ||
| 5 | EXQUISITE | Lovely flower beds go — is cutting? (9) |
| IS in QUIT (go) in EXE (flower). | ||
| 6 | GRIT | Sand in bottle (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 7 | EVILDOER | Villain or devil incarnate, ultimately infernal (8) |
| *(OR DEVIL (incarnat)E). “Infernal” is the anagrind. | ||
| 8 | DREW LOTS | Neither won nor lost many — chose randomly (4,4) |
| A charade of DREW (neither won nor lost) and LOTS (many). | ||
| 13 | SEMI LIQUID | Fruits served up with very little bread, flowing only somewhat? (4-6) |
| LIMES (rev), 1 QUID (very little bread). | ||
| 15 | SHADOW BOX | Opposition on the case, punch the air! (6-3) |
| A charade of SHADOW (opposition) and BOX (case). | ||
| 16 | EMERITUS | Holding flag up, Australian natives found in honourable retirement (8) |
| TIRE (to flag) (rev) in EMUS. | ||
| 17 | STIGMATA | Suffering evidence, magistrate lacking in religious education bamboozled (8) |
| *MAGIST(R)AT(E). | ||
| 19 | SKATER | Finally, loveless princess put on right slipper? (6) |
| (LOVELES)S KATE R. We wondered who Princess Kate might be; the Duchess of Cambridge is not a princess, but perhaps there’s another one. Makes a change from Di anyway. | ||
| 20 | STOREY | Narrative including header in equaliser, getting level (6) |
| E(QUALISER) in STORY. | ||
| 23 | CREDO | Doctrine was concerned with love, no answer to it (5) |
| C(A)RED, 0. |
||
| 24 | HERD | Elephants perhaps identified by the ears, they say? (4) |
| Sounds like “heard”. | ||
*anagram
Finished it fairly easily, but I don’t like the clue for 1A.
Re: 23D, “no answer to it” is the indicator for removing the A.
Thanks Bridgesong for the parsing. I couldn’t work them all out but they do now make sense.
Re: 23d: You have sort of covered it in your explanation. “No answer to it” is taking the A out of CARED + O.
LOI was 3d which I couldn’t parse.
Paul at his best. Perfect level of difficulty for me; it took me a good while to finish but I never felt completely stuck. I smiled at 9, loved the surface of 18 and thought 24 very clever. With 23 I just thought that ‘no answer’ was leaving the A out of CARED.
Thanks bridgesong. I agree, enjoyable without being taxing. Like you, my LOI was 23d. It had to be CREDO of course but I wrestled with various anagram combinations and subtracted letters to no avail before enlightenment. Surely ‘no answer to it’ simply refers to the omission of ‘a’ from ‘cared’.
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. I too could not parse WILLOWHERB but did manage to dredge up DAL and finally saw CHOCOHOLIC, my LOI. For the first time that I can remember I finished a prize puzzle in one go in contrast to my difficulties with recent weekday ones on power stations and Teletubbies. Very enjoyable.
Thanks bridgesong. Quick bottom half, real test up top: needed Google for 3D and TEA for 5D. Loved CHOCOHOLIC after that. Very nice.
I liked EGGHEAD, which I somehow managed to get before solving HALFWIT (which I then still couldn’t parse), and MOTORWAY EXIT – nice misdirection of ‘turn-off’.
I also overlooked Kate as a contender for princess until everything else was in and it was obvious it had to be her.
Although I enjoyed this (especially SPANDEX), I failed in the northwest corner. I guessed and biffed in hellcat, roger, and carpophore instead of HALFWIT, REGAL, and WILLOWHERB respectively.
I think we’ve seen debates here before over whether Kate is a princess but I agree it’s nice to see the change from Di.
I had trouble with 1 across. My original answer was HALTWIT (lame of wit, with a ‘halt’ being a ‘ban’) but despite being sure I’d seen it used, I couldn’t find in in any dictionary when I checked. Google comes up with examples, but I assume they’re mostly either typos or people like me who thought it was a real word. Pity, because I think it had a nice ring to it.
Otherwise I thought it was hard but fair, so thanks, Paul, and thanks to bridgesong (and others) for the parsing of HALFWIT and CREDO (another one that was beyond me).
Too hard for Up North, raced through the lower half and then failed utterly on Halfwit (which of course I now feel like ) the Egghead (definitely don’t feel like) and the ‘Quisites. Thanks for the challenge Paul and the blog Bridgesong
Yes, I liked this although it took me some time to get started. I was glad of the anagrams because they broke the logjam in my brain.CHOCOHOLIC was excellent and I also liked SHADOW BOX and HALFWIT. WILLOW HERB was new to me and was parsed after the event.
Good fun.
Thanks Paul.
Interesting experience for me. I was away last Saturday, but when the online hiccough happened on Monday I printed this off while waiting for the others to appear. It took me a time in between the two others to finish – but the Quiptic was the longest!
Unfortunately I’m all too familiar with WILLOWHERB – one of the three or four worst weeds in our garden.
…forgot to thank Paul and bridgesong
Thank you. We got regal but still don’t understand why it is the solution.
Thank you Paul and bridgesong.
I enjoyed this crossword, CHOCOHOLIC was the last in. Loved MOTORWAY EXIT and SHADOW BOX, it took me a time to see that one.
@Joanna&Jeff “local offering” – local here means local pub, offering being beer “lager”. If you send lager back (reverse the letters) you get “regal”.
J&J @15
A ‘LOCAL’ is a pub/bar: one of its offerings is LAGER: reverse it (SENT BACK) and it becomes REGAL (SPLENDID).
hth
[muffin @13, I can’t get WILLOWHERB to grow here on the lower slopes of the Jura (we are within a French Nature Reserve), my garden is a natural one, ‘weeds’ are allowed to grow, and are preferred by me, they can look beautiful…]
[Hi Cookie
I think that Rosebay Willowherb was introduced to Britain as an ornamental. It does seed around profligately, though. It thrived on bomb sites after the war, and became known as “Fireweed”.
We were walking in the Sabine hills (and also Gran Sasso) last week, and it was walking through extravagant rock gardens!]
An enjoyable solve, with Paul’s characteristically smooth surfaces. Not too easy, but not too difficult either,. The wordplay in 1a, BANTER, seems slightly shaky, perhaps and it took me a while to understand it. It also took me a long time to work out the wordplay in 23d, CREDO, despite having guessed it straight away from “doctrine” and confirmed it with the C & O. That was, in fact, the last penny to drop. I also wondered whether Kate is a princess as well as a duchess, but knowing little about such honorifics just accepted she must be. DI was, of course, the first thing that leapt to mind. Nice bit of misdirection?
Tony @21, I agree with you about 1 ac; perhaps the clue would read better as “ban of banter”?
So far as Kate is concerned, she is married to a prince (and the mother of one) but, although she is referred to as Her Royal Highness, she is but a mere Duchess (I think).
To anyone who parsed 1A – deep respect
bridgesong @22. I read it as ban on banter as in how a fraction or division is expressed, although I usually say ‘over’ but I’ve heard both.
paddymelon @24
I’m not sure that your “fractional” interpretation of “ban on banter” works. If “banter” and “ban” are algebraic terms then “ban on banter” give us the inverse of “ter” (“1 on/over ter) which isn’t half of wit!
I still feel that “ban on banter” was a typo and should have read “ban in banter”. i.e half of the letters of banter.
BNTO @25
“ban in banter” works better in the wordplay, but destroys the surface. Bans are almost always “on” things. However, a ban “of” something doesn’t clang too badly and the wordplay perhaps works better than “on”. With the extra help from the link to 2a, it was gettable anyway, so while not ideal, it wasn’t too bad really, was it?
I struggled with the top half but got there in the end. It was worth it. Like others I thought 1a was a bit dodgy. Favourites were MOTORWAY EXIT and SPANDEX.
But splendid does not mean regal unless we’re being very loose with our definitions