Mostly very straightforward clueing from Pan (who is a recent addition to the cryptic slot, after many years of setting Quiptics), with only 7d causing me any difficulty in parsing. Pleasant enough, if not terribly exciting. Thanks to Pan.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | SCOPED | Officer found with drug in empty shed is closely investigated (6) COP (police officer) in S[he]D |
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| 5. | RECIPE | New price includes chemist’s third formula (6) [ch]E[mist] in PRICE* |
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| 8. | AMOROUS | Passionate Australian given new room with American (7) A + ROOM* + US |
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| 9. | COMPACT | Press agreement (7) Double definition |
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| 11. | EVENING PRIMROSE | Regimen is proven to generate a flower (7,8) (REGIMEN IS PROVEN)* |
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| 12. | TONY | Play bagging nation’s first award for acting (4) N[ation] in TOY (to play). The Tony awards are named after the actress and director Antoinette “Tony” Perry |
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| 13. | CASUALTIES | People injured by throwaway matches? (10) CASUAL TIES |
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| 17. | ROTISSERIE | Oven from Rio is reset differently (10) (RIO IS RESET)* |
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| 18. | STIR | Commotion caused by heads of state talking in riddles (4) First letters of State Talking In Riddles |
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| 20. | NATIONAL SERVICE | Flying alien contrives to secure a spell in the army? (8,7) A in (ALIEN CONTRIVES)* |
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| 23. | EXALTED | Revered former editor pinching a large journalist’s bottom (7) A L [journalis]T in EX-ED |
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| 24. | RETRAIN | Retired queen and retinue prepare for new job (7) Reverse of E.R. + TRAIN |
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| 25. | BENDER | Heavy drinking session sees new head of department drowning in ale (6) N D[epartment] in BEER |
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| 26. | DINNER | Revolutionary coming back to eat pub grub? (6) INN (pub) in reverse of RED (communist, revolutionary) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2. | CLOSE-KNIT | Stop king and fool becoming united by social ties (5-4) CLOSE (stop) + K + NIT |
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| 3. | PROLIX | Verbose expert hearing short musical phrases (6) PRO + homophone of “licks” |
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| 4. | DESIGNATE | Choose to throw giants’ pants in river (9) GIANTS* in [River] DEE |
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| 5. | RACER | Bishop adopting star competitor (5) ACE in RR (Right Reverend) |
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| 6. | CAMOMILE | Put in an appearance outside retro car plant (8) Reverse of LIMO in CAME |
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| 7. | PLATO | Short coat given to old philosopher (5) I think this is PLAT[E] (“cover (a metal object) with a thin coating of a different metal”, which could mean to coat) + O |
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| 8. | AGENT ORANGE | Herbicide makes a fellow a goner, unfortunately (5,6) |
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| 10. | TREE SURGEON | Troy’s first prophet turned up to encourage woodworker (4,7) T + reverse of SEER + URGE ON |
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| 14. | UNINSURED | Without cover, nude run is rescheduled (9) (NUDE RUN IS)* |
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| 15. | INTRICATE | Fancy popular gallery keeping racist leader in charge! (9) R[acist] IC in IN (popular) TATE |
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| 16. | ASSORTED | Various roads set out (8) (ROADS SET)* |
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| 19. | BRETON | Brother returned short letter to someone from Brest? (6) BR + reverse of NOTE |
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| 21. | TRACE | Sign made by team leader at sporting event (5) T[eam] + RACE. The online solution has “trade”, which must be a mistake (now corrected, I see) |
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| 22. | ADDER | Dared to wrestle a snake! (5) |
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Thanks for the exposition Andrew. I had the same trouble as you with 21d – it drove me mad trying to figure out what was wrong. I also had my doubts about 7a, and came to the same conclusion as you.
Thanks Pan and Andrew
An obvious point, I suppose, but this would have been a very good Quiptic (much better than Anto’s yesterday). I parsed PLATO as you did, Andrew.
btw misprint; AGENT ORANGE isn’t a complete anagram as you give, Andrew – “a fellow” is A GENT
…and the fodder for ADDER is “dared” (it would be a bit too easy if it had been “adder”!)
Yes, not too exciting. Took me a bit of time to find CLOSE-KNIT, but apart from that seemed a bit Mondayish. I liked PROLIX and CASUALTIES. Thanks to Pan and Andrew.
Andrew and drifle@5: Ditto
Favourites were 13a CASUALTIES, 2d CLOSE-KNIT, and 14d UNINSURED (I read the latter as NUDE NUNS, which was a great visual, but had to rethink when I checked the anagram).
Thank you to Pan and Andrew.
Pleasant enough, but could easily have fitted in the Quiptic slot.
Nothing here that would suggest that Pan is not a good next step to suit those looking to branch out from the Monday Rufus. All easy enough but very nicely crafted.
Thanks to Pan and Andrew
Thanks to Muffin for pointing out my careless errors – now corrected.
Thanks Pan and Andrew.
Yes, at the Quiptic end of the spectrum but enjoyable. I think to plate = to coat is fine.
CASUALTIES took me about as long as the rest of the puzzle to fathom out, but a nice clue.
My favourites were CAMOMILE and CASUAL TIES.
I’m glad that TRACE was correct!
Thanks blogger and setter
Like others above, I found this puzzle to be a quick solve, almost like a second Rufus offering in a row. I enjoyed the anagram in 20a and thought there was some very nice surface cluing, particularly in several of the Down entries, including 2d, 4d, 8d, 14d, and 22d. LOI, and hardest for me, was CAMOMILE, as I am more familiar with this word when spelled with a “CH” at the beginning. Thanks to Pan and Andrew.
BTW — and apologies if others have made this same observation in the past — but I was thinking when solving 4d that if one had nothing but familiarity with crosswords to go on, one would think that the River Dee and the River Exe were among the most significant rivers in the world.
For me, CASUALTIES was the stand out clue.
Thank you Pan and Andrew.
That was quick, but very pleasant – I was hoping for something more time consuming so as not to be tempted back into the battle with the Prize…
CASUALTIES was my last in, I needed the crossers, now my favourite with PROLIX, CLOSE-KNIT and TREE SURGEON as runners-up.
Good point DaveMc@14!!
Like many others I found this relaxingly easy, mostly. Thanks to Pan and Andrew.
Thanks Pan and Andrew
A gentle solve, with some enjoyable surfaces. As someone who used to work in the industry, I particularly enjoyed 14dn.
DaveMc @14 – not forgetting the Po and the Ure.
Thanks to Pan and Andrew. I paused over the “plate” for PLATO but like others found this a quick but enjoyable solve.
I very much agree that this was a fairly straightforward challenge, though one minor quibble would be the cluing of A as Australian in AMOROUS- I haven’t come across this use of A previously. My personal favourites were BENDER, DINNER, CAMOMILE and TREE SURGEON. Thanks to Pan and Andrew
A quick solve-indeed,some seemed too easy to be true – but a competent puzzle. My only delay was the parsing of SCOPED. I don’t think I’ve come across the word used in this way before.
CASUALTIES was the pick of the bunch.
Thanks Pan.
In 4D, what is the word “pants” doing there?
Steven @22
I took it as the anagram indicator (“It’s pants” meaning “it’s terrible) for GIANTS, which is then “thrown into” the river.
I finished this in good order but didn’t copletely parse 10D
muffin: Thanks. I did not know the expression “It’s pants”, and it had seemed to me that “thrown into” was enough to suggest mixing, so the “pants” seemed superfluous.
El Ingles: “Troy’s first” is T. “Prophet turned up” is REES (seer turned up). “To encourage” is URGE ON.
Steven @25
It’s not an expression that I’d ever consider using!
Pants is in common usage among the generations younger than most crossword solvers and I thought it was inventive as an anagrind – although it’s probably been used before.
Like others have said it was a pleasant solve clearly clued. Thanks Pan and Andrew.
What a lot of patronising comments, “damning with faint praise”!
I enjoyed it but still don’t get PROLIX. What is the homophone here?
Licks – guitar breaks.
Faint praise indeed – it wasn’t very good.
Thanks, but what is a guitar break??
Don’t worry, found it on Google. ?somewhat recondite
Familiar in certain circles, but I agree that it is possibly not in general usage.
Hurray for Pan’s promotion and thanks Andrew for the blog.
I enjoyed this, so that’s all that matters really? I could have lived without the Right Reverend Bishop and the fact that I am familiar with EVENING PRIMROSE, and NATIONAL SERVICE is just an an an anachronism, even for putative antiques like me: 60 years ago now?
But good stuff for a Tuesday imho.
Cookie @ 16 (if you’re still around). I decided yesterday not to waste more hours on the impossible ‘prize’. I’ve left it at a friends so as not to be tempted.
The Prize certainly isn’t impossible — a lovely feeling of triumph (in spite of a couple of quibbles) when it all fell into place. Looking forward to comments on Sat.
I thought one wasn’t supposed to comment on a current prize puzzle. Please desist as all comments have information in them which isn’t welcome to some solvers. (How hard is this to understand?!!)
P.S. This is a comment on “comments on the prize” before anyone comes back with the obvious puerile comment! 😉
What’s all this “damned by faint praise” and “it wasn’t very good”?
This puzzle was crap! Too easy even for a Quiptic. Some strange cluing and if one can use Australian for “A” then one can use any country’s adjective for it’s first letter. Nonsense!
Obviously an editor hasn’t been near this.
BNTO, ‘some strange cluing’?
Tell us about it.
Too easy, even for a Quiptic?
That’s not a fair criticism.
What is ‘too easy’ anyway.
And is that a criterion for a crossword being good or not good??
‘A’ is in the dictionaries for ‘Australian’.
Obviously an editor hasn’t been near this.
Sometimes we can indeed point a finger at him, though not today.