Sturdy Tuesday puzzle with smooth surfaces and few surprises
Faultless clueing with a couple of good jokes, though some clues seemed oddly familiar. Thanks to Crux.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ROADWORKS | Odd non-English words are OK – they slow you down (9) |
| Anagram (‘odd’) of WORDS ARe OK, wihout E[nglish]. | ||
| 6 | HASTE | Leader abandons modest expedition (5) |
| cHASTE (‘modest’), without its head. | ||
| 9 | BEANO | Party’s instruction to vote against? (5) |
| i.e., BE A ‘NO’. | ||
| 10 | NOSTALGIA | Drunk lost again in reminiscence (9) |
| Anagram (‘drunk’) of LOST AGAIN. | ||
| 11 | TO ONE S HEAD | Where wine and spirits may go . . . and success also (2,3,1,4) |
| Cryptic & jocular double definition. | ||
| 12 | DEFT | Expert with poor marks on paper (4) |
| D & E are both poor exam marks, then F[inancial] T[imes] | ||
| 14 | ALL EARS | A primarily lonely old king’s listening closely (3,4) |
| A + L (first letter of Lonely) + LEAR’S. | ||
| 15 | NEONATE | Newborn given gas at end of procedure (7) |
| NEON (‘gas’) + AT + E (end of ‘procedurE’). | ||
| 17 | ACHIEVE | To some extent with a coach I eventually succeed (7) |
| Inclusion in ‘coACH I EVEntually’. | ||
| 19 | COHERES | He breaks hearts and is consistent (7) |
| HE in CORES (‘hearts’). | ||
| 20 | TAME | Break in length of clematis needs cutting back (4) |
| Reversed inclusion in clEMATis. ‘Break’ as in to tame, e.g., a horse. | ||
| 22 | DRINKING-UP | The time for last swallows, departing (8-2) |
| Whole-clue cryptic for the saddest part of the evening. | ||
| 25 | UNDERLINE | Foreign articles associated with work cause stress (9) |
| UN (Fr.) + DER (Ger.) – ‘foreign articles’ + LINE (‘work’) as in “What’s my line?”. I had this first as ‘undermine’ = ’cause stress’, which kinda works but only if ‘works’ is in the plural, which it isn’t. | ||
| 26 | HINDI | Stern one is heard in India (5) |
| HIND (‘stern’) + 1. | ||
| 27 | KNAVE | The villain of the pack (5) |
| Sort of DD. My grandmother always referred to the ‘Knave’ of, say, trumps. | ||
| 28 | GO TO SLEEP | Tired of hearing Nessun dorma? An appropriate response! (2,2,5) |
| Aria from Puccini’s Turandot, of course. ‘Nessun dorma’ means ‘none shall sleep’. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ROBOT | Modern car manufacture, British in origin (5) |
| B[ritish] in ROOT (‘origin’). | ||
| 2 | AYATOLLAH | Sort of hat a loyal religious leader appears in (9) |
| Anagram (‘sort’) of HAT A LOYAL. The clue makes sense (as much as they ever do) even though the def. is, unusually, at neither end. | ||
| 3 | WHOLESALER | Merchant seaman’s predicament takes priority, we’re told (10) |
| Homophones (‘we’re told’) of ‘hole’ (‘predicament’) and ‘sailor’. | ||
| 4 | RANCHES | Possibly spreads out in the west (7) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 5 | SUSTAIN | Soil surrounds us and gives support (7) |
| STAIN (‘soil’) around US. | ||
| 6, 13 | HEAD FOR HEIGHTS | Go uphill – it’s a must for climbers (4,3,7) |
| Cryptic double def. | ||
| 7 | SEGUE | Girl entertains, say, with this musical link (5) |
| EG (‘say’) in SUE. | ||
| 8 | EXACTNESS | Precision perfomance welcomed by one-time head (9) |
| ACT (‘performance’) in (‘welcomed by’) EX (‘one-time’) and NESS (‘head’). | ||
| 13 | See 6 | |
| 14 | A FAST BUCK | Easy money made by one firm throw (1,4,4) |
| A + FAST (‘firm’) + BUCK (‘throw’, as in a horse getting its own back for being broken, see supra). | ||
| 16 | ARROGANCE | Pride shown by Josh’s leader in mixed race (9) |
| ROGAN (usu. + ‘josh’, popular curry) in anagram (‘mixed’) of RACE. | ||
| 18 | EARRING | Jewellery item going amiss needs one installing (7) |
| ERRING (‘going amiss’) includes A (‘one’). | ||
| 19 | CONVERT | Change name in secret (7) |
| N[ame] in COVERT (‘secret’). Neat clue. | ||
| 21 | MEDIA | Process aimed to create such studies at university? (5) |
| Anagram (‘processed’) of AIMED. | ||
| 23 | PRIMP | Dress up like a proper prince (5) |
| PRIM (‘proper’) + P[rince]. | ||
| 24 | BRAE | Scottish bank starts off brisk recovery after expansion (4) |
| First letters of (= ‘starts off’) last 4 words. | ||
*anagram
Excellent crossword. I must admit I thought there was an error in 5d since ‘gives support’ leads to ‘sustains’ not ‘sustain’ but, of course, you are right and ‘gives’ is not part of the definition. Thanks both.
Thanks for the blog, Grant.
I didn’t find this puzzle entertaining. I don’t like CRUX’s style.
Devious definitions! Well done Crux and thanks to Grant.
Thanks Crux and Grant
Tougher than normal from this setter I thought … and the more enjoyable for that ! Lots of entertaining clues and some nifty deception along the way as well. For example, I was looking for J instead of a ROGAN as ‘Josh’s leader’ for way too long – and then a tilt of the cap as the penny dropped.
Ended up with the error at 22a – taking it the next step beyond DRINKING UP and had BRINGING UP (where the last swallows actually do depart) !!
That was my last one in following HEAD FOR HEIGHTS which had to be prised out slowly with all bar one of the crossers in.