Enjoyable and accessible puzzle.
There was a nice mixture of conventional clues and pop culture, with a few modern twists such as having Islamic State as the terrorist group rather than the usual ETA or IRA.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PROOFREAD | Check text in block of paper (including covering note) (9) |
| Pad around roof(=covering) + re(=note) | ||
| 6 | PILAR | Spanish woman‘s half-hearted column (5) |
| Pil[l]ar | ||
| 9 | RISER | One climbing scripture teacher reflects (5) |
| (RE sir)< | ||
| 10 | UNNOTICED | Continued going round without being seen (9) |
| Continued* | ||
| 11 | HEATHCLIFF | Prime Minister Richard perhaps a romantic hero (10) |
| (Ted) Heath + Cliff (Richard) | ||
| 12 | MESS | Place to eat dog’s breakfast (4) |
| DD | ||
| 14 | PAGEBOY | Time wearing lead starts to offend your servant (7) |
| Age in Pb + initial letters of o[ffend] y[our] | ||
| 15 | REEKING | Smelly birdman (7) |
| I think this is Ree, which is a female sandpiper (usually called reeve) + king, referred to as a man in Chess. | ||
| 17 | GO TO SEE | Understood a couple of points about sailor’s visit (2,2,3) |
| Got + EE around OS (ordinary seaman) | ||
| 19 | STOOGES | 17 mostly confused by first of several fall guys (7) |
| (Go to se[a])* + s[everal] | ||
| 20 | LAST | When officer goes outside, go on (4) |
| As with Lt around it | ||
| 22 | PROVIDENCE | In the south of France, unconscious of divine intervention (10) |
| Id in Provence, a maybe questionable association since Provence just an area of the south of France rather than the whole thing. | ||
| 25 | SLENDERER | Without one making advances, series gets less substantial (9) |
| Ser(ies) around lender | ||
| 26 | ALONG | By the side of American pine (5) |
| A(merican) + long(as in long for) | ||
| 27 | SPRAY | Agile one enters fine mist (5) |
| Spry around a | ||
| 28 | PARODISTS | They take off normal poets (9) |
| Par + odists | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PORCH | Covered entrance for Spanish companion (5) |
| Por(Spanish for) + ch (companion of honour) | ||
| 2 | ONSLAUGHT | Johnson’s laughter seen partly as an attack (9) |
| Hidden in johnsONS LAUGHTer | ||
| 3 | FOR THE BEST | Supporting ancient city, the man leaves to get preferred outcome (3,3,4) |
| For Thebes + t[he] | ||
| 4 | EQUALLY | Queen punches Brussels friend in the same way (7) |
| Qu in E(uropean) ally | ||
| 5 | DONE FOR | Coming up through entrance, Marsh gets killed (4,3) |
| Fen< in door | ||
| 6 | PETS | Rung up cats? (4) |
| Step< | ||
| 7 | LOCKE | Put barriers in the way of naked philosopher (5) |
| [B]locke[d] | ||
| 8 | REDESIGNS | Alters structure of rules about Dutch and French art (9) |
| Reigns around D(utch) + es (French version of thou art = tu es). | ||
| 13 | SECOND HAND | Used part of analogue time display (6,4) |
| DD | ||
| 14 | PUGILISTS | Fighters initially getting in line to join terrorists in places (9) |
| G[etting] + i(n) l(ine) + IS (Islamic State) in puts | ||
| 16 | INGENIOUS | Up-to-date information on satellite you and I find clever (9) |
| In + gen + Io (Jupiter moon) + us | ||
| 18 | EARDROP | Active predator with no time for jewellery (7) |
| [Preda[t]or)* | ||
| 19 | SEVERER | Cutter being comparatively serious (7) |
| DD, cutter being sever-er | ||
| 21 | SPEAR | Fight about energy weapon (5) |
| Spar around e(nergy) | ||
| 23 | EDGES | Shelves have no large advantages (5) |
| [L]edges | ||
| 24 | EDDY | Nelson maybe finally gone – and died heroically (4) |
| Final letters of gonE anD dieD heroicallY – ref to Nelson Eddy, US singer | ||
*anagram
That ‘art’ frequently fools me as does that particular sailor so those were my last two in.
I have a hatred of words such as 25a – who would ever actually say it? Apart from that one, it was a fine puzzle, my top spots going to 12a&13d.
Thank you, Alchemi, and thanks also to Neal for a neat and concise blog.
22 is OK, I think, as something that is “in Provence” is “in the south of France” without Provence and South of France needing to be synonyms.
Thanks to Alchemi and NealH
Enjoyable and quite quickly solved. PROVIDENCE was obvious but we couldn’t parse it, not recognising ‘id’ as ‘unconscious’. And interestingly we got STOOGES before GO TO SEE.
No real problem with SLENDERER – we have come across it in ‘everyday’ use, unlike some other comparatives that sometimes crop up in crosswords. A useful guideline for forming comparatives is that adding ‘er’ is fine for words of one syllable; for words of two syllables either add ‘er’ or prefix with ‘more’ and for words of more than two syllables always prefix with ‘more’. Similarly with superlatives using ‘-est’/’most’.
Thanks, Alchemi and NealH
Good Monday puzzle, I thought. My pick of the day goes to 23d which is the sort of surface that, for me, carries a humour all its own by tapping into the everyday sort of language we use and the things we say. Many thanks to The Changeling for the puzzle and to Neal for the blog.
Thanks Alchemi , very enjoyable.
I didn’t recognise the Spanish woman, but clear from wordplay.
I liked “covering note”, UNNOTICED, PAGEBOY, GOT TO SEE ( though I also got stooges first), and my favourites I think are PARODISTS and ONSLAUGHT. Plenty more to like.
thaNks NealH for the review.