Rather devil-may-care, I thought. A bright & cheerful offering from Falcon.
As exemplified by 3d, 4d & 6d, fun rather slavish obedience to convention are our watchwords today. Good fun. Thanks to Falcon.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COLOSSAL | Extremely large reduction in fuel that’s consumed (8) |
| LOSS (‘reduction’) in COAL (‘fuel that’s consumed’) although I’m not quite sure what ‘as consumed’ adds to the clue. Neater without, I’d have thought. | ||
| 5 | FIASCO | Disaster within Sofia’s community (6) |
| Inclusion in ‘soFIAS COmmunity’. | ||
| 10 | NIRVANA | Currently fashionable, retired artist capturing camper in idyllic place? (7) |
| IN (‘currently fashionable’), reversed (‘retired’)’ = NI – a lot of fuss for 2 letters – then RA (‘artist’) includes VAN (‘camper’, possibly, hence question-mark). Blimey. | ||
| 11 | OF A SORT | Inferior: far too loose round head of screw (2,1,4) |
| But I liked this definition. Anagram (‘loose’) of FAR TOO around S, (head of Screw). | ||
| 12 | AWASH | Flooded a laundry (5) |
| A + WASH (‘laundry’). | ||
| 13 | KIPPER TIE | Neckwear for smokehouse worker in Arbroath? (6,3) |
| Cryptic definition, ref. to ‘Arbroath smokies’, delicious, young, smoked haddock from that part of the world and always worth a detour to buy when we’re gigging up there. | ||
| 14 | UP AND RUNNING | Fully functional, like a jogger before dawn? (2,3,7) |
| Double definition, the 2nd jocular cryptic. | ||
| 18 | CARRY THROUGH | Accomplish win, getting clear (5,7) |
| Double, or two-and-a-half-ish cryptic definitions. Pick the bones out for yourself. | ||
| 21 | RED CARPET | North Yorkshire resort, favoured one, gets special treatment (3,6) |
| REDCAR (‘North Yorkshire resort’) + PET (‘favoured one’). | ||
| 23 | TWIST | Unexpected development for Oliver? (5) |
| Double def. Surprising plot change + Dickensian surname. | ||
| 24 | ANGULAR | Bony, a maltreated langur (7) |
| A + anagram (‘maltreated’) of LANGUR. | ||
| 25 | MEASURE | Maine, a certain size (7) |
| ME (abb. of ‘Maine’, US state) + A + SURE (‘certain’). | ||
| 26 | ENLIST | Recruit, strangely silent (6) |
| Anagram (‘strangely’) of SILENT. | ||
| 27 | ADHERENT | One supporting that woman during a depression (8) |
| HER (‘that woman’) in A + DENT. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CONRAD | Novelist, Mauriac, on radio shows (6) |
| Inclusion (‘shows’) in ‘mauriaC ON RADio’. | ||
| 2 | LARIAT | Rope line, one gnawed by a rodent? (6) |
| L[ine] + 1 in A RAT (‘rodent’) seems to work, so why the question mark? | ||
| 3 | SLAP-HAPPY | Cheerfully irresponsible mates turned up in good spirits (4-5) |
| PALS (‘mates’) reversed + HAPPY (‘in good spirits’). Not overly cryptic, but in the spirit of this puzzle, I’d say. | ||
| 4 | A WALK IN THE PARK | A stroll through Kensington Gardens in a breeze? (1,4,2,3,4) |
| As is this breezy double-def. | ||
| 6 | INANE | How farce ends is silly (5) |
| The word ‘farcE’ of course ends “IN AN ‘E'”. Another fun clue. | ||
| 7 | SMOOTHIE | Those I’m worried about love a drink (8) |
| Anagram (‘worried’) of THOSE I’M around ‘0’ (‘love’). | ||
| 8 | OUTWEIGH | Exceed available balance (8) |
| OUT (‘available’, as in ‘the new model is out now’) + WEIGH (‘balance’). | ||
| 9 | COPPER-BOTTOMED | Reliable policeman on foot, on middle of aqueduct (6-8) |
| COPPER (‘policeman’) + BOTTOM (‘foot’) + middle of ‘aquEDuct’. | ||
| 15 | NIGHTMARE | Horrifying experience seeing cavalier beheaded on horse (9) |
| kNIGHT (‘cavalier’ without his head) + MARE (‘horse’). | ||
| 16 | SCARFACE | Female actor initially featured in rare film (8) |
| F[emale] + Actor (first letter, or ‘initially’) in SCARCE. | ||
| 17 | PRODIGAL | Extravagant getting special gold pair (8) |
| Anagram (‘special’) of GOLD PAIR, ‘prodigal’ being one of those words – like ‘ark’ and ‘manger’- that always look slightly lonely away from their biblical contexts. | ||
| 19 | FIGURE | Reckon value (6) |
| Double definition, Chambers confirms. | ||
| 20 | AT BEST | Bowled in a cricket match under the most favourable circumstances (2,4) |
| B[owled] in A TEST (‘cricket match’). | ||
| 22 | ATLAS | Book a sailor brought over (5) |
| A + SALT (‘sailor’), reversed (‘brought over’ in this Down clue). | ||
*anagram
Bright and cheerful indeed, but probably more one for someone relatively new to cryptics than those of us who found more than one ‘old friend’ in this particular crossword
Fun while it lasted so thank you to Falcon and Grant
Ok, but poor in parts imo. I agree with Grant’s criticism of 1a. Wasn’t too keen on 14a. I don’t think joggers run in bed when it’s after dawn. Even with the question mark, it doesn’t work for me. 18a? Another that doesn’t work for me. I reckon the question mark in 2d is just because a rodent need not be a rat. Not that anyone is likely to complain if there was no such punctuation. The use of ‘special’ as an anagrind in 17d seems a bit iffy but it does seem that almost any word (or sometimes none at all) works for setters.
Apart from these criticisms, the rest was fine if not sparkling. Thanks to S&B.
Thanks to Falcon and GB. For me, very enjoyable. Both Redcar and Arbroath smokies were new to me, but unlike Hovis my favorite was UP AND RUNNING. As a jogger in the summer when heat and humidity skyrocket by 8 AM, I must be functioning at or before dawn.
I liked 16d, 7d, 27a
Many thanks grant and falcon
Thanks Falcon and Grant
Enjoyed this a lot and even if it didn’t take as long as other setters, there was some ‘meat on the bone’ with a few of them – from local knowledge as in the ‘Arbroath smokie’ and the actual KIPPER TIE, the seaside resort of Redcar (although I think that there are races there, so it comes up on our list of things to bet on down here !), the term COPPER-BOTTOMED meaning ‘reliable’ and the phrase OF A SORT (that I didn’t know).
Liked UP AND RUNNING a lot.