It must be several months since a Peter puzzle turned up on blogging day, so this was a pleasant change.
A good enjoyable puzzle, if not too challenging. I generally raced through it, with the SE corner putting up slightly more of a fight than the rest, perhaps. Indeed, Last One In was 23dn which I think was a new term for me, though the wordplay was clear and the checking generous.
If I were to pick a favourite it might be 16 across, where I enjoyed the construction, and just think it’s rather a nice word that should be used more often!
Anyway, thanks to Peter for a classic Sunday puzzle.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TEST MATCH | Team leader set off with item that’s struck in sporting fixture (4,5) |
| T[eam] + SET* + MATCH. | ||
| 6 | WHIT | Trifle with buffet (4) |
| W + HIT. | ||
| 8 | TIRAMISU | Sweet setter following male wearing new suit (8) |
| (RAM + I) in SUIT*. Interesting to see this come up after SEMIFREDDO yesterday. Presumably nothing more than coincidence, though. | ||
| 9 | AVERSE | Reluctant saver forged stub of cheque (6) |
| SAVER* + [chequ]E. | ||
| 10 | DEGREE | Qualification held by roadside greengrocer (6) |
| Hidden in [roadsi]DE GREE[ngrocer]. | ||
| 11 | PASTORAL | Finished vocal work depicting country life (8) |
| PAST + ORAL. | ||
| 12 | CROWNS | Councillor has headgear (6) |
| CR + OWNS. | ||
| 15 | TROTTERS | Rocks placed round river’s extremities? (8) |
| TOTTERS placed around R. | ||
| 16 | OFTTIMES | Frequently archaic old newspapers (8) |
| O + FT + TIMES. | ||
| 19 | ENIGMA | Three excited about good puzzle (6) |
| G in MAINE*. The “three” is a reference to 3 down, though I hope I can’t be the only to spend a moment thinking it was part of the anagram fodder! | ||
| 21 | GRIDIRON | Government clear press network (8) |
| G + RID + IRON. | ||
| 22 | ARNICA | Engineer in a car plant (6) |
| Anagram of (IN A CAR)* | ||
| 24 | ANKLET | Bank letterheads featuring ornamental band (6) |
| Hidden in [b]ANK LET[terheads]. | ||
| 25 | BROWBEAT | Books about conflict put away for bully (8) |
| (ROW in (B + B)) + EAT. | ||
| 26 | PARR | Standard river fish (4) |
| PAR + R. | ||
| 27 | NEGLIGENT | Careless fellow following German during line dancing (9) |
| (G in LINE*) + GENT. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TRICE | Second knight leaving cards won by earl (5) |
| TRIC[k] + E. I’d always though of N as “knight”, as in chess, though the K seems perfectly plausible too. | ||
| 2 | SPARROW | Bird box controversy (7) |
| SPAR + ROW. | ||
| 3 | MAINE | Take up space adjoining one American state (5) |
| (EN + I + AM)<. | ||
| 4 | TRUMPET | Politician interrupting real time broadcast (7) |
| (MP in TRUE) + T. | ||
| 5 | HEADSTONE | Various deaths marked by single memorial (9) |
| DEATHS* + ONE. | ||
| 6 | WEED OUT | Get rid of small uncertainty without Britain (4,3) |
| WEE + DOU[b]T. | ||
| 7 | App popular with animals? (9) | |
| IN + STAG + RAM. | ||
| 13 | REFERENDA | Soldiers participating in new and free opportunities to vote (9) |
| RE in (AND FREE)*. | ||
| 14 | SAMARITAN | Helper of devil eating up one animal (9) |
| (I + RAM)< in SATAN. | ||
| 17 | TIDDLER | Theologian left to tuck into rank fish (7) |
| (DD + L) in TIER. | ||
| 18 | SANDBAG | Band trained to go in to drop flood defence (7) |
| BAND* in SAG. | ||
| 20 | IGNOBLE | Dishonorable women leaving joint with new soldier stood up (7) |
| (ELBO[w] + N + GI)<. | ||
| 22 | AIOLI | Dressing is perfect with stems of broccoli (5) |
| A1 + [brocc]OLI. | ||
| 23 | CLART | Mud left in vehicle (5) |
| L in CART. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
nice puzzle thanks to Peter and Simon. I haven’t seen 23d for about 40 years; it reminds me of my dear mother who was always exasperated at having to wash my clarty trousers when I got home from playing football in the local park when I was a little ‘un
Clart is well-known to me, at least as a verb. Must be a Northern thing, maybe. Strange to see RAM crop up 3 times, 8a, 7d and 14d. Also ROW twice, 2d and 25a (also appears in 12a but not clued as such). Thanks to S&B.
Fairly gentle but with a couple of new words – CLART (may come in useful) and ARNICA – and I still managed to fail on 1d, entering ‘twice’ for no better reason than it had something to do with ‘Second’. I parsed 6a as an anagram of ‘with’ but I suppose either parsing works.
TROTTERS and the ‘App popular with animals?’ (not including me) were my favourites.
Thanks to Peter and Simon
Worry not, Simon, I was with you in the anagram hunt for 19a!
Lots to enjoy in this one which resulted in 11&16a plus 7d jostling for the lead.
Thanks to Peter and to Simon for the blog.
I really liked this. Lots of cleverness but applied with a light touch, making for a delightful solve.
As for Simon, CLART was my last in, with a nice moment when the message appeared telling me I had got it all right.
I like TIRAMISU, OFTTIMES, BROWBEAT, NEGLIGENT, SPARROW, HEADSTONE and INSTAGRAM. That’s a lot of favourites, but I can’t be bothered to narrow the field today.
Thanks to Peter and Simon.
Go for a walk around the Peak District. You’ll be up to your knees in clarts.
Excellent Sunday afternoon puzzle, though I’m still looking for an egerth puzzle for 19A! Good misdirection by the setter.
Thanks for the puzzle and the blog.
Good puzzle; thanks for blogging, Simon.
And of course if you’re a Geordie, ye can gaan ter plodge in the clarts …
To chess players, K=king. Knight can be N or Kt, so 1D is inaccurate
Goujeers @8
No inaccuracy in 1dn. From Chambers:
6. King (in cards and chess)
8. Knight
A pleasant Sunday diversion with nothing too taxing, although a few took a while to see or parse. We hadn’t encountered CLART as a noun before but had met ‘clarty’ so no problem there.
One little niggle about the use of ‘ram’ three times – as ‘male’ in 8ac and as ‘animal’ in 7dn and 14dn. Lots of good clues, though. We liked 19ac for the momentary misdirection about ‘three’ and 25ac for ‘books’ not being ‘ot’ or ‘nt’. Our favourites, though, were OFTTIMES and IGNOBLE.
Thanks, Peter and Simon
ThanksPeter and Simon
Goujeers @ 8: to support Gaufrid @ 9: K = Knight in (eg) KBE, KCMG and many other honorifics, also the familiar/colloquial “He was given a K in the honours list”. No inaccuracy at all.
Doing this while waiting for the Super Bowl to start, so amused to see 21ac.
Grew up in the north east, so I knew 23dn. However, I was born in London and it made my classmates laugh if I tried to say the word with a southern long ‘a’ sound.
Nice staightforward puzzle which I enjoyed. Failed to parse MAINE so thanks to Simon for that. Knew CLART from a NE upbringing. Was a bit thrown by “stems of broccoli, although it was easy enough to see what was wanted. Thanks Peter and Simon.