The puzzle can be found here.
I’m afraid I was unable to complete the parsing of this crossword. Steve at comment No 2 has stepped in to set me right.
I couldn’t parse 2dn – I knew the answer was ANOINT, but couldn’t work out if it was AN___T or A___NT.
I got 14 ac all wrong – thinking that the “face speculators” bit was the definition.
The good thing about 15×15, though, is that someone else will always come forward with sensible explanations to make up for my failings.
Other than these two clues, the rest of the puzzle was enjoyable, with just enough clues that were challenging enough for the crossword not to be a “write-in”. The down clues were easier than the across ones, in my opinion.
Thanks, Aardvark.
| Across | ||
| 1 | WALLOW | Flounder and bass seen on Washington lake (6) |
| LOW (“bass”) seen on Wa.(shington) L(ake) | ||
| 5 | SEARCH ME | March about in religious ground I don’t know (6,2) |
| *(march) in SEE (“religious ground”) | ||
| 9 | TORTILLA | Manuel’s dish? Everyone has it with tripe that’s passed round (8) |
| <=ALL IT ROT (“everyone” “it” and “tripe”) all reversed (passed around) | ||
| 10 | GLANCE | Cricket shot, cut clinically by Glamorgan’s opener (6) |
| LANCE (“cut clinically”) by G(lamorgan) | ||
| 11 | ENMESH | Involve outsiders to explain chaos reported by drunkard? (6) |
| E(xplai)N + MESH (“mess” as pronouned by someone who’s drunk) | ||
| 12 | ALLEGORY | Friend absorbs for example soldier’s symbolic narration (8) |
| ALLY (“friend”) absorbs E.G. (“for example”) + O.R. (other ranks, so “soldier”) | ||
| 14 | BEAR SCRUTINY` | Stand up vintage miniature to face speculators (4,8) |
| BEARS (“speculators”) + CRU (“vintage”) + TINY (“miniature”) | ||
| 18 | ROUGH PASSAGE | Wise man following group has weathered stormy sea voyage (5,7) |
| SAGE (“wise man”) following *(group has) | ||
| 22 | CAREWORN | Tired vehicle owner crashed (8) |
| CAR (“vehicle”) + *(owner) | ||
| 25 | DODDLE | Hanging around day after day, jobseekers receive this piece of cake (6) |
| DOLE (“jobseekers receive this”) around D(ay) after D(ay) | ||
| 26 | FIBULA | Bon e to lie next to another that is nameless (6) |
| FIB (“to lie”) next to UL(n)A (“another” (bone) with no N (nameless)) | ||
| 27 | GRAVITAS | Importance one attached to reducing sauce, tasted halfway through (8) |
| GRAV(y) (“sauce”, reducing) + I (“one) + TAS(ted) | ||
| 28 | HAREBELL | Flowering plant’s on stand in lobby (8) |
| RE (“on”) + BE (“stand”) in HALL | ||
| 29 | LOLLOP | One quietly avoids ice-cream in lounge (6) |
| LOLL(ip)OP (“ice-cream”) with I (“one”) and P(iano) (“quietly”) avoided
Wasn’t sure about this, but at least one online dictionary has “lollipop” meaning “ice cream”, although I have always used “ice lolly”, with lollipop being a hard (or sometimes chewy) sweet on a stick. |
||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ANOINT | Smear with oil, developing tan around head? (6) |
| *(ant) around NO. 1 (“head”) | ||
| 3 | LITTERBUG | Public nuisance in US, 51, close to rehab, in gutter sadly (9) |
| LI (“51” in Roman numerals) + (reha)B in *(gutter) | ||
| 4 | WELSH HARP | Race by greedy woman to get discounted music player (5,4) |
| WELSH (“race”) by HARP(y) (“greedy woman” discounted) | ||
| 5 | SEA BASS | As discussed, observe deep fish (3,4) |
| Homophone of SEE (“observe”, as discussed) + BASS (“deep”) | ||
| 6 | ANGEL | Financial backer raised support after seeing article (5) |
| <=LEG (“support”, raised) after AN (“article”) | ||
| 7 | CLANG | Resounding noise queen’s ignored in error (5) |
| CLANG(er) (“error”, with ER (“queen”) ignored) | ||
| 8 | MACARONI | Scotsman on-air chewed Italian food (8) |
| MAC (“Scotsman”) + *(on-air) | ||
| 13 | EMU | Bird getting divorce from you finally (3) |
| Final letters of (divorc)E (fro)M (yo)U | ||
| 15 | ROALD DAHL | Author, seeing learner in street, had turned left (5,4) |
| L(earner) in ROAD (“street”) + *(had) + L(eft) | ||
| 16 | TREADMILL | Study philosopher? After time, it’s routine drudgery (9) |
| READ MILL (“study philosopher”) after T(ime) | ||
| 17 | MONA LISA | My French pseudonym used, when exchanging painting (4,4) |
| MON (“my” in French) + ALI-SA (“psudonym” (alias) with AS (“when”) exchanging letters) | ||
| 19 | HEW | Fell when briefly jogging (3) |
| *(whe)(n) | ||
| 20 | SENEGAL | Country girl beneath river losing heart (7) |
| GAL (“girl”) beneath SE(i)NE (“river” losing heart) | ||
| 21 | EL PASO | US city centres to sell alpaca? True (2,4) |
| Centres of (t)EL(l) (al)PA(ca) + SO (“true”) | ||
| 23 | EXUDE | Discharge emptied underground enters English river (5) |
| U(ndergroun)D enters EXE (“English river”) | ||
| 24 | ORATE | Speak in public for a test, partly (5) |
| Hidden in (partly) “fOR A TEst” | ||
*anagram
Apologies for the late blog. I left the house this morning, thinking it had posted on fifteensquared, but it appears I may have forgotten to press the right buttons at the end, so I’ll need to check what happened when I get home tonight…
Thanks AARDVARK and Loonapick. Re 2 down, it’s an anagram of tan around No. 1 (number 1) = head. The definition for 14 across is ‘stand up’ – then the clue works just fine.
Some of the corners were solved quite quickly but the NW held out longer than most
Thanks to Aardvark and Loonapick
My parsing matches Steve@2, so no problems. Had to think a bit to see BE as ‘stand’ in 28a but then thought of ‘let it be’ which works for me. Was also confused at first with 5d since the fish BASS doesn’t sound like the singer but, as you rightly say, the ‘as discussed’ only applies to the first part. Thanks to all.
I suppose if you are number one then you are ‘head’, but in RN the number is not: he is number two (no smirking please) as First Lieutenant.
An enjoyable work-out.
(sorry: should read ‘in RN the number one is not’ etc.)
Thanks to Aardvark and loonapick. WELSH HARP defeated me as did ENMESH so I failed in the NW corner. I did not know LOLLOP but did parse it but was not sure about the BE (or REBE) in HAREBELL and did not parse ANOINT. The clue for TIBULA in my printout version statrs with “Bon e” not “Bone.” Still, an enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks Aardvark and loonapick
A pretty solid workout and was another who ended up in the NW corner with WELSH HARP (that I didn’t previously know and that took some working out from the word play as well), ANOINT (which was even harder to parse after looking the only possibility) and WALLOW (another toughie) as the last one in.
Hadn’t seen a LOLLIPOP defined as an ice-cream, although we have one called a Paddle Pop down here which is basically a flavoured milk-based ice on a stick.
A good variety of clues with many of them requiring quite a bit of work with the bits of the word play to figure them out.