Eimi made a reappearance in the Indy last week, and now we see a Raich puzzle for the first time for a while in the daily Indy (he has been contributing to the IoS, mainly). A sound and pleasing puzzle in the typically gentle Monday style. Since beginners tend to gravitate towards the Monday puzzles, I have tried to explain everything fully, but if there is something that is not clear, just ask.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Heard about jumper’s trick
RUSE
A homophone (‘heard about’) of ROO’S, referencing the Antipodean ‘jumpers’.
3 Risking jewellery after school?
GAMBLING
A charade of GAM and BLING. A GAM is a ‘school’ of whales (or porpoises or dolphins, according to some dictionaries).
10 Locate branch office – it does nothing!
PLACEBO
A charade of PLACE and BO, an abbreviation for Branch Office (or Branch and Office?) that I can’t remember ever seeing but which will be in a dictionary somewhere.
11 Porter admitting cricket side in school
COLLEGE
An insertion of LEG for the on ‘side’ in cricket in COLE Porter, the American composer and songwriter who died in 1964.
12 Final episode not changed showing stubbornness
SELF-OPINIONATED
(FINAL EPISODE NOT)* We see some esoteric anagrinds these days, but I don’t think anyone can argue with ‘changed’.
13 Dog seen in gym, family facility, we’re told
PEKINESE
A charade of PE for (school) ‘gym’, KIN for ‘family’ and ESE for a homophone of EASE. The homophone indicator is ‘we’re told’.
14 Remove worker, a sexist to some extent
ERASE
Hidden in workER A SExist.
17 Halls test cut short after article
ATRIA
A charade of A and TRIA[L] for the plural of ATRIUM. And the only option for the plural, according to Collins. I’m a STADIUMS man myself: STADIA sounds a bit posh for footie.
18 One living in bowl getting new start? He shows little emotion
COLD FISH
The one in the bowl with the allegedly short memory is a GOLDFISH, and the setter is asking you to replace the first letter.
21 Crash out of this?
COLLISION COURSE
Unless I’m missing something, this is a not very convincing cd.
23 Toast entails being relaxed
SLÁINTE
(ENTAILS)* SLÁINTE! is an Irish Gaelic word meaning ‘health’ and is used as a drinking toast. A bit obscure? Raich is an Irish Setter, don’t forget.
24 Mother back with Heather in the country
AMERICA
A reversal of MA followed by ERICA for the Latin word for ‘heather’ (the blooming variety).
25 Female extremely tactful with island group
SHETLAND
A charade of SHE, TL for the outside letters of ‘tactful’ and AND for ‘with’.
26 Old Bob in sulk becoming a nuisance
PEST
I suppose you’d have to be of a certain age to remember the shilling, or ‘old bob’, since it disappeared on 15 February 1971. An insertion of S for said ‘shilling’ in PET for a ‘sulk’.
Down
1 Again play part for peace
REPOSE
A dd.
2 They don’t count second shopping centre group: resistance follows
SMALL BEER
A charade of S, MALL, BEE (think ‘spelling bee’) and R. I have a problem with this, in that for me, SMALL BEER is always singular, whereas the surface – using ‘they’ – suggests plural. I’d always say ‘it’s small beer’, never ‘they’re small beer’.
4 Knowing the writer’s back catalogue?
ARCHIVE
A charade of ARCH for ‘knowing’ and I’VE for ‘the writer has’.
5 Peace for now ably, no end, negotiated, with help of this?
BALANCE OF POWER
(PEACE FOR NOW ABL[Y])* with ‘negotiated’ as the anagrind and an extended definition.
6 Day in Rome, time that is in local parlance
ID EST
My favourite this morning, because it’s really cleverly constructed. A charade of IDES and T. IDES is indeed a Roman ‘day’, most famously heard in the IDES OF MARCH; and ‘that is’ in Latin or in ‘local parlance’ is ID EST.
7 Feminist about to stop working seen as comparatively selfish?
GREEDIER
If you are new to all this cryptic stuff, then a reminder that ‘feminist’ will very often clue Germaine GREER. So this is an insertion of DIE in that. She is 80 next year, and still as provocative as ever.
8 Agreement about being put forward for election taking only some people in?
DENOMINATIONAL
Raich is inviting you to insert NOMINATION into DEAL.
9 Means of communication in Alabama port
MOBILE
A dd.
15 Introduction of Australian TV series, new, displaying confidence
ASSERTIVE
A charade of A for the first letter of ‘Australian’ and (TV SERIES)*
16 European region for example in political group
CAUCASUS
An insertion of AS in CAUCUS.
18 National character from Athens list
CHILEAN
A charade of the Greek letter CHI and LEAN.
19 Secure metal carriage
LANDAU
A charade of LAND (‘she landed a plum job’) and AU, the chemical symbol for gold, which is indeed a ‘metal’, and a very precious one.
20 Something Communist does? Work in publishing maybe
REDACT
Whimsically, a RED ACT could be something a communist does. I’m not sure ‘work in publishing maybe’ is the clearest definition of REDACT. It’s more editing, surely, although that is of course part of publishing.
22 Abandon holiday
LEAVE
A dd.
Many thanks to Raich for the start to the Indy week. Perhaps we haven’t seen so much of him recently because his creative flames have been extinguished by his beloved Sunderland’s impending drop to Division 1.
I found this a medium level puzzle. Didn’t know SLAINTE and used an aid to save checking the various possible anagrams, once I had all the crossers. For a long time, I thought 13a was going to be ‘pedigree’ but couldn’t parse. The penny finally dropped with this and then MOBILE being my last ones in. Strangely, my favourite was 21a which you didn’t care for. I like the idea of crashing out of a course, such as a University course and the different meanings of ‘crashing’ and ‘course’ in the solution. Thanks to Raich and Pierre.
Thanks Raich and pierre
I was getting on splendidly until I ground to a halt in the SW, not finding any words to fit with CALABRIA for 16d and BREAK for 22d. It was then that I discovered that the red error indicator was turned off!
I had reservations about the use of the plural in the def. for SMALL BEER as well. Had to guess SLAINTE but nothing else too obscure. Liked REDACT, my last in.
Just a suggestion but maybe the ‘Crash’ in 21a is also referring to a ‘crash course’. Or maybe not.
Thanks to Raich and Pierre.
Thanks Raich and Pierre, enjoyable crossword.
This was more difficult than the Guardian’s two Monday offerings, perhaps because of the long ‘uns.
I also flirted with pedigree and then thought the ‘see in’ was ‘peek in,’ doh! I also slapped in gold fish at the beginning.
We solved this fairly easily in two or three passes. No problem with SMALL BEER; we would be quite happy to dismiss several things (or people) collectively as insignificant by saying “they’re small beer”. As for COLLISION COURSE, we just thought that, taken literally, the end or outcome of such a course would be a crash, i.e. one would crash out of the course.
Favourites included COLD FISH, ARCHIVE, CAUCASUS and CHILEAN.
Thanks, Raich and Pierre.
Maybe you can use SMALL BEER like that, Allan. It just seemed a bit incongruous to me to clue it in the plural like that, but it works okay.
Thanks for blog and comments. Re SMALL BEER, Collins gives it, in its example, in the plural sense and ODE in the singular one, so I’d say both would pass muster. Re COLLISION COURSE, the idea was as Hovis suggested, but one can prove nothing with a cryptic definition! I guess that’s why they are used very sparingly though I think they’d a big role in the early days in making crosswords popular and fun. Yes, it looks like SAFC are heading towards another relegation but we won’t throw the towel in just yet.