A lively and mostly accessible puzzle.
One or two of the associations might not be to everyone’s taste (such as describing months of the year as “colleagues” or the slightly arcane beck for signal). But I felt these added to the cryptic fun and there was nothing so obscure that it rendered the clue impenetrable.
| Across | ||
| 1 | NORMAN | Usual thing, article featuring Greg? Of course (6) |
| Norm + an, ref to Greg Norman, Australian golfer | ||
| 4 | STOCKADE | Barrier standard gets vocal support (8) |
| Stock(=standard, as in a stock item) + hom of aid | ||
| 9 | TRAVELLER | Narrator covering artist, very peripatetic one (9) |
| Teller around RA + v(ery) | ||
| 11 | SCAMP | Little change after swindle – the rascal! (5) |
| P(=pence=small change) after scam | ||
| 12 | BECKHAM | Footballer’s signal – touching part of leg? (7) |
| Beck, which is listed in the dictionary as meaning a signal (although beckon would be the more common word), + ham (part of a pig’s leg) | ||
| 13 | E-MAILER | At end of race, Bannister, say, hugging a communicator? (1-6) |
| [Rac]e + miler around a. | ||
| 14 | NONE THE WISER | Unfortunate internee who’s kept in dark? (4,3,5) |
| (Internee who’s)* | ||
| 18 | RICHTER SCALE | Well-off saying little about Western state’s seismic measure? (7,5) |
| Rich + terse around Cal(ifornia) | ||
| 21 | CROATIA | Country air – coat needs changing (7) |
| (Air coat)* | ||
| 22 | HOTSPUR | Harry Tottenham follower? (7) |
| DD – ref to Harry Hotspur, a medieval military commander. | ||
| 24 | TRADE | Type of war speech I rejected (5) |
| T[i]rade | ||
| 25 | APPLE TREE | A very quiet rental property always on reflection a fruitful source (5-4) |
| A pp + let +e’er< | ||
| 26 | HEIGHTEN | Female boxing crew to become more intense? (8) |
| Hen around eight(=rowing crew) | ||
| 27 | STEELE | In auditorium, source of strength, old rocker Tommy? (6) |
| Hom of steel | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | NOTA BENE | Carefully observe lack of label, the main mistake ultimately (4,4) |
| No tab + last letters of thE maiN mistakE. Nota bene is a latin expression which normally abbreviated to NB. | ||
| 2 | REASCENT | Cart seen struggling in second climb (8) |
| (Cart seen)* | ||
| 3 | ALEPH | Leading character needing drink heads for public house (5) |
| Ale + p[ublic] h[ouse] – first letter of various alphabets such as Hebrew. | ||
| 5 | THREE-LINE WHIP | Help win there, I ordered, issuing this? (5-4,4) |
| &Lit – (help wiin there I)* | ||
| 6 | CASTANETS | Actors with a gun in send-up – they click (9) |
| Cast + a sten< | ||
| 7 | ARABLE | Saudi, perhaps, supported by the French, providing food (6) |
| Arab + le | ||
| 8 | EMPIRE | Anger after Eastern politician’s found in powerful organisation (6) |
| Ire after E(astern) MP | ||
| 10 | LAMBETH PALACE | Largely unconvincing, girl and Dad brought over material – see boss here (7,6) |
| Lam[e] + Beth + Pa + lace. Lambeth Palace is the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Church, so would be a sort of boss. | ||
| 15 | THIRTIETH | When June finishes, as do three “colleagues” (9) |
| This had me convinced that it had something to do with the letter in 3 down and I spent ages looking at how many letters there were in different alphabets, but actually it just refers to the other three months with 30 days. Shows how easy it is to overthink these clues. | ||
| 16 | RAPPAREE | Blame at expected level over extremely elusive old Irish robber (8) |
| Rap + par(=expected level e.g. in golf) + e[lusiv]e | ||
| 17 | DERRIERE | Bottom daughter to slip up? That is right – on drug (8) |
| D(aughter) + err + i.e. + r(ight) + E(castasy) | ||
| 19 | SCOTCH | Crush spirit (6) |
| DD | ||
| 20 | SOMALI | Very African country? Not this person’s (6) |
| So + Mali (Somalia being a different country, of course) | ||
| 23 | THEFT | Taking time, chap with tips from feminist (5) |
| T(ime) + he + f[eminis]t | ||
*anagram
Found this a lot harder than his FT offering today. I also overthought 15d and only cottoned on to the answer after a word fit. I needed similar help to get LAMBETH PALACE. I guessed RAPPAREE from the clue but it is a new word for me.
Thanks to Raich and NealH.
RAPPAREE was new to us too, but got from the wordplay and confirmed in Chambers. On the other hand we found RICHTER SCALE a write-in , along with APPLE-TREE (though we would enumerate it as two words, not hyphenated). We were initially baffled by 16dn but got it from crossing letters; that and LAMBETH PALACE were our last ones in.
Nothing to complain about, though. Thanks, Raich and NealH.
I nice start to the week though I too was unfamiliar with RAPPAREE. The clue to 10d is rather better than the blog implies. “See” should be included in the definition as the Archbishop of Canterbury could be considered a boss of sees.
Thanks to Raich and NealH
Two from the same setter – also as Gurney in the FT – in one day. I thought this was a bit tougher with 15d unparsed and 16d a new word, as for others. The expression at 5d also rang what was only a very distant bell. I agree with Howard L @3 about the parsing for 10d.
I did this in front of the golf on the TV so 1a was particularly apt and was my pick of the bunch.
Thanks to Raich and NealH.
@2: “We were initially baffled by 16dn …” A typo there – should be 15dn.
Many thanks for the excellent blog and to those who commented. Yes, the definition in 10D was “see boss here” with ”see” referring to the Archbishop’s area of jurisdiction.