A straightforward style of puzzle from Sleuth. Thank you Sleuth.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MOSAIC | Mike holds very large area for marbled work (6) |
| MIC (mike) contains (holds) OS (out-size, very large) A (area) | ||
| 5 | BODYSUIT | Lad touring Dutch clubs, maybe, in close-fitting garment (8) |
| BOY (lad) containing (touring) D (Dutch) then SUIT (clubs maybe) | ||
| 9 | SURGICAL | Incisive and largely reliable soldier about 50 (8) |
| SURe (reliable, mostly) GI (soldier) CA (about) L (fifty) | ||
| 10 | EIGHTY | Figure that’s important dismissing Welsh (6) |
| wEIGHTY (important) missing W (Welsh) – a figure is a number | ||
| 11 | TREBLE | Singer with note left in service, say (6) |
| B (note, of the scale in music) L (left) in TREE ( a Service tree perhaps) | ||
| 12 | ON-SCREEN | Working language among Poles displayed televisually (2-6) |
| ON (working) CREE (a language) inside (among) S and N (poles) | ||
| 14 | RHAPSODISING | Being unrestrainedly enthusiastic, adoring ships at sea (12) |
| anagram (at sea) of ADORING SHIPS | ||
| 18 | GO BY THE BOARD | Pass article with company executives and meet disaster? (2,2,3,5) |
| BO BY (pass) THE (the definite article) with BOARD (company executives) | ||
| 22 | EMIGRANT | Music company once given sum of money for expat (8) |
| EMI (music company once) with GRANT (sum of money) | ||
| 25 | UNTIED | Made looser – or made one with minimal alteration? (6) |
| UNITED (made one) with I and T swapping places (a minimal alteration) | ||
| 26 | RED SEA | Body of water studied on visit, we hear (3,3) |
| sounds like (we head) “read see” (studied and visit) | ||
| 27 | MANDARIN | Top official in drama cast around north (8) |
| anagram (cast) of IN DRAMA containing (around) N (north) | ||
| 28 | ESTONIAN | Old school figure embracing southern and eastern European (8) |
| ETONIAN (old school figure) contains (embracing) S (southern) | ||
| 29 | RAKISH | Jaunty king is beset by joyful cry (6) |
| K (king) IS inside (beset by) RAH (joyful cry) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | OEUVRE | Stratagem to conceal staff work (6) |
| manOEUVRE (stratagem) missing (to conceal) MAN (staff, as a verb) | ||
| 3 | ARGY-BARGY | Arab drinking haunt in good yard twice in a lively dispute (4-5) |
| AR (Arab) then BAR (drinking haunt) in G Y (good, yard) twice | ||
| 4 | CYCLEPATH | Chap, Celt that’s transported round back of city in route forbidden to drivers (9) |
| anagram (transported) of CHAP CELT containing (round) citY (back of) | ||
| 5 | BULBOUS | Swollen source of light over American (7) |
| BULB (source of light) O (over) US (American) | ||
| 6 | DRESS | Arrange woman’s clothing (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 7 | SUGAR | Term of endearment for British tycoon (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 8 | IN THE END | Dine then having cooked at last (2,3,3) |
| anagram (having cooked) of DINE THEN | ||
| 13 | CHI | Foreign letter from Chinese island (3) |
| CH (Chinese) and I (island) | ||
| 15 | DO A RUNNER | Round near ground, leave without paying (2,1,6) |
| anagram (ground) of ROUND NEAR | ||
| 16 | SIDETRACK | Shelve recorded music supporting team (9) |
| TRACK (recorded music) following (supporting, in a down solution) SIDE (team) | ||
| 17 | GORMLESS | Stay more presumably around marine that’s vacant (8) |
| GO LESS (so stay more, presumably) contains (around) RM (Royal Marine) | ||
| 19 | TAR | Appreciative expression, it’s said, in seaman (3) |
| sounds like (it’s said) “ta” (thanks, appreciative expression) | ||
| 20 | BITUMEN | Piece on menu represented element to surface? (7) |
| BIT (piece) on anagram (represented) of MENU – used to surface roads | ||
| 21 | SERIES | Views capturing Rhode Island in long-running TV show (6) |
| SEES (views) contains (capturing) RI (Rhode Island) | ||
| 23 | GISMO | Gadget offering game in theory? The opposite (5) |
| ISM (theory) in GO (a game) | ||
| 24 | AMATI | It receives scrape among team at inspection (5) |
| found inside (among) teAM AT Inspection – to scrape is to play a violin | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks Sleuth and PeeDee
Appreciate the blog today, as it fixed up some sloppy parsing that I had at 18a (where I hadn’t broken the word play down), 28a (where I only looked out for ETON) and 13d (where I thought that it was just the first three letters of Chinese … and wondered what the island was doing there! derrrhhh).
Didn’t know of the ‘service tree’ until today. The rest of the puzzle was pretty straightforward with GORMLESS the last one in.
I would hate to see anyone “scraping” an Amati-caress, attack even but scrape??!!
Everything was going fine till I put in ‘snowsuit’ (sort of fits for the wordplay) for 5a, making 5d and 6d impossible. OEUVRE and the ‘service, say’ also fooled me so I ended up taking much longer than I should have.
GORMLESS was my favourite. I felt like it as I was struggling in my frustration to finish this.
Thanks to Sleuth and PeeDee
Well I solved it. But cold not parse 9 ac. Why is tree synonymous with service? Seems to beat PeeDee and me too. That needed 2dn (simultaneous last ones in) before it got entered. Is there a better parsing?
Two typos above. Could not cold. 11 ac not 9 ac. Apologies
Service is a “ tree very like the Rowan “ definition 2 in Chambers. My mind rests in peace.