Some tricksy parses and clever decoy work from Gurney today.
Not over-taxing for a Tuesday, but plenty to admire and enjoy in this rather elegant composition. Thanks to Gurney.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HIGH TIDE | Drunk backing change – culminating point (4,4) |
| HIGH (drunk) +reversal of EDIT (‘change’) | ||
| 5 | ESPIED | Noticed wings of emus of multiple colours (6) |
| ES (1st & last of ‘EmuS’ + PIED (‘of multiple colours’) | ||
| 10 | NARRATE | Give account of origins of normal and realistic price (7) |
| 1st letters of Normal And Realistic + RATE (‘price’). | ||
| 11 | CHARADE | A card he’s playing that’s absurd (7) |
| Anagram (‘playing’) of A CARD HE. | ||
| 12 | EVADE | Manage to avoid publicity inspired by Biblical lady (5) |
| AD in EVE. | ||
| 13 | SONNETEER | Writer serene, not animated (9) |
| Anagram (‘animated’) of SERENE NOT. | ||
| 14 | MADEMOISELLE | Nice miss using successful wine I imported (12) |
| MADE (‘successful’, as in ‘a made man’) + MOSELLE (a wine) including ‘I’. A girl from Nice, France, naturellement. | ||
| 18 | PLACE SETTING | Amorous fondling clasping fasteners? All one needs to get on board! (5,7) |
| PETTING (‘amorous fondling’) surrounds LACES (‘fastening’). | ||
| 21 | REIMBURSE | Pay back unfortunate slumberer I left out (9) |
| Anagram (‘unfortunate’) of SLUMBERER I, minus L[eft]. | ||
| 23 | SCENT | Perfume dispatched, picked up (5) |
| Homophone (‘picked up’) of ‘sent’. | ||
| 24 | ROTUNDA | Crazy to reverse during new road building (7) |
| NUT (a ‘crazy’) reversed in anagram (‘new’) of ROAD. Sneaky misdirections here: N[ew) & TO, reversed, & standard anagram indicator ‘building’ are all present & irrelevant to the parse. Good fun. | ||
| 25 | AVOCADO | Fuss after article opposing firm withdrawing fruit (7) |
| ADO (‘fuss’) after A (‘article’) + V[ersus] (‘opposing’) + OC (=reversal of CO). | ||
| 26 | BARTER | School period finishes early after local exchange (6) |
| TERm (shortened ‘school period’) after BAR (‘local’). | ||
| 27 | REVEILLE | Referring to mask, the French sounding alarm? (8) |
| RE[ferring to] + VEIL (‘mask’) + LE (Fr. ‘the’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HENLEY | When leylandii are severely trimmed, riverside town is visible (6) |
| Inclusion in ‘wHEN LEYlandii’. Hands up who went looking for the non-existent ‘Eyland’? | ||
| 2 | GERMAN | Language from harassed manager, having lost heart? (6) |
| Anagram (‘harassed’) of MANaGER without central letter A. | ||
| 3 | TRADE NAME | Mounting some horse, maned, artist used for brand (5,4) |
| Reversed (‘mounting’) inclusion in ‘horsE MANED ARTist’. | ||
| 4 | DRESS REHEARSAL | Less rash reader is prepared for full-scale practice (5,9) |
| Anagram (‘prepared’) of LESS RASH READER. | ||
| 6 | SPATE | Quarrel over eastern flood (5) |
| SPAT (‘quarrel’) + E[astern]. | ||
| 7 | ISABELLA | Nothing odd in fiesta, supported by inventor, a girl (8) |
| Letters 2,4 & 6 of fIeStA + [Alexander Graham] BELL + A. | ||
| 8 | DREARIER | More boring daughter at stern? That is right (8) |
| D[aughter] + REAR (‘stern’) + I.E. + R[ight]. | ||
| 9 | ICING ON THE CAKE | Kitchen coinage unexpectedly good? (5,2,3,4) |
| Anagram (‘unexpectedly’) of KITCHEN COINAGE, that ‘unexpectedly’ doing double duty as part of the definition. | ||
| 15 | SANDSTONE | Rock succeeded with singular quality (9) |
| S[ucceeded] + AND (‘with’) + S[ingular] + TONE (‘quality’). | ||
| 16 | SPARE RIB | Dispute over European joke featuring cut of pork? (5,3) |
| SPAR (‘dispute’) + E[uropean] + RIB (‘joke’). | ||
| 17 | CANISTER | Receptacle is blocking run (8) |
| IS inside CANTER. | ||
| 19 | BEFALL | Happen to booze every Friday after labourers leave (just starting!) (6) |
| 1st letters (‘just starting’) of Booze, Every &c. | ||
| 20 | OTIOSE | Note, very big, in Old English serving no purpose (6) |
| TI (a ‘note’) + OS (‘very big’) in O[ld] E[nglish]. | ||
| 22 | BINGE | Wine store linked with, say, rising over-indulgence (5) |
| BIN (‘wine store’) + EG (‘say’) reversed. | ||
*anagram
It was good to be able to get through this without too many hold-ups, unlike yesterday’s FT which gave me a lot of trouble. SONNETEER made me think, as did REVEILLE, both uncommon answers for their respective defs.
It’s a bit of a chestnut, but the ‘Nice miss’ was good as was the ‘Amorous fondling clasping fasteners?’ which was very much in keeping with the theme of Picaroon’s offering in the Guardian today.
Thanks to Gurney and Grant.
Thanks Gurney and Grant
Was an easier solve than yesterday with no real holdups.
I didn’t go down the Eyland path way at 1d, but given that the cypress is the main tree in the Leylandii genus, I was trying to fit the 5-letter YPRES into the 6 letter lights for longer than I needed to !! OTIOSE was my first one in even though I didn’t know the term – it was just such an easy word play.
Finished with two of the long ones – ICING ON THE CAKE and PLACE SETTING (where I initially wrote in PLANE SEATING but couldn’t parse it – when I got it right it became my favourite !)
Thanks to Gurney and Grant. I enjoyed this puzzle, but I got held up owing to my printout which cut off the top of the letters for 3 down. I guessed TRADE mark, not NAME, but then the PLACE in PLACE SETTING started with PT (tacks, not laces). Going back to the actual puzzle did resolve the problem. Otherwise, clear sailing.
Many thanks for the excellent blog, Grant, and thanks also to those who commented.