Always a pleasure to blog a Morph. As usual he is quite difficult but imaginative and inventive in his clueing.
Definitions in maroon, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
No sign, for me at any rate, of a Nina. Now I await its being pointed out. There are no anagrams after 1dn; now that’s not it, surely?
| Across | ||
| 1 | SURF | Get on board to hop Channel rapidly (4) |
| 2 defs, one of them referring to channel-surfing | ||
| 3 | SEXPARTITE | Endless orgy that is, over time, involving three couples? (10) |
| sex part{y} i(t)e — 3 x 2 = 6 | ||
| 10 | TAKE INTO ACCOUNT | Receive in the form of deposit, perhaps, to rate as considerable? (4,4,7) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 11 | NINTH | Hole in … in the middle, of course! (5) |
| Hidden in iN … IN THe — with some &littery since the ninth hole is in the middle of the golf course | ||
| 12 | ROCK OPERA | E.g. Tommy Cooper, funny artist, masking trick’s finale (4,5) |
| ((Cooper)* RA) round {tric}k | ||
| 13 | CELLULOID | Old clue I recycled about liberal film scene (9) |
| (old clue I)* round L — I’d always thought celluloid was just the material that was once used for film, but it also refers to film generally; although I can’t quite see how the film scene comes into it | ||
| 15 | EDIFY | Man, one flighty but not at heart trivial, to get more faithful (5) |
| Ed 1 f{light}y | ||
| 17 | PURIM | Disapproving about climax of Hindu religious festival (5) |
| p({Hind}u)rim — not a Hindu religious festival, as we are being (mis)led towards | ||
| 18 | THROBBING | Beating leader of thieves doing his business behind hotel (9) |
| t{hieves} H robbing | ||
| 20 | OUTERMOST | Drunk more stout to get as far gone as possible (9) |
| (more stout)* | ||
| 23 | ARETE | Raised feature in bare terrain (5) |
| Hidden in bARE TErrain — my first one in, except that I unthinkingly wrote areta, which didn’t help with 19dn | ||
| 24 | EXCLAMATION MARK | Formerly silent type ran amok – it’s wild! (11,4) |
| ex clam (ran amok it)* — a very small definition, but not the first time it has been done | ||
| 25 | BUTTONHOLE | Flower worn in bum crack (10) |
| on in (butt hole) | ||
| 26 | STUN | Shock to have time with warm weather around (4) |
| s(t)un | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SATANIC | Diabolical cast in a production (7) |
| (cast in a)* — no doubt I wasn’t the only one who was looking for a word meaning ‘production’, since the anagram indicator is more naturally the first word (adjective) than the last word (noun) | ||
| 2 | REKINDLER | Regarding type with half-heartedly lustful look, one not giving up on old flame (9) |
| re kind l{e}er | ||
| 4 | ENTER | Log board (5) |
| 2 defs — if you board a ship you enter it | ||
| 5 | PEAR CIDER | Perry Como’s first to enter vegetable on list of requirements (4,5) |
| pea r(C{omo})ider — presumably the rider is used in its additional clause sense, which is tenuously a list of requirements; or perhaps there’s a better explanation? | ||
| 6 | RACK ONES BRAINS | Perform database search requiring intensive memory use (4,4,6) |
| CD | ||
| 7 | INURE | Get hardened like Wensleydale swimmers? (5) |
| in Ure, the river in Wensleydale where swimmers are likely to be | ||
| 8 | ESTUARY | English royal family’s clipped semivowel – it’s not the Queen’s English! (7) |
| E Stuar{t} y — referring to Estuary English | ||
| 9 | WITHOUT MORE ADO | In the absence of lead from matador, bullfighter’s removed cloak immediately (7,4,3) |
| without m [= in the absence of m{atador}] {t}oreado{r} | ||
| 14 | OSTEOPATH | Manipulative professional writer’s lifted word to pen (9) |
| (poet’s)rev. in oath, which is penning it | ||
| 16 | ITINERANT | Rambling Morph declaims, having grasped point (9) |
| I (tine) rant | ||
| 17 | PROVERB | Saying one supports part of speech suggesting action (7) |
| pro [= one supports; noun] verb [= part of speech suggesting action] | ||
| 19 | GHERKIN | This woman ruler’s ending up in a pickle (7) |
| her king with the ending (g) up, ie at the top | ||
| 21 | TACIT | Silent diplomacy securing independence (5) |
| tac(I)t | ||
| 22 | TWILL | Material prediction of old (5) |
| ’twill ot ‘t will | ||
*anagram
As you say, always a pleasure to solve a Morph – he always provides a crossword that leaves you with a big smile on your face at the end
I can’t see a Nina either but on my past form that doesn’t mean a lot
Thanks to Morph for the fun and John for the blog
Many thanks, John and Morph – super blog of a stunning puzzle. Like crypticsuesue, I’ve a big smile on my face.
So many ticks but special ones for ROCK OPERA, EXCLAMATION MARK, PEAR CIDER, WITHOUT MORE ADO – and, of course, INURE, for my favourite Yorkshire Dale.
John, I shared your thoughts re RIDER, then found this in Chambers: ‘a list of specific personal requirements, such as food and drink, included in the contract of a performing artist’.
Wow, this took me ages! Highly enjoyable though.
Didn’t really have to cheat but did look up ‘perry’ which gave away the answer to 5d. Didn’t know PURIM or SEXPARTITE but managed to work them out. Another who only knew ‘rider’ for wills so thanks Eileen for the extra info. Have only met ‘edify’ in the general sense of educate but see it can mean specifically educate in morality which, I guess, is the idea behind 15a, my last one in.
Nice spot to see that 12a includes an anagram of Cooper. One of many clever clues. Thanks to Morph and John.
Top puzzle which repaid the effort of working through a bit of initial frustration. The first ‘punctuation as definition’ clue I’ve managed to solve in quite a while for 24a and some other interesting defs such as 3a and 5d. Missed PURIM for which I put an ‘H’ instead of a ‘U’, thinking of ‘climax’ as the top (first letter) rather than the end of the word.
I see Chambers gives ‘The world of film and cinema’ as one meaning for CELLULOID, so maybe this is what ‘film scene’ refers to, as in the sense of say ‘the rock music scene’.
Thanks to Morph and John.
We didn’t find this too difficult, though some head-scratching was involved. EXCLAMATION MARK was our LOI; for ages we were convinced the second word was ‘monk’ (obviously not Trappist but something similar) until the lightbulb moment when we got our penultimate answer, ITINERANT.
As well as the aforesaid ! we enjoyed ESTUARY and WITHOUT MORE ADO.
One quibble, though. PEAR CIDER may be the same as perry in crosswordland, but not in the real world. The differnce is explained here.
But thanks, Morph and, of course, John.
Can’t say I’m happy with EDIFY as ‘get more faithful’.
Does improving someone’s morals get them more faithful?
I put it in as the only option (other than Emily which was nowhere near) but would have liked a better – not to say smoother – definition.
reddevil @ 6
Chambers definition 2 of EDIFY: To strengthen spiritually towards faith and holiness.
Seems fine to me.
That definition doesn’t appear in Collins or Oxford which I find frustrating but even allowing for it isn’t “get more faithful” at best rather clunky?