I found this real tough going and needed some help getting through to the full solve. Thanks Bradman, for an intense workout.
FF: 8 DD: 10
| Across | ||
| 1 | SUMACH | Shrub of that kind could conceal mum (6) |
| SUCH (of that kind) containing MA | ||
| 4 | FALSTAFF | Dissolute character with people at work by river (8) |
| FAL (river) STAFF (people at work) | ||
| 9 | REREAD | Have another look at part of CH system before getting stuck in (6) |
| ERE (before) in RAD (part of CH system) | ||
| 10 | TUTORAGE | In France you may have to get angry in teacher’s office (8) |
| TU (you, french) TO RAGE (get angry) | ||
| 12 | BE IN FOR IT | Attend work to deal with computers? Expect trouble! (2,2,3,2) |
| BE IN (attend work) FOR IT (deal with computers) | ||
| 13 | APING | Imitating a sound on the microwave? (5) |
| A PING (~sound on the microwave) | ||
| 14 | ANTIMONARCHIST | Athenian captured by lawless fellow who opposes the king? (14) |
| TIMON (athenian, greek philosopher) in ANARCHIST (lawless fellow) | ||
| 17 | OVERPARTICULAR | Too fussy about detail (14) |
| OVER (~about) PARTICULAR (detail) | ||
| 21 | ROGUE | Scoundrel in shoes worn away at the sides (5) |
| bROGUEs (shoes, worn away at the sides, without extreme characters) | ||
| 22 | TAOISEACH | Philosophical system is needed by every single PM (9) |
| TAO (philosophical system) IS EACH (every single) | ||
| 24 | TOE-TO-TOE | In close combat using digital resources? (3-2-3) |
| cryptic def; digit referring to fingers and toes in the clue | ||
| 25 | SAMITE | Material in the morning brought in to where builders work? (6) |
| AM (morning) in SITE (where builders work) – new word for me but straighforwardly clued. | ||
| 26 | DITHEISM | He’s timid about believing in two gods (8) |
| HE”S TIMID* | ||
| 27 | CONGAS | Opposing silly talk in dances (6) |
| CON (opposing) GAS (silly talk) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCRUB OAK | Tree getting cold, problem in swamp (5,3) |
| [C (cold) RUB (problem)] in SOAK (swamp) | ||
| 2 | MARXIST | Revolutionary character signifying love is seen in market-place (7) |
| [ X (character signifying love) IS] in MART (market-place) | ||
| 3 | CHAFF | Bird losing a bit of a foot in rubbish (5) |
| CHAFFinch (bird, losing INCH – bit of a foot) | ||
| 5 | ADULTERATION | Debasement of adult taking drug, fixed amount (12) |
| ADULT E (drug) RATION (fixed amount) | ||
| 6 | STOMACHIC | Little Mary’s opening with style (9) |
| STOMA (opening) CHIC (with style) | ||
| 7 | ANANIAS | Liar offering series of anecdotes, a sin confusing characters (7) |
| ANA (series of anecdotes) [A SIN]* – needed external help with this clue | ||
| 8 | FLEDGE | Get ability to fly, initially from shelf of rocks (6) |
| F (From, initially) LEDGE (shelf of rocks) | ||
| 11 | TRANSACTIONS | A constraint’s awkward for business deals (12) |
| A CONSTRAINT’S * | ||
| 15 | MORSE CODE | Spooner’s unsophisticated method that allows transmission of messages (5,4) |
| sounds like spoonerism of COARSE (unsophisticated) MODE (method) .. ‘method’ doing double duty. | ||
| 16 | ARCHNESS | Cunning bridge over loch (8) |
| ARCH (bridge) NESS (loch) | ||
| 18 | VAGUEST | Virginia has visitor least inclined to get to the point (7) |
| VA (virginia) GUEST (visitor) | ||
| 19 | LEADING | Key support for entertaining a big noise (7) |
| LEG (support) containing [A DIN (big noise) ] | ||
| 20 | GRATED | Ground is good, thought highly of (6) |
| G (good) RATED (thought highly of) | ||
| 23 | SEATO | Organisation no longer bottom, given zero (5) |
| SEAT (bottom) O (zero) – South East Asian Treaty Organization | ||
*anagram
A splendid workout today.
Managed to misdirect myself for ages with FALSTAFF, since having the F on the end was convinced the river muust be the Taff and couldn’t parse the first part until the character himself eventually came to me. DNF due to STOMACHIC, never heard of Little Mary for stomach before and not much wiser following a good googling. ANA for anecdotes threw me too but ANANIAS went in semi parsed regardless.
Enjoyed TAOISEACH and shall now use that construction as a mnemonic to spell that rather tricky word in the (unlikely) event I’ll ever need to in the future!
Still plaudits all round to the Don and Turbolegs.
One day I’ll manage a post without a typo…
A very good workout. All the unfamiliar words were clued clearly and it was satisfying to solve. Query about 5 dn with ‘adult’ in clue and answer but that’s my only quibble. Thanks Bradman & TL.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. I agree – a good workout. I knew “ana” for ANANIAS and dredged up SAMITE but had not before come across Little Mary as stomach or SUMACH with an h.
Yes, another hard one and although eventually all in correctly, four new words/names by my count and a few other references eg ‘part of CH system’ which went over my head. It’s also a long time since I’ve heard of SEATO, around the time of the Vietnam War as far as I can recall.
Repeat after me: TAO IS EACH, TAO IS EACH.
The old Friday gentle FT stroll or the new route march? I’m not so sure… Still satisfying to have got there in the end.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs
I’m afraid that half of the few answers I wrote in were wrong, so not only thanks but also congratulations to Bradman and Turbolegs.
On 15 dn, Morse Code, William Archibald Spooner was Warden of New College, Oxford, while my father was there. The College provided “St Saviour’s” locations for one of the episodes of the Inspector Morse TV series.
I understand that Inspector Morse was named after Jeremy Morse, an undergraduate contemporary of one of my brothers and later a distinguished banker. Sir Jeremy published cryptic puzzles under the pseudonym Esrom.
Im afraid that after the awful 5d I left this puzzle in disgust.
It’s quite obvious that the inclusion of ADULT, rather than a synonym, in the clue for ADULTERATION is one of those oversights that make it to publication from time to time. All the more likely given this setter’s excellent track record. To “leave in disgust” because of a minor slip and then announce that you’ve done so on a public forum is childish, to say the least.
A fair few TILTS in this for me, and thus unsurprisingly, a DNF. Thanks to Bradman for the challenge and thanks to Turbolegs for the enlightenment.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Found this difficult, taking three attempts at it, a lot of use of reference resources and still a couple of items that was looking to be sorted out from the blog.
Am assuming that RAD as a ‘part of cH system’ refers to a radiator being part of a central heating system, although I couldn’t find that abbreviation for a radiator. Didn’t parse the ANA of 7d either.
SUMACH (spelling), SAMITE, STOMACHIC (and ‘little Mary’) and ANANIAS were all new to me. TAOISEACH has become part of knowledge from its appearance in a couple of puzzles that I’ve solved in recent times.
Could understand why some (like copmus@7, who usually wouldn’t I’m guessing) may have thrown it in, but was glad to have persisted with it. Finished in the NE corner with that STOMACHIC and ANANIAS the last couple in.