This was an enjoyable puzzle of moderate difficulty with some cunning devices.
21 and 25 were both quite inventive but my favourite was 14 for its smoothness and conciseness. There were a few religious references and a couple of muscles mentioned, but nothing I can see that would obviously constitute a theme.
| Across | ||
| 9 | CON ARTIST | Position managed backwards in bed for Hustler (3,6) |
| (Sit ran)< in cot | ||
| 10 | ABODE | Place person in emergency department (5) |
| Bod in A&E | ||
| 11 | OPINE | Suggest Dick should open unit (5) |
| PI(=Private Investigor, sometimes called a Private Dick or just Dick) + in one(=unit) | ||
| 12 | ICELANDER | European craft touching down on frozen planet? (9) |
| DD. A lander is a vessel which lands on a planet e.g moon lander. | ||
| 13 | ANGOLAN | African ace reaching new heights (7) |
| A(ce) + n(ew) + Golan. The Golan Heights are a disputed range of mountains on the Israeli-Syrian border. | ||
| 14 | RESPECT | Particular relaxation inhibits muscle (7) |
| Rest around pec, short for pectoral, a chest muscle. | ||
| 17 | BAG | Interest in Gladstone, for example (3) |
| DD – the meaning of interest here is the slang one, as in “Cinema is my bag”. | ||
| 19 | GEODESY | God eyes revolutionary earth measurement (7) |
| (God eyes)*. Geodesy is a branch of mathematics concerned with measurements of Earth. | ||
| 21 | SOB | Initially insulting expression makes one weep (3) |
| SOB = son of a bitch, an insulting expression made up of of initials. | ||
| 22 | TWISTED | Emotionally unbalanced news boss attending dance (7) |
| Twist (a dance from the Rock’n’Roll era) + ed(itor). | ||
| 23 | SHAMPOO | Cleaner with mop has shot round (7) |
| (Mop has)* + o | ||
| 25 | MENAGERIE | People brought to Silver Lake for animal exhibition (9) |
| Men + Ag + Erie | ||
| 27 | KAPPA | Finally hack program with a letter from abroad (5) |
| [Hac]k + app + a | ||
| 29 | GUSTO | Enthusiasm to blow over (5) |
| Gust + o(ver) (abbrev perhaps used in cricket) | ||
| 30 | TARANTINO | Film-maker Jack meets opposite number (9) |
| Tar + anti + no | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ECHO | Novelist retaining hard copy (4) |
| Eco around h(ard). The novelist is Umberto Eco, most famous for The Name of the Rose. | ||
| 2 | ENDING | Close friend in Grenadier Guards (6) |
| Hidden in friEND IN Grendier | ||
| 3 | GREEN LIGHT | Sanction naïve understanding (5,5) |
| Green(=naive in words like greenhorn) + light (as in “I’ve seen the light!”) | ||
| 4 | VISION | With it one perceives an apparition (6) |
| DD/CD | ||
| 5 | ST GEORGE | Dragon-slayer gets to wrestle with ogre (2,6) |
| (Gets + ogre)* | ||
| 6 | SAGA | Long story in Shanghai regularly ignored (4) |
| Odd letters of ShAnGhAi | ||
| 7 | GOODNESS | My poor dog’s nose! (8) |
| (Dog’s nose)*. My is used here as an exclamation, a shortened form of “My Goodness”. | ||
| 8 | BEER | Perhaps bitter, bishop visits eastern monarch (4) |
| B(ishop) + E(astern) + ER | ||
| 13 | ABBOT | Superior muscle turned to flab at the end (5) |
| Ab (short for abductor) + (to [fla]b)< | ||
| 15 | SKYLARKING | Frolics in air — poet close to wing (10) |
| Sky (which is the upper atmosphere, so would be air in that sense, although I’m slightly unconvinced) + Larkin + [win]g | ||
| 16 | TABOO | Key rings forbidden by custom (5) |
| Tab + oo | ||
| 18 | GUINNESS | Actor once shot in dark outside hotel (8) |
| Guess(=shot in the dark) around inn. Referring to Alec Guinness, an actor most famous among the general populace for having protrayed Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. | ||
| 20 | OBDURATE | Dogged alumnus expected to harbour traitor (8) |
| OB (old boy=alumnus) + due around rat | ||
| 23 | SHEARS | Judge aboard cutter (6) |
| Hear in SS, with Judge being used as a verb. | ||
| 24 | POPLIN | Make short visit to collect Latin material (6) |
| Pop in around L(atin) | ||
| 25 | MAGI | Star witnesses in first issue? (4) |
| Mag(azine) 1 = first issue. The Magi were the Biblical figures who, according to the NT, witnessed a star (probably a comet) at the birth of Christ. | ||
| 26 | GOOF | Excessive sentimentality following mistake (4) |
| Goo + f(ollowing) | ||
| 28 | ALOE | Solitary workman ultimately abandoned plant (4) |
| Alo[n]e, the N being signified by the ultimate letter of workman. | ||
*anagram
Apologies if it turns out I’ve already posted this.
I couldn’t see the ‘Interest’ meaning for BAG and incorrectly parsed MAGI as a cryptic def, not spotting the ‘Mag1’ for ‘first issue’.
I liked the wordplay and device for SOB, the surface for ANGOLAN, especially ‘Golan’ for ‘heights’, and ‘mop’ in the anagram fodder for SHAMPOO.
Pleasant, not too difficult solve to kick off the new week.
Thanks to Tees and NealH.
I agree with NealH’s description of this crossword in his introduction
Thanks to him and to Tees – lovely to see you again on Saturday x
To wordplodder@1
Bag = interest. Mainly an Americanism I Think. And mainly, again I’m guessing, used among jazz musicians. “Yeah man, that sort of music is just my bag.”
Thanks Tees and NeilH
Opine = suggest. Not in my book.
Really enjoyed myself, then for some reason got stuck in the mud with three to go. Put the puzzle in front of someone who I thought might be able to help and, indeed, that did the trick. Thanks!
Likes are many, and include SOB, SHAMPOO, GOODNESS, GUINNESS and MAGI.
Thanks Tees and Neal.
Good, entertaining crossword with lots of deceptive definitions. The ENDING was well hidden; I spent ages trying to think of what was going on with Grenadier.
I liked GUINNESS, as people may have noticed on Saturday.
Thanks Tees and NealH; I thought sky = air was fairly standard crosswordese (?)
We did this as Vulcan in The Guardian was over so quickly – and agree with NealH in his intro and others who have posted. A very enjoyable solve. Like Robi@6 it took me ages to see ENDING. Interestingly suggest comes up as the first synonym for OPINE in many thesauri, but one of the last when searching the other way round.
Thanks to Tees and NealH.
We enjoyed this, though we had some headscratching moments. ENDING and GOODNESS took us a while to see; with the latter we got fixated on the idea it had to begin COR—– (Cor! = My!).
BAG reminded us of an anecdote from the late Frank Muir about encountering a weird character (beard, sandals, kaftan, beads) at a party and trying to strike up a conversation by asking him what he did, to which the reply was “Like, man, my bag is, I’m into teaching English.”
Dicho @4: Chambers Compact Thesaurus has ‘suggest’ as one of the synonyms for ‘opine’.
Thanks, Tees and NealH.
WhiteKing @7: You got in while I was still checking the thesaurus. Actually in Chambers Compact ‘suggest’ is a fair way down the list for ‘opine’.
Not as easy as some Monday puzzles, but I did finish and many clues – too many to mention – I found really inventive.
Hello! Thanks for solving today, and thanks for the comments (which I always read). Thanks to Neal too for a really great blog.
Hi Sue! It was good to see you too. That was a real gas, though nothing too toxic I guess apart from the alcohol, and a blast. What an explosive Saturday.
Boom boom.
Boom boom?
Are you a drummer?