As usual, Tees provides a pleasant challenge for a Monday morning: it took me a while to get going, but everything was clear enough after a bit of thought.
There are a few less familiar words, particularly 3d which I’d never heard of, but the wordplay is clear enough. Others had fairly obvious definitions, but the wordplay took a bit of working out. And of course there are a few gloriously bad puns.
Hard to pick a favourite, but it’s probably 18d for the combination of vivid surface and sneaky pun, with 16a a close second for the mind-boggling mental picture. Thanks to Tees for an enjoyable solve.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 9 | ELABORATE | Bats are able to develop (9) |
| Anagram (bats) of ARE ABLE TO. Elaborate as a verb. | ||
| 10 | EGRET | Bird eating fish, Ruth wants no starter (5) |
| REGRET (ruth: archaic word for remorse or pity), without the starting letter. Egret is a type of heron. | ||
| 11 | ROEBUCK | Having green eggs first as does partner (7) |
| A tricky one! BUCK = green = slang for US dollar, with ROE (fish eggs) first. Doe, a deer, a female deer (as the song says) – so if it’s a roe deer, then the doe’s partner is a roebuck, and Tees is deliberately misleading us by the lack of punctuation. But there’s also a possible bonus definition: one of the original partners in Sears and Roebuck (the US department store). | ||
| 12 | OROTUND | Ring round being pompous (7) |
| O (ring) + ROTUND (round). Not the most common word, but clued clearly. | ||
| 13 | DISCO | Dance record broke in middle (5) |
| DISC (record) + middle letter of [br]O[ke]. | ||
| 14 | REPRIMAND | Agent with staff brought in to deliver carpet (9) |
| REP (agent, as in sales rep) + MAN (staff, as a verb, as in “man the pumps”) in RID (deliver). Carpet (as a verb) = slang for reprimand: I’m not sure why, but I think it’s the image of standing on the carpet in front of the boss’s desk. | ||
| 16 | CRIME DOES NOT PAY | Corrupt economist prayed for moral guidance (5,4,3,3) |
| Anagram (corrupt) of ECONOMIST PRAYED. | ||
| 19 | DISLODGED | Forcibly removed due to Masonic transgression? (9) |
| Masons (Freemasons) meet in a lodge – so a Mason who is thrown out for some transgression might be “dis-lodged” perhaps? | ||
| 21 | DONER | Medic claiming single fare from Turkey (5) |
| DR (doctor) containing ONE (single). Fare as in food, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doner_kebab, despite the rather neat misdirection provided by “single fare”. | ||
| 22 | BOUNCER | Lively ball requires tough doorman (7) |
| Double definition: the first is from cricket, appropriately enough with the World Cup in progress. | ||
| 23 | OKINAWA | All family members at home in Scots island? (7) |
| O (zero), then KIN AWA’ = (roughly) Scots dialect for “kin away”. The island is Japanese. | ||
| 24 | ETHOS | English army getting back to front shows spirit (5) |
| E (English) + HOST (army) with the back letter (T) moved to the front. Spirit as in “spirit of the game”. | ||
| 25 | ESPIONAGE | ESP in later years to keep old in hush-hush work (9) |
| ESP IN AGE, containing (keeping) O (old). Not sure why Tees has made it easier by giving us the abbreviation (for extra-sensory perception) directly. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | REPRODUCED | Expert contracted to provide cover had issue (10) |
| PRO (professional = expert) covered by REDUCED (contracted). Issue = children. | ||
| 2 | WATER-SKI | Write and ask when disposed to do sport (5-3) |
| Anagram (when disposed) of WRITE + ASK. | ||
| 3 | COLUGO | Call from dove about to carry lemur (6) |
| COO (dove’s call) around LUG (to carry). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colugo – an unfamiliar animal, to me at least, but the wordplay is clear enough. | ||
| 4 | BANK | Count places restriction on king (4) |
| BAN (restriction) on K (king). As in bank on = count on = rely on, though it took me a while to see that. | ||
| 5 | DECOMPOSED | Fact about soil conditioner mostly broken down (10) |
| DEED (in deed = in fact) around COMPOS[t] (soil conditioner, mostly). | ||
| 6 | GERONIMO | Brave leader upset over child for instance (8) |
| O (over, in cricket) + MINOR (child) + EG (for instance), all reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue). Brave as in Native American. | ||
| 7 | TRAUMA | Streetcar crossing close to you a shock (6) |
| TRAM (streetcar) around (crossing) the closing letter of [yo]U + A. | ||
| 8 | STUD | Virile man takes time in French south (4) |
| T (time) in SUD (French for south). | ||
| 14 | ROOF GARDEN | Go for broke on forest where domestic growth high? (4,6) |
| Anagram (broke) of GO FOR, and the Forest of ARDEN, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arden,_Warwickshire. A roof garden is a place to grow things high up on the top of a domestic building, I suppose. | ||
| 15 | DAYDREAMER | Fantasist armed and ready for manoeuvres (10) |
| Anagram (for manoeuvres) of ARMED + READY. | ||
| 17 | EXORCIST | Be harbouring monster? Here’s one to help! (8) |
| EXIST (be) containing ORC (monster), with an extended definition – though I don’t think an orc is the typical sort of “monster” an exorcist deals with. | ||
| 18 | PANDA CAR | Pair touring Canada pranged station wagon? (5,3) |
| PR (pair) around an anagram (pranged) of CANADA. Panda car = police car (from the two-tone colouring of early versions), so (loosely) a wagon associated with a police station. | ||
| 20 | SOUGHT | Wanted to find variety on the radio (6) |
| Homophone (on the radio) of SORT (variety). | ||
| 21 | DAIMON | Welshman and Scotsman in spirit guarding place (6) |
| DAI (Welsh name, used as a short form of Dafydd / David) + MON (“man” in Scots dialect). Ancient Greek word (also spelled daemon) for a minor deity or spirit associated with a particular location. | ||
| 22 | BEER | Worker perhaps rejoices at first pint (4) |
| BEE (perhaps a worker bee) + first letter of R[ejoices]. In British English, “a pint” usually means beer, unless some other liquid is specified or required by the context. | ||
| 23 | OOPS | I’ve messed up in no surgical procedures! (4) |
| O (zero = no = not any) OPS (operations = surgical procedures). Oops = expression acknowledging one’s mistake. | ||
I thought this was quite challenging for a Monday Tees but the wordplay was very helpful so I got there in the end. My favourite was 18d
Thanks to Tees and Quirister
Superb! Not seen the DAIMON spelling before. Agree that giving ESP explicitly in 25a (rather than putting “sixth sense” say) seemed a bit out of character. Too many good clues to mention but should at least add my admiration for the anagram at 16a.
Thanks to Tees and Quirister.
Wonder if TEEES down the middle column is coincidental?
I think that daimons were more associated with individuals (e.g. Socrates) than with places.
Great puzzle!
18dn was my favourite, too, as well as the clever anagrams at 16ac and 15dn. I also liked the Scots family at home.
I had the same thoughts as Geoff Wilkins about DAIMON and Chambers seems to agree but Collins gives ‘the guardian spirit of a place or person’.
Many thanks to Tees and Quirister – most enjoyable.
Some difficult ones with unfamiliar words such as COLUGO entered from wordplay and another couple unparsed, including the ‘green’ in 11a.
Favourites were the ‘where domestic growth high’ def, the surface for EXORCIST and the O OPS wordplay for 23d.
Yes, ‘a pleasant challenge’ but challenging enough and a good way to start the week.
Thanks to Tees and Quirister.
Not quite your easy start to the week but solvable without help apart from confirming COLUGO in Chambers. ESP certainly made 25ac a write-in but perhaps Tees was giving us an easy one to compensate for the lack of punctuation in 11ac. We too liked PANDA CAR, EXORCIST and ROOF GARDEN.
Thanks, Tees and Quirister.