Another delightful offering from WANDERER, this Friday. A couple of new meanings I learnt along the way towards a generally speedy solve.
Not sure if there is a mini theme here .. [1,4a], [26,27a], [1d] ref CROSSING along with the sailor in 25ac who CROSSED the oceans in his circumnavigation. Perhaps letting my imagination run a little too wild .. 🙂
FF: 9 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1, 4 | DOUBLE CROSSING | Bearing adversity, drink a sort of gin? That’s cheating (6-8) |
| CROSS (~adversity thats borne) in [DOUBLE (drink) GIN*] | ||
| 9 | FEASTS | Model into safe sex, primarily out in gorges (6) |
| T (model) in [ SAFE S (Sex, primarily) ]* | ||
| 10 | ABSENTEE | Peg’s after a playwright? Not the one who’s never arrived (8) |
| A iBSEN (playwright, without I – one) TEE (peg) – ‘one’ on double duty | ||
| 12 | CARNIVORE | No veggie creation ultimately, with Welshman in mind (9) |
| [ N (creatioN, ultimately) IVOR (welshman) ] in CARE (mind) | ||
| 13 | LANCE | What surgeon might use, cutting opening in unclothed heavenly body (5) |
| C (Cutting, starting letter) in pLANEt (heavenly body, unclothed i.e. without end characters) | ||
| 14 | ORDNANCE SURVEY | Those making maps of Scotland, for starters (8,6) |
| expansion of OS (starting letters of “..Of Scotland..”) | ||
| 17 | ECCLESIASTICAL | Ascetic lies about state of the Christian church (14) |
| ASCETIC LIES* CAL (state, california) | ||
| 21 | POLIO | Disease shown by boil – operable, on reflection (5) |
| hidden reversed in “..bOIL – OPerable..” | ||
| 22 | AMPLITUDE | Size of meal I’d put away (9) |
| MEAL I’D PUT* | ||
| 24 | COPY-EDIT | Prepare to print codicil, mostly with type having being reset (4- 4) |
| CODIcil (mostly) TYPE* | ||
| 25 | BLITHE | Happy and carefree as a Round the World sailor, say (6) |
| sounds like BLYTH (clay blyth, scottish yachtsman and first to sail around the world single-handedly) – solved first and needed google for the parsing | ||
| 26, 27 | CROSSING SWORDS | Wrong grid initially in puzzle – second in a row? (8,6) |
| { [SIN (wrong)Â G (Grid, initially)] in CROSSWORD (puzzle) } S (second) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DEFECTOR | One that’s crossed over is not one suffering for deceit (8) |
| FOR DECEiT* (without I -one) | ||
| 2 | UNAIRED | A foreign article getting no female sacked, as not publicised (7) |
| UN (a, foreign) A (article) fIRED (sacked, no F – female) | ||
| 3 | LATHI | Weapon used by police in Eilat, historically (5) |
| hidden in “..eiLAT HIstorically” | ||
| 5 | RUBBER-STAMPS | Automatically approves Johnny’s time when entertaining politician (6-6) |
| [RUBBER’S (johnny’s, this meaning of the word ‘johnny’ was new to me) T (time) AS (when)] containing MP (politician) | ||
| 6 | SMELL A RAT | Something fishy about someone making over 500 runs? Suspect something is afoot (5,1,3) |
| SMELT (fish) around LARA (somone making over 500 runs, referring to the prodigious brian lara, from west indies and holder of the highest individual score in first class test cricket of 501) | ||
| 7 | INTENSE | Keen to show decimal point (7) |
| cryptic def; read as IN TENS (decimal) E (point, east) | ||
| 8 | GEE GEE | Young girl’s horse? (3-3) |
| double def | ||
| 11 | COACH STATION | Victoria by train, arriving here? Yes and no (5,7) |
| COACH (train) STATION (victoria) | ||
| 15 | ALLCOMERS | Less advanced slalom race arranged for anyone who wants to enter (9) |
| SLALOM RaCE* (without A – advanced) | ||
| 16 | CLUELESS | You’re certainly not this stupid! (8) |
| cyrptic def | ||
| 18 | CALYPSO | Nymph plays around when in company (7) |
| PLAYS* in CO (company) | ||
| 19 | CLUSTER | Group of 50, in general (7) |
| L (fifty) in CUSTER (general) | ||
| 20 | IPECAC | In parliament, even Conservatives attack current leaders – it makes you sick (6) |
| starting letters of “In Parliament, Even Conservatives Attack Current..” | ||
| 23 | IN-LAW | Relative from one city in Merseyside area? (2-3) |
| I (one) [LA (city) in NW (merseyside area)] | ||
*anagram
Enjoyable solve – thank you Wanderer and Turbolegs
Yup, enjoyed this.
Coupla points:
In 10a, not that it matters, I don’t think ‘one’ is necessarily on double-duty: ‘who’s never arrived’ serves – just – as a stand-alone definition.
Blyth wasn’t quite the first to circumnavigate solo. That would be Francis (later Sir Francis, knighted on the quayside) Chichester. But Chay (sic) was the first to do it non-stop.
And, out of interest, ‘Johnny’ was for years the only word I knew for a ‘condom’, which I probably had to look up the first time I saw it. ‘Rubber’ is American: to us, a ‘rubber’ is a pencil eraser.
Tricky chaps, words.
But a fun puzzle, succinctly blogged, so thank you both.
Most enjoyable, as always – many thanks to both.
I read 10ac as Grant @2 did.
I had to look up LATHI once I’d uncovered it and found, in Collins, ‘a long heavy wooden stick, used as a weapon in India, esp by the police’, so that’s part of the definition – it’s redundant otherwise.
I parsed 8d as horse (definition) and younG Girl with inclusion indicated by the apostrophe s.
Thanks all.
Rubber Johnny’s and Chay Blythe on Blue Peter – pretty much pinpoints me in a particular generation in the UK. Great puzzle and blog, thank you both
Very enjoyable and repaid the effort to work out the tricky parsing for a few that could be bunged in from the def such as RUBBER STAMPS, CARNIVORE and SMELL A RAT. Some other hard ones such as the sneaky ‘in a row’ def for 26,27.
Chay Blyth was retrieved from the memory banks somewhere, after I’d been hoping in vain there might be a ‘Chichester’ homophone. I’ll never forget the excitement when ‘Gypsy Moth IV’ went around the Horn.
You can probably argue the toss but I thought Joshua Slocum was the first person to sail solo around the world. Anyway, Blythe, Chichester, Slocum – they were all extraordinary blokes.
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
I think Wanderer really brings something different to crosswords such as the ‘expansion’ clue ORDNANCE SURVEY, and the ‘hidden’ inclusion GEE-GEE (I agree with Hovis on the parsing). Very refreshing! Thanks S & B.
Thanks Wanderer & Turbolegs
There’s no homophone indicator but perhaps the young girl in 8 down is Gigi?
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
There is always a lot of substance in the puzzles of this setter … and this one had it in spades. There is always as much work in working out why as there is in worfking out what. Took ages to untangle all the S’s in 26,27.
Finished with ORDNANCE SURVEY (with it’s clever abbreviation hint), CLUELESS (simple but tricky at tbe same time) and the sailor BLYTH homophone whom I hadn’t heard of (only knew Chichester).