I am standing in for Agentzero. I had great time solving this puzzle. But for this opportunity, I might not have solved this. I must admit that I had a slow start. Not that the clues are very difficult but that the surface reading of some of them is deceptive even as it is smooth. I can’t speak or write in French or German but I know some words in these languages and so the foreign element did not bother me. I completed the bottom half first. The last to go in were 9a and 10a and 7d (which is a hidden, mind you!) and 8d. The very last? It was 4d. I cracked it only during a pause in writing this blog. Let the setter say “Neo has no clue for this one!” The solver is relieved that he does not say IT BEATS ME. Thank-you Neo for an enjoyable crossword.
Across
1 GANDHI – (darlin)G + AND (with) + HI (greeting)
5 EYELINER – EYE (see) + LINER (ship)
9 RELIABLE – RELIABL (Braille*) + E (point)
10 SKIING – Cryptic definition
11 CAMERA – CAME (arrived) + RA (artist, abbr. for Royal Academician)
12 ABNEGATE – ÉTAGE (French for stage) N (new) B A (opening letters of “bikes approaching”), all of which are reversed
14 MASS HYSTERIA – (Try as Messiah)*
18 MIDDLEWEIGHT – MIDDLE (heart) + WEIGHT (pound, say)
22 MORIARTY – MORI (poll, abbr. for Market&Opinion Research International) + ARTY (crafty)
25 RHESUS – R (royal) + HE S(man’s) + US (us)
26 ACACIA – AC AC (accounts) + IA (rev. of AI, excellent)c
27 ICEBOUND – (cube I’d no)*
28 ODYESSEAN – (essay don)*
29 TISANE – TIS (rev. of sit) + AN (a) + E (a drug)
Down
2 APEMAN – reversal of NAME (call) + PA (secretary, abbr. of Personal Assistant)
3 DRIVEN MAD – (mind raved)*
4 IT BEATS ME – Cryptic definition
5 EYEWASH – EYE (Observer) + WASH (solution), “nonsense” is the def.
6 ESSEN – hidden in “Jess Ennis”
7 ICING – hidden in “public in general”
8 EINSTEIN – EIN (a or one in German) + STEIN (German for beer mug)
13 EFT – beginning letters of Europe for traders” – meaning “once again”, marked obs. for ‘obsolete’ in Chambers
15 SUGAR BEET – anag. of (SA(-va)GE) + BRUTE
16 ENTRE NOUS – (Norse tune)* French for ‘between ourselves’
17 DIVORCED – DIVO (reversal of Ovid) + RC (Roman Catholic) + ED (journalist)
19 LEA – L (close to Clonmel) + E (English) + A (advanced)
20 ELYSIAN – ELY (see, n., in the bishopric sense) – SIAN (Irish female name)
21 TURN IN – N (abbr. for Knight in chess notation) in Turin (Italian city)
23 INCAS – NCA (can*) in IS. (abbr. for Island)
24 READE – READ (study) + E (English)
Very interesting puzzle with some great anagrams and creative definitions. Tougher than usual for a Tuesday, I thought.
1a: I’ve generally found GANDHI defined after the old leader and not the modern-day political family. This was a refreshing change.
Yes, it was an enjoyable puzzle although I didn’t find it particularly difficult.
Only MORIARTY stumped me for a while, and I am a big S.Holmes man!
Thank you, Neo.
Great entertainment as ever from Neo – the deceptively simple but cleverly observed IT BEATS ME had me beaten for some time.
Many thanks to Neo for a lovely puzzle and to Rishi for the blog. Just a couple of blog notes:
12A – before (or is that after?) B A there’s N (new).
14A – the fodder is “try as Messiah”.
Anax,
Thanks. I have revised the annotations in the blog.
Many thanks to tichy Rishi for his excellent blog, and thanks too to all participants.
My o/s has crashed, Dell are being ultra-boorish, and I’m typing this in from a computer which has obviously been designed for a dwarf. Or a lemur. But how great it must be to have little tiny, furry hands. And – of course – what a great excuse this is to update Crossword Compiler, if Antony will believe me when I say I once had, but sadly have at some point mislaid, the CC program disks.
All in all, I can only see one solution to these problems, which is to order a really stupidly expensive audio computer. But not from Dell …