A fun puzzle from BRADMAN this Friday morning. A couple of words that were new to me but the immaculate cluing helped a speedy solve. Thanks BRADMAN!
FF: 9 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | HARMED | Husband, prepared for battle, getting wounded (6) |
| H (husband) ARMED (prepared for battle) | ||
| 4 | ICEBOUND | One church certain to be cut off in bad weather (8) |
| I (one) CE (church) BOUND (certain) | ||
| 9 | TALKIE | Drunkard appears after start of the film (6) |
| T (start of The) ALKIE (drunkard) | ||
| 10 | INTAGLIO | Toiling with difficulty to incorporate a design (8) |
| TOILING* containing A | ||
| 12 | TITI | Monkey, one following bird (4) |
| TIT (bird) I (one) | ||
| 13 | AUGUSTNESS | Noble quality of head following holiday time? (10) |
| AUGUST (holiday time) NESS (head) | ||
| 15 | FOOLHARDIEST | Treat self to hairdo that is most bold and stupid (12) |
| SELF TO HAIRDO* | ||
| 18 | CAME A CROPPER | Arrived with a mower and had an accident (4,1,7) |
| CAME (arrived) A CROPPER (mower) | ||
| 21 | PALISADING | Putting a fence around land a pig is wandering about (10) |
| LAND A PIG IS* | ||
| 22 | DERV | Fuel carried by wider vehicles (4) |
| hidden in “..wiDER Vehicles” | ||
| 24 | ISSUANCE | Legal act keeps children outside political party (8) |
| ISSUE (children) outside ANC (political party) | ||
| 25 | METIER | Strong suit of this writer, wild beast with no heart (6) |
| ME (this writer) TIgER (wild beast, without heart i.e. without middle letter) | ||
| 26 | LARGESSE | Generosity of spirit and less rage somehow needed (8) |
| LESS RAGE* | ||
| 27 | PRUNUS | Shrubs giving their audible instruction to gardener when too big! (6) |
| cryptic def; sounds like PRUNE US (instruction to gardener when too big) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HOT STUFF | Important person gets recently stolen goods (3,5) |
| double def | ||
| 2 | RELATION | Maybe sister Joy follows brother ultimately (8) |
| R (brotheR, ultimately) ELATION (joy) | ||
| 3 | ENID | Woman making some men idiotic (4) |
| hidden in “..mEN IDiotic” | ||
| 5 | CONCUPISCENT | Study to get trophy – is bit of money making one passionate? (12) |
| CON (study) CUP (trophy) IS CENT (bit of money) | ||
| 6 | BEAUTY SPOT | Buy teapots specially made in idyllic location (6,4) |
| BUY TEAPOTS* | ||
| 7 | UGLIER | Less attractive gruel, horrible for one to tuck into (6) |
| GRUEL* containing I (one) | ||
| 8 | DROPSY | Medical problem declines with ending of puberty (6) |
| DROPS (declines) Y (ending of pubertY) | ||
| 11 | QUARTERDECKS | American clubs maybe first to sponsor places for posh passengers (12) |
| QUARTER DECK (american clubs maybe, 1/4th of a pack of card) S (first to Sponsor) | ||
| 14 | CHEAPSKATE | Welcome offer from fishmonger who is not normally generous type? (10) |
| cryptic def; SKATE here refers to a type of fish, and apparently quite pricey too | ||
| 16 | APHELION | Point in space could appear to be a pinhole (8) |
| A PINHOLE* | ||
| 17 | PROVERBS | Professional words in religious book (8) |
| PRO (professional) VERBS (words) | ||
| 19 | UPHILL | Attending university hospital, unwell – struggle being this? (6) |
| UP (university) H (hospital) ILL (unwell) | ||
| 20 | CLOSER | Cold person seen as victim becomes more intimate (6) |
| 23 | DEAR | Sweetheart demanding on the purse (4) |
| double def | ||
*anagram
Very pleasant working through this puzzle, even if in the end I 18a on 16d, having the A and O the wrong way round. Not hard, but TITI had to go in from wordplay. I’m probably missing the obvious but I don’t really know what ‘American’ is doing in 11d.
I liked TALKIE, but this was worth doing for CONCUPISCENT alone. Great word.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs
Parsing for 20d is missing.
Wordplodder, apparently “deck” is American for “pack”. Can’t say I was aware that it was US since it is well known this side of the pond.
Thanks Hovis. Yes, as a non-American, the term “deck” for “pack of cards” is also familiar to me too. I’ve just looked it up in Chambers though and “(US)” is shown next to the “pack of cards” sense. Must be the influence of too much (usually trash for me) American TV.
I would venture to say that a standard deck or an American deck has 52 cards , and other versions have 54 cards (with the 2 additional jokers). Perhaps its that …
Regards,
TL
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs. Even though I got CONCUPISCENT I don’t see where con is study. I never heard the term CAME A CROPPER and I wrongly guessed “chopper” for mower. DERV was also new to me. Another learning experience for sure.
Tony @ 5
CON is a crossword regular for ‘study’. It appears to be cognate with the German ‘kennen’ and French ‘connaitre’ for ‘know’.
Simon @6 Thanks. I only knew “con” as a criminal, a deception, or an opposite of pro. Now I can add study to the list.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs.
I almost finished this. I didn’t know CONCUPISCENT and I put INTENTNESS for 13a. Maybe not such a noble quality but I am happy to holiday in tents.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
A pretty straightforward puzzle by this setter with even the shrub at 27, the monkey at 12 and that CONCUPISCENT (which I’d seen only in other puzzles) gettable without help.
Missed the clever trick of clubs being a quarter of a deck at 11d – it probably was my favourite after seeing that here. Finished with that and AUGUSTNESS, which I hadn’t seen as a noun before.