Brummie sets the challenge today.
I found this pretty straightforward, with just one or two more unusual words or usages and a couple of not very cryptic definitions but overall an enjoyable solve – thanks, Brummie.
More often than not, I think, Brummie’s puzzles have a theme but, after a lot of staring at it, I haven’t been able to spot one here.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Cave in reserve with sunfish (7)
SUBSIDE
SUB [reserve] + S [sun] + IDE [fish]
5 Members of artistic movement more than once chucked into ditches (7)
CUBISTS
BIS [twice – musical direction] in CUTS [ditches]
9 Different nations meeting (5)
RACES
Double definition, the second referring to horse races
10 Live by river? Look for duck (9)
BERGANDER
BE [live] + R [river] + GANDER [slang for a quick look] – another name for the shelduck
11 No room here for a drink (4,6)
BEER GARDEN
Cryptic [?] definition
12, 21 Crusades staged for models that have been around a bit (4,4)
USED CARS
An anagram [staged?] of CRUSADES
14 A game way of raising money (11)
TESTIMONIAL
Cryptic definition: ‘a sports match played in order to raise money for a player nearing retirement’ [Chambers]
18 Relative almost said ‘Neat‘ (11)
UNCLUTTERED
UNCL[e] [relative] + UTTERED [said]
22 Canon‘s turn to enter form of prayer (10)
PREBENDARY
BEND [turn] in an anagram [form of] of PRAYER
25 Conclude a wall covering is sterile (9)
INFERTILE
INFER [conclude] + TILE [wall covering]
26 One leaves to throw up a meal (5)
LUNCH
L[a]UNCH [throw up] minus a [one leaves]
27 Poetic inactivity in Lidl (Essex) (7)
IDLESSE
Hidden in lIDL ESSEx – a new word for me, but clearly clued and easy to infer, by analogy with noblesse, finesse, etc
28 Acts like a predatory cat, eating small sweets? (7)
MOUSSES
MOUSES [acts like a predatory cat] round S [small]
Down
1 Second eleven starts acquiring game scorer (6)
SCRIBE
S [second] E[leven] round CRIB [game] – ‘a pointed instrument to mark lines on wood, metal, etc’ or, as a verb, ‘to mark or score with a scribe’
2 Angel who’s retiring? (6)
BACKER
Cryptic definition – ‘angel’ in the sense of a financial backer, of theatrical productions, for example
3 Sharp, visible illegal tackle to get rid of ball (10)
INSIGHTFUL
IN SIGHT [visible] + F[o]UL [illegal tackle, minus o {ball}]
4 Wood almost burnt out: the finale for three months (5)
EMBER
Double definition: septEMBER, novEMBER, decEMBER
5 Firm retires lousy underwear maker (9)
CORSETIER
CO [firm] + an anagram [lousy] of RETIRES – more usually in the feminine, I think
6, 24 Stand on branches? Americans do so, rightly (4,4)
BEAR ARMS
BEAR [stand] ARMS [branches] – a play on ‘rightly’, referring to the Americans’ right to bear arms, enshrined in the Second Amendment
7 Cruel, miserable lives and habitual response (8)
SADISTIC
SAD [miserable] + IS [lives] + TIC [habitual response]
8 Celebrated instrument led off — it’s what cellists do (8)
STRADDLE
STRAD [celebrated instrument] + an anagram [off] of LED
13 Wow academic bishop with currency of very high distinction (6,4)
CORDON BLEU
COR [wow] + DON [academic] + B [bishop] + LEU [currency of Romania]
15 Gloomy, beset by raging sea, surrender (9)
SATURNINE
TURN IN [surrender] in an anagram [raging] of SEA
16 Vegetable feature found in unknown ICU configuration (8)
ZUCCHINI
CHIN [feature] in Z [unknown] + an anagram [configuration] of ICU – this is an Italian plural, of course, but the dictionaries give authority for the singular use
17 Mocking short French consul’s dancing (8)
SCORNFUL
An anagram [dancing] of FR[ench] CONSUL
19 Birches planted round Northern resort (6)
CANNES
CANES [birches] round N [Northern]
20 Complaint when temperature taken by pushy sort (6)
TYPHUS
T [temperature] + an anagram [sort] of PUSHY
23 Swimmer offers resistance in support of gymnast (5)
BREAM
R [resistance] in BEAM [support of gymnast]
Thanks Brummie and Eileen
I had a slow start – only IDLESSE and SADISTIC on first pass – but it went steadily from there. No particular favourites.
I’ve been a birdwatcher for 60 years, but I’ve never heard of a BERGANDER – indeed it took quite a complicated Google image search to get it to show me a picture of one, rather than a person or a merganser! (If anyone wants to try, it was “bergander duck -merganser”.)
It took me a long time to get going, but then it went in pretty smoothly. Favourites were UNCLUTTERED, LUNCH and ZUCCHINI. Many thanks to Brummie and Eileen.
What muffin@1 just said! I also hadn’t heard of BERGANDER.
Thanks Eileen. I couldn’t spot a theme either, despite a hard scrutiny. There seemed to be football overtones in the clues: 1a, 14a (and in the answer); 1d, 3d.
Thanks Brummie also
Took a while to get going with this, with uncluttered foi…always a comfort if obscure (to me) words such as idlesse are presented as ‘can’t go wrong with this’ hidden words.
A good balanced puzzle today. DNK the canon or the duck but just followed the wordplay. Fave was INSIGHTFUL for it’s neat construction.
Loved the new word IDLESSE – to be used frequently henceforth. Are we retirees the IDLESSE oblige?
Thanks to both as always.
An enjoyable puzzle – took quite a while to get going but then it all came together.
BERGANDER and IDLESSE do rather smack of someone struggling to complete a grid, IMHO. And like muffin @1 I have been birdwatching for several decades and had never heard of a bergander.
Like muffin, I am a keen birdwatcher, but I’d never heard of BERGANDER. It pairs nicely with BEERGARDEN, as does EMBER with BREAM. There may be more.
In a way, I should have added.
I solved this early this morning and now I can’t find my piece of paper – I do remember enjoying myself – luckily the clue for the alternative shelduck was very friendly. I also (yes me!) noticed the pairing of said bird with beergarden and the ember/bream link
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen
I liked this Brummie, with the bottom half competed before I had any break-throughs in the top half. Drofle@2 mentioned a couple of my favourites, but I also liked 12 21a USED CARS, 25a INFERTILE, 4d EMBER, 7d SADISTIC, 13d CORDON BLEU and 8d STRADDLE. As an almost retiree, I really like the notion of IDLESSE oblige, BlueCanary@6. Thanks to Brummie for the enjoyment and to Eileen for the blog.
Very enjoyable. My favourite was CORDON BLEU.
BERGANDER was new for me.
Thanks Eileen and Brummie.
I looked hard for another appearance of Hoover or a style of coffee, but we seem to be free of them for a while.
I always find it curious that Bis! is French for Encore!
Eileen — don’t we often use plurals for vegetables when they’re a serving — carrots, for instance, or beans, can be the answer to “what vegetables did you have?” ZUCCHINI is a common word over here, but I think you call them courgettes? (We often use the Italian word where you don’t for a food — arugula for rocket, for instance. Then again we go Spanish with cilantro where you say coriander.) Thanks for the blog, and Brummie, thanks for the puzzle.
[Dr. WhatsOn @13
I’m more familiar with the road signs in France with BIS on them. It’s short for “bison fute” (wily bison), and is their equivalent of our HR (Holiday Route) signs.
It’s a few years since I’v driven in France. Do they still have “BIS” routes?]
A slow but steady solve for me. Like others not much at first, but it all unpacked quite readily until I got stuck in the NW. However backer came to the rescue and eventually got the rest. Beer garden and races were the last ones and I liked sadistic and insightful. Like some others I think something else is going on but not sure what it is. Thanks to both Brummie and Eileen.
Valentine @ 14
I’m usually the first to complain about Italian plurals being misused, but I didn’t mind ZUCCHINI. Even more apposite that your example, if you were asked “what vegetable would you like with your fish?” you would be unlikely to answer, for instance, “pea”.
Spitting Image-Maggie and cabinet at dinner.
WAITER-What would Madame like to order?
“I’ll have the chicken”
“And what about the vegetables?”
“They’ll have the same”
Copmus@18 which brings to mind:
Customer: Waiter, do you serve shrimps here?
Waiter: We serve everyone, sir.
which is relevant because it only works in the plural.
Eileen and Valentine @ 14 Talking of vegetable plurals what about broccoli? Apparently from the Italian singular broccolo. Vegetables seem to be a curious category of part singular and part plural words. Think of asparagus, beetroot, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chard, kohl-rabi, lettuce, spinach. Most of these do not have a plural at all, or if so, as in the case of cabbage and cauliflower, only to be used by wholesalers and similar.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen.
My mind was stuck on reserve=ice in 1a before our familiar ide fish,so it was my LOI. COD EMBER.
Valentine @14 and Gerardus @20 – my apologies for the late response: I’ve been out since mid-morning.
How ironical: I could have left 16dn without comment but, having been involved in regular discussion here about paninis and the like, I thought I would do some research on this one, to try to forestall controversy and found that Chambers gives ZUCCHINI as ‘a courgette’, with possible plurals zucchini or zucchinis. It seems that I should just have kept quiet! [I’ve never eaten a zucchini – plenty of courgettes, though. 😉 ]
Gerardus @ 20
Interesting observation. I think it works from the consumer’s perspective, not so much from the growers.
For instance “i grew two different cauliflowers, four different chards and six different lettuces” works perfectlywell when referring to types.
And who can forget
The time has come, the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —
Of cabbages — and kings —
And why the sea is boiling hot —
And whether pigs have wings.
Simon S – I presume you’re referring to Brummie’s puzzle from a couple of months ago
😉
It seems several contributors are bird watchers of a similar vintage – and like the others BERGANDER was new to me. I even went as far as saying to MrsW “bergander works with the wordplay but there’s no such duck” and left it unentered until eventually conceding it had to be and looking it up.
I found this far from straightforward Eileen – it took ages to get going and then it unravelled slowly with the NW being the last to succumb. But everything was perfectly fair and it was a pleasure to get there in the end – thanks to Brummie and Eileen.
WhiteKing @25 et al
My Devon grandfather always referred to Shelducks as “butter ducks”. I’ve not been able to find a source for this (although it seems that some American ducks are called butter ducks).
btw, if you Google, beware of following too many links that have “duck butter” rather than “butter duck”!
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen.
Late to the party (as usual these days), I found this to be thoroughly enjoyable. In a discussion of setter styles recently I said I would spot a Brummie from other offerings on the basis of greater verbosity (no negatives intended as I said at the time). More fool me – I thought this was a model of economy. Favourite was CORSETIER for the surface.
Re Bergander
from the dutch bergeend, hiding duck, Bergander is a hiding goose, another name for this bird is burrowing duck, it hides and breads in rabbit holes, Sheldrake meaning varigated male, and tadorna d’Bellon in France which incorporates the latin name and I assume where they originated. The Shelduck is neither a duck or a goose, it is a Sheldrake.