A straightforward puzzle from Neo this morning.
A very easy, puzzle, spoiled (in my opinion) only by the lack of a question mark at 14dn and the vague “four letters from” in 7dn.
Thanks Neo
| Across | ||
| 1 | CHALICE | Cup of tea left to get very cold (7) |
| CHA (“tea”) + L (left) + ICE (“to get very cold”) | ||
| 5 | FOCUSED | Female commander, no longer fresh, concentrated (7) |
| F (female) + OC (Officer Commanding, so “commander”) + USED (“no longer fresh”) | ||
| 9 | ANNUL | Invalidate yearbook where second article expunged (5) |
| ANNU(a)L (“yearbook”) with its second A (“article”) expunged | ||
| 10 | STONEWALL | Obstruct and delay, admitting nothing topical (9) |
| STALL (“delay”) admitting O (nothing) + NEW (“topical”) | ||
| 11 | PAPERBACK | Essay introducing second book (9) |
| PAPER (“essay”) + BACK (“second”) | ||
| 12 | AIOLI | Excellent oil shaken to make mayonnaise (5) |
| A1 (“excellent”) + *(oil) | ||
| 13 | RELIC | Trace local banished from country for example (5) |
| PUB (“local”) banished from RE(pub)LIC (“country”, for example) | ||
| 15 | PUBLISHER | Bookmaker liable to be damned? (9) |
| Cryptic definition – referring to the Duke of Wellington’s response to a book publisher who claimed that a book of memoirs he was about to publish had some things in it the Duke may widh not to have disclosed. His response was “publish and be damned”. | ||
| 18 | DISHONEST | Gorgeous creature brought to love retreat is cheating (9) |
| DISH (“gorgeous creature”) brought to O (love) + NEST (“retreat”) | ||
| 19 | ROWED | Maybe king due favour had words (5) |
| R (rex, so “king”) + OWED (“due favour”) | ||
| 21 | CRASS | Insensitive Conservative – right fool! (5) |
| C (Conservative) + R (right) + ASS (“fool”) | ||
| 23 | SUNBATHER | Horrendous heat burns person often seen on beach (9) |
| *(heat burns) | ||
| 25 | PEPPERONI | Sprinkle liberally on one pizza topping (9) |
| PEPPER (“ptinkle liberally”) + ON + I (one) | ||
| 26 | APRON | Item with Oedipal strings attached? (5) |
| Cryptic definition – if someon is attached to one’s mother’s apron strings, they are particularly dependent or controlled by a woman, especially their mother, and Oedipus was obsessed with his mother. | ||
| 27 | DECIMAL | Figure boy keeping vermin should be turned over (7) |
| <+LAD (“boy”) holding <=MICE (“vermin”) [turned over] | ||
| 28 | EXTREME | Longer than usual extension supplied by engineers (7) |
| EXT (extension) supplied by REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical “Engineers”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CLAPPER | One gives hand in bringing them together (7) |
| If you bring CLAPPERS together, they make a clapping sound, and one person giving a hand would be a CLAPPER | ||
| 2 | ANNAPOLIS | An Italian city and southern capital (9) |
| AN + NAPOLI (“Italian city”) and S (southern)
Annapolis is the capital of the American state of Maryland. |
||
| 3 | IDLER | Lazybones strangely riled (5) |
| *(riled) | ||
| 4 | EASY AS PIE | A1 spy nobbled entering facility? No problem! (4,2,3) |
| *(ai spy) entering EASE (“facility”) | ||
| 5 | FLOCK | Fine hair and waste wool (5) |
| F (fine) + LOCK (“hair”) | ||
| 6 | CHEVALIER | Knight caught her alive after struggle (9) |
| C (caught) + *(her alive) | ||
| 7 | SHAKO | Four characters from the Bard old hat (5) |
| [four characters from] SHAK(espeare) + O (old)
Don’t like this, as “four characters from’ does not clearly indicate the first four letters, so just as easily could have been KESP or SPAE |
||
| 8 | DALLIER | Everyone on island to stop the German one loitering (7) |
| ALL (“everyone”) on I (island) to stop DER (“the” in “German”) | ||
| 14 | CROSSBEAM | X-ray extending from one side to the other (9) |
| CROSS (“X”) + BEAM (“ray”) | ||
| 16 | BETE NOIRE | Wager Irish Republic will shelter no undesirable (4,5) |
| BET (“wager”) + EIRE (“Irish Republic”) will shelter NO | ||
| 17 | HAWTHORNE | US writer writhing around on her what? (9) |
| *(on her what) | ||
| 18 | DECAPOD | Stepped over unusual tailless sea creature (7) |
| <=PACED (“stepped”, over) + OD(d) (“unusual”, tailless) | ||
| 20 | DERANGE | Disorder casts monarch into endless peril (7) |
| ER (the Queen, so “monarch”) into [endless] DANGE(r) (“peril”) | ||
| 22 | ASPIC | Stock set with food as image shows (5) |
| AS + PIC (“image”) | ||
| 23 | SPOIL | Pressure in ground brings ruin (5) |
| P (pressure) in SOIL (“ground”) | ||
| 24 | AWAIT | Expect a delay (5) |
| A + WAIT (“delay”) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Neo and loonapick.
A pleasant, reasonably quick solve.
Now to get back to Paul, but I fear I may not get much more of it.
Shows that a puzzle doesn’t have to be hard in order to entertain. RE 7 down, I thought this was straightforward once you had the crossers – Neo is always fair and wouldn’t just pluck four random letters, so for me was solvable even though I didn’t know the hat concerned. By way of contrast, in Julius’s similarly entertaining puzzle yesterday, even with the crossers, 6 down, as a cryptic definition, was a guess unless you did know the word. Thanks S & B.
Thanks to Neo and loonapick. I agree – easy but enjoyable. I’ve encountered REME before but keep forgetting it so that initially I was not sure of EXTREME, but as a Shakespeare fan I did enjoy SHAKO and did finally remember “publish and be damned.”
Always enjoy a Neo crossword. Thought SUNBATHER was a very apt anagram of “heat burns.” Got RELIC and PUBLISHER only from the crossings — thanks Loonapick for explaining the clues.
Thanks all, esp Loona.
Re 24d, I think not very elegant because wiat and await clearly have the same root.
In return, I thought 14 d was brilliant.
Thanks Neo and loonapick
Another entertaining edition by this setter. No real holdups and no issues with any of it – though that the four letters of SHAKspeare was fair enough – and was able to work it out with only the O in place, having known the hat.
Was amused by APRON and though the SUNBATHER clue was quite good as well.
Finished with STONEWALL in the NE and DISHONEST in the SW.