Thanks to Tramp for an enjoyable crossword with nice clue surfaces. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
9 Still one is drunk by bar (9)
NOISELESS : Anagram of(… drunk) ONE IS plus(by) LESS(bar/except for/excluding, as in “he was the best of them bar none”).
Defn: Not making a sound (nor a movement).
10 Resin from tree around eastern island (5)
ELEMI : ELM(a tall deciduous tree) containing(around) E(abbrev. for “eastern”) + I(abbrev. for “island”).
Defn: … from a tropical tree.
11 Watches gathering bee getting stuff from woods (7)
TIMBERS : TIMERS(things that measure time/watches) containing(gathering) B(pronounced as “bee”).
12 With this wash bottom, bent over to get inside (4-3)
TWINTUB : Reversal of(…, bent over) BUTT(bottom/buttocks) containing(… inside) WIN(to get/to secure).
Defn: A washing machine with, well, twin tubs.
13 Doing university? I am not finished yet! (2,2)
UP TO : U(abbrev. for “university”) + PTO(abbrev. for “please turn over” as the writer, using the self-referential pronoun, would write at the bottom of the page to indicate he/she has written more/is not finished yet).
Defn: … as in “what are you up to these days”.
14 24 eagles seen flying (10)
SENEGALESE : Anagram of(… flying) EAGLES SEEN.
Defn: An example of an African/answer to 24 down.
16 Each Rolls-Royce incorporates invention that’s more advanced (7)
EARLIER : EA(abbrev. for “each”) + RR(abbrev. for a “Rolls-Royce”, the luxury car) containing(incorporates) LIE(an invention/a fabrication).
Defn: …/descriptive of a date (of an event) that has been moved to one earlier than originally.
17 Soap actor sorry to return to box (7)
SHAMPOO : HAM(an actor, a poor one at that) contained in(… to box) reversal of(… to return) OOPS!(an exclamation indicating the recognition of one’s own error, as part of an apology/sorry!).
19 Bring up injured crew at end of bank following this? (5,5)
TRAIN WRECK : TRAIN(to teach, especially a child, certain forms of behaviour/to bring up, as in “parents bring up their children to respect …”) + anagram of(injured) CREW plus(at) last letter of(end of) “bank“.
Defn: …, an event that may precede the extrication/bringing up of injured crew.
22 Some off-licences busy in France (4)
FLIC : Hidden in(Some) “off-licences“.
Defn: The French equivalent of “busy”/slang for a policeman.
24 Person one day goes to prison (7)
AFRICAN : A(the article for “one”/a single) + FRI(abbrev. for Friday) plus(goes to) CAN(slang for “prison”).
Defn: … from Africa, of course.
25 Stick next to low tree (4,3)
BLUE GUM : GUM(to stick/to glue) placed after(next to) BLUE(low/despondent, as in “I’m feeling blue about you”).
Defn: An eucalyptus tree from Australia.
26 Tailless duck across lake is cut off (5)
ELIDE : Last letter deleted from(Tailless) “eider”(a sea duck) containing(across) L(abbrev. for “lake”)
27 Women took in right top for sport (5,4)
WATER POLO : W(abbrev. for “women”) + ATE(took in orally) + R(abbrev. for “right”) + POLO(short for a polo shirt/a top/an item of clothing for the upper part of the body).
Down
1 Ten pints? Run! Male’s mad dash (10,5)
INSTRUMENT PANEL : Anagram of(…’s mad) TEN PINTS? RUN! MALE.
Defn: …/short for “dashboard”, like the one in your car.
2 Actor with sheet sings from the bottom (4,4)
FILM STAR : FILM(a thin sheet, as in “cling film”) + reversal of(… from the bottom, in a down clue) RATS(sings/tells on someone, especially to the police).
3 Harry‘s live on TV (5)
BESET : BE(live/exist) placed above(on, in a down clue) SET(short for a TV set).
4 Clothes department blind opened by some workers? (8)
MENSWEAR : SWEAR(to “eff and blind”) placed below(opened by, in a down clue) MEN(some workers).
5 Scenery fills empty theatre: one with wings (6)
TSETSE : SETS(scenery serving as the backdrops in a film set or theatre stage) contained in(fills) inner letters deleted from(empty) “theatre“.
6 Around time of birth parent mostly laid out (9)
PERINATAL : Anagram of(… out) [PARENT + “laid” minus its last letter(mostly …)].
Defn: …, a number of weeks before and after.
7 Boil as darling wife is out with man (6)
SEETHE : “sweet”(darling/delightful, as in “my darling wife”) minus(… is out) “w”(abbrev. for “wife”) plus(with) HE(third person pronoun for a man).
8 London by M1: BMW to come off and park here? (9,6)
WIMBLEDON COMMON : Anagram of(… off) [LONDON plus(by) M1st: BMW plus(to) COME].
Defn: Not a car park, but open land used for recreation.
15 Ate out with photo taken (9)
PICNICKED : PIC(short for “picture”/photo) + NICKED(taken unlawfully/stolen).
Defn: … in the open.
17 They once made music in bed having got end up (8)
SACKBUTS : SACK(bed, as in “a roll in the sack”) plus(having got) reversal of(… up, in a down clue) STUB(the end of a cigarette or similar-shaped object after use).
18 Cover off Floyd LP got translated in many languages (8)
POLYGLOT : Anagram of(… translated) [“Floyd” minus its 1st and last letters(Cover off …) + LP GOT].
The “Floyd” of Pink Floyd, of course.
20 Regretfully accepting single father needs help (6)
AFRAID : A(single/one) + FR(abbrev. for “father”, a priest) plus(needs) AID(help).
Defn: …, as in “I’m afraid I’m not up to it tonight”.
21 Note on present having name (6)
RENOWN : RE(the second note in the sol-fa music scale) placed above(on, in a down clue) NOW(the present time) plus(having) N(abbrev. for “name”).
The last 2 words in the clue doing double duty.
23 Groom to rush taking top off (5)
CURRY : “scurry”(to rush/move off in haste) minus its 1st letter(taking top off, in a down clue).
Defn: … a horse with a, well, curry comb.
As usual with Tramp’s puzzles, at first it looked impenetrable, but the answers slowly revealed themselves, providing a very enjoyable challenge.
I parsed 21d as Defn = Note and wordplay of On=RE, present-NOW etc.
Just right, I thought. Favourites were WIMBLEDON COMMON, and INSTRUMENT PANEL which I needed the “Anagram helper” to see, though the anagram fodder was pretty obvious. I hadn’t come across “busy” as slang for “policeman” but the clue was straightforward.
Some may object to the vague definition of AFRICAN as “person”, but the crossers, and the fact that 14a could only be SENEGALESE, made it unambiguous.
I think the parsing of MENSWEAR is a bit clunky, but fair.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
I read 21d as re (on) now (present) plus [having] n (name), with def as ‘note’, as in “person of note/renown”.
… and I agree with KLColin about 21d.
… snap KLColin
Thanks Tramp and Scchua, an enjoyable puzzle, not easy but mainly fair. I can’t find an instance where bar and less can be interchanged (9a) – it doesn’t work in the example given in the blog, for instance. The anagram fodder in 8d being separated as it is, seems also unfair – I accept the by = plus but not the to = plus. I agree with KLCollin above on the parsing of 21d.
23 down proved elusive to the last. After Wimbledon Common went in early I was half expecting the Wombles to appear somewhere in the grid.
As a long-time French resident, I thought it very appropriate that FLIC should be answer to clue number 22, since a standard French way of alerting one’s accomplices to the presence of the cops is “Vingt-deux, v’là les flics !”. There is some dispute as to the origin of the term. Some of the proposed etymologies are fascinating…
Once again I am vexed by the fact that ‘doing double duty’ seems to be an accepted thing, surely having to use a word twice indicates a dead end from which you retreat and retry (before coming up with an acceptable parsing as per KLColin @ 2)?
As for Ronald@8, 8d jumped out but not so 1d. Lateral brain was slow, taking ages for dash as panel, film as sheet, and bar as less (off the top, can’t think of an example for that, but someone will). Pto in 13 was neat, seen before but a while ago, ditto the tsetse fly. Knew flic ad cop, but busy…?? Thought the ‘off’ in 26 was a bit off, elide being more ‘cut out’. Blind as verb in 4d was neat. And 20d is another ‘substitutable?’ (I’m afraid, Mr ginf, we’re letting you go; regretfully…). Hey ho, lots to debate and good fun, thanks both.
Some lovely clues and neat anagrams – hats off for “instrument panel”, more élan than dash! But I felt “wimbledon common” was very clunky with nothing at all in the clue to indicate what was fodder and what was not. Even after solving I cannot justify it and I don’t think anyone else here has yet – I await illumination. I agree with Larry @7 re “less” <> “bar”. Ii solved it but hoped to find out why here. I still don’t know but scchua’s guess is as good as any, just not convincing.
As George Clements said @1, it unfolded beautifully, in spite of appearing impossible at first, and that is something I always enjoy and appreciate about a puzzle. Nothing should be obvious, until it is!
Thank you Tramp, and scchua for unpicking it
Regarding less=bar, I think you could say “We were all there, bar/less John who was ill”.
Yep bealieu, that’ll do.
Thanks Tramp and scchua
Some nicely misleading definitions – 1d, for example. Favourite was RENOWN, which I too had as “re” = on/concerning. I didn’t parse MEMSWEAR.
Lovely crossword, thank you Tramp – thanks also to scchua for the blog
On second thoughts, beaulieu, would one ever say “.. less John”? Hmmm.
Thanks Tramp et merci Blaise (9)
18D. I assumed the Floyd was Floyd Cramer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKwq6UW9bnU far superior to tedious hippy Pink Floyd.
“Careful With That Axe”…Grim and Din…
Despite doing a “duck trawl”, I missed ELIDE, for which I had an unparsed ‘exile’. The rest went in steadily, although my last in AFRAID took some working out.
Favourites were the excellent ‘dash’ definition for 1d and the &littish TRAIN WRECK.
Thanks to Tramp and scchua
Was ‘din’ a typo, Ronald?
Are there washing machines with twin tubs? I was thinking of a double sink, one for washing and one for rinsing.
Got hardly any done last night, this morning some of it unfolded and I had to resort to the check button for the rest. Thanks for ingenious clues, Tramp, and scchua for the blog and the pictures.
I’ve never seen PTO. We generally write (over) at the bottom, or at least I do.
I had thought that 8d would be an anagram of LONDON BY MI BMW TO, but the the C in FLIC threw me into despair. It took a while for me to figure out the selective elimination of some bits. By then I had C_M_O_, which had to be COMMON, and then what was left had to be WIMBLEDON. “The Wambles of Wimbledon Common are we, Overground, underground wambling free.” I’ve never seen the TV show, but I read that jingle somewhere and it’s pursued me ever since.
I had a message of thanks to Tramp and scchua at the top, which seems to have been replaced by blank space. So thanks to both.
Valentine @23
Twin-tubs date back to the 50s – the washer was on one side, the spinner on the other. The wet washing had to be dragged out of the former and into the latter.
You’re excused as you’ve never seen it, only heard it, but they were “Wombles” 🙂
Typical Tramp solve for me, almost nothing on first pass, but with some perseverance it all began to unpack (if somewhat slowly). At one point the right had side was completed but I had nothing on the left. Eventually got in with train wreck and then the rest unfolded. Last one was instrument panel which I looked at for ages despite working out that the first word was instrument. On reflection that along with menswear and renown were my favourite clues. Thanks to Tramp for the challenge and scchua for clarifying some parsing.
Grantinfreo@21 Absolutely yes! finger slipped across the keyboard to the left inadvertently…I’ve always been a Pink Floyd fan anyway, from back in the day.
Tough but rewarding
Thanks to Tramp and scchua
As usual with Tramp, the puzzle wasi ok once you get going but the getting going is really tough. On the second pass I only had ELEMI and I had to look that up! I then got SENEGALESE and WIMBLEDON COMMON and POLYGLOT and was – sort of-off. I liked BESET,AFRICAN and FLIC. BLUE GUM was a guess.
Thanks Tramp.
It’s late enough now to go slightly off-topic, isn’t it?
I’ve played golf on the course on Wimbledon Common. At the time (I don’t know if it’s still the case) there was a park regulation that all golfers had to wear red tops!
I found this quite tough, and ELEMI and BLUE GUM were guesses. I liked SWEAR (in MENSWEAR) clued by ‘blind’, having seen exactly that definition very recently in a crossword elsewhere. I was slow to get INSTRUMENT PANEL, despite thinking of all the meanings of dash including that one, but when I did get it the left side fell more easily.
Thanks Tramp and scchua.
Much enjoyed puzzle this.
Thanks to scchua and Tramp.
“I got to the cinema late but still saw the whole film, bar/less the opening credits.”
Best shot yet, Gonzo, for bar/less.
Looked it up, muffin, and yes, red is still mandatory on wcgc!
I only played it once, but I remember (or possibly misremember?) one of the strangest holes I’ve ever played – a very short par 3 where the green was entirely surrounded by trees, so you had to go over them.
Yes red tops still a requirement at Wimbledon Common golf course. I think the hole surrounded by trees is the 4th.
Surely 21 Down is nothing to do with “re….about” and everything to do with the second note in the sol-fa scale……”re”?