A gentle but fun offering from Artexlen
I completed this puzzle in two passes, with the two long answers at the top of the bottom being the key to solving the rest of the puzzle as they gave lots of crossers.
I always enjoy Artexlen puzzles are they are fair and well clued and some of the surfaces are excellent (eg the clue for SINGLE-HANDEDLY was excellent).
This would make a great puzzle for a learner (maybe not a complete rookie, but certainly it would be OK for someone who had a basic grasp of cryptics) as it had a good range of devices and no particularly hard clues.
Thanks, Artexlen.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WHOLEMEAL BREAD | With difficulty, careless male reportedly made kids food (9,5) |
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W (with) + HOLE ("difficulty") + *(male) [anag: careless] + homophone [reportedly] of BRED ("made kids") |
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| 10 | MUMPS | Pressure on parent with son’s disease (5) |
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P (pressure) on MUM ("parent") with S (son) |
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| 11 | TELEGRAMS | Messages from European before stage in public transport (9) |
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E (European) before LEG ("stage") in TRAMS ("public transport") |
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| 12 | UTENSIL | Reconfigured iTunes, primarily listening tool (7) |
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*(iTunes) [anag: reconfigured] + [primarily] L(istening) |
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| 13 | WEIRDER | Stranger beginning to watch duck crossing river (7) |
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[beginning to] W(atch) EIDER ("duck") crossing R (river) |
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| 14 | TRIES | Hears shots (5) |
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Double definition |
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| 16 | TABLEWARE | Perhaps dishes from Alberta we cooked (9) |
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*(alberta we) [anag: cooked] |
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| 19 | ENGROSSED | Involved in goal, nasty left- winger from Everton (9) |
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in END ("goal"), GROSS ("nasty") [left-winger from, i.e. leftmost letter of] E(verton) |
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| 20 | SOCKS | Horrors after husband’s removed footwear (5) |
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S(h)OCKS ("horrors") with H (husband) removed |
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| 22 | TRACTOR | Vehicle to go off with trailer in reverse (7) |
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<=ROT CART ("to go off" + "trailer", in reverse) |
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| 25 | INCISED | Cut in members of police around south-east (7) |
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IN + C.I.D. ("members of police") around SE (south-east) |
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| 27 | COMBATANT | Person hugging cudgel in bed is fighter (9) |
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MAN ("person") hugging BAT ("cudgel") in COT ("bed") |
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| 28 | BORNE | Transported spy in film, not family-rated (5) |
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(Jason) BO(u)RNE ("spy in film") not U (universal, or "family-rated") |
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| 29 | SINGLE-HANDEDLY | Ending day’s hell getting drunk alone (6-8) |
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*(ending days hell) [anag: getting drunk] |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | HAMMERING | Criticising this writer in amateur band (9) |
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ME ("this writer") in HAM ("amateur") + RING ("band") |
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| 3 | LISTS | Claim sites regularly ignored schedules (5) |
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(c)L(a)I(m)S(i)T(e)S [regularly ignored, i.e. alternate letters dropped] |
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| 4 | MUTILATES | Changes to secure the Italian ruins (9) |
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MUTATES ("changes") to secure IL ("the" in "Italian") |
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| 5 | AGLOW | Shining silver base (5) |
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Ag (chemical symbol for "silver") + LOW ("base") |
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| 6 | BAGPIPERS | Musicians sack Greek character, person shunning working (9) |
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BAG ("sack") + PI ("Greek character") + PERS(on) shunning ON ("working") |
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| 7 | ELAND | Antelope dash over delta (5) |
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ELAN ("dash") over D (delta, in the phonetic alphabet) |
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| 8 | DESERVE | Win diamonds, West’s partner with ace, perhaps (7) |
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D (diamonds) + E (East, "West's partner" in bridge) with SERVE ("ace, perhaps") |
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| 9 | AMOUNT | Relation receives second degree (6) |
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AUNT ("relation") receives MO ("second") |
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| 15 | SHORTFALL | Loss of order, impacted by hard season in America (9) |
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SORT ("order") impacted by H (hard) + FALL ("season in America") |
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| 17 | BADMINTON | Belgium dominant playing sport (9) |
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B (Belgium) + *(dominant) [anag: playing] |
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| 18 | ANCESTRAL | A new king in rebuilt castle of family line (9) |
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A N (new) + R ("king") in *(castle) [anag: rebuilt] |
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| 19 | ENTICES | Draws scene, it is abstract (7) |
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*(scene it) [anag: abstract] |
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| 21 | SUDDEN | Unexpected upset after university ousts adult (6) |
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S(a>U)DDEN ("upset") with U (university") ousting A (adult) |
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| 23 | ADMIN | A furore about male’s management (5) |
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A DIN ("furore") about M (male) |
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| 24 | ROACH | Fish from right cook with head removed (5) |
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R (right) + (p)OACH ("cook" with head removed) |
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| 26 | CABLE | Lead one hundred on island to the north (5) |
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C (100) with <=ELBA ("island" to the north, ie going up) |
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I agree with your introduction loonapick although I did spend longer than I should have with my last two: BOURNE then SUDDEN. Thanks to S&B.
I too always enjoy Artexlen for the same reasons as loonapick. I loved 1ac ‘reported made kids’ = bread. Thanks Artexlen and loonapick.
Thanks Artexelen and loonapick
Late to this one and did find it at the lower end of difficulty spectrum for this setter. Not any the worse for that as the clues were in his normal elegant and clear style. Unparsed and incorrect entries at 1a (CHILDREN’S SERVE) and 26d (COBAN, who knows what that means) lengthened the solve time a little.
MUMPS was first in and the fixed up CABLE the last.