Cracking crossword from Zamorca.
Great mix of clues, with plenty to enjoy this morning. All very neatly clued with witty surfaces. Many thanks to Zamorca!
Across
1 Model has her heartless murderer decapitated in crime novel (8)
THRILLER
T (model) has H[e]R (heartless) + [k]ILLER (murderer, decapitated)
5 Resent director-general’s uncontrolled urge to take over (6)
GRUDGE
DG (director general) + (URGE)* (*uncontrolled, to take over)
9 Goes down with cold, overcome by return of catarrh and extremes of bronchitis (8)
SUCCUMBS
C (cold) overcome by (MUCUS<) (catarrh, <return of) + B[ronchiti]S (extremes of)
10 Finishes off milk drink (4,2)
USES UP
USE (milk) + SUP (drink)
11 Someone in court case set fire to giant building (8)
LITIGANT
LIT (set fire to) + (GIANT)* (*building)
12 Exercise to put in right line for fuel (6)
PETROL
PE (exercise) + TO put in R (right) + L (line)
14 Simple BIOS code’s unachievable! (10)
IMPOSSIBLE
(SIMPLE BIOS)* (*code)
18 Warlike leader and aliens crossing space bring misery (3,7)
WET BLANKET
W[arlike] (leader) + ET ET (aliens) crossing BLANK (space)
22 Presume agreement’s a bit inadequate (6)
MEAGRE
[presu]ME AGRE[ement] (a bit)
23 Departed after criminal case increase (8)
ESCALATE
LATE (departed) after (CASE)* (*criminal)
24 Ruined innuendo lost in translation (6)
UNDONE
([in]NUENDO)* (lost IN, *translation)
25 Exhausted by dance with Grand Duke before parting (8)
JIGGERED
JIG (dance) with GD (grand duke), ERE (before) parting
26 Dorothy’s dog’s eating meat regularly and fruit (6)
TOMATO
TOTO (Dorothy’s dog, from The Wizard of Oz) eating M[e]A[t] (regularly)
27 Criminal’s about to take guitar (8)
OFFENDER
OF (about) to take FENDER (guitar)
Down
1 Gutlessly leave behind American in back street brawl (6)
TUSSLE
L[eav]E (gutlessly), behind US (American) in (ST)< (street, <back)
2 Speak from memory and record it on last of tape (6)
RECITE
REC (record) + IT on [tap]E (last of)
3 Lego’s spread around a French sitting room (6)
LOUNGE
(LEGO)* (*spread) around UN (a, French)
4 Riverside space has bar, first of many in county (10)
EMBANKMENT
EM (space) has BAN (bar) + M[any] (first of) in KENT (county)
6 Don’t worry about son getting drunk as yet (4,4)
REST EASY
RE (about) + S (son) getting (AS YET)* (*drunk)
7 Give details of French writer (8)
DESCRIBE
DE (of, French) + SCRIBE (writer)
8 Old students went outside and drove away (8)
EXPELLED
EX (old) LL (students), PEED (went) outside
13 Sick and tired of old boy backing communist’s argument (5,5)
BORED STIFF
(O (old) + B (boy))< (<backing) RED’S (communist’s) TIFF (argument)
15 Miss Wu, it turned out, makes beachwear (8)
SWIMSUIT
(MISS WU IT)* (*turned out)
16 Nationalist party’s aboard a bus without a plan (2,6)
AT RANDOM
N (nationalists) + DO (party) aboard A TRAM (a bus)
17 Play recital with new instrument (8)
CLARINET
(RECITAL)* (*play) with N (new)
19 Fix point on corner (6)
WANGLE
W (point) on ANGLE (corner)
20 Became angry and upset when with Republican journalist (3,3)
SAW RED
(AS)< (when, <upset) + W (with) + R (Republican ) + ED (journalist)
21 One’s selling Vatican gold on purpose (6)
VENDOR
V (Vatican), + OR (gold) on END (purpose)
Good morning, Zamorca, great to make your acquaintance. A terrific way to start the week, thanks. And thanks also to Teacow.
Teacow’s preamble says it all
Thanks to setter and blogger
Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow. An ideal Monday puzzle – and I particularly liked LITIGANT and WET BLANKET. I took a while getting WANGLE because I was not sure about the link to “fix.”
Thanks Zamorca for a very satisfying crossword. WANGLE is a new word to me and the only clue I didn’t solve. (I had tANGLE, a fix of sorts; I don’t get how “W” means “point.”) I see that WANGLE means “to achieve by deception or trickery,” so “fix” makes sense i.e. “the fix is in,” or that election was “fixed.”
Tony @4: W is an abbreviation for WEST which is a point. (A common crossword clue, could have been E, S or N). Thanks!
WANGLE no problem for me as I remember Winker Watson the wangler in the Dandy in the 70s.
Well, WANGLE was my last one in (too).
The ‘angle’ bit was clear and what else could it be than the actual answer: SANGLE, NANGLE, EANGLE?
Not being familiar with ‘wangle’, I learnt something today.
As others said this was a really nice start to the FT week.
Great to see our setter having a well-deserved double bill today.
But where is Robi today?
I was expecting a critical note on the use of ‘on’ (in a down clue) as there was in the Hectence puzzle.
By the way, I am fine with it.
Another déjà vu was ‘peed’ (= ’went’) in 8d.
Not my favourite device but there are many who will laugh out loud, I guess.
Also not my favourites today were 12ac and 24ac.
I would say ‘to put in right’ indicates ‘to’ inside ‘something for ‘right’’ but, taking ‘put in’ as an imperative, it just about works.
In 24ac ‘in translation’ would have been a better anagram indicator than just ‘translation’.
And ‘lost in’ for losing ‘in’ is also a bit lost on me (because of the past tense).
But, again, it might just about work when seeing ‘lost’ as a past participle.
That said, as a solver I am OK with them.
In setting mode, I probably would have said ‘no’ to myself.
As to 16d: is a tram really a bus?
Good puzzle with the right feel.
Many thanks for Zamorca for that & Teacow for the blog.
Thanks Zamorca and Teacow
Whipped through this one pretty easily with no real holdups. Even though WANGLE was my next to last one in, was familiar with its meaning. Had to go back and fix up GRUDGE from my original unparsed BRIDLE at 5a when I just couldn’t fit the DG into the spelling of it.
Living in a city where TRAMS are one of the three main public transport modes, the closest I could get to equatng them is when you hear “Buses replacing trams” (due to the incredible amount of roadworks going on here) … and if you are a user that generally means adding 30-40 minutes on to your journey … :(. Otherwise I agree with Sil’s skepticism of it.
Gentle but still fun whilst it lasted.