Tees in his now customary Monday Indy slot. Bert and Joyce slightly roughed up the setter in their blog of his last puzzle, so just in case his ego needs massaging back into life I have said nice things about this one.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Crown calculation little bit short
SUMMIT
A charade of SUM and MIT[E]
4 Keep one plugging away? Hardly
ADHERE
I think, but only think, that this is a charade of AD for ‘one plugging’ and HERE as an antonym of ‘away’.
9 Have new delivery rounds?
WET THE BABY’S HEAD
A cd. And a rather clever one, if I may make so bold.
10 Colleague’s going west, skirting constant danger to shipping
SCYLLA
An insertion of C for the ‘constant’ in ALLY’S, all reversed. Wouldn’t be a Tees puzzle without some classical reference. Homer describes SCYLLA as a creature with twelve dangling feet, six long necks, grisly heads lined with a triple row of sharp teeth, and with a voice like a yelping dog. Sounds fricking dangerous to me. Cf CHARYBDIS.
11 Arms manufacturer Sun might suspect
GUNSMITH
(SUN MIGHT)*
12 ARP signal everyone understood
ALL CLEAR
A charade of ALL and CLEAR. Address Resolution Protocol? Nope. Air Raid Precautions.
14 Refine garden Richelieu used to an extent
ENRICH
Hidden in gardEN RICHelieu.
15 Intended to provide funding where one name absconds
FIANCÉ
FI[N]ANCE. Tees is being careful (comme toujours) with his clueing: you only need to take one N out of the source word.
18 Rude little blighter to lie outrageously
IMPOLITE
A charade of IMP and (TO LIE)*
21 Puts out paper opposing current tendencies
UPSTREAM
A charade of (PUTS)* and REAM.
22 Spice fanatic sending over excellent specimen
NUTMEG
A charade of NUT and GEM reversed (‘sending over’). A spice, as well as a colleague of Tees in Another Place.
24 Gossip who lies about lake monster back in high land
FLIBBERTIGIBBET
Solve then parse for most, I guess. An insertion of L in FIBBER followed by BIG reversed in TIBET. Middle English, of imitative origin. And tell me, how do you solve a problem like Maria?
25 Disheartened Ezekiel quits team
ELEVEN
A charade of EL for the outside letters of ‘Ezekiel’ and EVEN (‘we’re even/quits’).
26 An anthropoid ape abandoning sick goat
ANGORA
A charade of AN and GOR[ILL]A.
Down
1 Design aid — tool that draws street for page
STENCIL
Tees is inviting you to take the P for ‘page’ out of PENCIL and replace it with ST for ‘street’.
2 Find travel stop up in Seattle tomorrow
MOTEL
Hidden reversed in SeattLE TOMorrow.
3 Say again — educated Liberal must go
ITERATE
[L]ITERATE
5 Respected female poet embracing the old
DOYENNE
An insertion of YE in [John] DONNE. YE is a transliteration of ‘the’ using the Old English letter thorn (þ). It was never pronounced with a modern Y sound, but you knew that already. Don’t tell the owners of Ye Olde Tea Shoppe, though.
As for Donne, here’s an extract that might have some resonance today:
No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe;
Every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine;
If a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse
6 Unfinished Harper Lee novel about months passing
EPHEMERAL
An insertion of M in (HARPE[R] LEE)* She of To Kill a Mockingbird fame.
7 Bouncy castle collapses, trapping one
ELASTIC
An insertion of I in (CASTLE)*
8 Hound finds elusive burrowing creature
BADGER
A dd.
13 Artist using copper
CONSTABLE
Another dd.
16 Drive miles up to resort
IMPULSE
(MILES UP)* You need to read ‘resort’ as ‘re-sort’ to make it work as an anagrind.
17 Interpreter say needed in late summer abroad?
EXEGETE
An insertion of EG for ‘say’ in EX and ETE, the latter element being the French word for summer (strictly ÉTÉ).
18 Popular Paraguayan tea one kept in jug
INMATE
A charade of IN and MATE.
19 Somewhat red governor initially in for drink
PINK GIN
A charade of PINK, G for the first letter of ‘governor’ and IN.
20 Article on South African appearing in May?
THERESA
A charade of THE, RE and SA. That woman that used to be PM, remember?
23 After cheers, negative utterance forbidden
TABOO
A charade of TA and BOO.
Many thanks to Tees for the start to the Indy week.
Thanks for the blog, Pierre – and especially for the so apposite Donne quotation.
It would be hard not to say nice things about this puzzle, I think. Lovely clues and surfaces throughout: my favourites were WET THE BABY’S HEAD, EPHEMERAL, ELASTIC and EXEGETE.
Many thanks, Tees: I really enjoyed it.
What Eileen said
Thanks to Tees and Pierre
Glad I didn’t read last week’s blog. A favourite setter and he did not disappoint today,
I struggled with ‘Adhere’ and Wet the baby’s head’, otherwise all went in quite steadily over a longer-than-usual breakfast. Thanks Tees and Pierre.
We couldn’t see the parsing of ADHERE and FLIBBERTIGIBBET but otherwise everything was fine. Most enjoyable but over too soon.
Thanks, Tees and Pierre.
Well Tees – Thanks. We really enjoyed this one!
Enjoyed this a lot.
Thanks to Tees and Pierre.