Oh, good, another Tees puzzle in my blog schedule. Always an enjoyable challenge.
Some of these took a bit of working out: there are some slightly obscure definitions, such as 18d and the two component parts of 23d, though I think I’ve found a fair justification for all of them in the end. My favourites were the concise &lit at 27a, the apt surface at 11a, and the ingenious 5d. Thanks again to Tees.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | NAILS DOWN | Finally settles trouble between North and South Irish region (5,4) |
| AIL (trouble, as a verb) between N and S, then DOWN (county in Northern Ireland). Nail down = resolve beyond doubt. |
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| 10 | ALPHA | Dominant mountain has to be truncated (5) |
| ALP (mountain in Europe) + HA[s] (truncated). Dominant as in “alpha male”. |
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| 11 | ERATO | Time and time again, love is an inspiration (5) |
| ERA (time) + T (time, again) + O (zero = love in tennis scoring). Erato, the crossword setter’s favourite Muse – specifically the one associated with love poetry, so a nice extended definition. |
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| 12 | LEAFINESS | Green state imposed penalty probing corrupt sales (9) |
| FINE (imposed penalty) inserted into (probing) an anagram (corrupt) of SALES. | ||
| 13 | CADAVER | Corpse found in vehicle crossing channel (7) |
| CAR (vehicle) around (crossing) DAVE (a UK television channel). | ||
| 14 | EN SUITE | Connected, make certain to install it for Romeo (2,5) |
| ENSURE (make certain), with IT installed instead of the R (Romeo in the radio alphabet). Connected as in an “en suite bathroom” connected to a bedroom. |
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| 16 | METAL | Some extreme talent needed in heavy music (5) |
| Hidden answer (some) in [extre]ME TAL[ent]. Metal = heavy rock music. |
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| 18 | PEA | Climber in training area (3) |
| PE (physical education = training) + A (area). Climber = climbing plant. |
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| 19 | IDEAL | Current understanding serves as example (5) |
| I (scientific symbol for current) + DEAL (understanding, as in “we’ve reached an understanding”). | ||
| 21 | CHICAGO | Lake Michigan port appealingly elegant in the past (7) |
| CHIC (appealingly elegant) + AGO (in the past). | ||
| 22 | SATANIC | A saint out and about like his adversary (7) |
| Anagram (out) of A SAINT, then C (circa = about = approximately). Extended definition: satanic = like Satan, the enemy of a saint. |
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| 24 | SET ON FIRE | Light, refreshing tins of beer unopened (3,2,4) |
| Anagram (refreshing) of TINS OF [b]EER; unopened = without the opening letter. | ||
| 26 | ADDED | Extra Norse works returned by daughter (5) |
| EDDA (Edda, Old Norse literature) reversed (returned), then D (daughter). | ||
| 27 | LEWIS | Western isle stormy? (5) |
| Anagram (stormy) of W (western) + ISLE. Clue-as-definition (&lit): Lewis is in the Western Isles in Scotland, and its climate is somewhat wet and windy. |
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| 28 | COPING SAW | Understood after holding one’s own tool (6,3) |
| SAW (became aware of = understood) after COPING (holding one’s own). A tool for cutting complicated shapes in woodwork, particularly interior cut-outs. |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | INTERCOM | Means to communicate in period without company (8) |
| IN TERM (in period), containing (without, in its older sense of outside) CO (company). | ||
| 2 | RIBALD | Architects presented with line drawing originally blue (6) |
| RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) + initial letters (originally) of Line Drawing. Ribald = blue = humorous in a crudely sexual way. |
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| 3 | ASTON VILLA | Like to see cracking wrestling from the bottom team (5,5) |
| AS (like) + TO; then ALL-IN (a form of wrestling), reversed (from the bottom up, in a down clue), with V (v = vide = see, used in document references) inserted (cracking). Aston Villa Football Club, in Birmingham. |
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| 4 | BOWLER | British monarch keeps bird in hat (6) |
| B (British) + ER (Elizabeth Regina = monarch), containing OWL (bird). | ||
| 5 | ON CAMERA | Artist took the stage, being filmed (2,6) |
| RA = Royal Academician = artist. Take the stage = come on stage, so “ON CAME RA” = artist took the stage. | ||
| 6 | BALI | One having party back in holiday island (4) |
| I (one in Roman numerals) + LAB (Labour = political party), all reversed (back). | ||
| 7 | APPETITE | Old man making climb with little desire (8) |
| PA (old man = slang for father), reversed (making climb = upwards in a down clue), then PETITE (little). | ||
| 8 | HASSLE | Problem ship coming into sound (6) |
| HALE (sound = healthy), with SS (steam ship) coming into it. | ||
| 15 | SAINT-SAENS | Nastiness with a drunken composer (5-5) |
| Anagram (drunken) of NASTINESS + A. Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer. |
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| 17 | TWIN TOWN | Idiot, accepting direction, to have linked community (4,4) |
| TWIT (idiot), containing (accepting) N (north = direction), then OWN (to have). | ||
| 18 | PROVINCE | Machiavellian character pens ordinary verse for pigeon (8) |
| PRINCE (subject of a book by Machiavelli), containing (penning) O (ordinary) + V (verse). The definition is tricky: pigeon = province in the sense of “area of responsibility / concern”, as in “that’s not my pigeon”. |
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| 20 | LOCKDOWN | Coil on sink offers security measure (8) |
| LOCK (coil = a curl of hair) + DOWN (sink, as a verb = cause to go underwater; or down = sink = slang for drink quickly). The definition may be a little too close to home at the moment; best wishes to anyone who’s been solving this puzzle while in lockdown for coronavirus! |
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| 21 | CASTLE | Man from Lima in class (6) |
| L (Lima in the radio alphabet) in CASTE (social class). Man as in chessman; chess purists will insist that it’s called a rook. |
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| 22 | SHERPA | Secretary follows small female mountain guide (6) |
| PA (personal assistant = secretary), following S (small) + HER (female). | ||
| 23 | NUDIST | In buff, nether regions one displays? (6) |
| DIS (a region of Hell, according to Dante’s Divine Comedy, hence “nether regions”) in NUT (buff = someone enthusiastically knowledgeable about a particular subject, as in “film buff”). DIS is an old favourite in crosswords, but one that I struggle to remember. And a witty extended definition too. | ||
| 25 | NOSH | Ham producer allows seconds in for a feed (4) |
| NOAH (Bible character, father of Ham, hence “Ham producer”), with S (seconds) replacing the A (allows seconds in for a). | ||
Thanks for the blog, Quirister. I had ticks for all of your favourites, for the same reasons and also for 13c and 15, 18 and 25dn.
Many thanks, Tees, for a most enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks for explaining NOSH. Didn’t know Noah’s son.
PROVINCE and the ‘Noah’ bit of wordplay went in as imaginary ‘pigeon’ and pig breeds respectively. Ignorance is bliss, or at least doesn’t always get in the way of crossword solving, even it is is unparsed.
Not too hard, but the two unknowns and trying to figure out the not so easy parsing of some such as ASTON VILLA and NUDIST made for a satisfying challenge.
Thanks to Tees and Quirister
A most enjoyable puzzle but then I’d expect nothing else from Mr B whichever alias he is using
My particular favourite was the ‘Ham producer’ in 25d
thanks to Tees and Quirister
I struggled with many of these but got there in the end. 3D was obviously Aston Villa but I couldn’t parse it at all, indeed if I had been a Villa fan I would have been most offended. But thanks anyway to Tees and Quirister.
The only one we couldn’t parse was NOSH – we’d forgotten about Noah’s son and couldn’t imagine how a Japanese drama could be a ham producer – unless possibly it led to overacting.
21ac reminded us of the old schoolboy howler – ‘Chicago is at the bottom of Lake Michigan’
Thanks, Tees and Quirister.