[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
Harry and I bump into each other for the second month running on a Sunday. This was a well-constructed, entertaining cryptic in the typical IoS style – tractable and without obscurities. And no sex or drugs in sight.
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 A table on the Orient Express?
ABOARD
A charade of A and BOARD in its ‘table’ sense.
5 Boisterous rubbish coach enters into
ROBUST
An insertion of BUS in ROT.
9 A spirit seen by mansion in Battle
AGINCOURT
A charade of A, GIN and COURT.
10 Old boy and knight drinking a port
OBAN
An insertion of A in OB and N for the chess notation for ‘knight’.
11 Beat-up cars heading off for city abroad
ANGERS
[B]ANGERS gives you the French city in Maine-et-Loire.
12 Make light of ultimately crap yield
PLAY DOWN
A charade of P for the last letter of ‘crap’ and LAY DOWN.
14 Sorry I’ve messed up making changes
REVISORY
(SORRY IVE)*
16 One against physician tickling nurses
ANTI
Hidden in physiciAN TIckles.
18 When army leader seizes one big piece of ground!
ASIA
An insertion of I in AS and A for the first letter of ‘army’.
19 We take advantage of retired players
EXACTORS
A charade of EX and ACTORS.
21 Highly-clever sort in Arabic novel
BRAINIAC
(IN ARABIC)*
22 Cook bones?
DOCTOR
A dd. ‘He cooked the books’ will give you the first bit; Dr. Leonard H. ‘Bones’ McCoy (for example) will give you the second.
24 It’s said I possess a bit of Scottish land
IONA
A charade of a homophone (‘it’s said’) of I OWN and A.
26 Foreign citizen in care led astray
ICELANDER
(IN CARE LED)*
27 Stick to a present with inset diamonds
ADHERE
An insertion (‘with inset’) of D in A HERE.
28 Caretaker of tower to meet Her Maj
KEEPER
A charade of KEEP and ER for Elizabeth Regina, or as Harry always calls her, ‘Her Maj’.
Down
2 Difficult problem bar trainees sorted
BRAIN-TEASER
(BAR TRAINEES)*
3 US soldier tucking into brew in Mobile
AGILE
An insertion of GI in ALE.
4 Result of ridicule? Republican becomes cold!
DECISION
The setters is inviting you to replace the R in DERISION with a C.
5 Singer associated with Brown and Plant
RATTAN
You need to think of ‘sing’ in its ‘snitch’ or ‘rat’ sense. Then it’s a charade of RAT and TAN.
6 Catholic dude demolishes head of school on TV
BROADCAST
And here you need to think of ‘demolish’ in its ‘eat’ sense; then it’s a charade of BROAD and S for the first letter of ‘school’ inserted into CAT for ‘dude’.
7 Musical genre Mark heard on radio
SKA
A homophone of SCAR.
8 Concoct happy lectures? I might!
SUPPLY TEACHER
(HAPPY LECTURES)* with an extended definition.
13 A crew’s route up the Thames?
WATERCOURSE
Great surface. (A CREWS ROUTE)* with ‘up’ as the anagrind.
15 Dead hot article on current lover
INANIMATE
A charade of IN for ‘hot’ in its ‘popular’ sense, AN, I for the unit of electrical current, and MATE.
17 Book by poet and journalist Spooner’s mentioned
HARDBACK
A Spoonerism of BARD HACK.
20 Eat around six? That’s wonderful!
DIVINE
An insertion of VI in DINE.
23 Worry about daughter in revolutionary group
CADRE
An insertion of D in CARE.
25 Saggy and wrinkled, but daring to go topless
OLD
[B]OLD. You can tell Harry is a young setter. I’ll have him know ‘saggy and wrinkled’ is not a definition of ‘old’, thank you very much. Just a bit, maybe. Thank you to the firm and smooth young libertine for today’s puzzle.
Thanks Harry & Pierre. Very smooth, as my skin used to be before I got 25…Another slightly bespoke feel about this grid – after yesterday’s from Dalibor – had me on Nina watch, but apart from ARABIA in col 1 I can’t really see much.
I also noted ORAC making an appearance in column 7, not so long after Qaos’s Blake 7 theme. Even with the matching 7’s, I reckon that’s a coincidence.
For some reason, I’m not keen on crossing clues like 2d and 21a, both starting with BRAIN. Lots to like even though I prefer a bit more bite. Harry certainly has the ability to set on whatever level he desires.
Thanks to Hoskins and Pierre.
This was a lot of fun with accurate, brief cluing and lovely smooth surfaces. I loved the “big piece of land” definition in 18a, the perfect Spoonerism in 17d and the well-disguised lurker in 16a. Probably my favourite was 22a, a perfect DD.
Many thanks to Harry and Pierre.
Nice to see ORAC making an appearance in the nina but, despite a glut of Gs, As, and Ns in the NW, still no GAN 🙁
Much to enjoy today, my first puzzle after a couple days off to plan the next few weeks. I’ll get to the backlog at my leisure (of which there will be plenty!). I liked ASIA and HARDBACK, struggled with RATTAN.
Thanks Hoskins, thanks Pierre
For the first time in ages, I had nothing to query or check my parsing, so completed before my second mug of tea. Didn’t spot Arabia and ORAC meant nothing to me: Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity apparently, though knowing Harry’s humour something else maybe. Thanks to him and Pierre.
Spent ages looking for a mother’s day theme but alas – what’s the matter with the boy?
great fun, thanks Hoskins, cheered up my day
A nice smooth Sunday solve, although we couldn’t parse BROADCAST – we got ‘broad’ = ‘catholic’ (with a small ‘c’) but missed ‘demolish’ = ‘eat’. Oddly, though, we saw ‘singer’ = ‘rat’ at once in 5dn.
Lots to like; we particularly liked AGINCOURT, ANGERS and SUPPLY TEACHER.
Not much point in nina-hunting, we think, although a few random words crop up in the unches – ‘Sark’ in row 2, ‘end’ and ‘arc’ in row 10.
Pedants’ Corner: A minor point about the blog; in 15dn I is the symbol for electric current, as in I=E/R, the unit of electric current is the ampère (symbol A).
Thanks, Hoskins and Pierre.