Much-needed mild diversion in troubled times.
Good puzzle, only wish it could have taken longer. Thanks, Gurney. Stay safe, all.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SOMERSET | Cricketers in their season, we hear, ready to begin (8) |
| Homophone of ‘summer’ (‘in their season, we hear’, cricket being a summer game) + SET (‘ready…’). Somerset County Cricket club, natch. | ||
| 5 | DULCET | Charming of the French learner to take time in Europe! (6) |
| DU (Fr. m. sing. ‘of the’) + L[earner] + CET, = T[ime] according to the C[ommunauté] E[uropéenne], i.e. perhaps ‘time in Europe’. | ||
| 10 | RESPITE | Note malice in break (7) |
| RE (musical ‘note’) + SPITE. | ||
| 11 | TRADUCE | Speak badly of business involving University College (7) |
| TRAD.E includes U.C. | ||
| 12 | PEACE | Quiet gym expert (5) |
| P.E. + ACE. | ||
| 13 | TORMENTOR | He’s annoying hill guide (9) |
| TOR (‘hill’) + MENTOR (a ‘guide’). | ||
| 14 | REVISIONISTS | They challenge older views – visit seniors after review (12) |
| Anagram (‘after review’) of VISIT SENIORS | ||
| 18 | DOUBLE-GLAZED | Drink, happy about zone having been emptied, offering more protection (6-6) |
| DOUBLE (a ‘drink’) + GLA.D including ‘ZonE’, eviscerated. | ||
| 21 | AFTER-LIFE | If ref late – unfortunately getting hell? (5-4) |
| Anagram (‘unfortunately’) of IF REF LATE. | ||
| 23 | SNARE | Partners at table recalling long time trap (5) |
| S[outh] + N[orth] (bridge ‘partners’) + reversal of ERA (‘long time’). | ||
| 24 | CROATIA | Country actor I recollected admiringly at first (7) |
| Anagram (‘re-collected’) of ACTOR I + 1st of ‘Admiringly’. | ||
| 25 | CRUCIAL | Decisive, rebuffing scoundrel, one in California (7) |
| Reversal of CUR (‘scoundrel’) + 1 in CAL[ifornia] (as in e.g. CalTech). | ||
| 26 | DANTON | Not entirely ascendant, one French Revolution figure (6) |
| Inclusion in ‘ascenDANT ONe’, for Georges Danton, ill-fated leader of the 1793 revolution. | ||
| 27 | UPSTREAM | Against the current, having periods of success before time, leaves (8) |
| UPS (‘periods of success’) + T[ime] + REAM (‘leaves’ of paper). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | STRIPE | Clothes English band (6) |
| STRIP (sports ‘clothes’) + E[nglish]. | ||
| 2 | MUSCAT | Wine capital (6) |
| Double def, grape variety & capital of Oman. | ||
| 3 | RAISE HELL | Commendation lacking at beginning, he will protest heatedly (5,4) |
| pRAISE without 1st + HE’LL (‘he will’). | ||
| 4 | ELECTRIC GUITAR | Axe trite “cigar” clue, poor (8,6) |
| Anagram (‘poor’) of TRITE CIGAR CLUE. | ||
| 6 | USAGE | Employment in America extremely gettable (5) |
| U.S.A. + 1st & last of GettablE. | ||
| 7 | COUNTESS | Lady in France where exotic scents provide surroundings (8) |
| OU (Fr. ‘where’) in angram (‘exotic’) of SCENTS. | ||
| 8 | THEORIST | Article, golden, first for Einstein, say (8) |
| THE (‘article’) + OR (heraldic ‘golden’) + 1ST. | ||
| 9 | STORM IN A TEACUP | Row where Earl Grey is? In reality it’s trivial (5,2,1,6) |
| Cryptic def, Earl Grey tea, obvs. | ||
| 15 | NEEDS MUST | Shift dense smut – it’s a necessity (5,4) |
| Anagram of DENSE SMUT. | ||
| 16 | ADVANCED | Sophisticated promotion? Very, with church included (8) |
| AD (‘promotion’) + V[ery] + AN.D (‘with) including CE (‘church’). | ||
| 17 | HUNT DOWN | Find daughter in built-up area after initially heading up north (4,4) |
| D[aughter] in T.OWN after 1st letters of last 3 words. | ||
| 19 | VALISE | Goodbye – is packing case (6) |
| VAL.E (Latin ‘goodbye’) ‘packed’ with IS. | ||
| 20 | BEDLAM | Somewhere to sleep, ultimately still before morning uproar (6) |
| BED + last of ‘stilL’ + A.M. (‘morning’). | ||
| 22 | RETRO | Old-time transport system getting new start (5) |
| mETRO with 1st letter changed. | ||
*anagram
CET is Central European Time; not all EU members use it, and some non-members do.
Nice clean puzzle and blog – thanks! Those of you who solved yesterday’s might have noticed that Pasquale’s Guardian 28,089 today has 16a: “Nasty noise increased for listeners…” which is unambiguous.
ILAN @2: Yes, I noticed, but only after I read the blogs. I missed that clue in both crosswords which induced that sound in me. Not much to complain about in Gurney’s puzzle — missed STRIPE — don’t get “strip” as sports ‘clothes.’ Liked CRUCIAL, UPSTREAM, THEORIST, and HUNT DOWN especially. Thanks Grant for the blog.
Very straightforward puzzle. Didn’t take up much time. Didn’t know DANTON but checked it with wiki.
Thanks Gurney and Grant
These are very weird times … I think that the diversions of what is going on actually made this one go longer than it normally would have … not helped by writing in QUAINT initially at 5a with an “I’ll parse that later” !
Have only come across STRIP as the football uniform from doing these puzzles, it must be a very British term. Thought that the SOMERSET clue was quite witty.
Finished in the SW corner with HUNT DOWN, DANTON (whom I also had to look up after seeing the run-on) and RETRO.
Thank you very much, Grant, for the excellent blog and many thanks also to all who commented.