A good challenge from Neo this Friday, thanks to whom for dishing a pleasurable workout.
FF: 9 DD: 8
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DIVE-BOMB | Attack in disreputable club to fail (4-4) |
| DIVE ( disreputable club ) BOMB ( fail ) | ||
| 6 | CHROME | Brilliant finish in two churches (6) |
| CH ( church ) ROME ( church ) | ||
| 9 | SACHET | Way around pain – here’s medicinal packet (6) |
| ST ( way, street ) around ACHE ( pain ) | ||
| 10 | CLEAVAGE | Bristol Channel, or Silicon Valley after augmentation? (8) |
| cryptic def; silicon valley referring to topography after breast implants of said material | ||
| 11 | GOBI | One on spit where temperature famously varies (4) |
| GOB ( spit ) I ( one ) | ||
| 12 | EVIL-MINDED | Jean stops daughter breathing – seen retrospectively as wicked (4-6) |
| [ DENIM ( jean) containing D ( Daughter ) ] LIVE ( breathing ) , all reversed ( retrospectively ) | ||
| 14 | KING KONG | Greek in Family Circle no good for epic (4,4) |
| GK ( greek ) in [ KIN ( family ) O ( circle ) N ( no ) G ( good) ] | ||
| 16 | NOIR | Dubliners unlikely to feature in such films? (4) |
| cryptic def; read as NO IR (no irish) | ||
| 18 | SOLO | Performance in Oslo slammed (4) |
| [ OSLO ]* | ||
| 19 | ANATHEMA | Abhorrent song about American leader in Africa (8) |
| [ ANTHEM ( song ) about A ( America ) ] A ( Africa, first letter ) | ||
| 21 | COMPARISON | Firm with million plus capital working for association (10) |
| CO ( firm ) M ( million ) PARIS ( capital ) ON ( working ) | ||
| 22 | LOAF | Head making bloomer(4) |
| double def | ||
| 24 | CONFETTI | Scraps in shower after match? (8) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 26 | CANDID | John cleaned for Frank (6) |
| CAN ( john ) DID ( cleaned ) | ||
| 27 | MYRTLE | Plant borders in magically radiant landscape (6) |
| end characters of “..MagicallY RadianT LandscapE“ | ||
| 28 | EXEGESIS | Six geese on the loose – explanation needed (8) |
| [ SIX GEESE ]* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | IDAHO | Neo had a small house in American state (5) |
| I’D ( neo had ) A HO ( house, short form ) | ||
| 3 | ETHNIC GROUP | Corrupt once upright people with common lineage (6,5) |
| [ ONCE UPRIGHT ]* | ||
| 4 | ON THE DOT | Not terribly keen about news boss being sharp (2,3,3) |
| [ NOT ]* { HOT ( keen ) around ED ( news boss ) } | ||
| 5 | BUCKINGHAMSHIRE | Deer and rabbits seen in this English region briefly (15) |
| cryptic def; male deer and rabbits are called BUCKS , which is short for buckinghamshire | ||
| 6 | CREAMY | Thick and rich – like the elite? (6) |
| cryptic def; elite ~ cream | ||
| 7 | REV | Minister on valium initially (3) |
| RE ( on ) V ( Valium, first letter ) | ||
| 8 | MAGNESIUM | Girl one going among silent element (9) |
| [ AGNES ( girl ) I ( one ) ] in MUM ( silent ) | ||
| 13 | NONCHALANCE | Cool tea, Frenchman’s refusal to cut sandwiches (11) |
| CHA ( tea ) in [ NON ( no, french ) LANCE ( cut ) ] | ||
| 15 | ICONOLOGY | One company keeps no record for artistic study (9) |
| I ( one ) [ COY ( company ) containing { NO LOG ( record ) } ] | ||
| 17 | BARNACLE | Farm building expert brings in large inconvenience to Hull (8) |
| BARN ( farm building ) [ ACE ( expert ) containing L ( large ) ] | ||
| 20 | WRITHE | Squirm where governor served with court order (6) |
| WRIT ( court order ) HE ( governor, His/Her Excellency ) | ||
| 23 | ALIBI | Excuse Somali bigamist uses (5) |
| hidden in “..somALI BIgamist..” | ||
| 25 | FAT | Starts with frankfurter and teewurst as Bunter (3) |
| starting letters of “..Frankfurter And Teewurst..”, easy enough to parse but i had to google to confirm the meaning as it was a new term for me (as most cockney words/phrases are). | ||
A great Friday offering, with some exquisite surfaces. I loved 6ac, 10ac,24ac and 5dn. Thanks, Neo, and TL as usual.
Re 25d, I’m old enough to remember that BILLY BUNTER was a fat boy in either Beano or Dandy comics! A fun puzzle, only missed “DOT” in 4d. Thanks Neo and Turbolegs.
Yes, a very enjoyable offering with plenty to entertain the solver. I thought CLEAVAGE in particular was a real classic. I didn’t know the LOAF meaning for ‘bloomer’ so learnt something as well. I just thought the 25d def was ‘as Bunter’, in that Billy Bunter was FAT, but seems that there’s more to it than that. I also had the whole clue as the def for CONFETTI, but I suppose it’s six of one…
A big thanks to Neo and to Turbolegs
10A was done much more succinctly by Monk in FT 16398, 12/2/20, using just the first two words of today’s clue.
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs
Thanks, Neo and Turbolegs. Good puzzle with only a couple of difficulties. NE corner was hard because I had BERYLLIUM for 8d until I got CLEAVAGE.
15d, COY was a new abbreviation for me, don’t think it’s common here – the familiar CO is used in 21a.
WordPlodder@3, this was also new for me. I wondered if it was LEAF; leaf = weed/marijuana = “head”, and a leaf on a blooming plant? LOAF works better.
Like John @2, I remember Billy Bunter and his sister Bessie (just).
Favourites today were NOIR, GOBI, MYRTLE.
I presume the extended version of 10a was for the benefit of new solvers across the pond.
Great fun as usual thank you Bro
Thanks also to Turbolegs for the blog
Blooming predictive text. I was of course thanking Neo
10A clue of the week for me 🙂
Thanks Neo for a well-crafted crossword. CANDID is my clue of the week; other favourites include MYRTLE, MAGNESIUM, and the amusing CLEAVAGE. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
John @2 – Billy Bunter was actually in The Magnet, in the Greyfriars stories by Frank Richards (pseudonym of Charles Hamilton). George Orwell’s essay “Boys’ Weeklies” is a fascinating survey of the genre, and Richards’ reply is interesting too (both linked from the Wikipedia article).
If the “Silicon Valley” in 1a is referring to breast implants, then I’m afraid Neo is guilty of the common confusion between Silicon and Silicone
Isn’t 10a simply derived from Bristol City rhyming slang “titty”=breasts+channel?
Which I now realise, too late, doesn’t account for Silicon!!!
Jeff @ 5
COY is a (US?) military abbreviation rather than a business one.
Alan @13 – yeah I would be surprised if the setter didn’t have Bristols on the mind! Otherwise I’m not sure why Bristol Channel, in particular, brings cleavage to mind. Is it particularly notable inlet?
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs
Good puzzle to finish the week with an identical grid to the previous day’s Falcon, but quite a bit harder. A number of clever clues, including the long one down the centre and the witty 10a (the ability to use geographical areas was worth the slip of the final e of ‘silicone’).
Played around with LEAD at 22a for a while but the match to ‘bloomer’ was not there – thankfully remembered the bread though.
Finished in the SW corner with ICONOLOGY (a new term for me), MYRTLE and SOLO the last one in.
Yes. Whoops. Silicon(e). Silly me trying to be extra clever in getting away from the usual clue for that word. New strategy needed.
I too don’t know why Bristol was chosen as the city to rhyme with titty, but it was. Maybe it was much more famous (being once a very busy port) at the time than it is now. ‘Tis meet for crossword compilers doing old channel = cleavage jokes however.
I agree with Alan Swale @14.
Could someone explain “cleaned” = “did”, Is it ‘did’ as in ‘had’,’duped’? thanks
I believe that in British vernacular “to do” can mean to clean, as in I hired someone to do my house. Cf. the 1963 comedy “Ladies Who Do”.