A fun, intriguing challenge from WANDERER today.
FF: 10 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | LYNCH LAW | Result of mob rule? Former Taoiseach lost a wife (5,3) |
| LYNCH ( former taoiseach, jack lynch ) L ( Lost ) A W ( wife ) | ||
| 8 | LEAN-TO | Italian in no great hurry, locking up a shed? (4-2) |
| LENTO ( slow, italian word for no great hurry ) containing A | ||
| 11 | AESOP | Storyteller regularly made us soup (5) |
| alternate ( regularly ) letters of “..mAdE uS sOuP“ | ||
| 12 | TERRIFIED | Playing dirtier ultimately, if one is in a blue funk (9) |
| [ DIRTIER { iF onE ( last letters) } ]* | ||
| 13 | AVOCADO | A very dishonourable chap breaking into orchard’s heading repeatedly for a kind of pear (7) |
| A V ( very ) [ CAD ( dishonourable chap ) in OO (Orchard, first letter, repeated) ] | ||
| 14 | POSTERN | Back door Bill Clinton finally needed (7) |
| POSTER ( bill ) clintoN ( finally, last letter ) – a touch risque?? | ||
| 15 | CABINET MINISTER | One carrying red box around, in case one’s needed in church (7,8) |
| CABINET( case ) MINISTER ( one needed in church ) | ||
| 18 | SECOMBE | Second Oscar award for Welsh comedian (7) |
| SEC ( second ) O ( oscar ) MBE ( award ) – harry secombe | ||
| 20 | DUTEOUS | Criminal used to needing uniform inside, once obedient (7) |
| [ USED TO ]* containing U ( uniform ) ; i wonder if ‘once’ in the clue was necessary … | ||
| 22 | LAMP POSTS | Those sharing secrets of a politician in primarily left-leaning columns (4,5) |
| [ A MP ( politician ) ] in { L ( Left-leaning, first letter ) POSTS (columns) } | ||
| 23 | EXTRA | Especially wide, perhaps (5) |
| cryptic def; a WIDE is an extra run in the game of cricket | ||
| 24 | SUNKEN | Low-down on paper doll? (6) |
| SUN ( paper ) KEN ( doll ) | ||
| 25 | AGRICOLA | Current viral complaint contracted in an Indian city, in general (8) |
| [ I ( current ) COLd ( viral complaint, contracted) ] in AGRA ( indian city ) – wiki here | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CLEARANCE SALES | Cancels a lease, sadly holding first of regular events caused by shops closing down (9,5) |
| [ CANCELS A LEASE ]* containing R ( Regular, first letter ) | ||
| 2 | UNESCO | International agency wanting some nun escorts (6) |
| hidden in “..nUN ESCOrts”; hmm … wanderer, what was on your mind?? | ||
| 3 | CHAPLAIN | Film star entertaining a clergyman (8) |
| CHAPLIN ( film star ) containing A | ||
| 4 | EAST SOUTHEAST | The point of love seats, essentially (4-9) |
| expansion of ESE in “..lovE SEats..”, essentially referring to the middle letters | ||
| 5 | GENIUS | Class containing one who’s especially talented? (6) |
| GENUS ( class ) containing I ( one ), definition can be extended to start from “..one who’s” | ||
| 6 | INCIDENT | Event curtailed tennis game, with police brought in (8) |
| [ TENNIs ( curtailed ) ]* containing CID ( police ) | ||
| 9 | ORDINARY SEAMAN | Sailor briefly having a break, being between two ships (8,6) |
| cryptic def; expansion of OS, found in the break between “..twO Ships” | ||
| 10 | GRAPHIC DESIGN | Website creator’s skill becoming evident as GP changed Iris’s treatment (7,6) |
| [ GP CHANGED IRIS ]* | ||
| 16 | BECOMING | Attractive bloke on vacation before Advent (8) |
| BlokE ( on vacation, i.e. without inner letters ) COMING ( advent ) | ||
| 17 | INTREPID | Pinter production described by papers as daring (8) |
| [ PINTER ]* in ID ( papers ) | ||
| 19 | MUPPET | Animal, maybe male, raised by Paddy (6) |
| M ( male ) UP ( raised ) PET ( paddy ) | ||
| 21 | OPTION | Intercourse initiator “on top”, perhaps leading to another possible choice (6) |
| [ I (Intercourse, first letter) ON TOP ]* ; naughty wanderer! | ||
Very enjoyable. The last 3 or 4 taking as long as the rest put together. In 15a, I had the MINISTER part as I in MINSTER. Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Found this tough and made it tougher for myself by entering a lazy ‘petrified’ at 12. EAST SOUTHEAST was my (eventual) favourite: I messed for ages with ‘ova’ (central letters of ‘lOVe seAts), trying to make some sort of coitional sense. Kicked myself, because I’d found the expansion for ORDINARY SEAMAN as a write-in.
Many thanks to Wanderer for the fun Turbolegs for the skilled blog.
Wanderer on top form today!
I had the opposite experience to Grant @2: feeling really chuffed at seeing the device in 4dn, which has foxed me more than once in the past, I totally failed to spot it in 9dn. (Pride goeth …)
Some super clues: ticks for 13ac AVOCADO ( for its construction – I really liked ‘orchard’s heading repeatedly for’), POSTERN, AGRICOLA, EAST-SOUTH EAST, GRAPHIC DESIGN and INTREPID. Top place goes to the brilliantly and sadly allusive CLEARANCE SALES – but there wasn’t a dud clue to be seen.
Many thanks, Wanderer, for another super puzzle and Turbolegs for a great blog.
I parsed 15ac as Hovis did.
Hard work with about four unparsed, including EAST-SOUTHEAST on which I spent an unreasonable amount of time at the end. Still some good ones like MUPPET and the ‘paper doll’ at 4a made up for a bit of frustration along the way.
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs
A fresh and fruity offering from Wanderer today!
Failed on two, AGRICOLA and ESE. I’ve not being doing these long enough yet to be on the lookout for expansions but like Eileen, I found 9d from the crossers. I also shared her appreciation for AVOCADO, along with CHAPLAIN, INTREPID, TERRIFIED, LAMP POSTS and MUPPET.
Good fun!
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Oops, I meant Grant’s write-in.
I got confused by all the words in 9D (ordinary seaman). Can someone explain how “having a break, being” applies? The blog explanation is that the answer is an expansion of OS, so maybe the surface implies “expansion” in a way I don’t see. It seems to me the clue could have read something like: Sailor briefly caught (or a better verb) between two ships.
Generally Wanderer’s one of my favourite setters but this was too taxing for me. After a couple of hours I bailed. I did enjoy what I got such as AVOCADO, LEAN-TO, and GENIUS. Thanks to both.
ub @8. The “having a break” just refers to the break between the words twO and Ships, whereas the abbreviation OS has no such break.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Very good crossword to finish the week that took over the hour to get finished, even though AESOP jumped out at first look. Was another who had MIN-I-STER for the second part of 15a. Lots of interesting clues with some tricky parsing and some well-concealed definitions (‘those sharing secrets’, ‘animals, perhaps’, etc) and the cheeky 21d clue to finish with.
Think that the ‘once’ was required at 20a because DUTEOUS is regarded as an archaic word.
Finished with SUNKEN (and another tricky definition for KEN) and the cleverly hidden ESE – EAST SOUTHEAST as the last one in.