As October reaches its conclusion, a puzzle from Wire.
A mini horror theme in the clues and some entries – marking Halloween, I suspect. Oh that the day itself was so understated. Was it a conscious effort to reduce our firework consumption on November the 5th, that has led to its increasing celebration or just inevitable with its commercialisation in the USA and our desire to lose any national identity.
Anyway, back to the crossword. A very pleasing puzzle with some less used cryptic devices (22ac, 1dn, 18dn for instance) and ultra smooth surfaces (always a bonus).
My favourite clue was probably 9ac, but there are plenty of other ‘clever’ candidates.
Thanks Wire – look forward to your next one coming my way.
Key: * anagram; DD Double definition; Rev. reversed; underline definition
Across
1 Frightful collection of presents accepted by good party members (5,7)
hosts(presents) in g(good) + tories(party members) = GHOST STORIES
9 Artist bringing in name for mass performance piece (5)
Monet (artist) swapping n(name) for m (mass) = NONET
10 Amid commotion, doctor slayed sloth? (6,3)
din (commotion) around (slayed)* = DEADLY SIN
11 Bank takes in stray hound (7)
Tier (bank) around err (stray) = TERRIER
12 Rider Haggard’s work reflected island author (7)
She (Rider Haggard’s work) + rev. yell (island – Shetland) = SHELLEY
13 Mad supremo, the creator of Man (10)
(supremo the)* = PROMETHEUS
15 Inch of grass with section snipped (4)
sedge (grass) – s(section) = EDGE
18 Creature expert packs special item for cold climes (4)
vet (creature expert) around s (special) = VEST
19 Keeper in grounds stopped by a beast’s cry (4,6)
garden(grounds) around mew (beast’s cry) = GAME WARDEN
22 Protests spread, our opium regularly being returned (7)
Rev. SpReAd OuR oPiUm (regularly) = UPROARS
24 Stop filming after English town loses last crop (4,3)
Crewe (English town) – e + cut (stop filming) = CREW CUT
25 Drunk on about work in circus feature (9)
tight (drunk) + re (on) around op (work) = TIGHTROPE
26 Bolt conforming to a certain standard (5)
DD leg it and LEGIT
27 12’s novel outspoken genius needing information in the first instance (12)
Frank (outspoken) + Einstein (genius) – first i (information in the first instance) = FRANKENSTEIN
Down
1 Monster trap tiny animal discovered (9)
Gin (trap) + dormouse (tiny animal) – de (discovered) = GINORMOUS
2 Hammer Studio earlier evacuated stranger (8)
(studio)* + er (earlier evacuated) = OUTSIDER
3 House that you dared to enter finally (5)
ends of thaT yoU dareD tO enteR = TUDOR
4 Run fluids into vessel (urn safest perhaps) (9)
(urn safest)* = TRANSFUSE
5 Help judge to cross lounge (6)
Ref (judge) around lie (lounge) = RELIEF
6 Painter might use this beheaded beast (5)
Weasel (beast) – w = EASEL
7 Side of shoe some jumping whippets nip (6)
Rev. hidden whipPETS NIp = INSTEP
8 Catalyst ‘Z’ in Yemen reprocessed (6)
(Z Yemen)* = ENZYME
14 Monument captain’s installed on pitch (9)
Head’s (captain’s) + tone (pitch) = HEADSTONE
16 Figure of lost bird circling cage around noon (9)
Dodo (lost bird) + n (noon) around (cage)* = DODECAGON
17 Bony parts of crown broken by girl (8)
pate(crown) around Ella (girl) = PATELLAE
18 Containers store skulls centrally in chambers (6)
Vats (containers) around ul (skulls centrally) = VAULTS
20 Score absent from bottom of table (6)
not at (absent) + e (bottom of table) = NOTATE
21 Secure mesh mounted below nocturnal thing (6)
Rev. net (mesh) after Bat (nocturnal thing) = BATTEN
23 Feeling of chilliness initially from repellant assistant (5)
r (initially from repellent) + Igor (assistant) = RIGOR
24 Strategic diversion possibly caught Rudolf in WWII (5)
c (caught) + Hess (WWII Rudolf Hess) = CHESS
This took me longer than it should, especially in the bottom half. Used a word fit cheat to get PATELLAE which then gave me LEGIT as my loi. Not seen “jumping” as a “going up” in a down clue reversal before. Think I’ll nominate GINORMOUS as my favourite. Thanks both.
I was stuck in the SE corner at the end, being mystified by NOTATE in particular. I almost gave up but a good sleep cleared the mind and after working out the ‘absent’ bit and not so obvious sense for ‘Score’, I could then finish off with PATELLAE and my last in LEGIT.
The by now expected and enjoyable challenge from Wire. I liked the mini-theme (I agree with your comments about Halloween!) and the non-thematic GINORMOUS and DODECAGON.
Thanks to Wire and twencelas
A DNF for me as I just couldn’t see several in the SE corner. I parsed 9A as the French painter (Philippe) Noet bringing in N (name), though I realise this takes no account of ‘mass’, so I concede to Twencelas’ parsing!! Thanks Wire and Twencelas.
My favourites were 1a and 1d in a puzzle full of good clues.
Like Hovis had to use electronic assistance for 17d LOI.
I know it’s a little petty and narrow minded but didn’t take to captain = head.
The first Indy puzzle I’ve managed to finish this week. Very entertaining.
I went down the Noet route for 9A as well because I thought (wrongly probably) that a nonet was part of the Mass.
10A and 26A were my favourites.
Thanks to Wire and Twencelas.
Thanks Wire and twencelas
gsolphotog @ 4: how about captains/heads of industry? Both reasonably common to describe the same folk.
In much the same way as others we struggled in the SE corner. But then we got NOTATE (score, as a verb, in the musical sense) and eventually realised that the definition in 17dn was ‘bony parts’ rather than just ‘bony’ or ‘bony parts of crown’ and that PATELLAE, which we’d thought of earlier and dismissed, was the answer after all, giving LEGIT as our LOI.
Not sure that TERRIER can be equated with ‘hound’ unless the latter is used iinformally as meaning any sort of dog.
LOts to enjoy, though. We liked TIGHTROPE, TRANSFUSE and DODECAGON.
Thanks, Wire and twencelas.
Started very quickly but then quickly ground to a halt. Like others, it was the SE corner that held out to the end. I was just about to give up when, somehow, “pate” for crown came to mind which gave me 17dn and the rest fell out. (And I was reminded of that famous clue that was also the title of a book on the history of the crossword: Two girls, one on each knee (7) )