Thank you to Tees, our regular Sunday setter. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Reduce consumption? That’s futile (7)
USELESS : [USE LESS](reduce consumption).
5. Man turned right in Bath, finding trouble (7)
DISTURB : Reversal of(… turned) SID(a man’s name) + R(abbrev. for “right”) contained in(in) TUB(a bathtub/a bath).
9. French footballer in Post Office misplaced bag (5)
POGBA : PO(abbrev. for “Post Office”) + anagram of(misplaced …) BAG.
Answer: Paul, currently playing for Manchester United.
10. Lunatic Pope stood against (7,2)
OPPOSED TO : Anagram of(Lunatic) POPE STOOD.
11. Giving report about company in recession on the move? (10)
RELOCATING : RELATING(giving a report/narrating an account) containing(about) reversal of(… in recession) CO(abbrev. for “company”, a commercial concern).
Defn: … from present location to another.
12. Hike starts in The Rip and ends in the outback (4)
TREK : 1st letters, respectively, of(starts in) “The Rip” plus(and) last letters, respectively, of(ends in) “the outback“.
14. Draft right-winger seen prior to joining airborne regiment? (11)
PREPARATORY : TORY(a member of the Conservative Party, a right-winger in the political spectrum) who is/seen [PRE-PARA](before/prior to being in/joining the para/the airborne regiment in the military).
18. Mean drunk getting punched (5-6)
TIGHT-FISTED : TIGHT(drunk/intoxicated) plus(getting) FISTED(punched/struck with the first – as Maradona once did to score a goal).
Defn: Holding on tight to one’s money.
21. Before leaving reclusive sort makes widow’s contribution (4)
MITE : “ere”(before in time) deleted from(leaving) “eremite”(a Christian hermit/reclusive sort).
Defn: A small contribution given by a person who has very little/a widow’s mite.
22. One suggesting secure area round port (10)
HINTERLAND : HINTER(one suggesting/giving a hint) + LAND(to secure/to attain).
25. Belligerent destroying mortars and guns here and there (6-3)
STRONG-ARM : Anagram of(destroying) [MORTARS plus(and) 1st and 3rd letters of(… here and there) “guns“].
26. Four getting stuck into the drink — bubbly? (5)
ALIVE : IV(Roman numeral for “four”) contained in(getting stuck into) ALE(a drink/a type of beer).
Defn: …/very animated.
27. Sappers permitted to enter gym that’s full (7)
REPLETE : RE(abbrev. for the Royal Engineers whose privates were called sappers) + [LET(permitted/allowed) contained in(to enter) PE(abbrev. for “physical education”/a lesson called gym in school).
28. Get expert to contain buzzing hive (7)
ACHIEVE : ACE(an expert/one skilled in a specific subject or activity) containing(to contain) anagram of(buzzing) HIVE.
Down
1. Member brought to anger by posh Lord’s official? (6)
UMPIRE : [MP(abbrev. for “Member of Parliament”) plus(brought to) IRE(anger/rage)] placed after(by) U(uupper-class/posh).
Defn: …, Lord’s cricket ground that is.
2. Becomes hard to follow case of Etonian political theorist (6)
ENGELS : GELS(becomes hard/sets from a liquid to a solid state) placed after(to follow) 1st and last letters of(case of) “Etonian“.
Answer: Friedrich, German theorist.
3. Free issue includes image from the bottom (10)
EMANCIPATE : EMANATE(to issue/emit from) containing(includes) reversal of(… from the bottom, in a down clue) PIC(short for “picture”/image).
4. Prisoner’s baccy in tin with refill needed (5)
SNOUT : SN(symbol for the chemical element, tin) + OUT(run out of/with refill needed).
Defn: …/slang for illicit tobacco/baccy in prisons.
5. Client wants some foreign jewellery item (9)
DEPENDANT : DE(French word often translated into English as “some” – or “any”) + PENDANT(a jewellery item, viz. one hanging from a chain worn round the neck).
Defn: … in archaic language/a hanger-on.
6. Elite soldiers bashing in middle window-frame (4)
SASH : SAS(abbrev. for “Special Air Service”, elite soldiers) + middle letter of(… in middle) “bashing“.
7. Make rare gaffe initially being an outsider (8)
UNDERDOG : UNDERDO(what you might call “to make/cook, meat, say, under-done/less than well-done, ie. rare”) + 1st letter of(… initially) “gaffe“.
Defn: …/a competitor with only an outside/little chance of winning.
8. Girl under water in populous borough (8)
BROOKLYN : LYN(a girl’s name) placed below(under, in a down clue) BROOK(a small stream of water).
Defn: Most … in New York City.
13. Norse god to frustrate stupid talk (10)
BALDERDASH : BALDER(the Norse god of light, peace, virtue, and wisdom) + DASH(to frustrate/to destroy/to cause something not to happen).
15. How heat might knock one out? (9)
ELIMINATE : Cryptic defn: A heat in a competition will decide who gets knocked out/eliminated from the main event.
16. Storm in Timor Sea that generates spray (8)
ATOMISER : Anagram of(Storm in) TIMOR SEA.
17. Article by twerp to support subversive literature (8)
AGITPROP : A(article in grammar) plus(by) GIT(a twerp/an unpleasant person) + PROP(to support/to use a, well, prop to keep something in position).
19. One’s seen in valley in this case (6)
VALISE : I(Roman numeral for “one”)‘S contained in(seen in) VALE(a valley).
20. Bond one plugging away? On the contrary (6)
ADHERE : AD(short for “advertisement”/a notice or announcement that is plugging/promoting something) + HERE(on the contrary/opposed to “away”/not here).
23. Monkey caught in an American city (5)
TAMPA : Homophone of(… caught) “tamper”(to mess/monkey with).
Defn: … in Florida.
24. Stake — not post (4)
ANTE : Double defn: 1st: … in a gambling game, like poker; and 2nd: …/opposite of “post”/after the fact.
Tees demanded some patience and head scratching this morning but I reached that lovely point where the grid flashes up 100% (at least, it does if you do it online). Very satisfying. DISTURB and DEPENDANT held me up towards the end. Nothing enormously tricky although I had to research widow’s MITE to confirm and I did miss the homophone indicator for TAMPA. I didn’t parse that one – as was slightly confused, on Googling the city, to discover but coincidence has clearly struck again.
PREPARATORY, ENGELS (lovely use of GELS), DISTURB, BALDERDASH (my pantheon of Norse gods isn’t enormous but I remembered Balder/Baldur), DEPENDANT and AGITPROP all earned ticks with the delightful HINTERLAND being my COTD. That’s the second time in a couple of days I’ve encountered GIT which is a difficult word as it can be defined in so many ways – virtually any derogatory description of someone.
My father spoke schoolboy French all his life. He learned to avoid “Je suis plein” when saying he was full (for non-French speakers, I understand it is the colloquial way of saying “I am pregnant”) but opted instead for “Je suis REPLETE” – which wasn’t much better as, apparently, it means “I am chubby”!
Thanks Tees and scchua
Oh blast! That’s the first time I’ve tried the new link button and it’s highlighted virtually the whole post. scchua – do you have the technology to correct? The link I tried to post was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_rhesus_macaque
PostMark
I don’t know which word/words you intended to add the link to but I have removed the majority that were previously included.
I appear to be the only one here this morning. But had to pop back to say thanks to scchua for the speedy correction!
Oh. It is our eminence grise to whom I’m indebted. Nothing escapes your beady eye.
Postmark, you’re not alone, “I’ve arrived and to prove it I’m here”, as Max Bygraves used to say on “Educating Archie” – that shows my age! Back to the puzzle: all very smooth as usual for Tees, though I didn’t catch the homophone at 23D. Thanks Tees and Sschua.
Thanks Tees and scchua
I quite enjoyed this, though there were a coupe that niggled.
I’m not convinced that in 5D ‘de’ on its own can be used to mean ‘some’ – that normally requires the definite article (eg “encore du pain?” rather than “encore de pain?”.
And I don’t think the definition in 6 is correct.The sash of a sash window is the sliding element, not the frame it slides in. Omit ‘frame’ and I think the clue would work as intended.
Well: ‘a glazed frame, especially a sliding one, forming a sash window’ is in Chambers. It’s apparently from the French ‘chassis’. Speaking of which, according to thought.co’s French grammar page, we can use ‘de’ to mean ‘some’, so hopefully I’m on reasonably safe ground there too.
I did have a quick check on that one, as I’m no linguist (as opposed to Bob Smithies, who was a cunning one, he told us).
Thanks scchua and all here.
For the record, de can mean ‘some’ in French, but rarely. When de is added to the definite article to make the partitive article, it usually contracts: du pain, de l’eau, des croissants (but confusingly, de la confiture). However, when the noun is preceded by an adjective, it remains as de. So: Tees a, de temps en temps, de bonnes idées/Tees has, from time to time, some good ideas.
Good puzzle and blog.
Thanks Tees for dropping by.
PS. And I knew about the cunning linguist! He’s the one with the forked tongue.
Well there I go. Or va. Or something. It’s embarrassing being such a monoglot. So thanks Pierre!
Good work out with plenty that needed a bit of thought. Luckily the ‘Norse god’ was one of the two I know and I happened to cotton on to AGITPROP without too much head scratching. The subtleties of DE for ‘some’ went over my head but I’ll try to remember for next time.
HINTERLAND took a while and was my favourite today. I never could parse TAMPA with the sneaky homophone indicator – at least I wasn’t the only one.
Thanks to Tees and scchua
I got through much of this very quickly (by my standards!) even managing to remember POGBA as being a footballer. Then I had quite a bit of head scratching as I teased out the last quarter or so RELOCATING, EMANCIPATE and UNDERDOG all taking time to click, and it took me a while to get past Odin, Thor and Loki before Balder came to mind. I was another to put in TAMPA unparsed having missed the “caught” indicator.
I had to smile at SASH as I’m currently trying to put together my second cryptic and that’s one of the words in it. I had considered cluing it with the hard men of the SAS but went with a different route.
Overall, lots of fun.
Perfect for a Sunday morning. Another monoglot here: how is it that one can do quite well in O level French and yet not be able to understand a movie in that language? I also studied Latin in school but never became conversationally fluent 🙂 By contrast, most of my work colleagues are at least bilingual and those from the Netherlands seem commonly to speak three or four languages.
Everything went in very smoothly apart from TAMPA which we couldn’t parse although it was the obvious answer. ACHIEVE and BALDERDASH were our favourites.
Thanks, Tees and scchua.