A typical BRADMAN challenge this Friday.
FF: 8 DD: 8
ACROSS | ||
1 | PERICARP |
Bit of fruit and fish offered to fairy (8)
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PERI ( fairy ) CARP ( fish ) – new word for me |
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6 | PARTLY |
Labour’s leader restricted by his organisation to some extent (6)
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L ( Labour's leader ) in PARTY ( ~ his organisation ) |
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9 | PUPPET |
Little dog, favourite one that does as told (6)
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PUP ( little dog ) PET ( favorite ) |
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10 | TOP-HEAVY |
Chief male, adult very heartless and unstable (3-5)
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TOP ( chief ) HE ( male ) A ( Adult ) VY ( VerY, heartless ) |
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11 | BEAR |
Mammal’s stomach (4)
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double def |
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12 | REPRESENTS |
Stands for monarch about to get gifts (10)
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RE ( reverse of ER, monarch ) PRESENTS ( gifts ) |
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14 | STRIKING |
Dramatic action that precipitated mouse’s downfall (8)
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cryptic def; from the nursey rhyme hickory dickory dock |
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16 | ARCS |
A Catholic before end of Mass bows (4)
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A RC ( catholic ) S ( end of masS ) |
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18 | CREE |
Indigenous people offering short list of beliefs (4)
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CREEd ( beliefs, cut short ) |
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19 | OUTHOUSE |
Zero exercise with you getting stuck in that shed (8)
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[ O ( zero ) USE ( exercise ) ] containing THOU ( you ) |
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21 | AIR TRAFFIC |
Movement requiring high-level management (3,7)
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cryptic def |
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22 | AMAH |
Nurse mum’s needed in a hospital (4)
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MA ( mum ) in A H ( hospital ) |
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24 | CAPERING |
Bill joins circle dancing (8)
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CAPE ( bill ) RING ( circle ) – new meaning of the word bill for me |
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26 | LOITER |
See just what is wanted with little hesitation? Wait! (6)
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LO ( see ) IT ( just what is wanted ) ER ( little hesitation ) |
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27 | VERMIN |
Unwelcome creatures Marines found in vessel (6)
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RM ( marines ) in VEIN ( vessel ) |
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28 | THRENODY |
They’d no end of dolour sadly rendering mournful song (8)
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[ THEY'D NO R ( end of dolouR ) ]* |
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DOWN | ||
2 | ELUDE |
Avoid setting up schedules putting some outsiders off (5)
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hidden, reversed in "..schEDULEs.." |
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3 | IMPERTINENT |
Shameless little devil on internet misbehaving (11)
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IMP ( little devil ) [ INTERNET ]* |
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4 | ASTEROID |
Orbiter’s special radio set (8)
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[ RADIO SET ]* |
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5 | PUT UP A GOOD FIGHT |
Show stern resistance as a successful boxing promoter manages to do (3,2,1,4,5)
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cryptic def |
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6 | POPPER |
Father being dismissive of son as a philosopher (6)
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POP ( father ) PERson ( being , without 'SON' ) – referring to karl popper, needed help from google |
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7 | RUE |
The way of the French showing regret (3)
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double def |
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8 | LEVITICUS |
One delving into awful lust and vice – as found in OT book (9)
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I (one ) in [ LUST VICE ]* |
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13 | ELABORATION |
Delight interrupted by a dull speaker endlessly providing extra detail (11)
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ELATION ( delight ) containing [ A BORe ( dull speaker, endlessly ) ] |
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15 | TERMINATE |
Call in at start of exercise – or finish (9)
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TERM ( call ) IN AT E ( start of Exercise ) |
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17 | STICKLER |
Student’s prime requirement – someone to amuse or disciplinarian? (8)
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S ( Student, first letter ) TICKLER ( someone to amuse ) |
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20 | NATION |
Country knight fighting to keep out city-dwellers primarily (6)
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N ( knight ) [ AcTION ( fighting, without C – City-dweller, first letter ) ] |
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23 | AMEND |
Change objective having lost heart before the finish (5)
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AiM ( objective, without central character ) END ( finish ) |
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25 | ELM |
Steering device not needing hard wood (3)
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hELM ( steering device, without H – Hard ) |
Another who doesn’t remember seeing PERICARP or “bill” meaning “cape”. AMAH rang a vague bell. I think it has appeared in several cryptics but doesn’t seem to stick in my mind. I was pleased to dig THRENODY out of the old memory and to eventually parse POPPER, being fixated for too long on PER coming from “a”.
For bill=cape think of Portland Bill
Like Hovis, I parsed POPPER with PER = ‘A’, which sort of works if you take father=‘Pops’. But it does leave the awkwardly-placed ‘as’, so I’m sure Turbolegs’ solution is right. It’s certainly prettier.
Otherwise, all pleasantly straightforward. I did like the mouse’s downfall.
Thanks to both.
Couldn’t parse the ‘precipitated mouse’s downfall’ bit of 14a (v. good) and like Andrew @2, thought of Portland Bill to get the CAPE part of 24a. THRENODY only entered courtesy of previous cryptics – never heard of outside crossword land. Everything else not too uncommon or difficult to parse, but not too many write-ins either.
Thanks to Bradman for the usual enjoyable Friday challenge and to Turbolegs
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. I did not get the cape-bill connection and was slow to parse STRIKING because I was hooked on the wrong nursery rhyme (“Three Blind Mice”).
Missed PERICARP, POPPER, and CAPERING, couldn’t parse NATION, STRIKING, and OUTHOUSE — otherwise enjoyed this with PARTLY and TOP-HEAVY being favourites. Thanks to both.
An enjoyable and fairly quick solve with no problems, although one or two parsings took a little figuring out, such as OUTHOUSE. But we parsed POPPER as in the blog, and saw ‘cape’ for ‘bill’. BEAR gets our vote for CoD for its succinctness.
We also knew THRENODY which we have encountered beyond the borders of Crosswordland; it’s a fairly common title for poetic and musical works, such as Krzysztof Penderecki’s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima.
Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.
Another who dredged up THRENODY from a previous puzzle – although carelessly bunging ELABORATING rather than ELABORATION meant it took a lot longer to make it fit. I didn’t parse OUTHOUSE correctly (I was left with U meaning exercise) or POPPER. Mammal’s stomach gets my vote for its brevity and STRIKING for its surface. Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs.
Straightforward and enjoyable… apart from complete unknowns THRENODY and PERICARP ( mostly due to PERI also being unknown), parsing not the issue…
Thanks BRADMAN n Turbolegs
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Late to get to this one, finally being able to do it on the train ride out to the races this afternoon (instead of doing the form !)
Found it a little more difficult than others here seem to have and messed up the parsing on OUTHOUSE and POPPER (whom I had not heard of previously and had parsed similarly to Grant@3). Have seen PERICARP previously but wouldn’t have known its meaning without confirming with a dictionary. THRENODY took a while to set on, but again had heard of it before. STRIKING was my favourite, when the nursery rhyme kicked in.
Finished with that POPPER, CAPERING (again needing a dictionary check to verify that meaning of CAPE) and the clever STRIKING the last one in.