Leonidas steps up to the plate this morning.
This was a bit of a slow burner for me, not in terms of time taken to solve the puzzle, but in time taken to appreciate it. The first few answers that went in quite quickly led me to think that this was going to be a "meh" puzzle, but in the end, some very clever clues changed my mind. Devices such as the clueing of ARKMEN in EMBARKMENT, and the &lit. TROPHY eventually raised the crossword to "above average", with my last one in being the very straightforward FORM (the old codger in me appreciated the untrendy binary option).
Thanks Leonidas
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ORGANIST |
Key worker possibly having to pedal (8)
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Cryptic definition |
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| 6 | MEASLY |
Paltry bite to eat finally snaffled with cunning (6)
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MEA(l) ("bite to eat", finally snaffled) with SLY ("cunning") |
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| 9 | OPTION |
Choice draught has head spinning (6)
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(<=PO)TION ("draught", with its head (start) spinning) |
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| 10 | LANDMARK |
Feature youth collecting new and old currency (8)
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LAD ("youth") collecting N (new) + MARK ("old currency") |
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| 11 | SOB STORIES |
Boris eviscerated by his lot after very sad excuses (3,7)
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B(ori)S [eviscerated] by TORIES ("his lot", assuming Boris is Boris Johnson) after SO ("very") |
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| 12 | DOHA |
Silly me having advanced capital in Asia (4)
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D'OH! ("silly me!") having A (advanced) Doha is the capital of Qatar. |
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| 13 | GARISH |
Gaudy bit on the side essentially sent packing (6)
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GAR(n)ISH ("bit on the side") with its essence (central part) sent packing |
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| 15 | DOWNLOAD |
Miserable prior to cargo transfer (8)
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DOWN ("miserable") prior to LOAD ("cargo") |
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| 18 | WELSHMAN |
Briton dispatched around Champagne regularly (8)
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<=SLEW ("dispatched", around) + (c)H(a)M(p)A(g)N(e) [regularly] |
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| 20 | TROPHY |
Perhaps Helen primarily in war-torn city? (6)
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P(erhaps) H(elen) [primarily] in TROY ("war-torn city") and &lit. |
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| 21 | FORM |
Criminal history that is gender-neutral (4)
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F (female) OR M (male), so "gender-neutral" |
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| 23 | EMBARKMENT |
Doctor joins ancient crew to stop alien boarding (10)
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MB (Bachelor of Medicine, so "doctor") joins ARKMEN ("ancient crew") to stop ET ("alien") |
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| 25 | MEDIEVAL |
Old-fashioned veil made to order (8)
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*(veil made) [anag:to order] |
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| 26 | OUTSET |
Start where French river runs from the east (6)
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OU ("where" in "French") + (River) <=TEST [runs from the east, i.e. from right to left] |
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| 27 | TETCHY |
Cross close to short cut by yard (6)
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[close to] (shor)T + ETCH ("cut") by Y (yard) |
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| 28 | SHOW HOME |
Some who raved about hospital sample building? (4,4)
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*(some who) [anag:raved] about H (hospital) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | REPROBATE |
Record loot hoarded by rank villain (9)
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EP (extended play "record") + ROB ("loot") hoarded by RATE ("rank") |
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| 3 | ADIOS |
Spanish Cheers run dropped from broadcasts (5)
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R (run, in cricket) dropped from (r)ADIOS ("broadcasts") |
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| 4 | IAN BOTHAM |
Man a bit hot struggling to receive overs? (3,6)
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*(man a bit h) [anag:struggling] where H = hot, to receive O (overs, in cricket) and &lit. For the non-cricket fans, Ian Botham was an England cricketer. |
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| 5 | TALLIED |
Implausible bomb might be agreed (7)
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TALL ("implausible" as in a tall story) + IED (improvised explosive device, so "bomb") |
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| 6 | MINUS |
Brahmin uses bottles less (5)
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Hidden in [bottles] "brahMIN USes" |
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| 7 | ARMADILLO |
Limb trouble confines poorly animal (9)
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ARM ("limb") + ADO ("trouble") confines ILL ("poorly") |
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| 8 | LURCH |
Dog detailed twice in list (5)
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LURCH(er) ("dog" detailed twice. i.e. it' last two letters (tails) removed) |
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| 14 | INSOMNIAC |
One often up probably wasting money in casino (9)
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*(m in casino) [anag:wasting] where M = money |
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| 16 | WATER POLO |
Battle to restrain extremely tense car game (5,4)
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WAR ("battle") to restrain [extremely] T(ens)E + POLO ("car") |
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| 17 | ATHENAEUM |
Translated English at humane learning institute (9)
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*(e at humane) [anag: translated], where E = English |
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| 19 | NIBBLES |
Bites knight for queen in minor protests (7)
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N ("knight", in chess notation) for Qu. (queen) in (N>qu)IBBLES ("minor protests") |
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| 22 | OX-EYE |
Window mounted in abbey exorbitantly (2-3)
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Hidden backwards in [mounted in] "abbEY EXOrbitantly" |
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| 23 | ENVOY |
Ambassador from short space cruise half-cut (5)
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EN ("short space" in printing) + VOY(age) ("cruise", half-cut) |
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| 24 | MATCH |
Suit could be a little lighter (5)
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Double definition |
For me, Leonidas is a class setter. His puzzles tend to be at my limit, or just beyond it, which is where I want them to be. Another very enjoyable struggle today, falling down at the last hurdle by failing to get TETCHY. ORGANIST & TALLIED were my last ones in and provided nice penny-drop moments.
I liked WELSHMAN and ForM and several others but I gather this a new setter and some clues need to tighten up WATER POLO was immediately suggested by WATERLOO now that WAS a battle
I didnt much like LURCH-ORGANIST OK as a CD (only serious organists like church ones. Jimmy Smith etc and Steve Winwood use pedals
In fact I liked most but possibly one too many &lit s for one puzzle
Constructive crit intended as with a little tweaking he/she could be really good
I’m another who enjoyed this, with a good mix of the reasonably straightforward and ones that required a bit of thought/inspiration, eg ORGANIST and WELSHMAN, to mention a couple. An OX-EYE window (or oeil-de-boeuf, I see looking it up afterwards) was a new architectural feature to me.
I could have done without the 40th anniversary reminder of Headingley 1981 (just joking), but otherwise no complaints.
Thanks to Leonidas and loonapick
I found this an odd mix: some very satisfying clues for eg WELSHMAN, LANDMARK, NIBBLES, but some not so good – didn’t like 9a (would “heads” rather than “head” have been better?) or 21a much, for example.
Had my doubts about “possibly” in 1a, since I am old-fashioned enough only to think of church organs rather than the electric sort, but Copmus@2 makes me realise that it’s ok.
LOI was IAN BOTHAM where there is to my mind no satisfactory definition at all.
Despite the quibbles mentioned above I thought this was an excellent puzzle that I really enjoyed and like Hovis@1 found this at the edge of my limits. I had ticks galore. I didn’t parse REPROBATE and it was a dnf as I hadn’t got ADIOS when I came here – I didn’t get beyond SALUD or OLE for Spanish cheers. So more of the same for me please Leonidas and thanks to loonapick for the blog which filled in any parsing holes.
Thanks to Leonidas for an enjoyable session and to loonapick for the required blog. Failed on FORM and OX-EYE – doh…
Very much enjoyed sob stories, armadillo, embarkment and insomniac.
No 7 from Leonidas (who’s counting?) and perhaps not quite as good as the previous ones. I liked the &lit for TROPHY, but not the IAN BOTHAM one.
I continue to enjoy Leonidas puzzles. I did need your blog to explain a few to day too Loonapick. Thanks to both.
We’re with Hovis and WordPlodder in appreciation of this puzzle and this setter. We needed the blog to parse GARISH and had to confirm OX-EYE as a window in Chambers. We liked 16dn which had us initially thinking ‘Waterloo’ until we realised it hadn’t enough letters, so our CoD was WELSHMAN. A special award, though, to 11ac for its surface – wishful thinking?
Thanks, Leonidas and loonapick
Didn’t have many too many quibbles with this.. if I had to get picky it would that ADIOS is a very final goodbye like ADIEU rather than cheers but it parsed much better than the def… similar to LURCH.. which implies sudden movement maybe into a list.. but the parsing was straightforward.. loved EMBARKMENT n NIBBLES, TROPHY n WELSHMAN also… failed entirely on GARISH ..
Thanks LEONIDAS m loonapick
Thanks Leonidas and loonapick
Late to get to this one, but happy that I finally did. Able to get it all completed in three sittings and FORM was the only one that I didn’t parse (quite simple and clever in hindsight).
Curiously OX-EYE (which I didn’t know as a window) was the first in, seeing a reverse hidden straight off for a change. Enjoyed a number of the clues very much, including TROPHY, EMBARKMENT, OUTSET and the surfaces of many more.
Finished back in the SW corner with WELSHMAN (when finally overwrote the initially unparsed IRISHMAN), that unparsed FORM and MEDIEVAL, the final one to fall.
Good stuff !