As the coolness of May comes to an end and flaming June is on the horizon, Wiglaf supplies the intellectual challenge today.
I found this a reasonably gentle workout – a nice amount of general knowledge made the puzzle more enjoyable too. Some ultra elegant surfaces across 9,14,21,23,26 down 3,6,10,15,22 all read flawlessly.
21 down was a new cryptic device for me – an interesting clue certainly.
Many thanks Wiglaf
Key * anagram; DD double definition; Rev. Reverse; underline definition
Across
1 Government-funded body gives Dame Mary reduced work (6)
Quant (Dame MAry) – t (reduced) + go (work) = QUANGO
4 Centrally heated room mostly being used for procreation (2,4)
at (centrally heated) + study (room) – y (mostly) = AT STUD
8 The bloke’s right-wing past (7)
His (The bloke’s) + tory (right-wing) = HISTORY
9 Killer stalks Frenchman in Spanish location (7)
M (frenchman) + in + orca (killer) = MINORCA
11 Yankee separates two poets with identical cuts in brawl (10)
Donne & Brooke (Poets) – e’s (identical cuts) around y (yankee) = DONNYBROOK
12 Top bishop has Father Ted defrocked (4)
pop (father) + e (Ted defrocked) = POPE
13 Stroke stomach before beginning on legs (5)
Craw (stomach) + l (beginning on legs) = CRAWL
14 One of Elgar’s variations incorporated into finale and added to (8)
end (finale) around (elgar)* = ENLARGED
16 Holy man bores posh couples on the next floor (8)
st (holy man) in u (posh) + pairs(couples) = UPSTAIRS
18 Bread making instruments (5)
DD MEANS
20 Type of music club (4)
DD BEAT
21 Dotty made love in Doha ending early phase of chastity (10)
(made o in Doh)* = MAIDENHOOD
23 Lively old air, inspiring finale of Beethoven’s ninth? (7)
(old air + n)* = ORDINAL
24 Ruddy German after making U-turn tailgates German car, I hear (7)
Rev. Rot (ruddy German) after Audi (German car) = AUDITOR
25 Government, say, obstructs the return of Arab ruler (6)
eg (say) in Rev. Emir (Arab ruler) = REGIME
26 Revolutionary part of Ptolemaic astronomy (6)
Hdden ptolemaiC ASTROnomy = CASTRO
Down
1 Split leftover capital (5)
split leftover = quit(left) + o (over) = QUITO
2 Anoint a Byzantine lady (7)
(anoint a)* = ANTONIA
3 Serviceman captures a foul-mouthed nationalist (9)
GI (serviceman) around a + ribald(foul-mouthed) = GARIBALDI
5 Slender king’s figure (5)
thin (slender) + k (king) = THINK
6 Old stager is a cavalryman? Sounds like it (7)
Homonym of Trooper (cavalryman) = TROUPER
7 Dicky perished after overwhelming century breaks (9)
(pershed + c)* = DECIPHERS
10 Wife’s so nimble during dance movement (6,3)
(w so nimble)* = WOMEN’S LIB
13 A saucer, perhaps from Ganymede? (9)
DD CUP-BEARER
15 America supports strike on Prince Edward Island (9)
usa (america) after lam(strike) p(prince) + ed (edward) = LAMPEDUSA
17 Giving a name to bird and fish (7)
tit (bird) + ling (fish) = TITLING
19 One lacking belief is given dabs of accessories to armed robbery (7)
a t (dabs of accessories to) + heist (armed robbery) = ATHEIST
21 Singular lame gags after raising a stink (5)
s(singular) in maim (lame) lower the a = MIASM
22 Architectural feature in Kosovo location (5)
Hidden kosOVO LOcation = OVOLO
Struggled this morning, but that was me and not the quality of the puzzle! Top half ok but really ran aground in the bottom half
Also I can never remember that posh=U !
POPE my favourite
Thanks to Wiglaf and twencelas
Bit annoyed about 18a Brass is what I’d put in and I still think is a better solution. Bah.
My parsing for 21d is a reversal (raising) of S in MAIM. This spelling, without the A at the end, was new to me.
My favourite was the simple POPE.
Hovis – makes more sense than my convoluted explanation. Hoodwinked by the a is my excuse
Miasm: (in homeopathy) a supposed predisposition to a particular disease, either inherited or acquired. This is what I find in some dictionaries. Does Miasm also mean miasma?
S Krishna – in Chambers it is an alternative spelling of miasma.
What Flashling said
I didnt like the Beethoven clue either
I’m having to solve this on a tablet, although I much prefer paper. I entered BRASS, which lit up in red, to my great surprise. Now I know to disable error checking. Enjoyed this very much apart from that.
Our parsing of 1dn was that ‘split’ is an instruction to separate ‘leftover’ into ‘left’ (QUIT) and ‘over’ (O, as in cricket).
An enjoyable solve. Thanks, Wiglaf and twencelas.
Thanks to Twencelas for the blog and to many for their comments. Most of the parsing issues are now sorted, though there is still a slight problem with the parsing of 15 down.
Yes, I parsed 1dn as allan_c and also missed the lam + p + Ed + USA mistake in the blog. I agree with others that BRASS is a nicer answer than MEANS but had some crossers before I got to it so that never occurred to me.
Twencelas@6! Thank you!
15 d is LAM + P(rince) Ed +USA. Another BRASS here. OVOLO was a guess then Google to check for me.
What copmus@7 said … plus a couple of others..
Thanks wiglaf n twenceslas..