Great Monday puzzle from SLORMGORM.
Plenty to like in this morning’s challenge. With 3d and 18a I was almost convinced I needed to find another 18a, but alas no further evidence of a theme. My nomination for clue of the day would be 4d (also a new term for me). Many thanks to Slormgorm!
ACROSS
1. Place singers from the east get going (5,2)
START UP
(PUT (place) + RATS (singers))< (<from the east)
5. One keeps score in row about everything (7)
TALLIER
TIER (row) about ALL (everything)
9. Some progress being beastly types (5)
OGRES
10. Left asleep, a new duke will need change around noon (9)
UNWAKENED
(A NEW DUKE)* (*will need change) around N (noon)
11. English knight tucking into relaxing bitter (9)
RESENTFUL
E (English) + N (knight) tucking into RESTFUL (relaxing)
12. Craft circling over a vessel (5)
AORTA
ART (craft) circling O (over) + A
13. Good, fully matured beef (5)
GRIPE
G (good) + RIPE (fully matured)
15. Immoral uncle hit a criminal (9)
UNETHICAL
(UNCLE HIT A)* (*criminal)
18. Dog catalogues containing one or two boxers (9)
PUGILISTS
PUG (dog) + LISTS (catalogues) containing I (one)
19. Weary relations knocked back wine (5)
TIRED
IT< (relations, <knocked back) + RED (wine)
21. Accessory of a dead Mafia boss (3-2)
ADD-ON
A + D (dead) + DON (mafia boss)
23. Inspiring engineers into swimming (9)
BREATHING
RE (engineers) into BATHING (swimming)
25. Cook tried tuna without garnish (9)
UNATTIRED
26. Specialist secures award for commercial (5)
PROMO
PRO (specialist) secures OM (award, Order of Merit)
27. Drop of spirit drunk checked out quickly (7)
SCANNED
S[pirit] (drop of) + CANNED (drunk)
28. I am ruddy shocked! (7)
REDHEAD
DOWN
1. Redesign a strong square of cloth for Bill (4,3)
SNOT RAG
2. A queen not currently acting as striking (9)
ARRESTING
A + R (queen) + RESTING (not currently acting)
3. Heavyweight biting ends of bushy ears? (5)
TYSON
TON (heavy weight) biting [bush]Y [ear]S (ends of) &lit
4. Awful surplus of clothing for swingers? (4,5)
PLUS FOURS
5. Dryer you and I got in flipping great deal (5)
TOWEL
WE (you and I) got in LOT< (great deal, <flipping)
6. What vodka drinker might do quickly? (4,1,4)
LIKE A SHOT
7. Intimate meal duke has missed out on (5)
INNER
[d]INNER (meal, D (duke) has missed out on)
8. High-flyer embarrassed detective (7)
REDTAIL
RED (embarrassed) + TAIL (detective)
14. Former player’s boot wife chucked out (9)
ELLINGTON
[w]ELLINGTON (boot, W (wife) chucked out)
16. One with a role in London soap company? (4,5)
EAST ENDER
17. Vicar on about soldiers in Hereford diner? (9)
CARNIVORE
(VICAR ON)* (*about) + RE (soldiers)
18. Hardly any money for bar snacks? (7)
PEANUTS
20. Chow chow (3,4)
DOG FOOD
DOG (chow) + FOOD (chow) &lit
22. Shot a TV show? (5)
DRAMA
23. Men in the sack not showing interest (5)
BORED
OR (men) in BED (the sack)
24. Cool youth stealing Private Eye (5)
TEPID
TED (youth) stealing PI (Private Eye)
Like Teacow, I enjoyed this very much. I was surprised but laughed out loud at 1d, loved REDTAIL and REDHEAD in the corners and was wondering about a possible ‘duke’ theme since it appeared twice in the cluing, along with my favourite answer at 14d.
All neatly clued and eminently gettable for the perfect Monday solve.
Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow.
I remember the late Bunthorne saying that as a lad he noticed that GARTONS (whatever brand that was) spelt backwards was SNOTRAG-nice to be reminded.
REDHEAD for some reason defeated me-lets just say I was exhausted after Paul.
Thanks Slormgorm, that was excellent. TYSON was my clue of the day — an &lit and an apt surface describing his antics in the ring. I also enjoyed TIRED, SNOT RAG, and BORED, the latter mainly for its amusing surface. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow. Very enjoyable. I started off slowly and had some false starts – e.g., unadorned rather than UNATTIRED and was slow to get Mike TYSON my LOI.
Very good and enjoyable puzzle. A trademark Slormgorm/Hoskins SNOT RAG at 1d, with my naturally outraged reaction in the surface for REDHEAD at the opposite corner of the grid. CARNIVORE and TYSON also earned ticks.
The only one I was unsure about was TAIL for ‘detective’ at 8d, even though we’ve probably had it before.
A big thanks to Teacow and Slormgorm.
Mostly good straightforward fun, with some entertaining clues. My only question was over REDTAIL, which I assumed must be a bird I didn’t know…But it isn’t, so far as I can see. There are red-tailed hawks in N America, but I can’t find anything just called a “redtail”, except an Australian damselfly, which is unlikely to be a high flyer. It went in, anyway, of course, so it was only when I tried to learn this new word after I had finished that the doubt crept in.
Many thanks to Teacow for the usual great blog and to all who solved and commented.
For Perplexus, the REDTAIL is the red-tailed hawk according to Collins (main FT dictionary), Wordweb and the SOED (though the latter has it hyphenated). It is also a term for the redstart according to WordWeb and SOED, but Collins doesn’t mention that.
Cheers to everyone and see y’all next time around. 🙂
Very enjoyable even though I failed dismally in the SE corner.
My thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow.
Clearly being thick, but can’t quite see how the “I am” in 28A relates to REDHEAD. Help!
Enjoyable enough, though we had to puzzle a while over a few, with some penny-drop moments when we got them, notably AORTA, PEANUTS and ELLINGTON. We took REDTAIL on trust as it’s not in Chambers and we couldn’t be bothered to find our copy of Collins.
Lemski@8: We think the whole clue is how a red-headed person might cryptically describe their hair.
Thanks, Slormgorm and Teacow.
FWIW, I have three dictionary apps on my phone, and all three define redtail as either the red-tailed hawk or the redstart. Perhaps Chambers is odd man out on this word.
Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
Actually did this one on Monday but only got to check it off tonight. As others have said, a really enjoyable puzzle to start off the week. Did it across three shortish sessions grabbed in gaps in another busy work from home day. Enjoyed the clever cryptic and double definitions with the clue for TYSON drawing a wry grin. Liked REDHEAD too when the penny dropped.
Finished in the SW corner with TEPID, PROMO and the clever CARNIVORE (loved the definition).