Artexlen is today's challenger.
When I had completed about three-quarters of the puzzle on my first run through, I was thinking, "well, that was over too quickly", then I hit a bit of a wall in the south-west corner. It took me a while to see DEPLOYED and how it worked. I slotted in the rest of that corner, and was only left with OPTIONAL to parse. I don't know if I put it down to me being slow, or the clue being very clever, but I just could see how the clue worked, then a flash of inspiration, and the adventure was over for today, apart from the writing of this summation.
My favourite clues were those for AGREED, HARKEN, NIGHTHAWK and COVENTRY.
Thanks, Artexlen.
A TUM ("stomach") filled with (b)RI(e) [endlessly]
M (master) + IS + IN ("home") overwhelmed by DOG ("hound"), so M-IS-DO(IN)G
AGED ("old") covers RE ("on")
DIs (Detective Inspectors, so "members of police") in front of LODGE ("guild")
*(led fraud) [anag:criminal]
(w)ER(e) [uncovered] by RAT ("informer") + [close to] (medi)A
[heading off] (e)LAND ("antelope")
OP(era)TIONAL ("working") with ERA being sacrificed
Co. (company) + A ("article") protected by OVERT ("patent")
Double definition
UN ("French article") attached to (c)ABLE [not starting]
R (rex, so "king) restricted by *(queen id) [anag:moved]
SET-TO ("disagreement") on FAL(l) ("trip" being cut short)
Hidden in [some] "chARTER Yachting"
DYED ("coloured") hoops (encircles) *(pole) [anag:tossed around]
HEN ("bird") outside ARK, so "not where Noah wants it"
TIE ("match") across G (golf, in the phonetic alphabet) + (fai)R(way) [essentially]
IC (in charge) + ELAN ("dash") + DER ("the" in "German")
MOD (Ministry of Defence, so "government department") + IF ("provided") with Y (year)
Double definition
C (caught, in cricket) in *(setup) [anag:elaborate] in SS (aboard (steam)ship), so S(USPE(C)T)S
O (nothing) + DOUR ("grim")
NIGH ("near") + THAW ("warm") + [end of] (shac)K
ADAGE ("saw") in possession of V (very) + ANT ("industrious worker")
[content in] (y)OUT(h) and FITTER ("in better condition")
CO (Colorado) + VENT ("opening") + RY (railway)
Triple definition
[starter of] B(ream) + AS ("like") + (d)I(l)L [oddly absent]
<=RYE ("grass, lifted) + I.E. (id est, so "that is")
Didn’t have any trouble getting OPTIONAL but DEPLOYED & (the very nice) HARKEN held me up quite a bit. Wasn’t sure about “advantage” equalling “good” (as opposed to “good point” say) but confirmed in Chambers thesaurus.
Enjoyable but not too difficult until working out the parsing for OPTIONAL, FALSETTO and particularly DEPLOYED held me up too. It was satisfying to eventually see all of these, with DEPLOYED my last in.
Is an ICELANDER really a ‘Scandinavian’, or more accurately described as “Norden” or “Nordic”. I’m not so sure; maybe others can help.
The HEN outside the ARK, much to the consternation of poor old Noah, raised a smile.
Thanks to Artexlen and loonapick
Interesting point you raise, Wordplodder, and one which is debated even among Scandinavians. Geographically distinct and yet the island state shares many cultural similarities. Acceptable here in crossword land, I feel.
My experience of this grid was similar in terms of difficulty – DEPLOYED; OPERATIONAL – and favourites to which I would add FALSETTO and SQUASH.
Thanks to Artexlen and Loonapick.
I’m not comfortable with 5d being a “double def” as I feel that the second part needs the “pedestrian “ to define it. Thanks Attexlan for a fun challenge and loonapick for the parsing of a few answers that I could not see the “why”.
John – the “one” in the second definition May refer to a pedestrian
Thanks Artexlen, that was fun with favourites being ERRATA (nice surface), DEPLOYED, the very clever HARKEN, ICELANDER, and NIGHTHAWK. Thanks Loonapick for the blog and explaining FALSETTO and OPTIONAL.
Thanks for the entertainment Artexlen, which I have only just finished with breakfast coffee.
As I understand it, Scandinavian refers to Norway, Sweden and Denmark whereas Nordic refers to those three plus Finland and Iceland. But, Diane has the right point – this is crosswordland, so compromises on the way we use terms in reality are inevitable.
I too wondered about 5d in terms of categorisation but it works for me.
Thanks for the blog Loonapick.
Thanks Artexlen and Loonapick
3dn: According to Chambers 2014, Scandinavian refers to “the peninsula divided into Norway and Sweden, but, in a historical sense, applying also to Denmark and Iceland”.
Thanks Artexlen and loonapick
One of the November left overs which I found reasonably straightforward, having less trouble with DEPLOYED than what a number of folk here had – coming around mid-solve. Enjoyed working through many of the charades throughout, liked the double definition-ed long one down the centre.
Also liked HARKEN a lot as well with ‘not where Noah wanted’ the HEN. It was my third to last in, followed by ENQUIRED (which required a double take to mean ‘checked’) and SQUASH (in which I missed the third ‘crowd’ definition).