Neo steps up to the plate.
I found some of the clues quite hard to parse, so although I completed the puzzle, I am left with a couple of unsatisfactory explanations. I didn’t see anything clever going on in 17 ac until Hovis pointed out the anagram I missed, and I have made an assumption on DIS (Dante’s Divine Comedy). I did give ticks to a few clues, especially liking “common character” for ORINOCO and the anagram in BLAMEWORTHY.
Thanks Neo.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SCRAPYARD |
Find junk dealers here go metric? (9)
|
| If you “go metric” you might SCRAP YARD as a unit of measure in favour of metre. | ||
| 6 | THEIC |
Male going into spasm a slave to Earl Grey? (5)
|
| HE (“male”) going into TIC (“spasm”)
A theic is someone who drinks too much tea. |
||
| 9 | ORINOCO |
Soldiers in old company showing common character? (7)
|
| OR (other ranks, so “soldiers”) + IN + O (old) + Co. (company)
Orinoco was one of the Wombles, who lived on Wimbledon Common, hence “common character”. |
||
| 10 | SHAMPOO |
Meat carried in spoon finally wiped clean (7)
|
| HAM (“meat”) carried in SPOO(n) [finally wiped] | ||
| 11 | MOTET |
Ultimate in excitement in bubbly composition (5)
|
| [ultimate in] (excitemen)T in MOET (brand of champagne, so “bubbly”) | ||
| 12 | INGENIOUS |
Current details American on satellite finds clever (9)
|
| IN (“current”) + GEN (“details”) + US (American”) on IO (“moon of Jupiter, so “satellite”) | ||
| 14 | OAR |
Rower in loud cry when losing lead (3)
|
| (r)OAR (“loud cry” losing head) | ||
| 15 | BLAMEWORTHY |
By law mother might be culpable (11)
|
| *(by law mother) [anag:might be] | ||
| 17 | TRAGEDIENNE |
One to elicit pity generated in plays? (11)
|
| *(generated in) [anag:plays] and & lit. | ||
| 19 | COD |
Fish and chips one decides to start with (3)
|
| C(hips) O(ne) D(ecides) [to start with] | ||
| 20 | MONSIGNOR |
Priest in sermons ignored (9)
|
| Hidden [in] “serMONS IGNORed” | ||
| 22 | SEPIA |
Brown as pie in the cooking? (5)
|
| *(as pie) [anag:cooking] | ||
| 24 | ROSEHIP |
Fruit became more fashionable (7)
|
| ROSE (“became more”) + HIP (“fashionable”) | ||
| 26 | CAGOULE |
Anorak from free catalogue – no thanks! (7)
|
| *(calogue) [anag:free] where CALOGUE is CA(ta)LOGUE with no TA (“thanks”) | ||
| 27 | STAIR |
One absorbed by Sun flight feature (5)
|
| I (one) absorbed by STAR (“sun”) | ||
| 28 | IN RETREAT |
Knight in anger to manage withdrawing (2,7)
|
| N (“knight”, in chess notation) in IRE (“anger”) + TREAT (“to manage”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | STORM |
Maybe violent blow to one side in S&M (5)
|
| TO + R (right, “one side”) in S + M | ||
| 2 | ROISTER |
French king having way with queen in revel (7)
|
| ROI (“French” for “king”) having St. (street, so “way”) with ER (Elizabeth Regina, so “queen”) | ||
| 3 | POOL TABLE |
Purse with list one pocketed? (4,5)
|
| POOL (“purse”) with TABLE (“list”) | ||
| 4 | ABOMINATION |
Curse crowd rising that interrupts road race (11)
|
| <=MOB (“crowd” rising) that interrupts A1 (“road” heading north from London) + NATION (“race”) | ||
| 5 | DIS |
Hops the twig having expended energy in soul venue? (3)
|
| DI(e)S (“hops the twig”) having expended E (energy)
Not sure about the definition – I assume Neo is referring to the lowest levels of Hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy. |
||
| 6 | TWAIN |
Two tons on farm transport (5)
|
| T (tons) on WAIN (a wagon once used on a farm, so “farm transport”) | ||
| 7 | EXPLOIT |
Divorcee one in bed offering adventure (7)
|
| EX (“divorcee”) + I (one) in PLOT (“bed”) | ||
| 8 | CROSS-EYED |
Not seeing straight when annoyed, Neo would say? (5-4)
|
| CROSS (“annoyed”) + homophone [say] of I’D (“Neo would”) | ||
| 13 | GREENGROCER |
Trader inexperienced and more vulgar reportedly (11)
|
| GREEN (“inexperienced”) + homophone [reportedly] of GROSSER (“more vulgar”) | ||
| 14 | OUTSMARTS |
Tricks from Truss to corrupt old woman dragged in (9)
|
| *(truss to) [anag:corrupt] with MA (“old woman”) dragged in | ||
| 16 | OVERSIGHT |
Left commentator’s position in error (9)
|
| OVER (“left”) + homophone [commentator’s] of SITE (“position”) | ||
| 18 | AMNESIA |
Forgetting men travelling in the continent (7)
|
| *(men) [anag:travelling] in ASIA (“continent”) | ||
| 19 | CAPTURE |
Take restorative to overcome fit (7)
|
| CURE (“restorative”) to overcome APT (“fit”) | ||
| 21 | ICHOR |
Church in Eire turning up divine liquid (5)
|
| Ch. (church) in <=ROI (Republic of “Ireland”, turning up) | ||
| 23 | AVERT |
Dodge an animal doctor crossing river (5)
|
| A VET (“an animal doctor”) crossing R (river) | ||
| 25 | PHI |
Greek character seen in Shorter Collins? (3)
|
| [shorter] PHI(l) (Collins) |
17a is an anagram of GENERATED IN.
Hovis @1 – ?
Sorry – that was meant to be a facepalm emoji – thanks, Hovis – will edit when I get a chance.
A nice Goldilocks puzzle … not too easy nor too hard. There were a few I couldn’t parse, and I had to come here to learn that a wain is a wagon, and to be reminded that Io is a moon of Jupiter. And I hadn’t heard of a cagoule. I’ve finally consigned to memory that in the UK OR are “men”, but I wasn’t aware of the Wombles connection. I thought that the definition for pool table was a bit loose.
No particular favourites, but plenty of smiles and no groans.
A fine puzzle in which I ticked more than half of the clues and learned a few things along the way, including the lovely expression in 5d’s surface and THEIC (even though it describes me).
I liked ORINOCO (definition), CAGOULE (trip down memory lane) and PHI was great fun. There were many more displaying inventive wordplay and some super anagrams too.
Thanks to Neo and Loonapick.
Enjoyable puzzle with some parsing that wasn’t obvious, eg INGENIOUS. I didn’t know ORINOCO as a Womble, so just had to trust to the wordplay, without being able to appreciate the ‘common character?’ bit.
My favourites were the TRAGEDIENNE anagram, the (yes, admittedly non-specific) ‘one pocketed?’ def for POOL TABLE and the inconspicuous ‘Two’ def for TWAIN.
Thanks to Neo and loonapick
Geoff @4. The Hay Wain is a very famous painting by Constable.
Another enjoyable crossword from Neo. My particular favourites were the ‘common character’ in 9a and the ‘shorter Collins’ in 25d
Thanks very much to Neo and loonapick
Liked MOTET and PHI
Not bonkers about TRAGEDIENNE
Only ever heard of ORINOCO as a river(when did Mike Batt win Wimbledon?)
OK but the competition was stiff
DIS being the abode of the dead for ‘soul venue?’ seemed all right to me.
17 across, though just a straight anagram, is a bit like some &lit, or all-in-one, clues for me. It’s so seamless as a definition, you miss the internal workings. As to whether such clues suffer in providing a very obvious definition is debatable.
Lots to like here for me.
It wouldn’t be a Neo crossword without oddities like DIS, CAGOULE, ICHOR, and ORINOCO but that’s what dictionaries and word fits are for — thanks for the challenge. I wasn’t familiar with TRAGEDIENNE but I always have a chance to get such answers when an anagram is the wordplay. My top choices include INGENIOUS, BLAMEWORTHY, OUTSMARTS, AMNESIA, and the very clever PHI. Thanks to both.
One has to get the old Phil Collins gags in. Ace skinsman was PC, though now knackered. Unfortunately his songs will live on. And on.
I suspect TRAGEDIENNE is now considered sexist, and that all tragediennes are now tragedians, but the anagram isn’t as good for the latter. Oh hang on! A red giant!
Thanks to loona for the blog and to all commenters.
Neo @12: Re: TRAGEDIENNE: I came across “paintress” in a recent Eccles crossword. I didn’t even know there was such a word.
Re: Phil Collins: I will always have a modicum of respect for him because he played drums on Brian Eno’s Another Green World. Sometimes one must quit while ahead.
As GDU says, a Goldilocks crossword, solved fairly quickly but not without some thought.
ORINOCO raised a smile, remebering our children’s joke from primary school days (and we’ve got grandchildren now) about the Orinoco basin being in Uncle Bulgaria’s bathroom.
Favourites, though, were MONSIGNOR and OUTSMARTS.
Thanks, Neo and loonapick.