A fun puzzle from Neo
This was a cracker of a puzzle – not too taxing, but fun to solve and to parse. I liked IDIOT and ADULTERY among others, and the long anagram was really good too. There were a couple of topical clues in there as well (the anagram and the alien balloon).
Thanks, Neo
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ADMINISTER |
Notice one entering York church to manage affairs (10)
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AD ("notice") + I (one) entering MINSTER ("York church") |
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| 7 | CLUB |
Beginner boxing in learner driver? (4)
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CUB ("beginner") boxing in L (learner) |
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| 9 | UGLI |
Fruit anything but a peach we hear? (4)
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Homophone [we hear] of UGLY ("anything but a peach") |
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| 10 | COR ANGLAIS |
My French word for English instrument (3,7)
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COR ("my!") + ANGLAIS ("French word for English") |
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| 11 | VICTIM |
Two shorter men someone murdered? (6)
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VIC(tor) + TIM(othy) ("two shorter (or shortened) men") |
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| 12 | WAINSCOT |
Oak panelling used to be frames in bed (8)
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WAS ("used to be") frames IN + COT ("bed") |
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| 13 |
See 5 Down
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| 15 | EMMA |
Some poem — Masefield’s classic work (4)
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Hidden in [some] "poEM MAsefield" |
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| 17 | IMPI |
One sitting between two Roman warriors (4)
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MP (Member of Parliament, so "one sitting") between II ("two" in "Roman" numerals) The Impi were armed South African warriors. |
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| 19 | ADULTERY |
Is this Man United playing away from home? (8)
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Cryptic definition – a "man united" (married) is committing adultery if "he's playing away from home" |
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| 22 | UNBEATEN |
Start for Benzema, inside left, yet to lose (8)
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[start for] B(enzema) inside UNEATEN ("left") |
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| 23 | PHRASE |
Sentence fragment from sherpa, garbled (6)
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*(sherpa) [anag:garbled] |
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| 25 | OCTAHEDRON |
Solid figure can, with the door needing to be moved (10)
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*(can the door) [anag:needing to be moved] |
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| 26 | MEEK |
Timid male’s reaction to mouse? (4)
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M (male) + EEK ("reaction to mouse?") |
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| 27 | IDOL |
Hero not busy when speaking (4)
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Homophone [when speaking] of IDLE ("not busy") |
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| 28 | MONTE CARLO |
Hussy’s content with detective after day in casino town (5,5)
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[content] of (h)ARLO(t) ("hussy") with TEC ("detective") after MON(day) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | DOGFISH |
Vessel circling swirling fog — there’s shark! (7)
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DISH ("vessel") circling *(fog) [anag:swirling] |
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| 3 | IDIOT |
Simpleton in Djibouti regularly (5)
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I(n) D(j)I(b)O(u)T(i) [regularly] |
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| 4 | IN CAMERA |
American manoeuvres kept secret (2,6)
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*(american) [anag:manoeuvres] |
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| 5/13 | THROW A SPANNER IN THE WORKS |
Cause problems in new NHS strike: another war won about money? (5,1,7,2,3,5)
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*(nhs strike another war won) [anag:new] about P (penny, so "money") |
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| 6 | RENOIR |
Painter placing much scarlet over black, as he’d have said (6)
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[much] RE(d) over NOIR ("black" in French, so as Renoir would "have said") |
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| 7 | COLD SWEAT |
Doctor scowled at sign of anxiety (4,5)
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*(scowled at) [anag:doctor] |
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| 8 | UNIFORM |
Costume seen immediately following tango? (7)
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UNIFORM "follows tango" in the NATO phonetic alphabet. |
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| 14 | WHITEHALL |
Government in spotless country house? (9)
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WHITE ("spotless") + HALL ("country house") |
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| 16 | SUSPENSE |
Us writers visiting Home Counties in excitement? (8)
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US + PENS ("writers") visiting SE (South East, so "Home Counties") |
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| 18 | MENACED |
Threatened fix to cover crack (7)
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MEND ("fix") to cover ACE ("crack") |
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| 20 | ROSWELL |
Run round balloon — but did UFO crash here? (7)
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R (run) + O (round) + SWELL ("balloon") |
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| 21 | STREAM |
Burn end of finger in scalding vapour (6)
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[end of] (finge)R in STEAM ("scalding vapour") |
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| 24 | RUMBA |
King coming to the fore in shadow dance (5)
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R (rex, so "king") [coming to the fore] (i.e. to the front) in UMBRA ("shadow") would become R(UMBA) |
At the easier end of Neo’s scale but, as you said loonapick, great fun. Like CLUB, ADULTERY and STREAM.
A gentle Neo breeze after the Io storm yesterday.
Liked WAINSCOT, MONTE CARLO, ADULTERY and STREAM.
Thanks, Neo and loonapick!
Didn’t quite get it all out. Never heard of IMPI. I’d heard of Roswell before but couldn’t bring the name to mind. Got 5d/13a without any trouble but couldn’t be bothered parsing its convoluted clue.
Mostly enjoyable; smiles outnumbered groans.
Thanks Neo & loonapick.
Yes, this was fun with a few subtle misdirections and topical clues.
Liked UGLI, UNBEATEN (for ‘left’ = ‘uneaten’) and STREAM.
IMPI was parsable but needed an online check for the unknown warriors.
Thanks to Neo and Loonapick.
Great fun indeed
Thanks very much to Neo and Loonapick
Very nice.
Especially liked the ADULTERY &lit.
It’s nice to see that so many people like “adultery’!
Sorry, couldn’t resist! Agree that it was much easier than yesterday.
Last one in was “club”. I had difficulty aligning “cub” and “beginner”: I assume that the reference is to a baby animal rather than a young boy scout. Also these golf references always throw me.
Fun puzzle as blogger says. Loved the long anagram.
PS Peter, think cub might be as in ‘cub reporter’, something like that. That’s what I had.
Very enjoyable.
Thanks, Neo, very enjoyable. And thanks, Loonapick – I agree entirely with your assessment, high on the fun quotient. UNBEATEN was my top pick – like Diane says, for the neat use of “left”.
IMPI is an old favourite from the Big Book of Useful Grid-Filling Words, along with ETUI, APSE etc.
Very enjoyable and not too difficult (unlike a couple of others elsewhere today) though I admit to bunging in a few like UNBEATEN and MONTE CARLO from the def.
FrankieG @6, I liked the ADULTERY cryptic def and tried unsuccessfully to parse the clue as wordplay for the answer (ie to make it an &lit); I’ll be interested to hear how you did it.
Thanks to Neo and loonapick
‘Tec’ in this sense was new to me, despite having read everything from Agatha Christie to Scandinavian noir.
Guess, I’ll have to add it to the list along with ‘Impi’.
This fairly flew in except for adultery, which I didn’t get, and Roswell, which I did get, but didn’t like. I’ve never heard of Roswell, nor seen the program.
WordPlodder@12:
I parsed it exactly as loonapick:
ADULTERY… “…is this:”
Man United = married man
playing away from home = cheating on his spouse
Thanks Neo for a solid crossword. I couldn’t parse ADULTERY, had to reveal IMPI, and didn’t bother to fully work out 5/13 but all else went in smoothly. My top picks were COR ANGLAIS (new instrument for me), WAINSCOT, UNBEATEN (good use of “left”), MEEK, MONTE CARLO (great surface), and ROSWELL. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
Well Frankie and loona have the parsing as it was intended for ADULTERY. S’just a jokey cd innit. For ROSWELL I was a bit early with this submission to enter the spy-balloon fray, but almost hit it accidentally. Rats. Anyway, thanks to all for the comments, and to loona for a soopah blog.
Cheers
Neo
Thanks for the blog , just agreeing with the comments above, the ROSWELL incident itself was probably a weather ballon.
What Ui Imair@8 and copmus@10 said.