I did not spot anything too tricky from Mudd today . . .
. . . although 26A is such a remarkable clue that I hope I did not miss anything else.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CAMPAIGN |
Drive with maniac GP, erratically (8)
|
| Anagram of (erratically) MANIAC GP | ||
| 5 | UNUSED |
Blank face of undergraduate meeting drunken nudes (6)
|
| First letter of (face of) U[NDERGRADUATE] + anagram of (drunken) NUDES | ||
| 10 | NANNA |
Relative UN diplomat sent to the west (5)
|
| ANNAN (UN diplomat) reversed (sent to the west), referring to Kofi Annan | ||
| 11 | OARSWOMEN |
Ladies seen rowing in a newsroom after broadcast (9)
|
| Anagram of (after broadcast) A NEWSROOM | ||
| 12 | POIGNANCY |
Impromptu copying an intensity of feeling (9)
|
| Anagram of (impromptu) COPYING AN | ||
| 13 | ALARM |
Sign of danger when a member pierced by scalpel, finally (5)
|
| [A + ARM (member)] around (pierced by) last letter of (finally) [SCALPE]L | ||
| 14 | BATTER |
Beat eyelid? (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | RAT-A-TAT |
Animal has nailed all the best drumming (3-1-3)
|
| RAT (animal) around (has nailed) TA-TA (all the best) | ||
| 18 | WOTCHER |
Greeting hot crew, excited (7)
|
| Anagram of (excited) HOT CREW | ||
| 20 | TREMOR |
Underground movement in capital city ends in better government after revolution (6)
|
| ROME (capital city) + last letters of (ends in) [BETTE]R [GOVERNMEN]T, all reversed (after revolution) | ||
| 22 | STING |
Smart fleece (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | GO BANANAS |
See red fruit alongside green light (2,7)
|
| GO (green light) + BANANAS (fruit) | ||
| 25 | DISMANTLE |
Creative made list including last character in cartoon strip (9)
|
| Anagram of (creative) MADE LIST around (including) last letter of (last character in) [CARTOO]N | ||
| 26 | THETA |
Eighth in alphabet, Greek character after H! (5)
|
| Eighth letter in [ALPHABE]T + H + ETA (Greek character) and double definition: Theta is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, and “H,” or eta, is the seventh. Clever. | ||
| 27 | DOTING |
Too affectionate when mutt fed baked beans, perhaps? (6)
|
| DOG (mutt) around (when fed) TIN (baked beans, perhaps) | ||
| 28 | PUNDITRY |
Joke, shockingly dirty in expression of opinion (8)
|
| PUN (joke) + anagram of (shockingly) DIRTY | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CANOPY |
Replica concealing an awning (6)
|
| COPY (replica) around (concealing) AN | ||
| 2 | MENDICANT |
Declaration that something’s beyond repair for beggar? (9)
|
| Cryptic definition/charade of MEND I CAN’T | ||
| 3 | AGAINST THE GRAIN |
Not normal, boycotting cereal? (7,3,5)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 4 | GROANER |
One with beef and old chestnut? (7)
|
| Double definition, the second referring, e.g., to a Dad joke | ||
| 6 | NEWCASTLE UNITED |
Latest piece, together, made eleven (9,6)
|
| NEW (latest) + CASTLE (piece) + UNITED (together), i.e., a soccer (or football, if you prefer) team | ||
| 7 | SAMBA |
South American steps a degree lower than stage, originally (5)
|
| First letter of (originally) S[TAGE] + A + MBA (degree), with “lower than” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 8 | DYNAMITE |
Wonderful, might that bring the house down? (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | PRAYER |
Petition in back of car collected by buyer (6)
|
| Last letter of (back of) [CA]R inside (collected by) PAYER (buyer) | ||
| 16 | THORNIEST |
Most tricky instrument, one used in experiment (9)
|
| [HORN (instrument) + I (one)] inside (used in) TEST (experiment) | ||
| 17 | TWO-SIDED |
It’s odd, we suspect, with an even number of faces (3-5)
|
| Anagram of (suspect) IT’S ODD WE | ||
| 19 | RIGHTO |
OK, just ring (6)
|
| RIGHT (just) + O (ring) | ||
| 20 | TABLEAU |
Fit in Greek character for unmoving scene? (7)
|
| ABLE (fit) inside (in) TAU (Greek character) | ||
| 21 | AS MANY |
Redistribution of Mayans, an equal number (2,4)
|
| Anagram of (redistribution of) MAYANS | ||
| 23 | INSET |
Popular TV, smaller picture (5)
|
| IN (popular) + SET (TV) |
THETA
One of the very best!
Enjoyed the puzzle. Nice and neat blog.
Thanks, Mudd and Cineraria!
Plenty of wit on display in this excellent grid from Mudd from his signature double def, STING, to MENDICANT.
Also liked PUNDITRY abd DISMANTLE for the deceptive ‘comic strip’.
Thanks to Mudd and Cineraria.
I agree Cineraria – THETA was very neat. WOTCHER tickled me too.
I missed some of the cleverness of THETA due to lack of knowledge of the Greek alphabet, but now it’s explained, one of the clues of the week / month / year so far. Apart from that, I liked DISMANTLE for the same reason as Diane @2.
The clue was fine but I’m not too keen on WOTCHER as a ‘greeting’; maybe just me.
Thanks to Mudd and Cineraria
Good fun, thanks Mudd. Didn’t parse NANNA and hadn’t heard of WOTCHER, which I suspect may be uniquely British?
I don’t know if it’s uniquely British but when I was young, I used to hear elderly Midlanders say ‘wotcher, cock’ (a term of endearment like ‘pet’, ‘duck’, or ‘love’) without causing the sort of consternation it might these days.
I’ve always spelt it as WOTCHA but Chambers has both spellings.
I agree that THETA is a stand-out clue. I admit that I had forgotten that the upper-case eta is written H, despite having an O level in Greek.
Great fun puzzle and THETA is just wonderful. Thanks, Mudd & Cineraria
THETA is not only a DD but also an &lit. I always like a good &lit. Brilliant.
WOTCHER = What cheer? = How are you?
Diane@6
“Have you got the time on yer, cock?”
“‘No, I wear a wristwatch”
Oh là là, Frankie!
Thanks for the blog, great puzzle, I will join the praise for THETA , a perfect &Lit which is pretty rare.
What Roz said
Well I hesitate to say anything after my ‘in off’ debacle but I parsed ‘theta’ as ‘t’ (8th letter in the word ‘alphabet’) with the greek letter ‘eta’ coming after ‘h’ to give us ‘theta’. Plus &lit.
Sorry see that’s actually what the blog says.
I’ll get my coat.
Thanks Mudd. I solved this in bit and pieces and enjoyed all of it. THETA was just great. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
I also got THETA as from Coneraria’s blog.
I failed on GROANER
I thought MEND-I-CAN’T WAS ALSO EXCELLENT
[ FrankieG@10 and Diane@11, I recall that Stephen Fry actually told that joke on TV and got away with it (I think it was on QI.) ]
Dear homophone police: In 2d “declaration” is a homophone indicator, but MENDICANT and MEND I CAN’T do not sound the same, so this clue is clearly unacceptable. 😉
For some reason I enjoy Mudd’s FTs even more than Paul’s Guardians – I can’t put my finger on it. Thanks Mudd and Cineraria for the fun.
Cellomaniac the homophone police are busy elsewhere and not needed here.
Someone is declaring that something is beyond repair – MEND I CAN’t
The sound does not matter, the letters are correct.
Roz, I was trying to be funny at the expense of the HP by generating a spurious homophone complaint – I failed.
I was in two minds about the intention for your comment , I did suspect the irony but much harder to pick up in typed comments.
Homophones only seem to generate a lot of controversy on the Guardian comments, rarely here.
Perhaps Mudd is deliberately more restrained for the FT and I think usually trying to be a little easier, certainly there are far fewer long answers with entries split all over the grid.