Most enjoyable puzzle from Chalmie this morning.
Quite a bit of clever misdirection. The puzzle is somewhat hinged on the solving of 15 and 18 – coincidentally my first two in. (I don’t start the grid anywhere in particular). With witty clueing and a range of clue types, I definitely recommend this setter! Many thanks to Chalmie.
(PRISON SHOPS)* (*renovated)
BOA[t] (yacht, for one, missing 18 (back))
EX (former) + PEL[e] (footballer, not E (European))
(A FLESHING)* (*out)
RIO (resort) featured in POSTER (advert)
AGED (old) + C[onservative] (leader) first
PA (father) invested in NOTED (famous)
HUM (smell) + P[ermeate] (beginning to)
(KC (lawyer, King’s Counsel) + AB (sailor, able-bodied seaman))< (<rejected)
(UN REMIT)* (*revises)
[Vie]W[ing] (essentially) + HALE (healthy)
SENT (enchanted) + (RIDES)* (*unsteadily) around
(DRYAD)* (*getting lost) around ROME (capital)
S[een] I[n] G[rease] M[akes] A[lbum] (originally)
Double definition
(SOLD AS DATES)* (*fraudulently)
(PEOPLE CLAIM GINSEN[g] (mostly))* (*damaging)
A speed bump in British slang
OP (procedure) + POSIT (to imagine) + E (Earth)
(LOVES)* (*pervert)
READ (access data) on IED (roadside bomb, Improvised Explosive Device)
HOG (monopolise) + ART (pictures) by [churc]H (last)
Cryptic definition
Humpback (15, 18) is a variation of a bridge/overpass, but not of the game
AS (when) keeping P (president) + HID (concealed)
LA (city) is under P (pressure) + CEMENT (fix permanently)
TIN (can) + TAG (name) + EL (the, Spanish)
RD (way, road) to restrain (EAR (listener) + WAR (fighting))
KIPS (sleeps) around AND< (<gets up)
REST (remainder) + [probabl]Y [al]L [achievabl]E (in the end)
ED (journalist, editor) in NEWS< (his element, <up)
LAY (amateur) + OUT (dismissed)
E[r]ASES (gets rid of, defaulting R (Republican))
I agroo, Oriel; Chalmieis a setter I akways look forward to ? some lovely variations on a theme using 15 and 18 of which 1d/6d was my favourite.
For 24a’s definition, I would normally associate this with someone in a bad mood but it’s still fine.
21d and 27a had particularly tidy surfaces. Also really liked 5d’s ‘engraver’ 16d’s ‘castle’ and 3d.
Very satisfying.
Thanks to Chalmie and Oriel (especially for READIED).
Make that, I agree!
Is a setter I always like! (typed too hastily!)
Got 1a immediately but then noticed that if I didn’t get 15a and 18a I was stuffed. I tried, and think I got 15a, but how is hum smell? Then I found that it was relying on an unknown footballer (Pele) and an artist I’d never heard of (Hogarth) so I didn’t continue. (Apart from “sleeping policeman”, which I’d never heard of. We call them silent cops.)
I enjoyed Fed’s in the Guardian!
Just discovered hum/smell is British slang!
Started off well, but I then took a while to get the gateway clues which helped with the rest of the puzzle. I hadn’t heard of the SLEEPING POLICEMAN, a good term to describe what it does so it wasn’t hard to work out. I was also stumped by the two synonyms for ‘sleep’ derived from KIDNAPS, not being able to make NAPS work until I saw the alternative was required to contain the AND anagram.
Favourite was the cheeky surface for POSTERIOR.
Thanks to Chalmie and Oriel
Lovely stuff.
Inventive & challenging cluing, even on the short clues BOA, NUT, SWEDEN, APHIDS.
LOI: BACK – I knew what it was, but I left it till last to parse. KC is such a recent thing – some KCs have yet to update from QC on LinkedIn.
Nice surfaces: SOLVES “Pervert loves crack”.
Clever anagrams OPPOSITE each other, as are HUMP/BACK, NOTEPAD/ RUN TIME
RUN TIME: I hadn’t heard the phrase in decades, but it still hasn’t decided if it’s two words, hyphenated, or one word.
Thanks, Chalmie & Oriel. I agree entirely with your assessment, Oriel. Lovely fun puzzle.
GDU – Pele unknown? Wow.
Yep, I’m amazing.
That wasn’t meant as judgmental in any way, GDU – we all have our blind spots – but it is surprising.
I lead a sheltered life, Widdersbel. I even had to look up the meaning of FFS when you introduced me to it a few weeks ago.
Thanks for the blog, very neat puzzle and good veriety in the use of the two key words , I note the setter was quite restrained in the use of HUMP.
I bow to nobody in my lack of interest and disdain for football but very hard not to know Pele, sadly he died recently, it was all over the news.
KIDNAPS was very clever and deceptive with the NAPS not meaning sleep.
Oh, all right, Roz, I’ll confess to an ever so vague recollection. But I’m heartened to find a fellow commenter who shares my disinclination for football. 😉
Usually 22 grown men chasing a ball around, falling over and squabbling . I do not know why the umpire does not give them a ball each, it works with toddlers.
Thanks all. And Roz and Geoff can rest easy about my puzzles going forward, since my knowledge of football is exceedingly limited and my interest in it considerably less than that. But you can’t go very long in the crossword world without meeting PELE, and I gather I’m likely to encounter MESSI on a more frequent basis since he’s apparently newly deified.
Thank you, Chalmie. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind for your crossword today, and I’m sorry if I was a bit tetchy. I usually like your creations, and you remain in my “Good” list!
And great description, Roz!
I spy 2 selcouths: HOGARTH & TINTAGEL
What Widdersbel@8 said (ignore the last bit).
Geoff Down Under, I get it. I’ve heard of Pele, but I think of his sport as soccer, as here in the States, we also have football, another sport.
Roz @14
Brilliant pithy comment! ?
A little late as usual, but nobody noticed that this is the Hump Day (Wednesday) puzzle. Or is that mostly American slang?