I found three-fourths of this clear sailing, and for the final quarter, Aardvark really dialed up the ingenuity. I hope I have accounted for everything satisfactorily.
This is a pangram save for the elusive Q.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | EMBLEM |
Printing unit repeatedly capturing extremely beautiful logo (6)
|
| EM + EM (printing unit “repeatedly”) around (capturing) outside letters of (“extremely”) B[EAUTIFU]L | ||
| 4 | BRIGHTON |
Boat hand initially not recalling coastal town (8)
|
| BRIG (boat) + first letter of (“initially”) H[AND] + NOT reversed (recalling) | ||
| 9 | PISTOL |
Tramp is told to expose weapon (6)
|
| Hidden in (to expose) [TRAM]P IS TOL[D] | ||
| 10 | OFFENDED |
Rotten fragment, with edging in emerald, acted as fence? (8)
|
| OFF (rotten) + END (fragment) + outside letters of (“edging in”) E[MERAL]D, referring I assume to having committed the criminal offense of receiving stolen goods | ||
| 12 | DUTY |
Tax outstanding, twentieth letter reported (4)
|
| Homophones of (reported) DUE (outstanding) + TEE (twentieth letter) | ||
| 13 | MOTIONLESS |
Test insoles when ground freezing? (10)
|
| MOT (test) + anagram of (when ground) INSOLES | ||
| 15 | TUBULAR BELLS |
Sort of tyre and other cycling items that was recorded in 1970s (7,5)
|
| TUBULAR (sort of tyres) + BELLS (other cycling items), referring to the album by Mike Oldfield (1973) | ||
| 18 | TARAMASALATA |
A dip in the Mediterranean? (12)
|
| Cryptic definition, i.e. Greek fish roe dip | ||
| 21 | TICKETY-BOO |
Boy played with band after authorisation OK (7-3)
|
| TICKET (authorization) + anagram of (played) BOY + O (band) | ||
| 22 | USED |
Did milk up-end regularly going round particular bend? (4)
|
| Alternate letters of (“regularly”) U[P]-E[N]D around (going round) S (“particular bend”) | ||
| 24 | GRENACHE |
Wine grower Edwin not content, repeatedly suffering (8)
|
| I think this is supposed to parse as: G[ROWE]R + E[DWI]N removing the substance/contents of both words or “not content, repeatedly” + ACHE (suffering) | ||
| 25 | WEAVER |
Person who fabricates, draining welfare state (6)
|
| Center letters removed from (draining) W[ELFAR]E + AVER (state) | ||
| 26 | ANTELOPE |
One ruminates before prune crumble finally served (8)
|
| ANTE (before) + LOP (prune) + last letter of (“finally served”) [CRUMBL]E | ||
| 27 | STIR UP |
Urge purist to relax (4,2)
|
| Anagram of (to relax) PURIST | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EXPEDITE |
No longer correct during gym to hasten (8)
|
| EX (no longer) + EDIT (correct) inside (during) PE (gym) | ||
| 2 | BASS TUBA |
Musical instrument singer’s taken over border northwards (4,4)
|
| BASS (singer) + ABUT (border) inverted (northwards) | ||
| 3 | EGOS |
Is centre of Oregon huge? (4)
|
| Middle letters of (centre of) [OR]EG[ON] + OS (huge), referring to the plural of the first person singular pronoun “I” | ||
| 5 | REFRIGERATOR |
Official cook with time to run appliance (12)
|
| REF (official) + RIG (cook) + ERA (time) + TO + R (run) | ||
| 6 | GREEN ALGAE |
Environmentalist element oddly graded seaweed (5,5)
|
| GREEN (environmentalist) + AL (element, i.e., aluminum) + alternate letters of (“oddly”) G[R]A[D]E[D] | ||
| 7 | TIDIER |
Inspector surrounded by bank less chaotic (6)
|
| DI (inspector) inside (surrounded by) TIER (bank) | ||
| 8 | NUDIST |
One uncovered maniac controlling the underworld (6)
|
| NUT (maniac) around (controlling) DIS (the underworld) | ||
| 11 | YOUR LADYSHIP |
Unknown and Mary’s joint address (4,8)
|
| Y (unknown) + OUR LADY’S ([Saint] Mary’s) + HIP (joint) | ||
| 14 | SLEAZEBALL |
American rogue taking second drug during lounge party (10)
|
| S (second) + [E (drug) inside (during) LAZE (lounge)] + BALL (party) | ||
| 16 | PASSOVER |
Ignore feast (8)
|
| PASS OVER (ignore) | ||
| 17 | HANDGRIP |
Wingers in hurling rent manual exerciser (8)
|
| Outside letter of (wingers in) H[URLIN]G, read as H AND G + RIP (rent) | ||
| 19 | STIGMA |
Mark, character in Marathon, checking time (6)
|
| SIGMA (character in Marathon, i.e., a Greek letter) around (checking) T (time) | ||
| 20 | ACCENT |
Maybe Geordie’s routine involves Charlie, Tyneside insurgent (6)
|
| ACT (routine) around (involves) [C (Charlie) + one-half of (“side” [of]) [TY]NE inverted (“insurgent”)]. For an alternate (and probably the intended) parsing, see AGN@8 and Widdersbel@9 in the comments. | ||
| 23 | JEST |
Sooty entertains small kid (4)
|
| JET (sooty) around (entertains) S (small) |
Exactly the same experience as Cineraria; not too taxing until I hit the SW. Then there were some tough ones, eg identifying the def for TICKETY-BOO, the ‘crumble’ that wasn’t an anagram indicator in ANTELOPE, and working out the parsing for SLEAZEBALL and ACCENT. I did get these in the end, only to fail by having the M and the S the wrong way round for the Mediterranean dip.
A fail, but a challenging puzzle which I really enjoyed.
Thanks to Cineraria and Aardvark
Liked OFFENDED, TICKETY-BOO, USED, YOUR LADYSHIP and HANDGRIP.
Thanks, Aardvark and Cineraria.
I too sailed through all but the SW quarter, several of which eluded me. The wordplay for ACCENT & YOUR LADYSHIP didn’t do much for me, and why is an end a fragment? I’m pleased that I remembered what a MOT is.
Delightful set of clues and good to see Aard on a Tuesday!
Delightful set of clues and good to see this setter on a
GDU@3: The definition in Chambers includes “fragment or odd piece.” I had in mind in particular the last piece of a loaf of bread.
GDU@3 “Odds and ends”?
20D, Tyneside is in the North-East, which might be why it is NE – although Cineraria’s way works too. YOUR LADYSHIP is a favourite, while SLEAZEBALL took a while to work out. Thank you to all involved!
Yes, I also read it as NE (Tyneside) reversed (insurgent).
For some reason I really struggled to get on Aardvark’s wavelength today, but it was worth persevering with – some very clever and inventive clueing here. I have much the same favourites as KVa @2.
Thanks, Aardvark and Cineraria.
Wordplodder sums up my thoughts in working out this puzzle. NUDIST was a favourite.
Thanks to Aardvark and Cineraria.
Held up too long by my last one in EGOS, cleverly hiding the definition at the front of the clue with the requisite capital letter.
Everything else was pleasingly inventive and fun.
Thanks A&C
Bit late commenting but wanted to commend 3d in particular. For me it was the SE that held out, in particular PASSOVER and HANDGRIP (Loi).
Tx Aardvark and Cineraria.
Thanks for the blog, very good puzzle with a great range of clever clues . Only TICKETY-BOO deserved a severe Paddington stare.
A similar experience to others – held up for ages in the SW corner, although EGOS was our LOI. Favourite was GRENACHE.
Thanks, Aardvark and Cineraria.
I got there but would say it was at the harder end of my capability. Some fantastic clues. I particularly liked Egos and Handgrip.
My LOI was sleazeball which took quite some time to fall.
Thanks.
It occurred to me somewhat belatedly that there might be some date-related significance to the inclusion of Tubular Bells in the grid, given that it must be around 50 years since it came out…
A quick bit of googling revealed that its original UK release was 25 May 1973, so only out by a few weeks!