Thank you to Gozo for another themed puzzle. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Preamble: Thirteen solutions are 14 Across and all 14 of them lack their definition
Across
9. Race course? (9)
ETHNOLOGY : Cryptic defn: Not place for racing events, but the study of peoples/races that might be a university course, say.
10. Age-related exams with time (5)
STATS : SATS(abbrev. for “standard assessment tasks”, in England, exams taken by primary schoolchildren at certain stages of their education) containing(with) T(abbrev. for “time”).
11. Land tortoise quietly left (7)
TERRAIN : “terrapin”(a turtle, or in non-scientific usage, a tortoise) minus(… left) “p”(abbrev. for “piano”, a musical direction to play softly/quietly).
12. Music from the sphere and nothing more (7)
THEORBO : THE + ORB(a sphere/globe) plus() O(letter representing 0/nothing).
Defn: … _______/That from which you can produce music.
13. Three from three (3)
TIT : Three consecutive letters from “BON APPETIT“(solution to 3 down).
14. Python star by airfields (11)
PALINDROMES : PALIN(Michael, one of the stars in the Monty Python comedy group) plus(by) DROMES(short for “aerodromes”/airfields).
Answer: Words, phrases and sentences such as “madam” or “Madam, I’m Adam”, and even numbers such as that of this puzzle.
17. Chaps left terraced flats (5)
TENET : “men”(chaps/blokes) deleted from(left) “tenement”(a building divided into separate dwellings on each floor/terraced flats).
18. From the West (3)
EWE : Hidden in(From) “the West“.
19. Emergency call included leading lifeboat officer (5)
SOLOS : SOS(emergency call) containing(included) 1st letters, respectively, of(leading) “lifeboat officer“.
21. Examiner can be seen in small warship (11)
SCRUTINISER : TIN(can/a metal cylindrical container) contained in(be seen in) [ S(abbrev. for “small”) + CRUISER(a fast warship) ].
23. Row outside actors’ room, for starters (3)
OAR : 1st letters, respectively, of(…, for starters) “outside actors’ room“.
25. 20 in darts — snooker success (3,4)
TOP SPOT : Double wordplay 1st: On the dartboard, where the number 20 is found, signifying the section that awards 20, 40 or 60 point scores; and 2nd: How one might describe, in snooker, an excellent/tops shot potting a ball
27. Went against holding international (7)
DEIFIED : DEFIED(went against/opposed) containing(holding) I(abbrev. for “international”).
28. Being penniless, went to pieces (5)
BROKE : Double defn.
29. So the umpire has product of mine (9)
THEREFORE : THE + REF(short for “referee”, an umpire in a sporting match) plus(has) ORE(product of/material dug up from a mine).
Down
1. Parisian is accepted by fixed band of players (6)
SESTET : EST(French, as spoken by a Parisian, for “is”) contained in(accepted by) SET(fixed/decided on).
Defn: Another word for “sextet”.
2. Female to inform furniture designer (8)
SHERATON : SHE(third party pronoun for a female) + RAT ON(to inform on/to betray).
3. Tip-top bean stew. Enjoy it! (3,7)
BON APPETIT! : Anagram of(bean stew) TIP-TOP BEAN.
Defn: …, ie. what you’re about to eat.
4. Nobody fails to finish (4)
NOON : “no one”(nobody) minus its last letter(fails to finish).
5. Not those to disturb a Byrd’s nest! (10)
BYSTANDERS : Anagram of(to disturb) A BYRD’S NEST. “to disturb” doing double duty.
Defn: …/those who are present, but take no part, at an event or incident.
6. In the heart of Hardy country (4)
ESSE : Middle 4 letters of(the heart of) “Wessex”, the south-western counties of England, as setting for Thomas Hardy’s novels.
Answer: Essential nature/essence.
7. A clergyman in mother’s embrace (6)
MARRAM : [A + RR(abbrev. for “Right Reverend”, title given to a clergyman, viz. a bishop) ] contained in(in) MAM(informal term for one’s mother).
8. Recommends online marriage partners (8)
ESPOUSES : E-(prefix to denote something in electronic form/online) + SPOUSES(marriage partners).
15. Late risers do so, say, to rest in Westminster Abbey (3,2,5)
LIE IN STATE : LIE IN(late risers do so/not get up from bed until later) + STATE(to say/to declare).
Defn: To be laid in a public place of honour prior burial, as British monarchs and consorts are, in Westminster Hall (Abbey?).
The latest …:
16. Used the riddle again, showing reserve (10)
RESTRAINED : RE-STRAINED(used the riddle/a large coarse sieve/strainer, again).
17. Match on TV — it’s experimental (4,4)
TEST TUBE : TEST(an cricket or rugby mated played between 2 teams representing their respective countries) placed above(on, in a down clue) TUBE(slang for a TV set).
20. Visit the gents with relatives about (4,2,2)
LOOK IN ON : LOO(informal term for the toilet, the gents in this case) plus(with) KIN(relatives/those related to one by blood) + ON(about/concerning).
22. Sort of parrot? Unlikely! (6)
RAPTOR : Anagram of(Sort of) PARROT.
Defn: What a parrot is unlikely to be – a bird of prey – as most parrots are granivores.
24. Small ruminant out East (6)
REDDER : RED DEER(a small ruminant/herbivore) minus(out) “E”(abbrev. for “East”).
26. Exercise on record (4)
PEEP : PE(abbrev. for “physical education”, exercise taught in schools) placed above(on, in a down clue) EP(abbrev. for “extended play”, originally a phonograph record).
27. Pressmen putting their heads together (4)
DEED : ED,ED(2 x abbrev. for “editor”, pressmen/newspapermen) with the 1st “E” moved to next to the 2nd “E”( putting their heads together).
Fantastic puzzle by Gozo. Loved the theme and just the right level of difficulty. Luckily, I don’t suffer from aibohphobia.
Didn’t spot the palindromic crossword number. I parsed TOP SPOT as a charade of TOPS (20 in darts) + POT (snooker success).
I was fortunate in that my first two solutions were NOON – the WP seemed very clear – and ESSE – I see Hardy and my first two thoughts are Tess, followed by Wessex. Which made me look hard at 14a and realise it clued PALINDROME so the theme was uncovered with just three solutions in the grid. If only it were always thus! I parsed TOP SPOT as did Hovis. Slightly surprised by the chestnuts in ESPOUSES and TERRAIN but there we go. RAPTOR was my favourite clue today.
Thanks Gozo and scchua
5d BYSTANDERS: The Byrds formed in ‘1964, when Jim McGuinn, Gene Clark, and David Crosby came together as a trio.’ – (a 60th (Diamond) anniversary).
[And Happy 76th 🎂, Cellomaniac! – How’s the MID-LIFE CRISIS going?]
Unbelievably, I got the theme immediately, only to fall at the last fence – I now feel such a T*T.
Such a shame PALINDROME isn’t.
I too parsed 25A as TOPS+POT (“wasted yoof”). A really good puzzle, scrupulously clued, with a lavishly illustrated blog! What’s not to like? If it weren’t for the heat this would be Such A Perfect Day. 🎵 Thanks very much to all.
Thanks for the blog, for the FT I sometimes abandon my normal solving method so for this I just looked at 14Ac and out of the six it really had to be PALIN . Good puzzle with the theme carried off very neatly without leading to a lot of obscure entries for normal clues.
Sums are not set as a test on Erasmus.
Thanks Gozo and scchua
I doubt it’s a coincidence that the crossword number is also palindromic.
Thanks Gozo and scchua!
Enjoyable puzzle! Excellent blog!
THEORBO
The underlined def doesn’t seem to work. The ‘the’ is used in the wordplay as well.
‘Music from’ or ‘Music from the’ as the def seems odd.
[I don’t have a better explanation].
I saw 25a, as scchua, with TOP SPOT = the position of the 20 on the dartboard, and TOPS POT = an excellent snooker shot.
In darts “TOPS” means “double top”, so Gozo would/should have clued “40”, not “20”, if that were the intended parse.
[scchua, did you mean to include The The (formed 1979) in the definition for 12a THEORBO?]… (Hi, KVa@8)
Many thanks to Gozo and Scchua.
I used to drive a truck, (semi/artic), its number was 12121, so I referred to it as the palindrome. The Aviva stadium in Dublin was also dubbed the Palindrome when it first opened, don’t know if it still is.
…[or the Bean (1990-95) in the anagram indicator for 3d BON APPETIT?]
FrankieG @9. I have to admit that I have always referred to 40 as “double tops”, thinking that the two bits that score 20 (separated by the treble) formed the “tops”. Googling shows I’m wrong. Never was any good at it in any case.
Quite a few of these palindromes appeared in Soup’s Guardian Prize on April Fools’ Day last year here.
In Spanish there’s a word for a numeric palindrome: capicúa, derived from Catalan “cap i cua”, “head and tail”, pronounced “cap eek OOH uh”, with the stress on the ú.
A fun puzzle. Thanks G&s
Pretty cool… as Roz@8 (I see what you did there!) it seemed sensible to focus on the theme-revealer, and the rest is history.. the toughest bit was trying to resist finding the non-existent definition!! Convinced there was clergyman MA_ _ AM.. apart from that it was a nice change from the usual..
Thanks Gozo n sschua
Phew.
Got there but didn’t find it easy, even though theme was immediately clear from 14a.
Alas fell into same trap as Ludosmoll@5.
Bah.
Never heard of Thereobo.
Red deer aren’t particularly small – easily the largest of UK deer but I accept at smaller end of the Ruminant spectrum.
Excellent blog.
And there’s me wondering why this isn’t on a Wednesday, when the previous editor would run a crossie with theme. Then we see that the number of the crossword is in itself a palindrome.
Genius!
KVa@8: The definition is just “music”. At bit grammatically imprecise, but as a (former) lute player myself I was well accustomed to phrases like “Ah, you’re the music.”
How about this…Theorbo – Makes music of the spheres at the start of opera. Not small!