Pete Maclean is otherwise engaged this weekend so asked for cover. The puzzle can be found here
It’s surprisingly relaxing to produce a blog with time to faff, so I could find references and look stuff up, without adding to my sleep deficit, especially as it took me a bit of fiddling around, with all the dictionaries out, to parse a couple of clues (one because the version I was looking at had a typo).
Leonidas produces very smooth surfaces and there is neat cluing throughout this puzzle, with some misleading touches.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CANASTA |
Game stats an academic partly recalled (7)
|
| reverse hidden (partly recalled) in stATS AN ACademic > for the card game | ||
| 5 | DISMAY |
PM following officers in alarm (6)
|
| charade of MAY (PM – Theresa May, ex-PM of UK) following DIS (officers – as in Detective Inspectors in the police force) (one version I saw of this clue had officers split into off icers, which wasn’t helpful) | ||
| 8 | UNMOVABLE |
Fast blue van possibly patrolling edges of Monaco (9)
|
| anagram (possibly) of (BLUE VAN)* around (patrolling) MO (edges of MonacO) to give UNMOVABLE with a surface suggesting the rapid meaning of fast, not the stuck version. | ||
| 9 | AESOP |
Famous Greek model turned on American (5)
|
| charade of POSE (model) + A (American) all reversed < (turned) | ||
| 11 | STRAY |
Beam attached to rear of stone range (5)
|
| charade of RAY (beam) after (attached to rear of) ST (stone – from Imperial weights and measures) | ||
| 12 | SEMBLANCE |
Appearance of Mabel oddly in spirited meeting (9)
|
| insertion of MBL (MaBeL oddly) in SEANCE (spirited meeting) | ||
| 13 | MELODEON |
Note bird seizing delicate hollow instrument (8)
|
| charade of ME (note – as in mi/me in the sol-fa scale) + LOON (bird) around DE (DelicatE hollow) | ||
| 15 | VELCRO |
Material against the Spanish crown twice abridged (6)
|
| charade of V (against) EL (the Spanish) + CRO (CROwn twice abridged) | ||
| 17 | SOREST |
Most tender son covering female in wooded area (6)
|
| letter swap – starting with FOREST (wooded area) S (son) is swapped for (covering) F (female) | ||
| 19 | SPORADIC |
Isolated harvests bordering 60% of Idaho to the west (8)
|
| reversal (to the west) of CROPS (harvests) around (bordering) IDAho (60% of Idaho) | ||
| 22 | IMPORTUNE |
Setter’s left with a French press (9)
|
| charade of I’M (setter’s) + PORT (left) + (with) UNE (a French) | ||
| 23 | SLOOP |
Shares withdrawn to get sailing vessel (5)
|
| reversal of POOLS < – I hadn’t come across this before, but apparently pools are a form of stocks – so shares as in investments. And see below – car pools are a way of sharing cars or pooling lifts. | ||
| 24 | ELEGY |
Refined colonist released unknown song (5)
|
| subtraction of ANT (colonist released) from ELEGant (refined) + Y (unknown – from maths) to give ELEGY – a song of mourning, specifically | ||
| 25 | SERENGETI |
African protected area in new green site (9)
|
| anagram (in new) of (GREEN SITE)* | ||
| 26 | PETREL |
Skin around wings of taller seabird (6)
|
| insertion of TR (wings of TalleR) into PEEL (skin) for this bird | ||
| 27 | DRIVE-IN |
A lot of blether in front of home cinema? (5-2)
|
| charade of DRIVE (a lot of drivel = blether) + IN (home) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CRUISE MISSILE |
Teams reportedly avoid isle when dropping second bomb (6,7)
|
| charade of CRUISE (sounds like “crews” or teams) + MISS (avoid) + IsLE (isle when dropping S – second) | ||
| 2 | NUMERAL |
Figure in lane drunk with rum (7)
|
| anagram (drunk) of (LANE + RUM)* | ||
| 3 | SAVOY |
Claim implicates very old Alpine region (5)
|
| insertion (implicates) of V (very) O (old) in SAY (claim) for this Alpine region | ||
| 4 | ASBESTOS |
When on top, boss uncovered insulator (8)
|
| charade of AS BEST (on top) + bOSs (boss uncovered) – back in the world of Cooking in a Bedsitter there was a suggestion of using an asbestos sheet over a gas ring to allow simmering. It’s definitely not recommended now as breathing ASBESTOS fibres is recognised as not conducive to long term health. | ||
| 5 | DREAMS |
Result of tots consuming last of Brie? (6)
|
| CAD (clue as definition or &lit) – the wordplay is DRAMS (tots) around E (last of briE) and the whole refers to the idea that eating cheese in the evening results in bad DREAMS | ||
| 6 | SMALL BEER |
Trifling matter upset large male Serb (5,4)
|
| anagram of (L MALE SERB)* where L = large.
I suspect this is English English: something that is SMALL BEER is a minor irritant compared to the bigger picture. It comes from the days when much available water wasn’t that clean, so everybody drank a weak beer that had gone through the brewing process as a way of drinking something less likely to make them ill. |
||
| 7 | ARSENIC |
Poison retired artist initially seen cycling city (7)
|
| charade of AR (RA < = retired artist [Royal Academician]) + S (initially Seen) + ENIC (cycling city – NICE with the last letter cycling to the front) | ||
| 10 | PRECONCEPTION |
Penny on front desk adopting fool’s earlier idea (13)
|
| P (penny) on RECEPTION (front desk) around CON (fool) | ||
| 14 | DESTROYER |
Ship’s orders yet to be broadcast (9)
|
| anagram (to be broadcast) of (ORDERS YET)* | ||
| 16 | APPEARED |
Came in to view parrot circling fruit close to shed (8)
|
| insertion of APE (parrot) around (circling) PEAR (fruit) + D (close to sheD) | ||
| 18 | REPLETE |
Jammed on piano before time within shelter (7)
|
| charade of RE (on) P (piano – musical notation) + T (time) inside (within) LEE (shelter) | ||
| 20 | DIOCESE |
See European code is cracked (7)
|
| anagram (cracked) of (E CODE IS) where E = European for the regular crossword conceit of see = DIOCESE | ||
| 21 | MUSSEL |
Marine creature contractor delivered? (6)
|
| soundalike (delivered) of “muscle” (contractor) | ||
| 23 | SUNNI |
Southern college welcomes northern Muslim (5)
|
| charade of S (southern) UNI (college) around N (northern) for the largest branch of Islam |
Enjoyable, smooth puzzle. Very good blog.
Thanks Leonidas and Shanne.
Liked DREAMS and MUSSLE.
SLOOP
POOL: Thought of carpool and pooling of ideas.
Wasn’t aware of the special form of stocks/shares.
ASBESTOS
I had
when =AS
top=BEST
AS on BEST
(the blogger’s parse seems to work all right)
It was great aunt Nellie in Lancs who first told me “Yuvvent t’eat cheese afore bed, meks ye drrream y’know”. Dear old soul. As for the rest, replete for jammed is a bit weird, but otherwise a pretty smooth puzzle, ta Leonidas and Shanne.
PS asbestos as per KVa
I think this was Leonidas close to his best with so many wonderful surfaces and a couple that needed time to work through.
UNMOVABLE was great- a partial anagram with a nice surface. I also liked SERENGETI (nice surface, nice anagram, took a while to see the answer), thought CANASTA was clever and ticked DRIVE IN, DESTROYER, IMPORTUNE, and CRUISE MISSILE.
I could not parse SEMBLANCE given I completely misinterpreted the clue, nor could I parse the overly-complicated ELEGY. I am afraid I did not like 5d, which seemed like a clue without a definition. I had no idea about the old wives tale so thanks for the education Shanne and geamtinfreo@2.
Thanks Leonidas and Shanne
PS nice colour coding for UNMOVABLE.
A typically classy puzzle from one of my favourite setters.
Lovely surfaces, as noted in the blog. I particularly admired the splitting of ‘into’ in the clue for 16dn APPEARED, to make better sense of the surface and the fine anagrams at 25ac and 14dn. Other favourites were 8ac UNMOVABLE, 12ac SEMBLANCE, 24ac ELEGY, 1dn CRUISE MISSILE and 10dn PRECONCEPTION.
I went along with KVa’s parsing of ASBESTOS and interpretation of POOLS, as in pooling resources.
Shanne, there’s a tiny typo in the parsing of 1ac CANASTA.
Thanks to Leonidas for the weekend treat and to Shanne for the blog.
Really enjoyed this – as always with this setter.
Favourites: SEMBLANCE, IMPORTUNE, ELEGY, DIOCESE
Thanks Leonidas and Shanne
Very enjoyable Saturday puzzle! No complaints, Leonidas was responsible for my first ever FT and that was a delight also. The cheese/ DREAMS was always recited as a warning in childhood, which merely resulted in juvenile experimentation… I was always disappointed with the results. I was also fascinated with the concept of drinking beer for breakfast, on first reading Children of the New Forest, at an impressionable age!
I had ASBESTOS as Shanne… no particular favourites, all good…
Thanks LEONIDAS n Shanne
Eileen @5 – sorted the inversion on CANASTA – have also tidied up some of the formatting for consistency.
Enjoyable with just the right level of challenge. Our favourite was VELCRO.
Thanks, Leonidas and Shanne.
Another super Leonidas. I missed this on Saturday so it was good to be alerted by the blog so I’ve just done it. Very smooth and quite accessible. I only needed to revisit DREAMS (I felt it had to be that and was aware of the dietary caution but wanted crossers to be sure that it was the correct understanding), SOREST which seemed too short at first and MUSSEL as I was thinking of a different sort of contractor at first.
Some of the same faves as others – SEMBLANCE, UNMOVABLE, CRUISE MISSILE, PRECONCEPTION and ASBESTOS.
Thanks Leonidas and Shanne
Thank Shanne for taking care of this for me. I hope I can return the favour some time.