The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hi everyone. I started slowly and although I made steady progress I certainly had to keep my brain in gear throughout. My first in, not followed by anything else for a while, was LAMPOON (10a) and my last to parse, by some way, was EAT AT (12a). I liked the deft use of real people and the inventiveness of some of the definitions. Thanks Quince!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | I need to add a parting gift bag (8) |
| KNAPSACK — PS (I need to add) plus A going into (parting) KNACK (gift) | |
| 5a | Main character is power mad (6) |
| PIRATE — P (power) + IRATE (mad). It took me a beat to see why “main” – as in sea, of course | |
| 10a | Ridicule a boring liberal politician with nothing on (7) |
| LAMPOON — A entering (boring) L (liberal) and MP (politician) + O (nothing) + ON | |
| 11a | Lay it on thick like Hollandaise at brunch (7) |
| OVEREGG — OVER EGG (like Hollandaise at brunch) | |
| 12a | Now and then, have endless distress (3,2) |
| EAT AT — EAT (now … have) and ATe (then, have) without the last letter (endless) | |
| 13a | Swell ultimately cutting boat ride off (5,4) |
| TIDAL BORE — The last letter of (… ultimately) swelL inside (cutting) an anagram of (… off) BOAT RIDE | |
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|
| 14a | Oti Mabuse dancing like a fox for Strictly (12) |
| ABSTEMIOUSLY — OTI MABUSE anagrammed (dancing) + SLY (like a fox) | |
| 18a | One clears the air with former agriculturalist? (9,3) |
| EXTRACTOR FAN — EX (former) TRACTOR FAN (agriculturalist?) | |
| 21a | Naming two animals back to front (9) |
| EPONYMOUS — PONY MOUSE (two animals) with the last letter moved to the beginning (back to front) | |
| 23a | Siren alarmed in part of peer’s tank (5) |
| RENAL — SirREN ALarmed in part | |
| 24a | Knocked back excellent beer – splendid stuff! (7) |
| REGALIA — Reversed (knocked back), AI (excellent) plus LAGER (beer) | |
| 25a | Detailed request to get men back using laboratory (2,5) |
| IN VITRO — Without the last letter (detailed) INVITe (request to get) + OR (men) reversed (back) | |
| 26a | Prime Minister would vote for emergency appeal (6) |
| MAYDAY — MAY’D (Prime Minister would) + AY (vote for) | |
| 27a | Obsessive sibling takes year for breakdown (8) |
| ANALYSIS — ANAL (obsessive) and SIS (sibling) contains (takes) Y (year) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Difficult offer (6) |
| KILLER — Two definitions, the second being someone who offs/kills | |
| 2d | Tim Key turned up in middle of cast leaks (6) |
| ADMITS — TIM and D (key) reversed (turned up) in the central letters of (middle of) cASt | |
| 3d | Republican probes top brass about exercising restraint (6,3) |
| SPORTS BRA — R (Republican) goes into (probes) an anagram of (… about) TOP BRASS | |
| 4d | Walk through legal framework (14) |
| CONSTITUTIONAL — A double definition | |
| 6d | One holds hands eventually with model (5) |
| IDEAL — I DEAL (one holds hands eventually – one has the cards which will become hands once dealt) | |
| 7d | What occupies a scoundrel in pub? (8) |
| ALEHOUSE — EH (what) is inside (occupies) A LOUSE (a scoundrel) | |
| 8d | I reported chasing dog with no lead – what a sight! (5,3) |
| EAGLE EYE — EYE (I reported) following (chasing) bEAGLE (dog) without its first letter (with no lead) | |
| 9d | It’s important to make promise, doing so freely (4,10) |
| GOOD IMPRESSION — An anagram of (… freely) PROMISE, DOING SO | |
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|
| 15d | Praise opponent in speech when they get there (2,7) |
| ON ARRIVAL — Sounds like (… in speech) HONOUR RIVAL (praise opponent) | |
| 16d | Declare endless love for Homer over message (8) |
| TELEGRAM — TELl (declare) without its last letter (endless) + MARGE (love for Homer – Homer Simpson), going upwards (over) | |
| 17d | Mistakenly using stone for weight with heft (8) |
| STRONGLY — [w]RONGLY (mistakenly) using ST (stone) in place of (for) W (weight) | |
| 19d | Couples start union up (6) |
| UNITES — SET IN (start) plus U, all reversed (up) | |
| 20d | Puzzles force John Robins to lose heart (6) |
| FLOORS — F (force) + LOO (john) + RobinS removing inner letters (to lose heart) | |
| 22d | Some float, laying around in resort (5) |
| YALTA — Some floAT, LAYing backwards (around) | |
Lovely, witty crossword. Very enjoyable. Failed to parse KNAPSACK & EAT AT though, so thanks for that, kitty.
The cloying misuse of ‘laying’ in 22d screamed hidden word, as otherwise the A was superfluous, but it was still cloying.
Thanks for the elusive parsing of EAT AT, which was very clever.
Took me ages to see what I read as a Lord as one who pees in RENAL and spent ages trying to work epaga or sero (love for Homer reversed) into TELEGRAM. Great crossword and blog.
My first one in was PIRATE and then progressed quite well but had to revel EAT AT – clever. But why is RENAL a definition of ‘a peer’s tank’? I’m obviously missing something. 18a raised a smile. Thanks Kitty and Quince.
Ele @4 it’s “of a peer’s tank”, with the idea that the ‘tank’ (liquid container) of a ‘peer’ (one using the bathroom facilities) is the kidney. Of the kidney = RENAL. For me, the bladder would be the tank, not the kidney, but still …
Criceto@5 – thanks. Agree it’s rather anatomically incorrect.
The usual great puzzle from Quince. People might be interested to know that the John Robins who’s namechecked at 20d is a comedian who often mentions crosswords on the podcast/radio show he hosts with Elis James (available on BBC Sounds). Quince wrote in to tell them about the clue so yesterday’s ep features JR breaking down the clue to his co-hosts, who it’s fair to say aren’t quite as engaged in crosswords as he is. You can find the ep here (or the exact clip is here).
Enjoyable crossword. Failed with 12a, having Eat It unparsed. Like the clueing style. CONSTITUTIONAL was around earlier in the week so went in quickly. Liked STRONGLY although originally misread the clue and had ‘strength’. Thanks Kitty for the blog – nice pictures – and thanks Quince. Thanks Charlie for the link as well. Interesting side dish.
Thanks all for comments, and to Charlie @7 for the link. Always interesting to see how cryptic crossword clues are received in the world outside our bubble.