The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hi again. My anagram hat must have fallen off, because I was very slow to unravel the ones in this puzzle. That can’t solely account for my slow time: there was some proper deviousness on show here. My last in was (ironically) the speed record BLUE RIBAND at 24a with its cunningly disguised anagram fodder. I enjoyed that very much, and also marked out a handful of other acrosses as particularly worthy of mention: 1 APPARENT, 6 COVERT, 14 DEPRIVED, 16 STANDS UP and 27 SCRUTINY. Thanks to Filbert, who indeed STANDS UP to SCRUTINY!
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 | Old men with heads together pulled apart, glaring (8) |
| APPARENT — AP and PA: two PAs (old men) with the first reversed so their initial letters are touching (with heads together) + RENT (pulled apart) | |
| 6a | Cryptic equivalent of temperature into Celsius? (6) |
| COVERT — We need the mathematical meanings of over and into as divided by and dividing respectively: C OVER T is equivalent to T (temperature) INTO C (Celsius) | |
| 9a | Chuck’s ready to corrupt official, perhaps (4) |
| BUNG — Two definitions. Ready = money | |
| 10a | Artist chosen to replace Parisian is soaking wood (10) |
| RAINFOREST — RA (artist) + IN FOR (chosen to replace) + EST (Parisian is) | |
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|
| 11a | Take wrong street with east of motorway split (13) |
| MISUNDERSTAND — ST (street) plus AND (with) to the right of (east of) MI (motorway) plus SUNDER (split) | |
| 12a | Plaster commanding officers put on wounds in retreat (6) |
| STUCCO — CO (commanding officer) put on CUTS (wounds) reversed (in retreat). | |
| I think maybe an extra S has slipped into the clue: I’ve made the CO singular in the explanation | |
| 14a | Stripped, dive deeper at sea using half the energy (8) |
| DEPRIVED — An anagram of (… at sea) DIVE DE[e]P[e]R only including half of the Es (using half the energy) | |
| 16a | Despite arrangement, doesn’t date pay for drink? (6,2) |
| STANDS UP — STAND (pay for) + SUP (drink) | |
| 19a | Too old really to snort line (6) |
| OVERLY — O (old) + VERY (really) taking in (to snort) L (line) | |
| 21a | Opposing force tally with crew on Queen Elizabeth (13) |
| COUNTERWEIGHT — COUNT (tally) + W (with) and EIGHT (crew) on ER (Queen Elizabeth) | |
| 24a | Atlantic voyage’s record Iand-lubber sabotaged with hidden typo? (4,6) |
| BLUE RIBAND — An anagram of (… sabotaged) IAND LUBBER with a hidden typo in that the clue sneakily has an upper case I (i) instead of a lower case L. | |
| The dictionary didn’t help me with the definition, but trusty Wiki cleared things up: the Blue Riband is a name awarded unofficially to the passenger liner with the fastest average Atlantic crossing speed | |
| 25a | Usually high area’s right next to low (4) |
| MOOR — R (right) next to MOO (low) | |
| 26a | Report of attack on unknown shot inside (1-5) |
| X-RAYED — RAYED, a homophone of (report of) RAID (attack), on X (unknown) | |
| 27a | Wee behind bushes avoiding bachelor’s gaze (8) |
| SCRUTINY — TINY (wee) after (behind) SCRU[b] (bushes) avoiding B (bachelor) | |
| Down | |
| 2d | Quickly drop crumbs in empty pot (7) |
| PLUMMET — LUMME (crumbs) in PoT without its centre (empty …) | |
| 3d | Protection English and American soldier wear equally (5) |
| AEGIS — E (English) and GI (American soldier) are inside (wear) AS (equally) | |
| 4d | Euro Senor tossed bum (9) |
| ERRONEOUS — EUROSENOR anagrammed (tossed) | |
| 5d | Heel pain occupies mind (4,3) |
| TAIL END — AIL (pain) is inside (occupies) TEND (mind) | |
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| 6d | Copper that takes the biscuit showing restraint? (5) |
| CUFFS — CU (copper) + FFS (that takes the biscuit – I won’t spell this one out!) | |
| 7d | Rivals tee off, good all round (9) |
| VERSATILE — RIVALS TEE anagrammed (off) | |
| 8d | University dons party after dealing with surplus (7) |
| RESIDUE — U (University) goes into (dons) SIDE (party) after RE (dealing with) | |
| 13d | Uncle Tom, terrible yankee insult (9) |
| CONTUMELY — UNCLE TOM, anagrammed (terrible) + Y (yankee) | |
| 15d | Food for retail earlier cleared out (9) |
| PROVENDER — PRO (for) +VEND (retail) + EarlieR without inner letters (cleared out) | |
| 17d | Pedant not starting difficult puzzle (7) |
| TICKLER — Without the initial letter (… not starting), sTICKLER (pedant) | |
| 18d | That could be a hot spring rising (7) |
| PERHAPS — PER (a) + H (hot) + SPA (spring) rising | |
| 20d | Doctor dwelt on disappointing outcome (7) |
| LETDOWN — Make an anagram of (doctor) DWELT ON | |
| 22d | Criminal group lasered air traffic from beneath shelters (5) |
| TRIAD — In an upwards direction (… from beneath), lasereD AIR Traffic hides (shelters) the answer | |
| 23d | Dieter’s good sandwiches are primarily meat spread (5) |
| GAMUT — GUT (Dieter’s good) surrounds (sandwiches) A (are) and the first letter of (primarily) Meat | |
Extraordinarily good clue writing here. Haven’t been so impressed by a standard cryptic for ages.
One or two shrugs here as the subtleties slid slyly past, including not only c divided by t, but also cu ffs — surprising as I’m quite partial to a bit of blasphemy. Have to keep an eye on future Filberts … thanks to him and thanks Kitty.
I got fixated on fitting the Y at the east end of motorway into 11a to make a synonym of steal or thieve. Nho of 13d and couldn’t think of the right bushes to remove the B from for 27a. But those shoes just made my day Kitty.
Thanks both.