Today’s offering from Peto . . .
. . . certainly felt like heavy sledding as I was working through it, with a few rather convoluted clues, but having completed it, I am not sure what in particular was holding me up on solving it. A solid puzzle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | INSIDE RIGHT |
One with access to select info on crew ignoring energy of No. 8 in the past (6,5)
|
| INSIDER (one with access to select info) + [E]IGHT (crew) minus (ignoring) E (energy), referring to the classic association football position number for the inside right forward | ||
| 7 | BAT |
Money Henry lost in club (3)
|
| BA[H]T (money, i.e., Thai currency) minus (lost) H (Henry) | ||
| 9 | STRIA |
Songs about arresting tenor found with flutes (5)
|
| AIRS (songs) reversed (about) around (arresting) T (tenor) | ||
| 10 | CONTENDER |
Competitor’s fiddle requiring gentle handling (9)
|
| CON (fiddle) + TENDER (requiring gentle handling) | ||
| 11 | ANOMALIES |
Irregularities of style ultimately evident in fake Mona Lisa (9)
|
| Last letter of (ultimately) [STYL]E inside (evident in) anagram of (fake) {MONA LISA} | ||
| 12 | TRAIN |
Aim of Garfunkel? To go back home (5)
|
| ART (Garfunkel) reversed (to go back) + IN (home) | ||
| 13 | CONCERN |
Business interest (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | SHED |
Lose friends he dated? Only some (4)
|
| Hidden in (only some) [FRIEND]S HE D[ATED] | ||
| 18 | TIES |
Periods without motorway restrictions (4)
|
| TI[M]ES (periods) minus (without) M (motorway) | ||
| 20 | PATRIOT |
Vigorous supporter of country park’s opening engaged in unrestrained revelry (7)
|
| First letter of (opening [of]) P[ARK] + AT (engaged in) + RIOT (unrestrained revelry) | ||
| 23 | LLANO |
Plain Jane’s heart captured by the Italian student earlier (5)
|
| L (student) + {inside letters of (heart [of]) [J]AN[E] inside (captured by) LO (the [in] Italian), with “earlier” indicating the order of the elements of the wordplay | ||
| 24 | TRUNCHEON |
Right about a French revolutionary working in a club for police officers (9)
|
| RT (right) reversed (about) + UN (a [in] French) + CHE (revolutionary, i.e., Ernesto Guevara) + ON (working) | ||
| 26 | CURRICULA |
Arising from circular about university’s courses of study (9)
|
| Anagram of (arising from) CIRCULAR around (about) U (university) | ||
| 27 | DIANA |
Not available after help’s withdrawn by goddess of the hunt (5)
|
| AID (help) reversed (withdrawn) + N/A (not available) | ||
| 28 | YEN |
Yearning for money (3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 29 | LEAVE BEHIND |
Forget to take Bottom on holiday (5,6)
|
| LEAVE (holiday) + BEHIND (bottom), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | INSTANCE |
Metamorphosis of an insect for example (8)
|
| Anagram of (metamorphosis of) AN INSECT | ||
| 2 | SURMOUNT |
Almost certain to rise and overcome (8)
|
| SUR[E] (certain) minus last letter (almost) + MOUNT (rise) | ||
| 3 | DRAMA |
Mythological princess removed from model of scene in play (5)
|
| D[IO]RAMA (model of scene) minus (removed from) IO (mythological princess) | ||
| 4 | RUCTION |
Uproar caused by technique of literary analysis? Not half (7)
|
| [DECONST]RUCTION (technique of literary analysis) minus (not) [first] half | ||
| 5 | GENESIS |
Beginning with information on European ship carrying ivory primarily (7)
|
| GEN (information) + E (European) + {SS (ship) around (carrying) first letter of (primarily) I[VORY]} | ||
| 6 | TREATMENT |
Way of handling soldiers and volunteers upset by months under canvas (9)
|
| {RE (soldiers) + [TA (volunteers) inverted (upset)] + M (months)} inside TENT (under canvas) | ||
| 7 | BEDLAM |
Plot to strike causing pandemonium (6)
|
| BED (plot) + LAM (strike) | ||
| 8 | TYRANT |
Despot’s extremely tetchy tirade (6)
|
| Outside letters of (extremely) T[ETCH]Y + RANT (tirade) | ||
| 14 | EDITORIAL |
Censor has spoken about Italy’s leader (9)
|
| {EDIT (censor) + ORAL (spoken)} around (about) I (Italy) | ||
| 16 | LITERATI |
Simpler version of Republican teacher’s reading tool sent up by scholarly people (8)
|
| I think this parses as: LITE (simpler version of, in commercialese) + R (Republican) + ITA (teacher’s reading tool, i.e., Initial Teaching Alphabet) inverted (sent up) | ||
| 17 | STANDARD |
Established model maker’s latest promotional poster seen around market stall previously (8)
|
| STAND (market stall) + {AD (promotional poster) around (seen around) last letter of (latest [of]) [MAKE]R}, with “previously” indicating the order of the elements of the wordplay | ||
| 19 | SATSUMA |
Hesitation after exams on a kind of ornamental pottery (7)
|
| SATS (exams) + UM (hesitation) + A | ||
| 20 | PLUMAGE |
Especially valued mature bird’s feathers (7)
|
| PLUM (especially valued) + AGE (mature) | ||
| 21 | PLUCKY |
Gutsy to carry on hiding friar after time runs out (6)
|
| PLY (to carry on) around (hiding) [T]UCK (friar) minus (after runs out) T (time) | ||
| 22 | BARREN |
Unprofitable for a powerful financier they say (6)
|
| Homophone of (they say) BARON (a powerful financier) | ||
| 25 | CADRE |
Be concerned about daughter’s group of political activists (5)
|
| CARE (be concerned) around (about) D (daughter) |
Began well, but I didn’t finish. Never heard of TA/volunteers or sats/exams or Initial Teaching Alphabet. Nor STRIA, LLANO, or SATSUMA as pottery. Aim/TRAIN?
“Heavy sledding” and “rather convoluted” summed it up nicely for me. As highlighted by GDU, there were quite a few obscurities too, which saw me solve first then scurry to the internet to enable parsing.
No favourites. I could not parse DRAMA or LITERATI so thank you for the help.
Thanks Peto and Cineraria
GDU@1: SAT = Scholastic Aptitude Test, well known to me in the US as the main college entrance exam, but perhaps not to others elsewhere.
AIM = TRAIN as a weapon on a target.
TA for volunteers (Territorial Army) should be familiar as a cryptic crossword staple. I don’t believe I have ever seen it anywhere else, come to think of it.
Thank you, Cineraria. I should have got aim/train. I’ll try to remember the other two.
Thanks both. Well crafted but somewhat tricky in places.