The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29953.
I was more than happy to see Qaos as the setter for this blog – his clues are seldom impenetrable, but are ingenious and witty.This puzzle held up his reputation in my book, with my favourite clues being 9A ALICE and the ingenious 2D NECK. Of course, there is a theme, announced in 24A (in part) BLING. In the grid, I see NECKLACE, ALICE BAND, PEARLS, SIGNET RING, EARRING and/or EAR CLIP, CUFF LINK, and CHAIN (I wanted something to go with that, but the nearest I could find was SKI CHAIN, which does not strike me as a thing). EYELINER is related, but does not quite belong with the rest. Are there any more that I have missed?
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | BEVERAGE |
During game First Lady has energy drink (8)
|
| A charade of BEVERAG, an envelope (‘during’) of EVE (Biblical ‘First Lady’) in BRAG (card ‘game’); plus E (‘energy’). | ||
| 9 | ALICE |
A story involving Carroll’s lead girl (5)
|
| An envelope (‘involving’) of C (‘Caroll’s lead’) in ‘a’ plus LIE (‘story’). Before you complain about the use of ‘girl’ to define a girl’s name, note that the clue has an extended definition, with reference to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. | ||
| 10 | LINK |
100 escape jail ring (4)
|
| A subtraction: [c]LINK (‘jail’) minus the C (‘100 escape’ – or should it be “escapes”?). | ||
| 11 | MESSENGERS |
European town beset by germs spread by couriers (10)
|
| Am envelope (‘beset by’) of ESSEN (‘European town’, specifically German) in MGERS, an anagram (‘spread’) of ‘germs’. | ||
| 12 | CANNED |
Drunk princess breaks record (6)
|
| An envelope (‘breaks’) of ANNE (‘princess’) in CD (‘record’). | ||
| 14 | THEORISE |
God is protecting Earth leading everyone to speculate (8)
|
| A charade of THEORIS, an envelope (‘protecting’) of E (the first one, ‘Earth’) in THOR (‘god’) plus ‘is’; plus E (‘leading Everyone’). | ||
| 16 | VERBOSE |
Long winded poetry describes flower seen in the mirror (7)
|
| An envelope (‘describes’) of BO, a reversal (‘seen in the mirror’ – well, with a little leeway) of OB (‘flower’. It’s a river in Siberia) in VERSE (‘poetry’). | ||
| 18 | ORDEALS |
Read about the origin of law throughout sailor’s trials (7)
|
| An envelope (‘throughout’) of RDEA, an anagram (‘about’) of ‘read’ plus L (‘the origin of Law’) in OS (Ordinary Seaman, ‘sailor’). | ||
| 21 | PIPEFISH |
Hippies excited to catch fellow swimmer (8)
|
| An envelope (‘to catch’) of F (‘fellow’) in PIPEISH, an anagram (‘excited’) of ‘hippies’. | ||
| 23 | SPRING |
Season starter of nachos – garnish with bit of greenery (6)
|
| An envelope (‘garnish with’) of N (‘starter of Nachos’) in SPRIG (‘bit of greenery’). | ||
| 24 | ASSEMBLING |
A tip about jewellery making (10)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus SSEM, a reversal (‘about’) of MESS (‘tip’; among the definitions of tip in Chambers is “an extremely untidy place”) plus BLING (‘jewellery’). | ||
| 26 | CUFF |
Hit copper with great force (4)
|
| A charade of CU (chemical symbol, ‘copper’) plus FF (fortissimo, ‘with great force’). | ||
| 27 | CHAIN |
Mate finally moving to centre of mountain range (5)
|
| CHINA (plate, rhyming slang ‘mate’) with the last letter moved to the middle (‘finally moving to centre’). | ||
| 28 | EYELINER |
On river long ago, you returned with make-up (8)
|
| A reversal (‘returned’) of RE (‘on’) plus NILE (‘river’) plus YE (‘long ago, you’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DELICATE |
Fine iced tea brew includes slice of lemon (8)
|
| An encelope (‘includes’) of L (‘slice of Lemon’) in DEICATE, an anagram (‘brew’) of ‘iced tea’. | ||
| 2 | NECK |
Passionately kiss fashion designer after 1-0? (4)
|
| A charade of NE, a subtraction of [o]NE (‘1’) minus (‘-‘) O (‘0’); plus CK (Calvin Klein, ‘fashion designer’). | ||
| 3 | WARMED |
Heated battle over sea (6)
|
| A charade of WAR (‘battle’) plus MED (Mediterranean ‘sea’). | ||
| 4 | DENSITY |
God admits partners’ stupidity (7)
|
| An envelope (‘admits’) of NS (bridge ‘partners’) in DEITY (‘god’). | ||
| 5 | LACE |
Frozen without top of thin material (4)
|
| A subtraction: [g]LACÉ (‘frozen’) minus its first letter (‘without top’). | ||
| 6 | GINGER BEER |
8 queen put on big green pants (6,4)
|
| An envelope (‘put on’) of ER (one-time ‘queen’) in GINGBEER, an anagram (‘pants’) of ‘big green’. | ||
| 7 | PEARLS |
Prized examples of fruit, large and small (6)
|
| A charade of PEAR (‘fruit’) plus L (‘large’) plus S (‘small’). | ||
| 13 | NOBLE METAL |
Award – final two exchanged money and the rest gold? (5,5)
|
| A charade of NOBLE, which is NOBEL (‘award’) with ‘final two exchanged’; plus M (‘money’) plus ET AL (‘and the rest’). The question mark is for the indication by example. | ||
| 15 | EAR |
The Listener’s not half simple, right? (3)
|
| A charade of EA[sy] (‘simple’) minus its last two letters (‘not half’); plus R (‘right’). | ||
| 17 | SKI |
Runner is prepared to tackle 1K (3)
|
| An envelope (‘to tackle’) of K (‘1K’ – and there is just one there) in SI, an anagram (!, ‘prepared’) of ‘is’. | ||
| 19 | LINE FEED |
Neil cooked oats, maybe to control character (4,4)
|
| A charade of LINE, an anagram (‘cooked’) of ‘Neil’ plus FEED (‘oats, maybe’). | ||
| 20 | CHAIRED |
Church director installs locks then ran meeting (7)
|
| An envelope (‘installs’) of HAIR (‘locks’) in CE (‘Church’ of England) plus D (‘director’). | ||
| 22 | INSECT |
Perhaps cricket side’s exhausted after batting then caught (6)
|
| A charade of IN (‘batting’) plus SE (‘SidE‘s exhausted’) plus CT (‘caught’). | ||
| 23 | SIGNET |
Seal is swimming with gent (6)
|
| An anagram (‘swimming’) of ‘is’ plus ‘gent’. | ||
| 25 | BAND |
Group not allowed on the radio (4)
|
| Sounds like (‘on the radio’) BANNED (‘not allowed’). | ||
| 26 | CLIP |
Extract 150 over 3.14? (4)
|
| A charade of CL (Roman numeral ‘150’) plus IP, a reversal (‘over’) of PI (‘3.14’ approximately). |
Thanks Peter O. VERBOSE I found a flower, a real one, reversed ??
Completion was delayed by having 3d WARMER (“Heated” = “warmer” than before, and “sea” = MER) instead of WARMED, which held up 12a CANNED. After a lot of puzzling, I finally caught the error and got the win. Couldn’t see a theme — closest I could get was 8a ALICE Cooper maybe, with 28a EYELINER and a 25d BAND? Did he wear a 27a CHAIN a wring the 3d NECK of a chicken? PeterO I think your theory is much better! 🙂
Fun puzzle. Several favourites: 11a MESSENGERS (“germs spread”), 12a CANNED (I wonder what record she broke?), 1d DELICATE (“iced tea” with slice of lemon), 2d NECK (took a while to parse NE = “1-0” = ONE minus O), 6d GINGER BEER (“big green pants”)
The surface of 20d CHAIRED has a tense problem. “Installs locks” (present) “then ran meeting” (past)
Ob, a new two-letter river to go with the Po. Any more? Handy for setters. Nice puzzle, ta P&Q.
Oops, my flower was flowing the wrong way. 🙁
Mig, CHAIRED is okay. C HAIR E D. Church CE installs/contains HAIR (locks) followed by D for director. The tense of CHAIRED is different to the surface reading. It is clued as “ran meeting”, past tense.
Mig, I loved your Alice Cooper theme scenario! 🙂 I saw him live in Sydney, and all of us grey-haired old fogies were sitting there when he started up while our kids and grandkids went down to the moshpit. It was a great night. (He didn’t bite the head off a chicken. Urban myth.)
Before I found the river OB (who knew?), I toyed with using the old crossword chestnut river “po” in lower case and reflecting it (in the mirror) vertically to give “bo”. Anyway I enjoyed Qaos as usual especially the lovely NECK with the clever football score,
Thanks paddymelon@5. The parsing of the clue is fine, my query was about the surface reading — the church director “installs” a lock, then “ran” a meeting. The tenses seem backward
I wonder how familiar LINE FEED is, long after the days of Teletypes.
Thanks PeterO for LACE. I was trying to take a T off something frozen, but got nowhere.
I am surprised OB doesn’t seem to better known
Thanks Qaos, too
Ah yeah I get you Mig #8. I don’t have a good explanation for that, but I hear people talk like that. Probably not acceptable here.
Dave Ellison #9. I did know GLACE, surprised you didn’t. 🙂
Having confidently written in LEMONADE for 8a as my first move without checking the parsing resulted in 2d being my LOI by a long margin, once I eventually smote myself on the brow and corrected 8a. Otherwise this all went smoothly, particularly for a Friday puzzle.
As per others, it’s good to see BO clued as something other than a reference to smell for a change; that river should appear more often.
Favourite today was ALICE, with NOBLE METAL a close second.
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.