A fun, beautiful puzzle from SOLOMON with several outstanding surfaces.
FF: 10 DD: 9, with a Pangram to boot.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BONNIE |
Pretty one wearing timeless headwear (6)
|
| I ( one ) in BONNEt ( headwear, without T – time ) | ||
| 4 | SMASHING |
Cry about Pulp breaking up (8)
|
| SING ( cry ) around MASH ( pulp )_ | ||
| 10 | LORD MAYOR |
My, my — hosts start to audition men for Dick Whittington? (4,5)
|
| LORD ( my ) [ MY containing A ( Audition, first letter ) ] OR ( men ) | ||
| 11 | DJINN |
DJ alongside bar getting spirits (5)
|
| DJ INN ( bar ) | ||
| 12 | SPANDEX |
Exhausted stand-up with old material (7)
|
| SP ( Stand-uP, exhausted i.e. without inner letters ) AND ( with ) EX ( old ) | ||
| 13 | OPEN-AIR |
Outdoor opera in Barking (4-3)
|
| [ OPERA IN ]* | ||
| 14 | PLAZA |
Square up, finally, with extreme characters in LA (5)
|
| P ( uP, last letter ) [ AZ ( extreme characters ) in LA ] | ||
| 15 | BLOBBIEST |
Most spotted black ties ruined by black pitch (9)
|
| B ( black ) LOB ( pitch ) B ( black ) [ TIES ]* | ||
| 17 | NUMBER TWO |
Second-in-command asleep beside Queen Elizabeth II? (6,3)
|
| NUMB ( asleep ) ER ( queen elizabeth ) TWO ( II ) | ||
| 19 | RAPID |
Quick, informal talk performed without introduction (5)
|
| tRAP ( informal talk, without starting letter ) dID ( performed, without starting letter ) | ||
| 21 | NITRATE |
Chemical that indicates the spread of lice? (7)
|
| cryptic def; read as NIT RATE ( ~ spread of lice ) | ||
| 23 | PLASTIC |
Petrochemical products and wine held by limited company (7)
|
| ASTI ( wine ) in PLC ( limited company ) | ||
| 25 | VOTER |
Left or right winger putting a cross into the box? (5)
|
| &lit; nice surface with the football connotation | ||
| 26 | FREQUENCY |
French queen upset about yankee’s ‘commonness’ (9)
|
| FR ( french ) [ QUEEN ]* C ( about ) Y ( yankee ) | ||
| 27 | SIDEWAYS |
Players swing end-to-end and left-to- right? (8)
|
| SIDE ( players ) [ WAYS ( swing = SWAY, end-to-end : the first S moving to the last ) | ||
| 28 | SAVAGE |
Slate and silver kept in store (6)
|
| AG ( silver ) in SAVE ( store ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BALLS |
DOS is rubbish (5)
|
| BALL ( DO, party, dance etc ) S | ||
| 2 | NIRVANA |
Group turning up in vehicle protected by gunners (7)
|
| NI ( reverse of IN ) [ VAN ( vehicle ) in RA ( gunners ) ] | ||
| 3 | IMMEDIATE |
I’m Solomon, the crossword setter infiltrating meeting that’s urgent (9)
|
| IM ME ( solomon ) [ I ( the crossword setter ) in DATE ( meeting ) ] | ||
| 5 | MARCO POLO |
Merchant’s stuff sent north atop old motor (5,4)
|
| MARC ( reverse of CRAM, staff ) O ( old ) POLO ( motor, car model ) | ||
| 6 | SEDGE |
Upset, say, Des and Iris? (5)
|
| reverse of EG ( say ) DES | ||
| 7 | IMITATE |
Copy what a tigged child says at the end of game (7)
|
| I’M IT ( what a tigged child says ) AT E ( gamE, last letter ) | ||
| 8 | GENERATED |
Disturbed teenager initially dreaded getting triggered (9)
|
| [ TEENAGER ]* D ( Dreaded, initially ) | ||
| 9 | LYNX |
Vera, last November, turned to kiss Cat (4)
|
| LYNn ( vera, referring to the iconic singer ) with the last N – november changing to X ( kiss ) | ||
| 14 | PENKNIVES |
Distribute seven pink implements among the Swiss Guard? (9)
|
| [ SEVEN PINK ]* | ||
| 15 | BUTTERFLY |
Old caterpillar that’s fat, loud and extremely lazy (9)
|
| BUTTER ( fat ) F ( loud ) LY ( LazY, end characters ) | ||
| 16 | BARRACUDA |
What’s chewed by some Hebridean sheep? A fish (9)
|
| BARRA ( island in the outer hebrides ) CUD ( what sheep chew ) A | ||
| 18 | MUTATED |
Genetically modified mongrel biting a journalist (7)
|
| [ MUTT ( mongrel ) containing A ] ED ( journalist ) | ||
| 20 | PETUNIA |
Woman’s plane, on vacation, is leaving African country (7)
|
| PE ( PlanE, on vacation i.e. without inner letters ) TUNisIA ( african country, without IS ) | ||
| 22 | ARROW |
Who killed Cock Robin? The first character quietly dispatched missile (5)
|
| spARROW ( who killed cock robin, without S – first character P – quietly ) | ||
| 23 | PHEW |
Hard chair’s put outside — that’s a relief (4)
|
| H ( hard ) in PEW ( chair ) | ||
| 24 | CLYDE |
Firth of 150 yards depth close to Ayrshire (5)
|
| CL ( 150, roman numerals ) Y ( yards ) D ( depth ) E ( ayrshirE, last letter ) |
I agree that this was fun and an excellent puzzle. But I thought it was only of medium difficulty. One quibble about 6d, is iris a SEDGE?
Small typo in the blog 5d: stuff not staff.
Thanks to both for the usual high standard .
Like SM not sure iris is a SEDGE, nor that PEW is a chair (rather a long bench)
Enjoyed the puzzle nonetheless
If someone says “Take a pew”, they mean take a chair, so I was fine with that, but I have to agree about SEDGE. IMMEDIATE, BARRACUDA and FREQUENCY my favourites.
Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs
6dn: Chambers 2016 p 1412 has “sedge¹ n any species of Carex or other plant of the Cyperaceae … ; extended to iris and other plants”.
23dn: Further to Petert@3, Chambers p 1159 has pew n “a seat (inf)”.
Excellent puzzle. Lots of good clues with the icing on the cake being the pangram and the combination of the first across clue and the final down clue. I think the surface for 14a and for 2d is probably related (together sort of describes their end) plus perhaps 22d, missing the first letter, but I can’t see anything else.
Apart from that, my favourite was BLOBBIEST – great word.
Thanks to Turbolegs and Solomon
Sadly the wisdom of Solomon eluded me a bit on this one – that’s probably just me being Autistic and sometimes finding it hard to tune in to a Setter’s thinking.
There was still enough for me to have a worthwhile go though.
Thanks to Solomon and Turbolegs.
I had 19a, more simply, as RAP (informal talk) and ID (performed without start).
Thanks to Turbolegs and SOLOMON.
Thanks Solomon for a great set of clues with my favourites being FREQUENCY, OPEN-AIR, NUMBER TWO, and SPANDEX. I found the NW corner the most difficult and I couldn’t parse BALLS and LYNX. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Agree it was the trickiest ft puzzle of a gentle week but I wouldn’t say dd=9. Liked butterfly. Thanks both. Good puzzle and blog, as ever.