Thank you to Fed. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Pick up bargain (8)
CONTRACT : Double defn: 1st: …/to catch or develop an illness; and 2nd: A …/agreement struck between two or more parties.
6. Manx cat principally is clearly even smoother (6)
PUMICE : “puma”(a large wild cat) minus its last letter(with no tail, as a Manx cat is) + 1st letters, respectively, of(principally) “is clearly even”.
Defn: A volcanic rock used as a scrubbing agent/smoother.
9. Use handle to carry case of neon bulbs? (6)
FENNEL : FEEL(to touch/handle) containing(Use … to carry) 1st and last letters of(case of) “neon”.
10. Digging for diamonds – cheating, dropping ring (8)
PRODDING : PRO(in favour of/for) + D(abbrev. for “diamonds”, one of the four suits in a deck of playing cards) + “doing”(the act of cheating someone) minus(dropping) “o”(letter representing something of a circular shape, say, a ring).
11, 13. Train thief was closer to going straight (2,3,4,5)
AS THE CROW FLIES : Anagram of(Train) THIEF WAS CLOSER.
15. House entertaining adult books in shed? (4-2)
LEAN-TO : LEO(one of the signs/houses in the zodiac, in astrology) containing(entertaining) [ A(abbrev. for “adult”) + NT(abbrev. for the New Testament, books in the Bible).
… “leaning” against an existing wall.
17. Mum is back fast (6)
SILENT : Reversal of(… back) IS + LENT(the Christian period of prayer, fasting and alms-giving leading up to Easter).
18. Count miniature CK One bottles (6)
RECKON : Hidden in(… bottles) “miniature CK One”.
And CK One is a scent, which of course comes in a bottle.
19. Fear boss is upset with his PA wasting seconds (6)
PHOBIA : Anagram of(… is upset) [ “boss” plus(with) “his PA” ] minus(wasting) “ss ___ s”(3 x abbrev. for “second”, in time notation).
21, 22. Parents maybe initiate corresponding with school’s head (5,9)
BLOOD RELATIVES : BLOOD(to initiate/give someone their first experience of an activity or belonging to an organisation) + RELATIVE(in comparison with/corresponding with) + 1st letter of(…’s head) “school”.
25. Breathtaking old flame calling (8)
EXCITING : EX(an old flame/romantic partner) + CITING(naming/calling).
26. One that follows tinker or follows dog (6)
TAILOR : OR placed after(follows) TAIL(to follow/dog).
Defn: …, in “Tinker, Tailor”, a nursery rhyme, counting game and fortune telling song:
Tinker, Tailor,
Soldier, Sailor,
Rich Man, Poor Man,
Beggar Man, Thief
28. Hibernating snake taking shelter (6)
ASLEEP : ASP(a venomous snake) containing(taking) LEE(an area shielded from the wind/shelter).
29. Maître d’ oddly last to ask is this where the drink got to? (8)
TIDEMARK : Anagram of(… oddly) MAÎTRE D’ + last letter of(last to) “ask”.
Defn: Answer to …, “the drink” as an informal term for the sea.
Down
2. Occasionally coarse rock (3)
ORE : 2nd, 4th and 6th letters of(Occasionally) “coarse”.
3. Swimmer getting number with cold bath at the end (5)
TENCH : TEN(a cardinal number) plus(with) C(abbrev. for “cold”) + last letter of(… at the end) “bath”.
4. Share a large place (10)
ALLOCATION : A + L(abbrev. for “large”) + LOCATION(site/place).
5. Rolling marijuana – mine is excellent (3-3)
TIP-TOP : Reversal of(Rolling) [POT(slang for the drug, marijuana) + PIT(an open-pit or open-cast mine) ].
6. Plan to record over (4)
PLOT : Reversal of(… over) [TO + LP(abbrev. for a long-playing vinyl record/disc).
7. Style of music Ravel composed with introduction from Brian May, for example (5,4)
MODAL VERB : MOD(style of music associated with the Mod subculture of the 1960s) + anagram of(… composed) RAVEL plus(with) 1st letter of(introduction from) “Brian”.
Defn: An auxiliary verb pairing with a main verb, an example of which is “may”, as in “I may solve this in time”.
8. Focus on money found in box (11)
CONCENTRATE : [ON + CENT(a unit of money) ] contained in(found in) CRATE(a large box/container used in transportation).
12. Power car using the sun – at the start one’s a bundle of nerves (5,6)
SOLAR PLEXUS : [ P(symbol for “power” in physics) + LEXUS(a luxury Japanese car) ] placed below(… – at the start, in a down clue) SOLAR(operating by/using the sun’s energy).
Defn: … located in the upper abdomen behind the stomach.
14. Generous Irish broadcaster interrupting show-off (3-7)
BIG-HEARTED : RTÉ(abbrev. for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, or Radio and Television of Ireland, an Irish broadcaster) contained in(interrupting) BIGHEAD(one who boasts and thinks they are cleverer or more important than they really are/a show-off).
16. Recluse has a new job without computers etc (9)
ANCHORITE : A + N(abbrev. for “new”) + CHORE(a task/job) containing(without) IT(abbrev. for “information technology”, a collective term for computers, software, hardware, etc.).
20. Importance of wife joining crew? (6)
WEIGHT : W(abbrev. for “wife”) plus(joining) EIGHT(the crew of an eight-oared rowing boat).
23. Turn of phrase in papers I order (5)
IDIOM : ID(abbrev. for “identification”/identity papers) + I + OM(abbrev. for “Order of Merit”, an award given by the British monarch).
24. Solicitor regularly paid by politician (4)
PIMP : 1st and 3rd letters of(regularly) “ paid” plus(by) MP(abbrev. for a Member of Parliament, a politician).
27. Row on Radio 2 (3)
OAR : Homophone of(Radio) “ore”(answer to 2 down).
Thanks scchua. For PRODDING, I think you need a single D for Diamonds, otherwise, with D(o)ING, you end up with PRODDDING
Thanks Crispy. Blog corrected.
Thanks Fed and scchua
Nice puzzle. Favourites SILENT and ANCHORITE. Also liked the sneaky “Radio 2” in 27d!
This all readily slipped into place. I liked SOLAR PLEXUS.
Thanks Fed and scchua
Fabulous Friday fun from Fed. I thought PUMICE was very cute but I can see it might irk the purists
Cheers F&S
I wondered if bargain in 1a was the verb rather than the noun. If the latter, the clue would have read “Pick up a bargain” which would have been somewhat easier perhaps.
Couldn’t parse PHOBIA, and didn’t understand the blood in 21a. All else tickety boo.
I always enjoy Fred’s puzzles. SOLAR PLEXUS and TAILOR my favourites.
A tale of two halves and two directions for me. First pass through the across clues yielded almost nothing (well, 2) and then the west side downs all went in straight away. The rest slowly slotted into place but i needed the blog to understand PRODDING.
Thanks
I thought this was TIP-TOP with a lot of wit and misdirection on display. I especially liked PUMICE, AS THE CROW FLIES (I thought going was part of the definition), PHOBIA, TIDEMARK, the succinct PLOT, MODAL VERB, BIG-HEARTED and SOLAR PLEXUS. Apart from Paul, Happy this has been Birthday quite a straightforward Roz week, but no less enjoyable.
Ta Fed & scchua.
Good as ever from Fed. The usual mix of clue types and difficulty levels. I liked PUMICE, PLOT and SOLAR PLEXUS – which I will now remember how to spell.
I’d have thought MOD, while being a defined subculture, was too musically eclectic to be style in its own right. Growing up in the Mod Revival era, I remember being surprised by the some of the soul and Motown in Quadrophenia, a very long way from The Who or The Jam.
Just a thought. Probably wrong. Loved the puzzle anyway.
Thanks Fed and Scchua
Tricky puzzle.
I failed to solve 10ac and I came here to check 9ac feel = use handle.
New for me: MOD music style – I had to google to understand what it is/was.
Another cracking Fed puzzle. In the adventure stories I read as a boy, heroes often dispensed justice by punching villains in the SOLAR PLEXUS but I haven’t heard the phrase in sixty years, so thanks for that reminder of happy times. Favourites were PUMICE, TAILOR and TIDEMARK. Thanks to Fed and Scchua.
It’s fiddly Fed’s turn – exasperating but fun. I had the tailless cat as a puss rather than a puma, but in either case, how many letters long is a “tail” allowed to be? I missed the clever cross-reference in OAR. Liked TIDEMARK, AS THE CROW FLIES, TAILOR, BIG HEARTED.
Like Martin@11, I wouldn’t have thought MOD was specifically a musical style: the “Mod bands” like the Who and the Small Faces were so called because of the way they dressed and because they were popular with Mods, not because of particular musical characteristics.
Thanks Fed and scchua.
Not sure what ‘Use’ is doing in 9a. ‘Handle’ can mean ‘feel’, but ‘use handle’ does not, and leaving it out wouldn’t change the clue in my opinion.
I struggled with MODAL VERB (I would never have thought of MOD as a style of music, and I was a teenager at the time), but otherwise liked this puzzle.
Found it a bit trickier than yesterday’s Paul, which is saying something. But all the clueing was very neat and precise. Liked ANCHORITE and AS THE CROW FLIES. Thanks scchua and Fed.
Perhaps surprisingly, my last one in was BLOOD RELATIVES, even with all those crossers already in place. PRODDING needed quite a bit of encouragement too. Wasn’t quite sure how RECKON worked as that perfume is not one I’ve come across. MODAL VERB was one I had to Google. Long time since I caught a specimen of that lovely fish, a TENCH. Apart from these, the grid filled up nicely. Many thanks Fed and Scchua…
POC and Michelle @15 and @12
I had the same issue with “use handle” initially, but if you think of it as “use (a word for) handle” to house NN then it works fine. I would class this as deliberate misdirection.
Ronald @17 I was also very late to the party with my BLOOD RELATIVES.
Good stuff as always from Fed, with some great surfaces.
poc @15: yes, I wondered about the “Use” in 9a, but I think it works. It’s an instruction to the solver to use a word meaning “handle” — and of course it makes the surface read better.
RECKON brought to mind Shakespeare’s “it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room” (usually taken to refer to Marlowe’s death).
Many thanks Fed and scchua.
I found this harder than usual for Fed (tougher even than his recent Prize), but pleased that I got there in the end and enjoyed the ride.
For MODAL VERB, I initially tried to anagram Ravel with BM and EG, then on seeing that VERB was a potential for the second word spent some time searching to see if popAL VERB was a thing. A point to Fed for that one.
I lol’ed (as my kids would say) at the definitions for TIDEMARK and TAILOR when the respective pennies dropped.
I needed the blog for the parsing of PUMICE and PRODDING, so thanks to scchua especially for those, and to Fed for the end of week entertainment.
Now off to see if I can finally finish Vlad’s prize before tomorrow (I doubt it).
I initially thought the music style was modal. Centuries ago a lot of music was based on modes rather than scales.
As usual with Fed, it took me a while to get on their wavelength, but once I did it was a mostly steady solve.
Still, the parsing of BLOOD RELATIVE (loi) and PRODDING escaped me.
More challenging than the usual Fed. Had difficulty with some parsings, including 9a FENNEL (“I love money…to handle…to touch…!”), 10a PRODDING, 19a PHOBIA, 21/22 BLOOD RELATIVES, so thank you scchua
Difficult to narrow the favourites: 28a ASLEEP (surface), 29a TIDE MARK (definition), 3d TENCH (“number” unusually misdirecting us toward “numbing” rather than away from it), 5d TIP-TOP (fun surface), 7d MODAL VERB (“Brian May”, “Are you a Mod or a Rocker?”), 12d SOLAR PLEXUS (“Power car”), 24d PIMP (surface), 27d OAR (fun pdm when I finally looked at 2d), and several others
What, no James Bond theme?
Thank you Fed and scchua for another great puzzle and blog
[HB Roz]
Geoff Down Under @21
Jazz musicians still make great use of modes, though I don’t know if this is in the same way as the music of centuries ago.
Gladys@14
In your version of 6a where does the m come from?
Fun puzzle. Got almost all of the left half and almost none of the right half last night. Patched it up this morning.
I don’t understand the parsing of PHOBIA or what “boss” has to do with it.
Thanks to Fed and scchua.
It’s an anagram of boss, pa and his minus all appearances of the letter S (seconds).
Comment #28
A very enjoyable hour or so this morning. A couple of mistakes (CLOSE instead of BLOOD) but easily rectified…
Loiner@25: oops, you’re right, it does need an M (even if I persuaded myself that I’d solved it without one). Still don’t like the “tail” that takes up half the animal.
Thanks both and a fine entertainment, including the illuminated blog.
Can anyone make sense of the surface for RECKON – does it have a real-life meaning? Is ‘CK One‘ something that might serve as, say, a birthday present for an esteemed acquaintance?
[Oops: just re-read the blog where scchua has made all clear.]
gladys@30: In fairness the tail in this case is just one letter of four? Any more than that and I too would be crying ‘foul’.
Thanks both,
Good fun as always from Fed, but a DNF for me as I bunged in close relatives thinking ‘close’ and ‘initate ‘ might sometimes be equivalent.
Very nice puzzle, everything falling into place nicely and making perfect sense. Clue of the day was MODAL VERB for me, even with the caveat about MOD, because of the elegant way Brian May got worked in.
I also appreciated the way that the five-lights-two-crosses clues got used in two-parters; even if that leaves even fewer crosses proportionately (6/14 for the whole answer), there’s still a lot more to work with for us crosser-dependent solvers.
Thanks Fed and scchua!
I only heard of a MODAL VERB when teachers and parents were discussing the grammar required for the SATS tests. Which idiot dreamt those up? Bring back the joy in schools I say.
Thanks Fed for your customary excellence. Besides revealing BLOOD RELATIVES and missing EXCITING I found this quite accessible with my favourites being TIP-TOP, PHOBIA, WEIGHT, PIMP, and SILENT. Thanks scchua for the blog.