Beautiful stuff once again from the ever-dependable king of Wednesday. This was a pretty fast solve for me and I didn’t stop to parse every clue as the answers went in. Nor to appreciate a lot of them fully, which is a shame because they’re all lovely!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BRASSIES – BRASS[-er]IES |
| 5 | BIOPIC – 1 OP in BIC |
| 9 | RATTIGAN – 1 G(ood) rev. in RATTAN |
| 10 | CURLER – Double def. |
| 12 | HISTORICAL NOVEL – (I LOVE CORNISH TAL[-e])* |
| 13 | BANDLEADER – “Banned Lieder” |
| 14 | PROM – PRO (for) + [-ter]M |
| 16 | INFO – IN F(oreign) O(ffice) |
| 21 | FIGHT ONE’S CORNER – (FOREIGN TRENCH SO)* |
| 23 | AGE-OLD – A(rea) + E[-gpyt’s] in GOLD |
| 24 | CLOTHING – CLO[-sed] + THING |
| 25 | EXTANT – (TEXAN)* + [-bulle]t |
| 26 | REINDEER – REIN (rule) + “dear” |
| Down | |
| 1 | BIRCH – CRIB rev. + H[-is] |
| 2 | ARTISAN – [-p]ARTISAN |
| 3 | SAILORLY – S[-tart] + AIL (trouble) + ORLY (airport) |
| 4 | EXAMINATION – EX (old) + NATION in AMIS |
| 6 | IGUANA – Hidden in antIGUA, NAturally |
| 7 | PALAVER – PAL (China) + AVER (state) |
| 8 | COR BLIMEY – LIME in CORBY |
| 11 | MADEMOISELLE – MA + DEMO + EL in ISLE |
| 13 | BRIEFCASE – BRIE + (CAFES)* |
| 15 | EDMONTON – DEMON with D lowered + (NOT)* |
| 17 | FIGMENT – G-MEN in FIT (suit) |
| 19 | RANKINE – RAN + KIN + E[-nterprise) |
| 20 | STOLEN – STO[-l]LEN |
| 22 | RAGER – REGAR[-d(aughter] rev. |
A quick solve, but wasn’t impressed by 16 or 23.
Thanks Dac for an enjoyable crossword and Ali for the blog. I particularly enjoyed 20dn.
There is a pangram in the clues today, but none of the clues including J, Q, X, and Z look particularly contrived, so it is probably not deliberate.
Lynette @1: It just shows how tastes differ. I thought 16ac was one of the best clues in the puzzle, and should really have mentioned it in my previous posting. I particularly liked the use of one informal term for “information” to define another.
Incidentally, I see that the blog is missing 18ac:
DISORDERLY D (unskilled worker – social class on A to E scale) IS ORDERLY (assistant to officer). Definition “in mess”.
Thanks, Ali. I do know what you mean about Dac – sometimes you finish and think ‘that was another good one’, but then never really spend two minutes to reappreciate the surfaces.
I did like this one as usual, especially BIOPIC and DISORDERLY (although I think the A-E socioeconomic scale is less in favour these days). I liked INFO too, although was less keen on SAILORLY and RAGER. I’m sure they’re both words, but not ones I’m likely to be dropping into conversation any time soon.
Thanks, Dac and Ali. A nice gentle solve after my struggles yesterday. And thanks, PB, for explaining 18a which I didn’t quite follow although the answer was obvious. 🙂
Btw there were two well-known physicists by the name of Rankine (19d). William Rankine who gave his name to the Rankine temperature scale , and Alexander Rankine , Professor of Physics at Imperial College, London
Not sure about this ‘pangram in the clues’ thing: should it really be flagged up as some kind of achievement? We’ve already had Phi (very generously) admit that his was a total accident!
OTOH where the clueing IS deliberately involved (i.e. in the themed Guardian 25451), then yay! Let’s all celebrate.
Belated thanks to Ali and of course Dac, didn’t get the D in disorderly glad you spotted it. As for pangrams in clues well say Phi’s 1000th is of note but flukes are just flukes. Thanks to Duncan for covering for me on friday.
18ac: I read it as ‘DI’s orderly’ (DI has …), where the unskilled worker is an orderly and the officer is a D(etective) I(nspector).
I read 18A as per Wil Ransome @8.