Lorraine: Good morning to you all,
I had real trouble starting this week. I got 26ac immediately but then that was it. I put the puzzle down for a while then asked Nick to get me up and running, then there was no stopping me. Think I just had a mental block on crosswords last week.
Big thank you to Everyman for an eventually enjoyable puzzle.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Friend, old countertenor, comes from a city in California (4,4) | ||
| PALO ALTO | PAL+O+ALTO | ||
| 5. | Unpretentious representative inhabiting isle abroad (6) | ||
| SIMPLE | MP in (ISLE*) | ||
| 9. | Late drink may make bad thing better (8) | ||
| NIGHTCAP | (THING*)+CAP | ||
| 10. | Dog, good thing to have following onset of burglaries (6) | ||
| BASSET | ASSET after B(urglaries) | ||
| 12. | A second artist brought back bouquet (5) | ||
| AROMA | A+MO+RA all reversed | ||
| 13. | Go on, smile, having broken down newly-coined word (9) | ||
| NEOLOGISM | (GO ON, SMILE*) | ||
| 14. | At which one may have been punished if stealing mail (8,4) | ||
| WHIPPING POST | cdd | ||
| 18. | George Hepplewhite’s PM? (7-5) | ||
| CABINET-MAKER | cryptic pun | ||
| 21. | Discourage fellow cleaner (9) | ||
| DETERGENT | DETER+GENT | ||
| 23. | Bottle-neck? (5) | ||
| NERVE | cdd | ||
| 24. | Sexy Italian breaking heart? Just the reverse (6) | ||
| EROTIC | IT in CORE all reversed | ||
| 25. | Seek a tip cooking what’s often served with chips? (5,3) | ||
| STEAK PIE | (SEEK A TIP*) | ||
| 26. | Sailor needing to achieve objective (6) | ||
| TARGET | TAR+GET | ||
| 27. | Mother may go after this clergyman (8) | ||
| REVEREND | a pun type clue: REVEREND (mother) | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Colonialist entertaining scholar and author (6) | ||
| PENMAN | MA[scholar] in PENN | ||
| 2. | Large body of soldiers, say, described by hero (6) | ||
| LEGION | EG[say] in LION | ||
| 3. | Almost lost Asian ruler in Russian city (9) | ||
| ASTRAKHAN | ASTRA(y)+KHAN | ||
| 4. | Boring person studies children’s writer (12) | ||
| TRAINSPOTTER | TRAINS(studies)+POTTER will anoraks get annoyed at this clue? |
||
| 6. | Leaders of industry deny accident harmed our state (5) | ||
| IDAHO | first letters | ||
| 7. | Greek god mysteriously poisoned (8) | ||
| POSEIDON | (POISONED*) | ||
| 8. | One male brought in possessions for valuation (8) | ||
| ESTIMATE | (I+M) in ESTATE | ||
| 11. | Tossed confetti at us in opera (4,3,5) | ||
| COSI FAN TUTTE | (CONFETTI AT US*) | ||
| 15. | Novelist suppressing joke – it’s fruity (9) | ||
| GREENGAGE | [graham]GREENE around GAG | ||
| 16. | Rigorous appraisal of a trial involving police branch (4,4) | ||
| ACID TEST | A TEST around CID | ||
| 17. | A racket, rising commotion in slaughterhouse (8) | ||
| ABATTOIR | A+BAT+(RIOT<) | ||
| 19. | Complain about onset of pig flu (6) | ||
| GRIPPE | GRIPE around P(ig) | ||
| 20. | Motto on one side of court (6) | ||
| LEGEND | LEG(on, legside in cricket)+END(side of a court) | ||
| 22. | Put up beams in the auditorium (5) | ||
| RAISE | homophone: RAYS | ||
| … | |||
Thanks, Lorraine.
I too took a while to get going on this, and in fact for the second time in a month couldn’t finish it – thought it must be PENMAN but didn’t put it in because I couldn’t parse it. PENN for ‘colonialist’ is fair, but perhaps a stretch. I knew GRIPPE from the French, but never realised that it also existed in English, but it’s in my SOED.
Cabinet makers twice in two weeks from Everyman – we’ll be having a nina next …
Enjoyable puzzle, thanks to the setter.
Thanks Lorraine, and Everyman.
I don’t remember this being more difficult than other recent puzzles, but I’m with K’sD re 1d. It took me a long time to realise who the colonialist was.
I think I pointed last week to a possible indication on one of Everyman’s other hobbies – if I didn’t, I meant to, but without giving too much away, since I didn’t know George Hepplewhite, though Sheraton last week was at least familiar. Great clue, anyway.
While cheating to get “Motto on one side of court”, I found the exact same clue in the Telegraph puzzle 26329, November last year. Same setter or a bit of borrowing?
Can someone please explain 12 ac? Where did that MO and RA come from? Many thanks.