I’d been feeling a little jaded with the world of cryptics lately (cue violins)… but the wonderful Arachne in the Guardian yesterday and Orense here today have quite restored my faith. How’s that for a heartwarming advent tale? Anyway, no Christmas allusions here from Orense (save for a nod to the nativity in the surface of 14ac.), and nothing too difficult – but ingenious clueing from top to bottom.
ACROSS
1. SUPERB Supper [meal] minus one p(rawn) + b(acon)
5. MAVERICK Aver [state] within Mick [typical name for an Irishman (in crosswords, anyway)]
9. STOPGAPS Top [best] + gap [space] within SS [Steam Ship – so ‘on board’]
10. SADDOS Add [contribute] within SOS [the morse code mayday signal: … — … , I think]
11. TUREEN Hidden in mixTURE ENcrusted
12. AIR FORCE Air [broadcast] + for [on behalf of] + CE [Church of England]
14. STANDING ROOM Stand-in [replacement] + groom [stablehand]: what a lovely clue
18. COLD SHOULDER Another great charade: C [carbon] + old [dated] + shoulder [joint]
22. HACIENDA Anagram of had a nice to give a Spanish term for an estate or ‘spread’
25. LEEWAY Reversal of wee [small] within lay [non-professional]
26. WIZARD I [one] + z [last letter] within reversal of draw [sketch]
27. MATERIAL Double definition
28. REVEREND Ever [always] within rend [split]
29. DAHLIA Anagram of had + reversal of ail [trouble]
DOWN
2. UNTRUE Un [French for ‘a’] + true [right]: not one of Orense’s best, this
3. EXPRESSED Ex [former girlfriend] + pressed [in a hurry]
4. BRAINWASH A rather odd little cryptic definition
5. MUSTARD Star [leading man] within mud [scandal]
6. VISOR Visitor [guest] minus it
7. RADIO A d(ate) within Rio [ubiquitous port city]; ‘set’ is a rather old-fashioned term for a radio (or television)
8. CHOP-CHOP Doubling of ch(urch) + op [opus, work]
13. FOG ‘Rights’ – i.e. rightmost letters – of chieF tO hanG
15. NODULATED Anagram of due to land
16. RARE EARTH Rare [little-known] + earth [planet] to give a group of chemicals
17. BONA FIDE Anagram of bad if one
19. SUE Sue(t) [fat]
20. UNARMED Anagram of a rum end
21. SALAMI (Roll)s + á la [French for ‘in the style of’] + mi [note, as in ‘do, re, mi’]
23. IMAGE I [one] + m(illion) + age [years]
24. NUDGE G(overnment) within nude [wearing nothing]; it seems that ‘wearing’, unsatisfyingly, is doing double duty here
Thanks Ringo and Orense. Nicely done, both.
Thanks for your blog Ringo, there were some great clues here
In 24d I read ‘wearing nothing’ as ‘in the nude’, giving the solution as G in nude
Thanks Orense for a pleasing puzzle and Ringo for the blog. Two very good clues at 14ac and 18ac, which provides some compensation for the fact that these two clues give the only links between the top and bottom halves of the grid.
24dn: I had thought of ChrisM’s alternative suggestion, but the clue still seems unsatisfactory that way. We have to lose “the” from “in the nude”, and there is no indication for this.