Found this quite a knotty puzzle that really took some unravelling and a couple still not fully explained …. 9d,15d and 19d causing the most grief.
ACROSS
1 CURTAINS anagram of CAST RUIN
5 SCREAM second S CREAM best
10 UPTIGHT jumpy UPRIGHT piano with T instead of R
11 ADJOURN JOUR in anagram of AND
12 OVOLO moulding VOL book in OO middle of book
13 REIGNITED started again REIGN rule + anagram of DIET
14 TWILIGHT ZONE anagram of WITH GLITZ + ONE somebody
American TV series by Rod Serling 1959 – 64
18 ELECTRICIANS anagram of EAST IN CIRCLE
21 THIRTY-TWO anagram of T[alk] WITH TORY
23 URIAH from Dickens U[mble] HAIR frizz reversed
24 LEAFIER anagram of A RELIEF leafier suburb?
25 DUKEDOM title UK in anagram (out) of MODED
26 SHEILA HEIL Nazi greeting in SA societe anonyme French company
27 PRURIENT RU rugby union in anagram of PINTER
DOWN
1 COUPON UP ON fully operating after CO firm first
2 RATION ship’s biscuit hidden hoRATIO Nelson
3 ANGKOR WAT a new government ANG withdrawn labour WORK reversed + AT
? but WORK is not reversed ?
4 NATURAL HISTORY anagram of ANY HOT RURALIST
6 CAJUN CA California state NUJ up press group national union of journalists
7 EQUATION anagram of QUESTION A minus S not satisfactory
8 MONODIES humorous play on words- a monody is a lament
9 EATING DISORDER anagram of SEAT DOING RIDER
15 TENDULKAR Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is an Indian cricketer, Imran Khan is from Pakistan ??
16 TEXTILES clothes TEXT message + anagram of LIES (people wearing seems superfluous)
17 CELIBATE anagram of EXCITABLE minus X kiss
19 KINDLE new electronic book IGNITE is in RED in clue 13
20 THE MET hidden clue THEME Tune
22 TRIAL 6 VI removed from TRIVIAL
Well, see your point. 3D is a clue for ANGKRO WAT (I’ve done this myself in a down clue, so I can identify), while 15D looks like it should be an anagram of EGIMRANHE. Stumped there, to employ an appropriate metaphor, but it must be TENDULKAR!
Thanks Jed
15dn TENDULKAR with ‘eg Imran he’ is an anagram of ‘the leading runmaker’.
Thanks for the blog, Jed.
Yes, the DOWN clues today were quite challenging.
CELIBATE was a fine clue, but KINDLE takes the biscuit if I’ve read it correctly
– it has a black square above and a white area below!
I agree with you about ANG(KOR W)AT and I’m still struggling to identify the definition part of the clue for MONODIES and EATING DISORDER.
3DHow can two pairs of eyes miss a simple error like that
Thanks Redshank & Jed. Now “Tendulkar” is explained (and what a clever clue it proved to be), what about “people wearing” in 16 down?
Oops, missed the modern use of the word KINDLE in 19dn!
Just about there with MONODIES and EATING DISORDER too.
Thanks Redshank. Mike
OED Textile: (among nudists) a non-nudist, especially on a beach.
Thanks Mike. Wonderful how language evolves.
Re 4, don’t worry too much, (sh)it happens occasionally, and 5 agreed – a fine comp anag.
Thanks Redshank for a puzzle with many good clues – I think 8dn was my favourite – and Jed for the blog.
15dn: A neatly devised compound anagram, but the clue seems defective. It looks as though “he” is doing double duty.
22dn: I think this needs to say “leaves” not “leave”, and does “sessions?” really define TRIAL as a singular noun?
You’re absolutely right, of course.
@2 Gaufrid, please explain once again 15d??
If I may: the clue is
With eg Imran, he could be the leading runmaker (9).
It’s supposed to mean that EG IMRAN HE plus the answer (TENDULKAR) is an anagram of ‘the leading runmaker’. This type of clue is called a compound anagram.
However, and as Pelham Barton says above, because the compiler hasn’t mentioned the fact that you need the letters from the answer as well to complete the anagram fodder, the clue doesn’t work properly, giving the impression that the solution is actually given by an anagram of EG IMRAN HE (also nine letters, to add to the confusion).
To get around the problem the clue would need to be something like
With e.g. Imran, he – this batsman – could be the leading runmaker (9).
HTH.
I’ll have to say I think this is all right, taking the whole clue as the definition in an &lit sense, rather than just ‘he’.
nms@14 re 15dn:
I agree that the clue is intended to be “& lit” for the definition, but an “& lit” clue still needs a complete cryptic indication, and my problem with 15dn is that the cryptic indication is not complete.
A compound anagram is based on A + B = anagram of C, where A is the answer and B and C are in the clue. Just for the cryptic indication, it needs to show that. Given that the word “he” in the clue is part of B, the structure of 15dn is
With B could be C
I can accept “could be” as an anagram indicator, but “With B” is not enough for me to indicate that B must be added to the answer.
I think we’ll have to agree to differ on this, PB. I think the full clue as definition defines TENDULKAR. And the ‘could be’ gives the rest ie composite anagram IMHO. Having said all that tho, I’ll have to admit the composite anagram is not my favourite clueing device, speaking personally, but I guess we all have our likes and dislikes.
I’m glad others had problems with 15d and 19d. Would have helped if I had the foggiest notion of who Tendulkar was, though. I got EATING DISORDER, but only after staring at what I knew must be the anagram letters for the longest time. The first word seemed to naturally start with a consonant, but I even thought of EASING before slapping my head and getting on with it. Nicely done.