I have not seen Loroso before, so it was nice to get something new. Not too difficult, but elegant. I liked his clueing style, no stray words or dodgy definitions here.
Hold the mouse pointer over any clue number to read the clue.
| Across | ||
| 1 | AIRHEADS | RHEA (bird) in AIDS (is helpful) |
| 5 | BENGAL | BEN (mountain) LAG (trail) reversed |
| 9 | RAPTORES | anagram of E (first of eagles) and PARROTS – a former order of birds, this classification has been abandoned (i.e. grouped wrongly) |
| 10 | SHARIF | HAS* (anagram=rocky) and RIFf (guitar line) shortened |
| 12 | FROCK | F (loud) ROCK (music) |
| 13 | KNOW-IT-ALL | WIT (intelligence) and A in KNOLL (a barrow, hill) |
| 14 | PIPPIN | I (one, roman numeral) PP (pages, leaves) in PIN (to place) – type of apple |
| 16 | MOISTEN | jOISTs (timber, ends trimmed) in MEN (soldiers) |
| 19 | GAGARIN | R(runs) IN (home) following GAGA (potty) |
| 21 | TIMBRE | B (start of break) in TIME – definition is ‘ring’, the quality of a sound |
| 23 | IMPAIRING | I (one, roman numeral) M (married) PAIRING (couple) |
| 25 | VISOR | VISitOR (guest) missing ‘it’ |
| 26 | THURSO | U (uranium) in SHORT* (anagram=supply, being supple) |
| 27 | FOOTNOTE | (OFTEN TOO)* |
| 28 | RODENT | DEN (lair) in ROT (rubbish) |
| 29 | STOLIDLY | LOST* (anagram=moved) IDLY (slowly) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | ADRIFT | AD (commercial) RIFT (break) |
| 2 | REPROVING | REP (salesman) and ROVING (travelling) – defionition is ‘carpeting’ |
| 3 | E-BOOK | OBE (order) reversed (raised) and OK (in order) |
| 4 | DOESKIN | DOES (cleans out) KIN (one’s own, family) |
| 6 | ETHNICISM | (NICE THIS)* and M (marks) – pagan superstition or heathenism |
| 7 | GARDA | DRAG (creep) reversed (up) on A – an Irish police officer |
| 8 | LIFELINE | L (long) I (island) FELINE (cat) |
| 11 | ROOM | MOO (low, like a cow) R (first of rent) reversed |
| 15 | PARKINSON | KIN (family) again in PARSON (priest) – C. Northcote Parkinson, naval historian and creator of Parkinson’s law: work expands to fill the time available. |
| 17 | THRESHOLD | THRESH (flog) OLD (antique) |
| 18 | AGLITTER | AG (silver, chemical symbol) LITTER (fragments) |
| 20 | NAIF | (IN A)* anagram=dancing and F (foxtrot, phonetic alphabet) |
| 21 | TUGBOAT | G (first of glass) BOA (snake) in TUT (Tutankamen, pharaoh) – a boat that tows things in the water |
| 22 | ARTERY | A and TER (terrace, row of houses) in (bounded by) RY (railway) |
| 24 | POUND | double definition – pound Sterling and to beat |
| 25 | VITAL | reversed in reLATIVity |
*anagram
Grrrr. Before anyone else mentions it, my apologies for KIN = one’s own/family appearing twice. 15d was edited before publication and I forgot about the use at 4d. Eye off the ball!
Very nice – the least tricky of Mr Mayer’s three puzzles over the last two days. Perhaps it might have been better to have had this one first, then the Toughie and then the full bore darkened room requiring Indy third! Very enjoyable as usual, thank you Mr M with lots to make me smile especially the water tower. I hadn’t noticed the KIN twice! Thanks to PeeDee too.
Anax – thanks for dropping in, I did not realize you are also Loroso.
Crypticsue – I’ll try the Indy puzzle next!
PeeDee – be afraid, be very afraid… and have the darkened room ready!
On a day where one has the choice between Bonxie (who is normally not on my wavelength), Dac (whose puzzle I can do tomorrow, I still have two more Dacs left on the shelf) and Loroso (who’s that? :)), it is very tempting to tackle the much admired Loroso.
But we went for Bonxie, so I had to do this crossword all by myself tonight (with one eye on the puzzle, the other on the Europa League final).
I enjoyed it very much (as always with Loroso).
Not too hard, but cleverly clued.
As was yesterday’s Anax – that is, as far as I came. A third of that puzzle is still staring at me – I can hear these squares crying out loud: please, fill our empty spaces. 🙂
Yep, two KINs, but I couldn’t be bothered.
Crossword Compiler should have blocked that.
There was another kind of couple, too: TIMBER (16ac)/TIMBRE (21ac).
16ac: normally ‘trimmed’ means cutting the last letter off, isn’t it? I took ‘timber’ as ‘joist’ (singular) and had a strange feeling coming over me, having to delete the first letter. Perhaps, indeed, PeeDee, your plural is preferable and/or what’s intended.
In the TIMBRE clue (21ac), I was not completely happy with BR for ‘starts to break’ as the word ‘break’ has only one starter.
Yuri Gagarin was, in my opinion, what we called a Cosmonaut in those days (Astronauts were Americans), but who cares.
Thanks, PeeDee, for the blog of this splendid crossword and for explaining PIPPIN (14ac), the one entry that I couldn’t parse.
Hi Sil. I took start in ‘starts to break’ as a plural noun rather than a verb, i.e. ‘more than one starter’.
PeeDee, I took it like that, too.
But I am not sure whether the word ‘break’ has more than one start.
I know what Loroso means, of course.