I’ve always liked redshanks, pretty and raucous little lakeshore potterers that they are, and I’m a big fan of Redshanks, too – and this minor masterpiece is one of his very best. I got off to a flying start before running into a thicket of intricate cluing, innovative mechanisms and double-jointed definitions. The attention to detail is superb.
ACROSS
1. ON EDGE One + alternate (‘regular’) letters from DeGrEe
5. OXIDANTS Sounds like occident [western nations] + s(ell)
9. PINCER Anagram of nipper with p [pence, money] replaced with c [caught] and nipper doing double duty as both anagram fodder and definition
10. DOUBTFUL tofu minus o [zero, duck] within doubl(e) [lookalike]
11. RAWLPLUG Reversal of war [conflict] + anagram of pull + g [government]
12. DECANT E [Ecstasy, drugs] within DC [District of Columbia, Washington] + ant [soldier]
13. STYE Anagram of yest(erday)
15. PATHETIC A the [indefinite and definite articles] + t [time] within pic [photo]
18. VENETIAN Reversal of ten within anagram of naive
19. URGE Hidden in coURGEtte (the definition is ‘egg on’)
21. HIJACK Ac [account] within HIJK [successive letters of the alphabet]
23. IMPETIGO I + anagram of MEP got I [one]
25. MARATHON Ra(ce) within anagram of a month – a lovely &lit
26. EMBARK B [British] within E [European] + mark [(former) currency]
27. WORLD WAR Another ingenious &lit: l(an)d within reversal of raw [bitter] + row [dispute]
28. ELEVEN Hidden in cancEL EVENt
DOWN
2. NAIRA Air [broadcast] within reversal of an to give the Nigerian currency [‘African settler’]
3. DECOLLETE Co [company, firm] + l [large] within delete [cancel] to (rather Paulishly) give a definition descriptive of a low-cut dress
4. EERILY Reversal of ire within Ely [crossword setter’s favourite bishopric, see]
5. OLD AGE PENSIONER A rather odd &lit, but anyway, it’s an anagram of Ie a golden person
6. INUNDATE Nun [sister] within I’d + ate [consumed]
7. AZTEC Yet another &lit (possibly the best of the bunch): A [one] + anagram of Cortez minus or [gold]
8. TRUANTING Anagram of Aunt within Tring [Hertfordshire town]
14. THE MIKADO Anagram of mike had within to
16. EQUITABLE Quit [stop] within anagram of albee
17. RICKSHAW Anagram of (w)arwicksh(ire)
20. SPHERE A bookie’s notice might announce: ‘S.P. [starting price] here‘
22. AVAIL Sounds like a veil [a mask]
24. GORSE Go [turn] + alternate letters of dReSsEd, with the definition (unusually) given as a homophone: furs sounds like furze [gorse]
Thanks, Ringo.
I’ve nothing really to add to your praise for this superb puzzle. 7dn is stunningly good.
Huge thanks, Redshank!
Good puzzle, astonishing to say but the FT now surpassing The Guardian in many areas? But I think you may be stoking the &lit debate, Ringo! To me, so just a personal opinion, the AZTEC one is probably closest, while I think, maybe, some might not go for ‘pursued’ as meaning ‘coming after’ in a cryptic or ‘down-directional’ (?) sense. Course if someone like a debt collector pursues me, they’re definitely seen as ‘coming after’ me!
Well done Ringo and FT, someone’s got to kick The Guasrdian up the bum, cheers
Rowly.
Thanks Ringo and Redshank.
One of my favoutite setters, the clues fly at you from such varied directions – you really need to be on your toes. More than other setters, you get slight ‘double-duties’ (fairly) such as the pincer and Aztec clues which I find especially pleasing. I always forget that Redshank is Crucible in the Guardian but it soon comes back to me when he’s got me in the head-locks. Very entertaining.
Thanks for an admirable blog, Ringo, and thanks for a fantastic puzzle, Redshank!
liked oxidants and the &lits, thanks Redshank and Ringo, great stuff.
Crucible? Radian? Who are they?
Well, they are very good setters, well appreciated by Guardian and Indy solvers.
But I think, step by step Redshank has put them in the shade.
What a marvellous crossword this was!
No coincidence, because his previous one was brilliant too.
Please no discussions on &Lits (because of reasons given by Picaroon in the abovementioned Guardian blog), but there were a few contenders indeed.
Not just 7d (AZTEC) but also the great 25ac (MARATHON), for example.
So many good clues that it’s hard for me to choose a Clue of the Day. If one would point the trigger at me, I would perhaps go for 19ac (URGE) in which a familiar device is in complete harmony with the surface.
Chapeau Redshank!
Many thanks to Ringo too.
A crossword that deserves a lot more posts than submitted today, also a puzzle that was a Pangram!
A (proper and genuine) discussion on anything would be welcome just now at 15^2, Sil.
Ooh PB, I’ve not seen much wrong really in the blogs (except the Guardian’s but I expect that), missed the pangram.