This is the second time in a row that I’ve drawn Hypnos on a Sunday, and no complaints about that from me. I sometimes find Hypnos to be on the tougher side compared to the other IoS setters, and that seemed to be true today, though maybe I was simply having a slow week. 18ac still baffles me a little.
| Across | ||
| 1 | JACKAL | Raise a large predatory animal (6) |
| JACK + A + Large | ||
| 4 | DOUBTFUL | Dub lout misbehaving around fellow suspect (8) |
| Fellow in (DUB LOUT)* | ||
| 9 | CRATER | Assess in councillor depression (6) |
| RATE in CR | ||
| 10 | PFENNIGS | Marks were made by such animals around marsh close to town (8) |
| (FEN + [tow]N) in PIGS | ||
| 12 | BUMP | Knock restricted by drab umpire (4) |
| [dra]B UMP[ire] | ||
| 13 | PATHFINDER | At the right time, stop to acquire fine radar device (10) |
| PAT + (Fine in HINDER) | ||
| 15 | TURN OF PHRASE | Expression shown by sherpa possibly? (4,2,6) |
| SHERPA* – nice reverse cryptic | ||
| 18 | HAUTE CUISINE | Keep prepared in fine form? (5,7) |
| This one beat me, and I still can’t see the explanation, even given the answer | ||
| 21 | BACKSTAIRS | Secret support offered by gentlemen accommodating army (10) |
| BACK + (Territorial Army in SIRS) | ||
| 22 | CHAD | Conservative owned foreign land (4) |
| Conservative + HAD | ||
| 24 | IN CHARGE | Leading chap’s first to enter organised hearing (2,6) |
| C[hap] in (HEARING)* | ||
| 25 | THRIVE | Trio shortly found round higher figure getting to prosper (6) |
| IV (four – higher than three – in Roman numerals) in THRE[e] | ||
| 26 | GRAND CRU | Foreign bread caught among a lot of food and special wine (5,3) |
| (RAND (the currency, hence “bread”, of South Africa) + Caught) in GRU[b] | ||
| 27 | STATUS | Rank artistic representations European brought out (6) |
| STATU[e]S | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | JACOBITE | A firm part for horse in black mostly – one for restoration? (8) |
| (A COmpany + BIT) in JE[t] | ||
| 2 | CLAYMORE | Royal mace brandished but not a sword (8) |
| (ROY[a]L MACE)* | ||
| 3 | APEX | Top section of map exposed (4) |
| [m]AP EX[posed] | ||
| 5 | OFF THE RECORD | Side getting expression of sympathy with bind not publicly aired (3,3,6) |
| OFF (side in cricket, as opposed to “leg” side) + THERE + CORD | ||
| 6 | BEN AINSLIE | Sailor, one in African country on exotic isle (3,7) |
| (A in BENIN) + ISLE* | ||
| 7 | FRIEDA | Agent absorbing religious instruction with a woman (6) |
| (Religious Instruction in FED) + A | ||
| 8 | LUSTRE | Goat’s characteristic coat in range showing gloss (6) |
| LUST in R[ang]E. I stopped to ponder whether goats are characteristically lustful, but I guess they are often quite “horny”. (Thanks, it’s the way I tell ‘em.) | ||
| 11 | CARPETBAGGER | Criticise particular interest shown by German political opportunist (12) |
| CARPET + BAG + GERman | ||
| 14 | NO-MAN’S-LAND | Northern ME country with endless bias beginning to demarcate unclaimed area (2-4-4) |
| Northern + OMAN + SLAN[t] + D[emarcate] | ||
| 16 | WISH LIST | Jerusalem is associated with this quiet composer, we hear, producing aspirational material? (4,4) |
| Women’s Institute (their anthem is apparently “Jerusalem”) + SH + hom. of Franz “Liszt” | ||
| 17 | LEWDNESS | Blue quality in man around Cheshire town I ignored (8) |
| W[i]DNES in LES | ||
| 19 | EBBING | English crooner entertaining bachelor in decline? (6) |
| Bachelor in (English + BING Crosby) | ||
| 20 | ACACIA | Bill a gallery turned up for plant (6) |
| ACcount + (A ICA<) | ||
| 23 | WHET | Excite a moderate conservative by the sound of it (4) |
| hom. of “wet” | ||
*= anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; hom = homophone
Thanks Hypnos and SH.
Re 18, it seems to be a cryptic definition where “keep” is used in the sense of “food”.
Thanks, Simon, and Hypnos.
I too couldn’t make sense of HAUTE CUISINE and at one stage wanted to put in HAUTE COUTURE, which made even less sense. I guess Querulous has it, but it’s not one of Hypnos’s best ever clues, I fancy. But good stuff elsewhere – I liked TURN OF PHRASE in particular.
Your joke at 8dn is worthy of Basil Brush, but would have been blue pencilled before it ever got televised …
Definitely difficult in that I could only solve about half of it all week. Didn’t help that I absentmindedly inserted the answer to 23dn at 22ac, but that only hindered the solving of 17dn.
Re 8 – goats are the traditional embodiment (in e.g. the Decameron) of lust – cf. ‘goatish’, ‘the old goat’.
I wondered whether HAUTE CUISINE might be a homophone (‘oat’ = ‘grain’/’in fine form’ – but I think Querulous has it right.
Particularly liked PATHFINDER, TURN OF PHRASE, WISHLIST and LEWDNESS. Thanks to Hypnos and Simon.