Straightforward puzzle today
Across
1 PENTHOUSES luxury flats PEN writer (THOSE US)*
7 MUGS triple definition
9 DATA evidence A TAD< (a little lad overturned)
10 CHARIOTEER Porphyrius or Calliopas the Roman I[dols] in (OTHER RACE)*
11 UPKEEP running costs UP excited KEEP part of castle
12 REPRISAL compensation REP salesman (LIARS)*
13 MELODEON small reed organ ME this setter L left ODEON concert hall
15 RHEA bird R run HEA[r] catch tailless
17 ISLE key [a]ISLE part of church missing A
19 PROPHESY predict PRO professional HE man in (SPY)* (getting shot)
22 METAPHOR eg the woman’s an animal (A ROMP THE)*
23 BRIDAL about a wedding – sounds like BRIDLE take offence
25 FLUID OUNCE volume of water FLUID changeable OUNCE jaguar
26 ABLE clever [f]ABLE story
27 SHUN deliberately avoid S sun HUN Barbarian
28 MARIONETTE puppet (TREAT I’M ONE)*
Down
2 EXAMPLE case EX outside AMPLE large enough
3 TRADE calling T tenor RADE sounds like RAID offensive
4 OCCUPIED tied up CU copper in (COPIED)*
5 SPARRING PARTNER dd?
6 SKIMPY mean KIM Kipling novel in SPY agent
7 MATRIARCH dominating female T[u[R[n]I[p] in MARCH tramp
8 GRENADE &lit (ANGERED)*
14 OPERATION influence COOPERATION willingness to help minus CO
16 SOMRERO hat SOMBRE joyless OR< or uplifting
18 STEALTH secrecy STEAL appropriate TH[e]
20 SCARLET red SCAR mark LET obstacle
21 PHLOEM plant tissue (ELM HOP[e])*
24 INANE empty [nest]S from INSANE cuckoo
( )* = anagram [ ] = omit < = reverse dd = double definition
Soory Jed, don’t get 9. I thought it had to be data, but couldn’t explain.
Have now looked in Chambers and understand. Memo to self, always check with the BRB just in case it has the answer.
Thanks Flimsy for an enjoyable and straightforward puzzle and Jed for the blog.
Conrad @1 re 9ac: Tad can be a male forename and is possibly a diminutive, hence “little lad”, which is how I read it. I think is the same as Jed is saying.
1ac: Always nice to have an easy first clue, but I thought the anagram “those US” becoming THOUSES was somewhat feeble.
Conrad @2 re 9ac: I too should have looked in Chambers before commenting. For anyone bemused by these remarks, Chambers defines tad as “a little lad”.
P.S. For the first time since it was introduced, I managed to get the Captcha calculation wrong. Fortunately the system allowed me to try again without having to reconstruct my comment.
A little quibble with 25a or perhaps it is my lack of feline knowledge. I’ve always known the ounce as the snow leopard with a jaguar being a totally different variety of big cat?
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Pelham @ 3, and maybe off the subject.
My publishing company was called Tadley Ewing Publications, after Tadley Ewing Dameron, a jazz composer and pianist. He was always called Tadd, but with a double d.
I expect the little lad thing is short for tadpole.
Ferret @5
I had similar thoughts about the Ounce when solving. Here’s what the BRB has to say:
n. originally, and still sometimes, a lynx: now generally the snow leopard: the jaguar: the cheetah: sometimes vaguely any moderate-sized wild beast of the cat tribe.
So it’s an Ounce that’s frightening all the birds away from my garden!
Thanks Flimsy and Jed.
We haven’t seen Flimsy for a long long while (and his Indy alter ego Nitsy even longer).
The puzzle was enjoyable enough, yet there was a mismatch between the time we had to wait for Flimsy and the quality of this crossword. In my opinion, that is.
I am not against easy crosswords but I expected a bit more after seeing the name of the setter today, as I really liked most of his previous puzzles.
Blame it on me.
Nothing wrong with the clueing as such, but it was over all too soon – even for an average solver like me.
Despite all this, many thanks to Flimsy – and Jed, of course.
CoD: SOMBRERO.