Lorraine: Good morning to you all.
I genuinely thought I would struggle with this weeks puzzle but once I got up and going I surprised myself and thoroughly enjoyed solving it. 🙂 So many favourites this week, too numerous to mention them all. My absolute favourite was Cleopatra as this is my Grand-Daughters name. 🙂
Big, big thank you to Everyman for an enjoyable Sunday morning solve.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Doctor’s housekeeper showing strain on motorway express (8,7) | ||
| MISTRESS QUICKLY | (STRESS after M1)+QUICKLY | ||
| 9. | Insignificant student, weed, possibly British (5) | ||
| DWEEB | (WEED*)+B | ||
| 10. | Queen, new to palace across river (9) | ||
| CLEOPATRA | (TO PALACE*) around R | ||
| 11. | Troublemaker in Russian government with new leader (7) | ||
| GREMLIN | (G for K) in KREMLIN | ||
| 12. | Article is written about second research paper (6) | ||
| THESIS | (THE+IS) around S | ||
| 14. | Republic created by Romanians after revolution (3,6) | ||
| SAN MARINO | (ROMANIANS)* | ||
| 16. | A duke in cast is of dubious character (5) | ||
| SHADY | (A+D) in SHY | ||
| 17. | Miss Grey, a long time penning note (5) | ||
| AGNES | AGES around N | ||
| 19. | Cheese a representative brought into court (9) | ||
| CAMEMBERT | (A MEMBER) in CT | ||
| 21. | Notice one is present in odd radioactive element (6) | ||
| RADIUM | (AD+I) in RUM | ||
| 22. | Boy, reportedly depressed when the day is done? (7) | ||
| SUNDOWN | homophone of ‘SON’+DOWN | ||
| 25. | Drunkard spilt a beer in it (9) | ||
| INEBRIATE | (A BEER IN IT)* | ||
| 26. | Something to eat – poor stuff (5) | ||
| TRIPE | dd &lit | ||
| 27. | Poor lad crossing slack tourist centre near Pikes Peak (8,7) | ||
| COLORADO SPRINGS | (POOR LAD CROSSING)* | ||
| … | |||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Girl in car on a cliff pointing to island (10) | ||
| MADAGASCAR | (ADA in MG(a car!))+SCAR(cliff); a toughie! | ||
| 2. | Scandinavian vegetable (5) | ||
| SWEDE | cd a ‘swede’ is a Swedish turnip |
||
| 3. | Raging bull with ear infection (7) | ||
| RUBELLA | (BULL+EAR)* | ||
| 4. | Deputy, leader of outfit but –! (6-2-7) | ||
| SECOND-IN-COMMAND | a great clue! leader of ‘outfit’ = ‘O’ – [but] what is ‘second in’ command? … ‘O’ | ||
| 5. | Chairmen doubt experts (8,7) | ||
| QUESTION MASTERS | QUESTION+MASTERS | ||
| 6. | How a reporter introduces himself to make his mark? (7) | ||
| IMPRESS | pun on ‘I’m Press’ | ||
| 7. | Gull in pool, audibly weak, in distress (9) | ||
| KITTIWAKE | homophone of ‘KITTY’+(WEAK*) | ||
| 8. | Long? Short period of time (4) | ||
| YEAR | YEAR(n) | ||
| 13. | Observers near platforms set around the Queen (10) | ||
| BYSTANDERS | BY+(STANDS around ER) | ||
| 15. | Wrought iron panel, beyond compare (9) | ||
| NONPAREIL | (IRON PANEL)* | ||
| 18. | Agitator in prison starts to rankle each recidivist (7) | ||
| STIRRER | STIR(prison)+leading letters | ||
| 20. | Clergyman getting rid of one in church (7) | ||
| MINSTER | MIN(i)STER | ||
| 23. | The head associated with 26? (5) | ||
| ONION | pun on ‘TRIPE and ONIONS’; ONION=head | ||
| 24. | Record American lost in field event (4) | ||
| DISC | DISC(us) | ||
| … | |||
Enjoyable puzzle.
Last in were 26a and 23d.
I liked 6d, 1d, 1a, 7d.
New words: QUESTION MASTER, KITTIWAKE, and needed help from google for Pikes Peak and MISTRESS QUICKLY.
I was pleased with myself that I could parse all of the answers apart from 4d.
Regarding 4d, I thought maybe it was a new type of clue that I haven’t seen before, and that it might be that the definition was deputy = SECOND-IN-COMMAND, and the clue was to read as something like “he is the leader of the outfit but not really” (i.e. he is the deputy). It was easily solvable from the crossing letters but I just didn’t know how to parse it. Your parsing of it is brilliant!
Thanks for the blog, Lorraine
Hello again, and thank you to both Everyman and Lorraine. Lots to like about this puzzle, my favorites being 9, 10, 14 and 22 Across as well as 4 Down. First in for me was 26 Across (brought back unpleasant memories of being offered this to eat some time ago, something I’d just as soon forget!) Last in was 1 Down but for the life of me I couldn’t parse it! I’d completely forgotten about the MG car which I was crazy about when I was a teenager (long time ago!) There was also a musical group here back then called Booker T and the MGs. I also didn’t know that a “scar” was a cliff. Maybe related to scarp? Anyway, thanks again, Lorraine, for clearing that up. Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead!
Thanks, Lorraine. I enjoyed this too. SECOND-IN-COMMAND was my favourite – Everyman doesn’t often do clues like this, but when I worked it out it gave me a smile.
Second-in-command is often used to clue letter O, so Everyman has done something of an about-turn on it.
Without getting 1dn and 3 dn, i ended up filling in Tweed for 9Ac with insignificant being the container clue and possibly British being the definition. This put a short-lived smile on my face.
Tough , but got there in the end !