- *=anagram
- [] = removed e.g. char[m]=char
- ()=abbreviation e.g. A(mpere)=a
- Hom. = homophone
An inventive and accessible crossword from Morph. There was occasionally some eccentric and groan-worthy cluing (such as in 1 across and 25). I’m also not sure I’ve entirely understood one or two, especially 4 down. 26 was my favourite overall, probably because I managed to get a musical reference for once.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Half-cut bandleader perhaps led capitally? (13) | ||
| Semiconductor | Semi(=half-cut) + bandleader(=conductor). Def is “led capitally”, which gives LED, a type of semiconductor light source. | ||
| 8. | What not to do with scab (or so we’re told)? (6) | ||
| Picket | I think this a hom of “pick it” (what you shouldn’t do with scab on the skin) and also a reference to a scab in an industrial dispute. | ||
| 9. | Endlessly drained after continued lack of respect (8) | ||
| Contempt. | Cont(inued) + empt[y]. | ||
| 10. | Makes match midweek (4) | ||
| Weds | DD | ||
| 11. | Instruction as to which seeds go in first? (5,5) | ||
| Court order | CD referring to seeds in a tennis tournament. | ||
| 12. | Reported high point for ecstasy tablets – no more from China (8) | ||
| Pekinese | Hom of “peak in Es”. Pekinese was originally a term for something originating in Peking, now Beijing – hence “no more from China”. | ||
| 14. | Affliction took over flower (6) | ||
| Dahlia | (Ail had)<. | ||
| 16. | Old dictator staging comeback is having trouble with hearing device (6) | ||
| Otitis | (Tito)< + is. Marshal Tito was president of Yugoslavia. | ||
| 18. | Get the better of totally, force overcoming resistance (8) | ||
| Outfight | Outright(=totally) with f(orce) replacing r(esistance). | ||
| 20. | Garland for Young Conservative with former labour minister on platform (5,5) | ||
| Daisy Chain | Dais + YC(=young conservative) + (Peter) Hain. | ||
| 22. | The man following company turnover must line up here to get on the board (4) | ||
| Oche | He after co<. The oche is the line where players stand to throw darts. | ||
| 24. | American accountant tried returning to scholarly life (8) | ||
| Academia | A(merican) CA (chartered accountant) + aimed<. | ||
| 25. | Enjoy being kind of related? (6) | ||
| Relish | Rel can be short for “related”, so kind of related can be rel-ish. | ||
| 26. | Democrat Brown’s record almost complete after European body finds a contrived solution (4,2,7) | ||
| Deus Ex Machina | D + EU + Sex Machin[e] + a. “Sex Machine” was a song by James Brown. | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Whack small child (5) | ||
| Smite. | S(mall) + mite. | ||
| 2. | Arab leader offended by Spooner’s crude arrangement (9) | ||
| Makeshift. | Spoonerism of “Sheikh miffed”. | ||
| 3. | So mum tells baby pretty little finger has one (7) | ||
| Cuticle. | Baby-talk sound for “cute ickle”. | ||
| 4. | Don’t worry, it’s not Gore’s favoured campaign weapon (2,5,3,5) | ||
| No cause for alarm. | I think this is “No cause for Al arm”, but it feels as if there must be more going on. | ||
| 5. | Not in nude, strangely not recognised (7) | ||
| Unnoted. | Not in nude*. | ||
| 6. | Leader of tribe’s eldest perhaps possessive (5) | ||
| Their | T(ribe) + heir(=usually the eldest child). | ||
| 7. | Refill Pilsner? He’s drunk! (9) | ||
| Replenish | (Pilsner he)*. | ||
| 13. | Sent to Gate 4? (9) | ||
| Entranced | Entrance D. | ||
| 15. | Election preceded and followed by different attempts to get attention of the masses (3,6) | ||
| Hoi polloi | I think this is hoi + poll + oi, although the spellings of hoi and oi aren’t the normal ones. | ||
| 17. | Goon becomes wild (7) | ||
| Secombe | Becomes*. | ||
| 19. | Beat endless deception of religious writings (7) | ||
| Tantric | Tan(=beat) + tric(k). | ||
| 21. | Holy man had us transported (5) | ||
| Sadhu | (Had us)* – a Hindu holy man. | ||
| 23. | Where parasite’s found on a plant (5) | ||
| Hosta. | Host(=where parasite is found) + a. | ||
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Thanks, NealH. Enjoyed this a lot. Just right for Monday.
Hadn’t managed to parse 1a but your reading makes sense. Can’t help with 4d, I’m afraid. Is it something to do with Gore’s climate change predictions?
I rather like the indications for ISH I’ve come across recently. Here it’s ‘kind of’; the previous instance I remember was ‘sort of’. Nice.
Oh, I meant to say 13a was very nice, as also 1d.
I found this a little more difficult than Quixote’s Monday puzzles but it was good fun nonetheless.
I didn’t bother to parse DEUS EX MACHINA so thanks for that, and I think your parsing of 4dn is right. 1ac and 2dn held me up for a while because I didn’t see the conversion of “led” to LED at 1ac, and I had been looking at the wrong end of the clue for the Spoonerism at 2dn. OTITIS was my LOI after I finally deciphered what was a much more straightforward clue than I originally thought.
7D the anagram is (pilsner he)* without the final “‘s”.
14A Is there a sentence or construction where “ail” can be substituted for “affliction”?
A pleasant Monday variation.
Thanks to Morph and NealH.
Chambers gives ‘ail’ as a noun meaning ‘trouble’ or ‘indisposition’. So I think ‘affliction’ is OK.
No cause (as in worthy cause) for Al. Then arm. That os it!!
Lovely stuff as one expects from Morph. It didn’t take long to solve but I have lots of dots by clues I liked, my top favourite being 25d.
Thanks to him and Neal too.
Another excellent puzzle in the Monday slot from Morph. Took me a while to get into it, but once I had a bit of a foothold then the rest went in steadily. Liked PEKINESE and COURT ORDER in particular; couldn’t parse SEMICONDUCTOR or CUTICLE, so thanks for those, Neal.
All very good I thought. Only one quibble: the definition in 6dn seems a bit thin — is it really enough to define ‘their’ as ‘possessive’? If we go down this path it’ll be OK to define anything simply by what part of speech it is.
As others have said already, an enjoyable start to the week. We weren’t confident about the parsing for 1ac or 26ac so thanks Neal for sorting those out for us. We were quite happy with the clueing for 6d as the cryptic part was clear.
Thanks Morph!