Poins must be getting fed up with landing me as the blogger for his Sunday puzzles. We seem to have been bumping into each other a lot recently. But I don’t mind at all: you’ll always get a well-constructed crossword with plenty to entertain.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Norm hit by Penny gets a shiner
STANDARD LAMP
A charade of STANDARD for ‘norm’, LAM for ‘hit’ and P.
10 Correct for the most part to block work of legendary riddle solver
OEDIPUS
I will fess up to realising that this was something to do with the Sphinx, but to not being able to remember who finally solved the riddle. It’s EDI[t] inserted in OPUS. Complex clue.
11 Bound to have time at the end for a gin
SPRINGE
New one on me, but my Collins says: ‘a snare set to catch small wild animals’. It’s SPRING plus E for the last letter of timE. Nice surface.
12 Undecided over Henry’s source of discomfort
THORN
An insertion of H for Henry, the unit of inductance, in TORN.
13 Run away after drug is found in punch
UPPERCUT
I think this is UPPER for ‘drug’ followed by CUT as in CUT AND RUN.
15 Generous to provide free worker education
OPEN-HANDED
A charade of OPEN, HAND and ED.
16 Earl entering very much in awe
FEAR
An insertion of E in FAR.
18 Wife leaves club with creep
EDGE
[W]EDGE. Apparently a WEDGE is a club in a walk wasted called golf.
20 Courage to overcome grief
HEARTBREAK
A charade of HEART and BREAK.
22 Went to stop Carol from going too fast
SPEEDING
This was my favourite today. It’s PEED for ‘went’ in SING for ‘carol’ in its verbal Xmas sense.
24 King reportedly returned without page in disgust
REPEL
Well, LEER is a homophone of LEAR in anyone’s language, so it’s a reversal of that with an insertion of P for ‘page’. ‘Without’ is the insertion indicator; it’s the opposite of ‘within’ meaning ‘inside’; thus ‘outside’. In everyday usage, mainly Scottish, I think. Will Scotland be without the United Kingdom after the referendum?
26 A president loses over backing the French state
ALABAMA
A and [O]BAMA before LA for one of the words in French for ‘the’.
27 Made to diversify in excellent place of learning
ACADEME
An insertion of (MADE)* in ACE.
28 Tease hit man unsettled by a curse
ANATHEMATISE
A plus (TEASE HIT MAN)*
Down
2 Destroyed old tape of swimmer
TADPOLE
(OLD TAPE)* Poins has given us some Easy Annies to get us going this morning.
3 Write article in support of new drug as a pain reliever
NEPENTHE
Was quite chuffed to get this from the surface reading. Since it’s a down clue, it’s PEN for ‘write’ plus THE supporting N for ‘new’ and E for ‘drug’ (ecstasy if you’re a non-user like me …) A pain reliever, mentioned in The Odyssey, apparently.
4 Further letters found in Stendhal’s office
ALSO
Hidden in StendhALS Office.
5 Soldiers touring area after princess becomes lost
DISAPPEARS
An insertion of A for ‘area’ in SAPPERS for ‘soldiers’ after DI. I keep telling setters that DI for ‘princess’ is around a decade and a half after its sell-by date, but they never take any notice of me.
6 A European king’s rejected suit
AGREE
A GREE[K].
7 Criticise a revolutionary’s swagger
PANACHE
A charade of PAN, A and CHE. CHE (Guevara) is even further past his sell-by date than Princess Di, but he was a top bloke and I had a picture of him on my wall at college, so Poins can continue using him.
8 Angry converts rail about nothing being open to question
CONTROVERSIAL
An insertion of O in (CONVERTS RAIL)*
9 Slide headlong
HELTER-SKELTER
A dd. Might have seen this before.
14 Lower junior to tidy home
UNDERNEATH
A charade of UNDER for ‘junior to’, NEAT and H.
17 Irregular soldiers engaged in dubious banter
ABERRANT
An insertion of RA for ‘Royal Artillery’ in (BANTER)*
19 American in danger transferred from island
GRENADA
Another insertion: of A in (DANGER)*
21 Put into words by Swift
EXPRESS
A dd.
23 Girl initially needing help comes up with answer
DIANA
A reversal of A for ‘answer’ N for the first letter of ‘needing’ and AID for ‘help’. What is this puzzle, a Diana Spencer tribute?
25 Left in fairy queen’s back ointment
BALM
Queen Mab is the mythical queen of the fairies, mentioned in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Turn her upside down (and mind the fairy dust doesn’t get everywhere, otherwise you’ll be hoovering for the rest of the day), insert L and you’ve got your answer.
Another fine Sunday puzzle from Poins; thank you to him.
The SPRINGE/AGREE crossers were my last ones in and I had to think about them for a while. Although I was reasonably certain that “bound” was going to be “spring” I didn’t see the timE trick for ages even though the final checker was already there. After that I entered AGREE with a shrug from the definition alone. Pierre’s parsing of it is obviously correct and I don’t know why I didn’t see it.
Thanks, Pierre, for the parsing of UPPERCUT. All I could think of for ‘drug’ was ‘E’, or possibly ‘CUT’, neither of which made any sense of the rest of the clue. And for some obscure reason at 10ac I started thinking of cutting the Gordian knot rather than solving the Sphinx’s riddle, which held me up for a bit.
My CoD was HELTER-SKELTER.