An interesting one from Magwitch this, with a fair share of anagrams, which I quite like as they help me get started quickly. My first time posting a solution here, so do appreciate feedback if any of the explanations can be further improved. Thanks a ton to Gaufrid for patiently helping me get started. Looking forward to more grids!
| Across | ||
| 1 | MEDITATE | Setter to lay down the law about missing muse (8) |
| ME (Setter) DI(c)TATE (lay down the law minus ‘c’, about missing) – muse as in ponder | ||
| 5 | STONED | High Street has done badly (6) |
| Anagram of ST (street) and DONE – meaning High, slang for euphoric feeling from drug use | ||
| 10 | PARTNER | Standard charge in return for companion (7) |
| PAR (Standard) TNER (Rent backwards – charge in return) | ||
| 11 | NOTICED | Refusal to overturn it before last month’s return is seen (7) |
| NO(Refusal) TI (It overturned) CED (Dec – last month’s return) | ||
| 12 | END UP | Eventually find oneself caught in open duplicity (3,2) |
| Hidden in opEN DUPlicity | ||
| 13 | EPILEPTIC | Person who fits English mansion with proper traditional Italian casement openings (9) |
| E (English) PILE (Mansion) P (Proper) T (Traditional) I (Italian) C (Casement) – Person who fits (as in seizures) | ||
| 14 | ANNOUNCEMENT | Public notice people by junction following a girl and a cat (12) |
| ANN (Girl) OUNCE (Cat – snow leopard) MEN (People) T (Type of junction – on the roads) | ||
| 18 | WATERING HOLE | A hotel we ring turns out to be a pub (8,4) |
| Anagram of A HOTEL WE RING | ||
| 21 | LITIGATES | Takes action as a result of fabrications about central instigators (9) |
| LIES (Fabrications) about insTIGATors | ||
| 23 | GRAPH | Visual representation used in cryptography (5) |
| Hidden in cryptoGRAPHy | ||
| 24 | GROANER | Horse features in German corny joke (7) |
| ROAN (Horse) in GER (German) | ||
| 25 | OCTOPUS | Spineless creature cops out when challenged (7) |
| Anagram of COPS OUT | ||
| 26 | TESTED | International party leader put on trial (6) |
| TEST (International) ED (Ed Miliband – party leader) | ||
| 27 | HYPNOTIC | Heard fruit tonic mixture is sleep-inducing (8) |
| HYP (sounds like Hip – fruit of the rose plant) TONIC mixed up | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MUPPET | Fool shows hesitation over prince’s favourite (6) |
| MU (UM reversed – hesitation over) P (prince) PET (favourite) | ||
| 2 | DERIDE | Up to a point the German instinct is to sneer (6) |
| DER (‘the’ in German) + ID (instinct) + E (point) | ||
| 3 | TIN OPENER | Kitchen utensil can undo even beers (3,6) |
| TIN (Can) OPEN (Undo) ER (even bEeRs) | ||
| 4 | THREE POINT TURN | A small number aim to go back for test manoeuvre (5-5,4) |
| THREE (small number) POINT (aim) TURN (go back) | ||
| 6 | TITLE | It is found in bottom half of battle inscription (5) |
| IT in batTLE (bottom half of) | ||
| 7 | NICETIES | Delicacies in hampers from the French Riviera? (8) |
| NICE (capital of French Riviera) TIES (hampers – as in ties you down) | ||
| 8 | DEDICATE | Commit 500 European revolutionary separatists to chase detectives around (8) |
| D (Roman numeral for 500) E (European) DIC (CID backwards – detectives) ATE (ETA backwards – spanish fundamentalist group) | ||
| 9 | ANCIENT HISTORY | I enchant drunk with island tale that happened long ago (7,7) |
| Anagram of I ENCHANT and I STORY (island tale) | ||
| 15 | ENLIGHTEN | Kindle engages in measures to remove prejudice (9) |
| LIGHT (Kindle) in EN EN (measures) | ||
| 16 | TWILIGHT | Foreign weightlifter free to leave at the end of the day (8) |
| Anagram of WEIGHTLIFTER minus free | ||
| 17 | STATIONS | Stops boys surrounding film maker (8) |
| SONS (boys) surrounding TATI (film maker) | ||
| 19 | CARPET | Tell off vehicle parking on far side of street (6) |
| CAR (Vehicle) P (Parking) ET (far side of street) | ||
| 20 | PHYSIC | Film about shy doctor of medicine (6) |
| PIC (film) around anagram of SHY | ||
| 22 | GENRE | Rear of building in French early Renaissance style (5) |
| G (rear of building) EN (in French) RE (early Renaissance) | ||
Thanks and welcome, Turbolegs. Thanks also to Magwitch.
I liked EPILEPTIC and MUPPET best. I can’t quite get PHYSIC to work, but that may be me.
Thanks very much, Magwitch and Turbolegs.
The surface and simplicity of WATERING HOLE appealed to me.
In 3dn, I parsed the clue as: can=TIN, undo=OPEN, even beers=b/E/e/R/s.
In 20dn, I think the definition is “of medicine”, (the adjective PHYSIC, medicinal).
Perhaps it would have been helpful to indicate the definition in the explanation here?
Mike04@2
I agree with you about the definition of PHYSIC. I’m just not sure how to use “doctor” as the anagrind. “Doctored” would work, but would ruin the surface. Perhaps I am missing something.
Thanks for the welcome !! Really nice to be here!
Mike – Have updated the explanation with your parsing for 3dn. Thanks for that !! I didnt quite link Undo to Open but thinking about it now, does seem like a decent fit.
Muffyword@3
I can’t explain “doctor” either.
(Clutching at straws) I have seen similar clues in other newspaper crosswords, where
imaginary punctuation seems to be required in the solving process.
Film about shy (doctor); of medicine. I’ll go and get my coat.
Thanks Magwitch for the crossword and Turbolegs for a good blog. My favourite clue was 7dn.
Overall, I really enjoyed this crossword, and I would have enjoyed it even more but for issues with three of the clues.
23ac: I thought this was a weak clue, given that “graph” is the stem of one of the parts of the compound word “cartography”. I have seen this type of clue variously described as “embedded” or “hidden”. This clue certainly meets the definition “embedded”, but it is not really “hidden”.
3dn: I do not like the device “even beers” to mean the even-numbered letters of beers. This is stretching the language too much for my preference. As always, I have no quarrel with those who think differently.
20dn: I think I have the same issues as earlier commenters on this one. In my reading of this, “doctor” is the anagram lead and is intended as an imperative verb, but it is the wrong side of the anagram fodder for me to be happy with that. I will be delighted if someone can find a more convincing explanation, and, as always, I have no quarrel …
Both 3dn and 20dn are devices of a type that I have seen many times before. I respect the rights of setters to use them, as long as they respect my right not to enjoy the clues if they do.
The most important thing I have to say about this crossword is that Magwitch is clearly an able setter – or should that be Abel? (I did Great Expectations for O level.)
Welcome to our merry band turbo! Did you use PD’s crossword blogging software because i can’t read the last column in mobile mode and it may be another bug.
Nice puzzle from Magwitch. I had some of the same nits as others, but nothing that prevented enjoyment of this effort. I do wonder, though, what purpose “test” serves in 4d; seems like it is unnecessary.
It also took me some time to figure out how “undo” might equal “open,” but I finally came up with “undo the latch” (or “undo one’s coat”).
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs. I appreciate what you bloggers do, particularly putting your parsing of the solutions out there for public scrutiny. One suggestion might be to include hyperlinks to certain answers and/or components, for example, (Jacques) Tati. Otherwise, a nice blog.
Keeper@8
undo … open
My thoughts were concentrated on a well-wrapped Christmas present!
Merry Xmas, Mike.
Keeper@8 re 4dn: As a non-driver, I am among those least qualified to comment on this, but certainly in my mind the three-point turn is associated more with a driving test than with day-to-day driving. I understand that in fact the requirement in the driving test is not as strict as a three-point turn anyway, but I am sure that others can put me right on this.
While I am back in, I would like to add to my comment on 23ac by pointing to 12ac, which to my mind was a much more satisfactory “hidden” clue.
Welcome Turbolegs, welcome back, Magwitch. I had no problem with the syntax of PHYSIC … I thought all the clues were very elegant.
I am afraid the cryptic grammar of Clue 20d (PHYSIC) is not quite correct.
“doctor shy” – repair ‘shy’
or
“shy doctored” – ‘shy’ [is] repaired
works.
‘shy doctor’ does not seem to be right.
Purists will want to see a revised version.
Many thanks for all these comments. It is very helpful to get feedback from solvers.
I really liked Pelham Barton’s play on able/Abel.
Magwitch
Hi Flashling, I did in fact use PD’s fantastic utility to blog the solution. Havent tested it yet though on mobile devices.
Pelham, you missed that at 3dn OPEN is used in the same sense it has in the answer.
bootikins@15 re 3dn: and you missed the fact that the same could be said of TIN. I would also regard these as weaknesses of the clue.