Rather a stroll, this, from Wanderer, with a couple of unsatisfying little glitches.
For once it didn’t escape my sleep-clouded senses that this is a pangram. Beyond that, there wasn’t that much of interest here, and the two uncryptified clue elements struck me as rather lazy. I did like “sextet”, though. Thank-you, Wanderer.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HUMOUR | Bodily fluid gags? (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | CHUTZPAH | Audacity of old man initially housed next to shack in Czech Republic (8) |
| Hut [shack] within CZ pa [old man] h(oused) | ||
| 9 | ABJECT | A target missing its first base (6) |
| A (o)bject [target] | ||
| 10 | OPPOSITE | Facing one’s mate, has sex in two different ways (8) |
| Oppo [mate] it [sex] within S E [south and east, different directions] | ||
| 11 | HAYLOFTS | Resorted to flashy fodder stores (8) |
| Anagram of to flashy | ||
| 12 | AS SUCH | A fool often goes topless in the manner described (2,4) |
| Ass [fool] (m)uch [often] | ||
| 13 | AFAR | At a distance, hunting expedition appears to have no limits (4) |
| (S)afar(i) [hunting expedition] | ||
| 15 | OVERSHOE | Waterproof footwear providing bit of a laugh in love poem (8) |
| Ho [bit of a laugh, as in ‘ho ho ho’] within O [zero, love] verse [poem] | ||
| 18 | HOMELAND | Factory worker eating half of egg dish may be seen on TV (8) |
| Omel(ette) [egg dish] within hand [factory worker] | ||
| 19 | RUSH | Former footballer’s career (4) |
| Double definition, alluding to the former Liverpool striker Ian Rush | ||
| 21 | ATTACH | Fix bath missing front rim, after Tom got back in (6) |
| Reversal of cat [Tom] within (b)ath | ||
| 23 | USERNAME | Nurse stupidly given a setter’s online ID (8) |
| Anagram of nurse a me [setter] | ||
| 25 | HOROWITZ | Composer and novelist house old women in posh hotel (8) |
| Ho [house] o [old] w [women] within Ritz [posh hotel] – alluding to the novelist Anthony and the composer Joseph | ||
| 26 | TWITCH | Jerk taking ass to church (6) |
| Twit [ass] ch [church] | ||
| 27 | AMORTISE | Makes it Romania’s turn, essentially, to reduce debt (8) |
| Hidden in reversal of makES IT ROMAnia | ||
| 28 | TORQUE | Force to make speech to audience (6) |
| Sounds like talk [make speech] | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | UMBRA | Shadow government of Burma (5) |
| Anagram of burma | ||
| 3 | OVERLARGE | Mixture of ore and gravel not as small as required? (9) |
| Anagram of ore gravel | ||
| 4 | RATIFY | Confirm man has been gripped by rising spell of uncontrollable laughter? On the contrary (6) |
| Reversal of fit [spell of uncontrollable laughter] within Ray [man’s name] | ||
| 5 | CROSSWORD PUZZLE | Go over promise on mystery that you’re trying to solve (9,6) |
| Cross [go over] word [promise] puzzle [mystery] – the third element here is barely cryptic | ||
| 6 | UNPLACED | Not in the first three cracking extremely awful pun before month is up (8) |
| Anagram of a(wfu)l pun reversal of Dec [month] | ||
| 7 | ZESTS | Adds piquancy to jokes (unknown for Jack) (5) |
| Jests [jokes] with z [algebraic unknown] replacing J [Jack] | ||
| 8 | AUTOCROSS | Car (Ford) used in motor racing event (9) |
| Auto [car] cross [ford] | ||
| 14 | FRONT ROOM | Not gone out or back in from lounge (5,4) |
| Anagram of not reversal of or within from | ||
| 16 | SPRINGIER | Season that is regularly starting with more bounce (9) |
| Spring [season] i.e. [id est, that is] r(egularly) | ||
| 17 | KASHMIRI | Smirk I have half removed upset Asian people (8) |
| Anagram of smirk I ha(ve) | ||
| 20 | SEXTET | Group finding Congress offensive (6) |
| Sex [congress] Tet [Offensive, alluding to an episode of the Vietnam War] | ||
| 22 | AMOUR | A doctor and nurse’s second and third affair (5) |
| A MO [Medical Officer, doctor] (n)ur(se) | ||
| 24 | MACAU | Part of China with tailless parrot for all to see (5) |
| Maca(w) [parrot] U [Universal, for all to see] | ||
Thanks Wanderer and Ringo,
My favourite was OPPOSITE.
As well as the pangram, there is a laughing policeman nina.
Well spotted, Muffyword! In the vertical edges (‘hahaha, hehehe’), and in ‘humour’ – anything else?
That’s all I found. Quite fun!
I think Ringo’s was a bit rough on Wanderer — I found it very absorbing. OPPOSITE and SEXTET were very elegant; I decided quite early on that it was going to be a pangram, which helped a lot. Thanks, Ringo, for an excellent diagnostic,and Wanderer for some good entertainment.
Thanks Ringo for the blog – a bit late but even so.
I am with Hornbeam that your verdict on this puzzle is rather harsh.
True, in the past Wanderer was slightly more devious and perhaps his surfaces were better, too – but.
With only six or seven to go I suspected the possibility of a pangram. Unfortunately, it didn’t help me because all 26 were already there.
The nina, however, the very nice nina I must say, was helpful for the final bits.
And a couple of laughs in the clues too.
Unusual to see HOROWITZ not being Vladimir.
AMORTISE was my last one in, and I liked it that the word was indeed exactly in the middle of ‘Makes it Romania’.
2d and 20d were my absolute favourites.
A big thank you to Wanderer.
Thanks Wanderer and Ringo
Continuing my FT puzzle journey with this one which I didn’t find a stroll at all – apart from the gimme down the centre. Saw the pangram but missed the nina.
Still got there in the end and enjoyed it quite a lot. Almost stumbled by writing OBJECT in at 9a until the final parsing check flushed out the correct answer. A few new words, including CHUTZPAH, HOROWITZ (either the Russian composer or the English writer) and the TV series HOMELAND (which did look like an interesting show on reading up on it). Also thought SEXTET and OPPOSITE were good.