Another WYSIWYG puzzle from Quixote. Which is why I keep recommending him to those who are just starting to enter the world of cryptic crosswords. Bit of genealogy, bit of religion, bit of maths, bit of grammar, bit of everything really.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Stick on the side of the women
DISTAFF
A dd. ‘The rod on which flax is wound preparatory to spinning.’ ‘The female side of the family.’ (Collins)
5 Join a group of abstainers attending a church
ATTACH
A charade of A, TT, A and CH, although it’s not an offer I’d be particularly keen on taking up.
10 Cold minister, not cold when conveying a description of God
CREATOR
Quixote’s asking you to make a charade of C and RECTOR, then take the C (‘cold’) out of the second word and replace it with A.
11 Clique hiding behind shelter lusting after woman?
LEERING
A charade of LEE and RING. I presume the question mark is there because we could of course these days also lust after men.
12 Air passengers making descent may soon become so poorly
UNDER THE WEATHER
A dd cum cd. When the pilot is making a descent for landing, he or she will eventually be UNDER THE WEATHER.
13 Colour of Oxon town reportedly
BISTRE
‘A yellowish-brown to dark brown colour’, says my Collins. And it sounds like Bicester, which is indeed an Oxfordshire town.
15 Italian script containing English snippets of news?
ITEMS
An insertion of E in IT and MS for ‘[manu]script’
18 What’s found in bathroom or toilet? Nothing!
LOOFA
A charade of LOO and FA, the latter usually found in the term SWEET FA, which as we all know means SWEET FANNY ADAMS. I’d usually spell this LOOFAH, but dictionaries give Quixote’s version too.
19 Mathematical assumption gives answer at end of sequence
ANSATZ
I needed all the crossers to get this: it’s a charade of ANS, AT and Z for the last letter of the alphabet or ‘end of sequence’. The word isn’t in my Collins.
22 Theatrical female shows a mad need, getting worse always with time
DAME EDNA EVERAGE
A charade of (A MAD NEED)* EVER and AGE. The anagrind is ‘getting worse’. She’s retired, I think, but was very funny.
24 Possibly a small bit without soft edge
ARTICLE
[P]ARTICLE. P is musically ‘soft’ and ‘a’ is an indefinite ARTICLE in English.
25 Good, like noisy cattle looking healthy?
GLOWING
A charade of G and LOWING. The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes; and little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.
26 Fasteners securing carriage aboard ship
STRAPS
An insertion of TRAP, as in HORSE AND TRAP, in SS for ‘ship’.
27 Farmer managed to get hitched to songstress
RANCHER
A charade of RAN and CHER for the setters’ favourite singer. Quixote’s being kind and telling us that we should be looking for a female singer.
Down
1 Pronouncement not bright about trade union being restricted
DICTUM
An insertion of C for ‘circa’ or ‘about’ and TU in DIM. From the Latin for ‘something said’, from the verb dicere, which is the root of shedloads of words in modern English like diction, dictionary, dictation, contradict, predict, and benediction.
2 Broken bits the woman’s taken across the road
SHERDS
Bit of an alternative spelling bee this morning. My Collins says it’s an another spelling of SHARDS, so it’s RD in SHE’S. Not sure why the setter chose this as the solution, since there are several other more common words that fit this pattern.
3 Scare with amputation being tricky? Much fuss about nothing!
A STORM IN A TEACUP
(SCARE AMPUTATION)* with ‘being tricky’ as the anagrind. Nice spot and good surface.
4 Onwards from river
FORTH
A dd. Go forth and multiply, as the misquote from Genesis says.
6 Fellow with a heavenly body looked up to
THE MAN IN THE MOON
A cd, I think, although it’s not my favourite ever Quixote clue.
7 Came down and hit glade, crashing
ALIGHTED
(HIT GLADE)*
8 Having many American stories?
HIGH RISE
A cd, and I think ‘American’ is in there because American English would spell it STORIES, whereas British English would have STOREYS. I’m not entirely sure how I’d spell it myself, now I come to think about it.
9 Son with inferior status on account of lack of intelligence?
SLOWNESS
A charade of S for ‘son’ and LOWNESS for ‘inferior status’, whimsically suggesting a ‘lack of intelligence’.
14 Beginners perhaps fall down in river
TRAINEES
An insertion of RAIN (‘perhaps fall down’) in TEES, the North-East river that is also the pseudonym of one of the setter’s colleagues on the Indy team.
16 Dad’s role is diverting elderly females perhaps
OLD DEARS
(DAD’S ROLE)* for the slightly derogatory term for senior women.
17 This person crossing street to block entrance – a downcast soul?
DOOMSTER
An insertion of ST in ME, all inserted in DOOR, if that makes sense.
20 Exile‘s home set up in British wood
BANISH
A reversal of IN for ‘home’ in B ASH.
21 Book presenting two sides, full of incisiveness
LEDGER
The two sides are L and R; and you need to put EDGE for ‘incisiveness’ in between them.
23 Anxious attitude a German shows
EAGER
Hidden in attitudE A GERman.
Many thanks to the setter for today’s puzzle.
Failed on BISTRE, never heard of it despite knowing Bicester quite well and my mind’s pronunciation would have probably thought it was bistré anyway and got my mind stuck on a homonym of Witney somehow. Thanks Q & Pierre – a busy day on the blogs for you.
Did wonder about SHERDS being correct when I did this on the bus this morning.
My dictionary gave BISTER as an alternative spelling, flashling, which led me to the answer. Must admit it was a bit of hit and hope with that one, and unlike you I had the online version to give me the ‘completed’ message, so I could be certain my guess was correct.
I would have been beaten by ANSATZ under competition conditions. I didn’t know the word and from the wordplay I had entered “ansate” because I read “end of sequence” as the letter “e”. It was only when I didn’t get the congratulatory message that I used aids to look for an alternative. I’d come across BISTRE before and managed to dredge it from deep within my memory banks.
Thanks Pierre and Quixote. I thought this was very tough for a Monday – more like the Don in one of his other guises. BISTRE and SHERDS were new to me but perfectly gettable. ANSATZ I had never come across, even though maths was part of my degree, nor was it in my Chambers (12th ed) – I entered ANSATE (ANS AT [sequenc]E). At least that was a valid English word!
Sorry Andy B, we crossed.
I rattled through Bistre and Sherd without trouble but was delighted to learn a new word in Ansatz (German is my second language, too). I was only doing the Indie because I finished the FT so quickly — so: very pleased to meet you, Quixote. And of course Pierre.
Knew of Bicester and its pronunciation, but had not heard of BISTRE; nor ANSATZ.
Knew of SHERDS as it appears, in a compound form, potsherds, in the poem “That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection” by the great Gerard Manley Hopkins.
A little trickier than usual for a Monday.
Thanks to Quixote and Pierre.
Ah well — I’m supposed to be related to GMH!
@8Quixote – do tell!
Another “ansate” here. As it was a curved handle, I guessed it might be a mathematical name for a curve of some sort.
I didn’t know Quixote was related to Gerard Manley Hopkins. That explains the obscurity of some of today’s clueing
The nature of the relationship is not known. It is family folk lore, but given that one of Hopkins’s grandmothers was born a Devon Manley, the connection seems likely. If I ever retire from crosswords, maybe I’ll be bothered to find out. One thing we do know though is that the Manleys of GMH’s ancestry came over from Normandy, according to one of his biographers.
We entered BISTER in the end thinking that we had the wrong answer for 9d but couldn’t come up with anything else that would then fit in. We didn’t pick up on the alternative spelling of the colour!
Our last one in was ANSATZ but that was only after visiting the blog! We were convinced, like others that it had to be ANSATE but couldn’t find a mathematical connection. The correct answer was completely new to us and as it wasn’t in our Chambers and we were doing the dead tree version, we needed 225 and Pierre!
Many thanks to S and B!
Another here who put in ANSATE because it was one of the few words that fitted and it also fitted the wordplay. Had never heard of ‘ansatz’, and many years ago I took a maths degree. It isn’t in Chambers and not even Quinapulus’s Word Matcher gives it.
“Sherd” has a specific meaning in archaeology, a broken bit of some ancient bit of pottery or other, so I think it’s slightly fairer than were it just another way of spelling “shard”.
Have just picked up the habit and am very much feeling my way. I fell for Learners once I had Dame Edna, which led to a lot of head-scratching!
Really pleased to discover that I can come and find explanations to the ones that I can’t see and those that I can only see from one side!