A super puzzle from Redshank with lots of very good clues to tick.
My only niggle, and it really is just a niggle, is that there are a lot of self-referential definitions in here: 8ac, 12ac, 21ac, 24ac, 21dn and 22dn. A few of these are brilliant, but I get the feeling that some of the gloss was taken off the best ones by repetition of the trick in so many places.
Thank you Redshank for a very enjoyable puzzle.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CRAMBO | Sly hero follows start of cricket game (6) |
| RAMBO (Sly hero, played Sylvester “Sly” Stallone) follows C (start, first letter, of cricket) – a rhyming game | ||
| 4 | XANADU | Site of dome by youth centre and a poor lodging (6) |
| X (by, multiplication) yoUth (centre of) contains (lodging) (AND A)* anagram=poor – In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree… | ||
| 8 | TREASON | The reason he was axed? (7) |
| T’ (the) REASON – definition is sort of &lit. A super clue! Normally I don’t like these not-quite-&lit not-quite-standard clues, but this one just works brilliantly. | ||
| 9 | CONCEDE | Give up trick to potential winner, say (7) |
| CON (trick) with (to) SEED sounds like (say) SEED (potential winner) | ||
| 11 | ARCHDEACON | A Catholic had once represented senior cleric (10) |
| anagram (represented) of A RC (Catholic) HAD ONCE | ||
| 12 | EARN | People who do it are trained normally at the start (4) |
| ARE* anagram=trained then Normally (at the start, first letter of) – definition is sort of &lit | ||
| 13 | JUDEA | Law’s absolute in West Bank area (5) |
| JUDE Law (actor) then A (absolute) | ||
| 14 | TELLTALE | Grass could be a little taller, except for trail (8) |
| (a litTLE TALLEr)* anagram=’could be’ missing (except for) T R A I L | ||
| 16 | AT LENGTH | Swimmer’s first goal, winning tight finish comprehensively (2,6) |
| A LENGTH (swimemr’s first goal) contains (winning) tighT (finish of) | ||
| 18 | COMFY | Relaxed but shy around both sexes (5) |
| COY (shy) contains (around) M F (both sexes) | ||
| 20 | NEAR | Close down early, having trimmed margins (4) |
| found inside (having margins trimmed) dowN EARly | ||
| 21 | REGULATION | Got rule in a mess, so made another one (10) |
| (GOT RULE IN A)* anagram=mess – definition is ‘another rule’ | ||
| 23 | UTENSIL | Implement updated iTunes on laptop (7) |
| ITUNES* anagram=updated on L (top of lap) | ||
| 24 | BAMBINO | Disney’s kid? No, Roman’s (7) |
| BAMBI (disney kid) NO – a kid in Italy (Roman) | ||
| 25 | ROSTOV | Don passes it and runs over small empty box (6) |
| R (runs) O (over) S (small) then O in TV (box with nothing inside) – Rostov-on-Don in Russia. A fine clue! | ||
| 26 | PLIERS | Tool providers ban drink (6) |
| supPLIERS (providers) missing (banning) SUP (drink) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CARER | Nurse’s CV doesn’t cover athlete’s foot (5) |
| CAREeR (CV) missing (not covering) E (last letter of athelete) | ||
| 2 | ABASHED | Disturbed remains in a plot (7) |
| ASH (remains) in A BED (plot) | ||
| 3 | BOOMERANG | Orange mob scattered, returning missile (9) |
| (ORANGE MOB)* anagram=scattered | ||
| 5 | ADORN | A party on service deck (5) |
| A DO (party) on RN (Royal Navy, servcie) | ||
| 6 | ANCIENT | Very old, worked with son for instance (7) |
| ANCIENT S (son) is an anagram (worked) of INSTANCE | ||
| 7 | UNDERPLAY | Lower tone – felt piano intruding (9) |
| UNDERLAY (felt) containing (with … intruding) P (piano) | ||
| 10 | SCOTCH EGG | East Germans ruin first snack (6,3) |
| E (east) G G (German, two of) following (with … first) SCOTCH (ruin) | ||
| 13 | JET SETTER | Stone me! He gets around a bit! (3-6) |
| JET (stone) |
||
| 15 | LOCAL CALL | It’s cheap to make alco pops roughly in 3 lines (5,4) |
| ALCO* (anagram=pops) CA (circa, roughly) in L L L (3 lines) – a phone call | ||
| 17 | ERRANDS | Royal artist stops receiving messages (7) |
| R (royal) RA (Royal Academician, artist) inside (received by) ENDS (stops) | ||
| 19 | MUTABLE | Bill invested in footwear that’s tending to change (7) |
| TAB (bill) in (invested in) MULE (footware) | ||
| 21 | RHINO | One’s protected by ferocious horn (5) |
| I (one) in (protected by) HORN* anagram=ferocious – defnition is &lit. I think ferocious is stretching it a bit as an anagram indicator but it makes for a good &lit. | ||
| 22 | OINKS | They emerge from what’s in pens, very big pens (5) |
| INK (whats in pens) in (penned by) OS (outsize, very big) – noises emerging from pigs, found in pig pens (which are therefore very big, or bigger than a biro?). Yet another of these not-quite-&lit definitions. This time I think Redshank has gone a bit too far and the definition is too contrived for the clue to work. For me ‘whats in pens’ is really doing double duty in both the construction and the definition. | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Excellent puzzle. Thanks Redshank and Peedee.
11ac should have RC(Roman Catholic) as part of the anagram fodder.
PD – Also 13d is the other way around for SETTER.
Thanks for the corrections Turbolegs – fixed now.
I notice that COMFY with a very similar clue appears in the Guardian puzzle today too.
Redshank’s surfaces are so scintillating that the clues are sometimes a little contortionate: e.g. 22, as PeeDee notes, and 17 for me (‘stops’ isn’t receiving messages). Still, if we can solve them who’s complaining? Great puzzle, thanks Redshank. And thanks to PeeDee as usual.
Hello Hornbeam – I can’t see your problem with 17dn, ‘stops’ is ‘ends’, the definition is just ‘messages’
Great puzzle.
I think I’d award 8a the full Monty – it’s all there.
22d OTOH doesn’t attempt that – I read it as a conventional clue with an extended definition.
17d (mentioned at #4) if you imagine a comma or take a breath after “Royal artist” it makes sense. Surely this is commonplace in more advanced puzzles.
Can’t fault any of it. Rarely can with this setter – one of the very best.
Many thanks to S&B.
And I’ve the Radian from yesterday’s Indy still to do.
Thanks PeeDee and Redshank – I thought this was exceptionally good. Some terrific surfaces and ingenious wordplay. ROSTOV was LOI for me. Probably my COD.
Thanks PeeDee – the coincidence of COMFY was quite remarkable, wasn’t it?
Not much to add except my thanks to Redshank for another excellent puzzle – I think I could say I agree wholeheartedly with everything that Jolly Swagman said, except that I’ve done the Radian – you have a treat in store.
Thanks for the blog.
Just over half of this was really good, but the remainder was either too obscure (eg 1ac & 2ac ) or just badly clued (10dn, 17dn).
It should also be pointed out that Bambi was a fawn, not a kid.
A touch of deja vu for me since I did yesterday’s Radian followed by this Redshank.I was disappointed that Radian/Redshank used the same setter friendly, solver unfriendly grid with less than 50% checking in both puzzles. It may just be an unfortunate coincidence that they both appeared so close together. I liked Bambino though, even though it was only 3/7 checked. Fortunately I was oblivious to Maud’s legitimate quibble.
What a wonderful puzzle!
I am full of admiration, and Pee Dee, I actually liked 22d very much.
I like Crucible, I like Radian, but for some reason Redshank outshines both of them.
Lightness of touch, (semi & quasi) &Lits [the magnificent 8ac!!], the unavoidable subtraction anagrams.
Perhaps, it is also because Crucible overuses single letter devices and Radian is (too) fond of cross-references.
Redshank just hits the right notes, time after time.
Thanks Redshank and PeeDee
My first Redshank … and what a pearler!! Can understand the feeling of repetitiveness, but just the different twists with the clueing devices was enough to forgive. Thought that OINKS was brilliant once the penny had dropped as to how it was derived.
Didn’t parse either of XANADU or PLIERS properly – so thanks PeeDee for setting that right. XANADU, CRAMBO and CARER were the last ones in.