I found this tough to get into, but rewarding once I did. Favourites were 1, 7 and 8 down.
Across
1 Shift operative time of sportsman’s appointment (8)
BACKDATE
=”Shift operative time of”. BACK=”sportsman” (position in rugby etc), plus DATE=”appointment”
5 Husband in novelist’s latest yarn recoils in horror (6)
AGHAST
=”in horror”. H[usband], in a reversal (“recoils”) of both [novelis]T and SAGA=”yarn”
9 Charmer? More vexed hosts cheer when he’s gone (8)
SORCERER
=”Charmer”. SORER=”More vexed”, around (“hosts”) C[he]ER with the he gone
10 Ten with hip complaint, all coming together (6)
INFLUX
=”all coming together”, a large flowing in. X is “Ten” in Roman numerals, after IN=”hip” and FLU=”complaint”
12 In Rome I love old Latin sparkling wine (11)
AMONTILLADO
=”wine”, a sherry. AMO=”I love” “In Rome”, plus (old Latin)*
15 Harry keeps home functioning (5)
DOING
=”functioning”. DOG=”Harry”=follow/harass, keeping IN=”home”
17 Put small stone inside to make a crackling sound (9)
CREPITATE
=”[make a] crackling sound”. PIT=”small stone”, inside CREATE=”make” (…or=”Put”, if “make” is part of the def?)
18 Aunts et al badly treated in Muslim autocracy (9)
SULTANATE
=”Muslim autocracy”. (Aunts et al)*
19 Respond to order “about turn” (5)
REACT
“Respond”. RE=”about”, plus ACT=”turn”
20 Line of French reservists invading lyceum (11)
DECOLLETAGE
=”Line”. DE=”of [in] French”, plus T[erritorial] A[rmy]=”reservists” inside COLLEGE=”lyceum”
24 Tablet’s coating causing harm in mouth (6)
PLAQUE
=”Tablet”; =”coating causing harm in mouth”
25 Sole diversion at island welcomed by coppers (8)
PATIENCE
=”Sole diversion” – the solitaire card game. AT and I[sland], inside PENCE=”coppers”
26 Present set back left-winger after payment of tax (6)
TENDER
=”Present”. Reversal (“set back”) of RED=”left-winger” and NET=”after payment of tax”
27 Arch over seat accommodating two leaders in trial (8)
STRADDLE
=”Arch over”. SADDLE=”seat”, accommodating TR[ial]’s two leaders
Down
1 Corrupt doctor’s transport parked in depot (10)
BASTARDISE
=”Corrupt”. TARDIS=”Doctor [Who]’s transport”, in BASE=”depot”
2 Pocketing raised offer, my character’s liable to deteriorate (10)
CORRODIBLE
=”liable to deteriorate”. COR=”my!”, plus ROLE=”character”, pocketing reversal (“raised”) of BID=”offer”
3 Lived with carnal thoughts upping temperature (5)
DWELT
=”Lived”. Reversal (“upping”) of LEWD=”carnal”, plus T[emperature]
4 Choir’s situation shortly after chorister finds better option (6,6)
TREBLE CHANCE
=”better option”, an option for bettors in football pools. CHANCE[l]=”Choir’s situation shortly”, after TREBLE=”chorister” – a chancel is the space around the altar in a church. Edit thanks to JollySwagman A choir has the CHANCE to get a new TREBLE after a chorister leaves.
6 Canal worker, one doomed to carry fallen idol? (9)
GONDOLIER
=”Canal worker”. GONER=”one doomed”, carrying (idol)*
7 Well absolutely empty (4)
ABLY
=”Well”. AB[solute]LY
8 Old mate featured in Times passage (4)
TEXT
=”passage”. EX=”Old mate”, in T[ime] and T[ime]=”Times”
11 Tablet walker crunched for afters (8,4)
BAKEWELL TART
=”afters”. (Tablet walker)*
13 Exotic dancer in possession of a vehicle took touring holiday (10)
CARAVANNED
=”took touring holiday”. (dancer)*, around A VAN=”vehicle”
14 Observer’s outlook sees very little about the year changing (7,3)
WEATHER EYE
=”Observer’s outlook”. WEE=”very little”, around (the year)*
16 Noble old lady died, owing about a thousand (5,4)
GRAND DUKE
=”Noble”. GRAN=”old lady” plus D[ied], plus DUE=”owing” around K[ilo]=”a thousand”
21 US graduate overlooked climbing plant (5)
ERICA
=”plant”. [AM]ERICA, where AM is a reversal (“climbing”) of MA=”graduate”
22 Strikes up a bit of an argument (4)
SPAT
=”a bit of an argument”. Reversal (“up”) of TAPS=”Strikes”
23 Large bird with down cut (4)
SAWN
=”cut”. SWAN=”Large bird”, and W[ith] is moved down one place
Superb puzzle – one of the best and also one of the toughest for a good while.
4d I read CHANCE as being CHANCEL shortened.
Many thanks S&B.
Thanks manehi. There was a lot to like here, right down to the last clue, one of my last in. INFLUX another example of the need to study this setter’s wording with special care: thanks Nutmeg.
Top stuff, this, with ticks against GRAND DUKE and my last in TEXT. CREPITATE a new one for me and WEATHER EYE just a distant memory.
Just brilliant. I loved the elegant conciseness of so many clues, such as 19a.
Thanks, manehi.
What George said: I think that was my favourite clue – but I also loved 15ac [what my dear late husband often did. 😉 ]
Many thanks to Nutmeg for a stiff but most rewarding challenge
The last Nutmeg, many thought, was rewarding but a bit on the easy side for her. Well, she’s made up for it this time. Well above my ability level, even with copious use of my phone app. Gave up in SW corner owing to my certainty that 16d was GRAND DAME. I did like AMONTILLADO though.
Thanks Nutmeg & manehi – I echo your thoughts.
I tried GRAND DAME but realised it didn’t parse. I wonder how many times I see ‘my’ before connecting with COR!
I loved the ‘doctor’s transport’ in BASTARDISE. TREBLE CHANCE was very clever and lots of other great clues – five star.
Thanks, manehi. I had to walk away from this, only half done, this morning. Only this evening did I have time to struggle through to the end. Clueing at it’s finest but I do feel that (polemics apart) such a puzzle should be reserved for the weekend so weaker brains such as my own can savour it at their leisure.
Was I the only one to spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to find a way to bend the canal worker into a version of “audiologist” [with that tempting anagram of IDOL in the middle]? 🙁
By the way, manehi, the noun is crepitation, so I think your second parsing is the only one that works – although I agree that “put” for “CREATE” seems a bit weak.
Thank you very much to those who have taken the time to comment.
Re 17, the published version is not my original clue, which was
17 Put small stone inside to make rattle
not a brilliant clue, but it does at least avoid the uncertainty over ‘to make’, for which I apologise
Thanks to Nutmeg (and for your appearance here) and manehi
I found this very difficult (I failed on SAWN) but most entertaining. What clever clueing! Lots where I guessed the answer, then said “Oh, of course!” when I worked out the parsing. Prime amongst these were SORCERER, PATIENCE, BASTARDISE, DWELT and TEXT. Great fun.
Agree, very difficult for me. But in 17ac the stone is inside ‘make’ – create .
Thanks for dropping in, Nutmeg and many congratulations for a bemusing puzzle. What a bizarre editorial decision; I really can’t imagine the reasoning behind it: but then again, I guess it’s not the first time! 😉
As others have said this was tough but satisfying – it took me a long time to crack the SW corner partly because I had GRAND DAME for a while before realising it didn’t parse properly. Last in was SAWN. Liked BASTARDISE, CARAVANNED and GONDOLIER.
Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi
Can someone tell me how “put” equates to CREATE?
And surely “absolutely” is only partially “empty”.
Agreed, excellent and clever. Took a while to get going, but finally cracked. Most enjoyable puzzle in recent memory.
Agreed – most enjoyable puzzle for a long time! Really excellent (even though I didn’t manage to finish it).
I was one of those who said that Nutmeg’s previous puzzle was on the easy side. Well she sure got back at us with this one, and it took me ages to get a toehold anywhere in the puzzle. The LHS eventually fell into place, but the RHS took a lot longer with ABLY my LOI after INFLUX. As others have said, a top quality puzzle.
Either I fell for every misdirection Nutmeg threw at me or I was being particularly dim this evening. At 6dn I was another one who thought “canal worker” was going to relate to someone in the medical profession and it took me a while to see the obvious. At 24ac I was convinced I was looking at a homophone clue rather than a DD, and could have kicked myself when I finally saw it. At 13dn I thought I was looking at some kind of play on stripper/tripper until I realised “exotic” was an anagrind.
This was VERY clever, but, unusually I had to leave half done … put it down to a bout of the Norovirus (surely that would make a good clue) so plenty of time to work on it, but too many, erm, interruptions …
malagachica @19
I’ve heard that that is extremely infective – I hope that it isn’t possible to catch it over the Internet.
(Seriously – get well soon.)
I’ve been doing the Guardian cryptic crossword for more than 30 years now, so I’ve outlived setters such as Custos. Of the new setters, Arachne usually hits the spot for me, but I wonder if Nutmeg is selling in the wrong market.
Her clues are very clever, but too often I find them to be so clever as to be useless, so that I am left trying to do a quick crossword without being quite sure what are the definitions.
Perhaps Nutmeg ought to be filling the grid with unguessable words, and selling the result to a level or two up from the ordinary Guardian cryptic.
I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree with you, dear David Mop.
In my (and others’) opinion Nutmeg has become one of the very best, challenging your (and our) favourite setter in more than one way.
A setter who never participates in this blog but does turn up at the right time for the right reason today when we (and others) had just one question (17ac), well, that says it all.
She knows what it’s all about.
I’ve been doing the Guardian for only 6 years now and I loved it!
Well I disagree with almost all of you.
Lots to not like here for me but I’ll be brief.
As has already been said, ably is not “absolutely empty” as the “b” and “l” are still in there!
Is the “thoughts” in 3d just to be ignored? Or is the fact that it invalidates the clue to be forgiven as it gives good misdirection?
5A is just too convoluted.
Why is “Weather eye” an “observer’s outlook”?
I find Nutmeg’s cluing all over the place and just feel that she’s trying too hard to be “clever”. The trick is to set clues which seem unsolvable but which when solved seem to be simple! Definitely NOT the reaction to these over-contrived clues. (In my humble opinion of course)
Thanks to manehi and Nutmeg
Well I consider myself at the weaker end of this community for solving skill, and I thoroughly enjoyed this. Yes it would have been better as a weekend offering and I failed on 23d but I relished the tussle and found my objections answered by others giving the correct parsing. I am glad Nutmeg has joined. She brings an extra dimension to my solving.
Had to sleep on this before we could finish it and still couldn’t parse CORRODIBLE and SAWN so thanks manehi. However, I thought it was great. Lovely misdirection in GRAND DUKE ( dame) and ‘absolutely’ being the word that was empty and not a description of how empty. Having recently visited Bakewell and discovered the difference between the Tart and the Pudding, I could get picky about which you would have for ‘afters’, but I won’t! Thanks Nutmeg.
Much harder than the last Nutmeg! We did 17a as: CREATE to make & then put small stone (pit) in it…
Just a late one from me: Sue and I were defeated by this, after a hot hard day on the allotment, rehydrating in the pub, but it seemed more enjoyable this morning.
TBH I thought some of the devices over elaborate, leading to too many possibilities, but definitely a challenge for those who like a tough chew.
Thanks one and all.
As has been remarked above 3d, 7d and 17a are all flawed.
Nutmeg says her original clue for 17 is not “brilliant”. I think it is rather good. So why wasn’t it published?
I had to give up. Way above my level. Thanks for the parsings. Will help me improve.
Wonderful puzzle. I parsed 2 down using ‘corrole’ which is an aromatic organic compound found in spices imparting flavour; hence my (i.e. nutmeg’s) character.
I did not find that easy. I often joke that the best thing about the Weekly is that you get a week to do the crossword, and I thought I might need it all this time. But I enjoyed the challenge and was glad I stuck with it. Realising how ‘bastardise’ parsed brought a cry of delight! I guessed ‘sawn’ but failed the parsing test. Thanks, Nutmeg, if you see this, and thanks manehi. And thanks to everyone else who said it was hard and so made me feel so much better!
I found it very hard but have no complaints. Some very clever clues eg grand duke and bastardise. Eventually solved it all except for 23 down.