Always a pleasure to get a Raich puzzle to solve and blog. Only a couple that held me up here, and those were down to my muppetry rather than the quality of the setter’s cluing. And there’s a footie reference, natch.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Dog from Alabama rested near Paisley perhaps
ALSATIAN
A charade of AL for the abbreviation for ‘Alabama’, SAT and IAN, for the Northern Ireland politician IAN PAISLEY.
5 Ready money graduate’s banked in African city quarter
CASBAH
An insertion of BA in CASH. You can spell it with a K as well, since it’s a transliteration of the Arabic word, which starts with a Q.
9 Philanthropist has worry about Geordie soldier
CARNEGIE
A ‘Geordie soldier’ would be a NE GI. Put that in CARE for ‘worry’ and you’ve got Andrew CARNEGIE, one of the most generous and best-known philanthropists. And he was Scottish, I’ll have you know.
10 Fruit appliance Jack used at first with reserve and resistance
JUICER
A charade of J, U for the first letter of ‘used’, ICE and R.
12 Musical form welcomed by matron, dowager
RONDO
Hidden in matRON DOwager.
13 Church record about left-wing American
NOTRE DAME
An insertion of RED and AM in NOTE. If Raich is referring to la Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris, then strictly it’s a cathedral. But all cathedrals are churches; whereas not all churches are cathedrals. We’ll move on.
14 Showing care to be in legal position in box
CONSIDERATE
The beautiful game makes its appearance: this is ONSIDE in CRATE. If the foremost forward is ONSIDE, he’s in a ‘legal position’, even if he’s outside the box. I can get some salt and pepper pots out to explain this to those who hate football. Although even I have lost the plot with what ‘not interfering with play’ means.
18 Taking on current time when travelling
RECRUITMENT
(CURRENT TIME)*
21 Very many – fifty, received by titled lady
COUNTLESS
An insertion of L in COUNTESS.
23 Relationship in troika disturbed after Kelvin leaves
RATIO
(TROI[K]A)* Referring to William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin. A temperature scale was named after him and zero degrees Kelvin corresponds to 0 K or -273.15°C. That’s about as cold as you can get.
24 Listen in every afternoon – radio (wireless) is good to begin with
EARWIG
The first letters of Every Afternoon Radio Wireless Is Good. A slang word for eavesdropping, or ‘listening in’.
25 Nice bird swapping tips on hotel
PLEASANT
This was my favourite today. The ‘tips on hotel’ are H and L. Raich is asking you to take the H out of ‘pheasant’ and replace it with an L to give you PLEASANT.
26 Emphasis is very French aboard vessel
STRESS
An insertion of TRÈS for the French ‘very’ in SS. The setters’ standard way of telling you to insert something in SS is ‘aboard ship’, or in this case ‘aboard vessel’. SS is the abbreviation for ‘steamship’.
27 He chooses reader following directions
SELECTOR
A charade of SE for south-east, or ‘directions’, followed by LECTOR for ‘reader’.
Down
1 Bill firm over road agreement
ACCORD
A charade of AC for account or ‘bill’, CO and RD.
2 Air outside a Queen’s garment
SARONG
An insertion of A and R for ‘Regina’ in SONG.
3 Bloc (no outsiders) with euro cents in circulation?
THE LOW COUNTRIES
I especially liked this one as well, although it took me ages to see it. It’s ([B]LO[C] WITH EURO CENTS)* and ‘in circulation’ as the anagrind. The definition is ‘bloc’, since informally THE LOW COUNTRIES refers to Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. All those three countries use the Euro. Is this &lit? You tell me. Confusingly, in French the Netherlands alone is referred to as les Pays-Bas, THE LOW COUNTRIES. Or La Hollande. But despite the fact that we (and indeed many Dutch people) call The Netherlands ‘Holland’, only two of the twelve provinces of Le Royaume des Pays-Bas are actually Holland. Confusing, innit? Sil van den Hoek is your man to explain it, if he drops in.
4 Strange story covered by article
ALIEN
An insertion of LIE in AN.
6 Rue, as mama (decent) playing here?
AMUSEMENT ARCADE
(RUE AS MAMA DECENT)*
7 Card game in vehicle going North over California desert
BACCARAT
A reversal (‘going north’ since it’s a down clue) of CAB, followed by CA for ‘California’ and RAT for ‘desert’ in its verbal sense.
8 Being experienced, ran across lair
HARDENED
An insertion of DEN in HARED.
11 Hit small three-wheeler
STRIKE
A charade of S and TRIKE.
15 Smarter to ignore current idle talk
NATTER
You need to think ‘smarter’ in its ‘dress’ sense (which I didn’t for a long time). It’s NATT[I]ER. I is the symbol for ‘current’.
16 Crazy joke – Cockney woman’s
CRACKERS
A charade of CRACK and ERS, which is – allegedly – what Eastenders would say for ‘hers’.
17 He gets top quality college paper at end of year
ACQUIRER
My last one, and despite having all the crossers, I couldn’t see it. A for ‘top quality’ followed by C, QUIRE and R for the last letter of ‘year’.
19 Passage of water, not curved, we’re told
STRAIT
A homophone of ‘straight’.
20 Promote development of forest after replanting
FOSTER
(FOREST)*
22 Find the answer, the one and only – very impressed!
SOLVE
We’ve been finding the answers for the whole puzzle, so appropriate that this is our last chance to do so. An insertion of V in SOLE.
Many thanks to Raich for compiling this one.
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