Perhaps not my favourite ever Commoner puzzle. Not a bad crossword by any means, but almost half the clues made use of the insertion device, which gave it a bit of a stodgy feel, for me anyway. And there were no full anagrams, which left it a bit unbalanced. You may well disagree, of course.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
5 No longer 26, editor follows beer with short measure of Scotch inside
BEWHISKERED
I didn’t much like these two linked clues, since they depend on each other for the definitions. If you’re no longer CLEAN-SHAVEN, then you’re BEWHISKERED, which is a charade of WHISK[Y] inserted in BEER followed by ED.
8 50% off Mac company’s software
APP
APP[LE’S]
10 Nobleman about to eat very soft Italian sausage
PEPPERONI
An insertion (‘to eat’) of PP for musically ‘very soft’ in PEER and ON (‘about’) plus I.
11 Perhaps lead‘s about to be detected in a hill
ACTOR
An insertion of C for ‘circa’ or ‘about’ in A TOR.
12 Being excited in lively party? Not at first
AROUSAL
[C]AROUSAL
14 She sings about the origin of Europa, a lover of Zeus for so long
CHEERIO
An insertion of the first letter of ‘Europa’ in CHER, the setters’ favourite singer, followed by IO, who was a lover of Zeus. As well as a moon of Jupiter. And John Henderson’s moniker when he sets for the FT. To the best of my knowledge, Mr H has never been seduced by a Greek god.
15 Some characters buried in earth under ballroom in film
THUNDERBALL
Hidden in earTH UNDER BALLroom. James Bond movie.
19 Devour nuts with ecstasy – outstanding
OVERDUE
A charade of (DEVOUR)* and E, with ‘nuts’ as the anagrind.
20 Teetotal group seen around student bar, one in European country
ALBANIA
A multi-part clue: it’s an insertion of L, BAN and I in AA, Alcoholics Anonymous.
22 Fly getting large, utilising the sun’s energy
SOLAR
An insertion of L in SOAR.
23 A lack of vision shown as lawyer sends in criminal
BLINDNESS
Well, a lawyer would be a BL (Bachelor of Law), then it’s (SENDS IN)*
25 Wear Scottish flower
DON
As almost always, ‘flower’ is a river, in this case the DON, which flows through Aberdeenshire. But Commoner could have chosen the river that flows past Bede’s Monastery at Jarrow; or the one on which Doncaster stands. DON in the ‘wear’ sense is a contraction of DO ON; its antonym is DOFF, from DO OFF. As in ‘to doff one’s cap’.
26 No longer 5A, Charlie’s consuming spare port
CLEAN-SHAVEN
See 5ac. A charade of LEAN for ‘spare’ inserted in CS for ‘Charlie’s’ (phonetic alphabet) plus HAVEN.
Down
1 Make a trade, having put feet up
SWAP
A reversal of PAWS.
2 Little sister acquires strange power
SINEWS
Slightly odd clue. It’s an insertion of NEW in SIS. ‘Strange’ for NEW seems a bit of a stretch; as does ‘power’ for SINEWS. ‘It was all a bit new/strange to me’, I suppose.
3 Capital‘s new DJ with a funny name
N’DJAMENA
When in doubt, read the instructions. N, DJ, A and (NAME)* Capital of Chad.
4 Mother replants liberally in extensive plot
MASTER PLAN
MA plus (REPLANTS)*
5 Reportedly accept 50 in wages for secondary activity
BY-PLAY
A homophone of BUY plus L in PAY.
6 Up all weekend, go about penning book
KNOWLEDGEABLE
An insertion of B in (ALL WEEKEND GO)*
7 Check flower and return
REINCARNATION
A charade of REIN and CARNATION. Here it really is a flower.
9 Average fellow makes excuse
PARDON
A charade of PAR and DON.
13 Not working – perhaps playing golf endlessly around Britain
ON THE BLINK
An insertion of B in ON THE LINK[S]
16 Wild centaur swallows daughter – one might in 5D
UNDERACT
An insertion of D in (CENTAUR)*
17 Drunk is very exhausted
SOUSED
A charade of SO and USED.
18 Dried fruit is protected in downpour
RAISIN
An insertion of IS in RAIN.
21 Shoot upsetting advert around hospital with religious figure
BUDDHA
An insertion of H in BUD and a reversal of AD.
24 New version reportedly resent
ENVY
The setter is suggesting that ENVY is a homophone of N for ‘new’ and V for ‘version’. Are ENVY and ‘resent’ interchangeable?
Thanks to Commoner for this one.
Crossword Solver still won’t download Indy puzzles via the menu – I had to paste in the full URL> This has been the case since Thursday. I’m clearly not alone in this. Has anyone more tech savvy than me (probably all of you) found an explanation or a fix?
@1 – I’m having the same problem and have been using the Indie site instead, but I would much rather be able to use Crossword Solver.
As far as this puzzle is concerned I quite enjoyed it and didn’t dislike the linked 5ac/26ac. SINEWS was my LOI and my quibble would be that “sinew” is usually a synonym of “power” rather than the plural, but I’m sure there’ll be a dictionary out there that supports it.
“Stodgy Feel”? We must agree to differ!
I found this very challenging but very rewarding. I did, eventually, quite like the paired clues 5 and 26. I’d spent much thought failing to find two things each of which could be no longer the other, and was amused when it came out. Most of the long words took me ages to see. My favourite clue is that for “reincarnation”, very deceptive but precise in the end.
Full marks for N’Djamena! The clue was just enough to work out the answer without being entirely clear either where Njdjamena was or how to spell it. Next time, can you clue the apostrophe too?
I failed to notice “Thunderball” in the clue for fully half the crossword. This is the best hidden answer I have seen in ages!
This took me a long time – not as long as a Nimrod, but maybe two Dacs. Being able to finish it quite made my day! Thanks very much, Commoner. I would say tasty and well-seasoned! And best wishes to Pierre too, despite your opinions 🙂
“Sinews” was my last answer, too.
Emrys @3: Are you suggesting that the presence of an apostrophe should be indicated in the enumeration, e.g. showing N’DJAMENA as (1’7)? This topic came up in a thread two or three years ago, and whilst it seems logical to indicate apostrophes in the same way as hyphens the general consensus was that to do so would give too much away, apostrophes being less common than hyphens. I think it’s just one of those conventions that over time has become an unwritten rule.
Back to the puzzle. The 5/26 link misled me for a while, the ‘port’ in the clue for 26 had me trying to think of a place that had changed its name several times, such as St Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad/St Petersburg, but I twigged it in the end.
Thanks, Commoner and Pierre
Yes, I haven’t been able to get the today’s puzzle link for the Indie working either but fortunately the full URL is still OK. I’m also down to Firefox as the only browser that will run the puzzle from the Indie site, Chrome having apparently recently disabled JAVA plug-ins altogether.
I enjoyed this one – I found it quite sparky and entertaining. The 5/26 pairing was a little annoying at first but satisfying when you finally spotted it.
allan_c: it was a joke! I might have put an emoticon at the end, but they can be overused. I was being playful about the number of times a setter might have cause to construct a clue for N’Djamena. Sorry if I alarmed you!
I would like to state, while I have the opportunity, that if I should ever happen to be reincarnated, I would like to return as a Golden Retriever.
I think Commoner got it right; neither my large Times atlas, nor my huge one, has an apostrophe in NDJAMENA so perhaps discussions above are vacuous?
Great puzzle – I loved the smart observation (and revelation) of 5/26 even though (or especially since) it eluded me until I had crossers.
Very many thanks Commoner.
And for a great blog, Pierre, particularly the doff/don nugget.
Didn’t remember this from solving it previously and took a while to remember N’DJAMENA – when I tried to check it in an atlas the only one I had to hand was an old one with the colonial era name of Fort Lamy. And SINEWS was my LOI. But I got the 5/26 relationship withoput going off at a tangent this time.
Comment 9 was meant to be on the idothei site!