As the rain falls in July a puzzle from Tees to dispel the gloom.
Some marvellous clues this week certainly.
7 dn was my pick of the bunch with 18ac a close second.
11dn was very neat but as to it being a sturdy defence – it was once but it has more holes than a government policy document these days.
Some ultra-smooth surfaces particularly 1ac, 9ac, 13ac, 26ac, 27ac, 1dn, 2dn, 6dn, 19dn and 20dn.
A few literary references to boot 10ac, 14ac and 15dn.
All in all a puzzle full of quirkiness, originality and much fun – Thanks Tees
Key:
DD Double definition
rev. reverse
* Anagram
Underline – definition
ACROSS
| 1 | Scrap outside boozer in Ireland say (8) |
| Relic (scrap) around pub (boozer) = REPUBLIC | |
| 5 | Damage in seconds former space station companion (6) |
| S (seconds) + Mir (former space station) + ch 9companion) = SMIRCH | |
| 9 | Old suite composed in isolation (8) |
| (Old suite)* = SOLITUDE | |
| 10 | Jesting Scotsman shakes tin for heiress (6) |
| Sport (jesting) + ian (Scotsman) – sn (tin) = PORTIA | |
| 12 | Patriarch found in two accounts? (5) |
| Isa (account) + ac (account) = ISAAC | |
| 13 | One pint then another? I see this restores vigour (9) |
| An (one) + ale (pint) + pt (pint) + ic (I see) = ANALEPTIC | |
| 14 | Large and nasty ogres disposed to consume men heartily? (12) |
| L (large) + (nasty ogres)* around e (men heartily) = LAESTRYGONES | |
| 18 | For this – and like this – I’m Magna Carta? (12) |
| (I’m Magna Carta)* = ANAGRAMMATIC | |
| 21 | Greek character she pays mistakenly for food (5, 4) |
| Mu (Greek character) + (she pays)* = MUSHY PEAS | |
| 23 | Brightest star most dominant (5) |
| DD = ALPHA | |
| 24 | Understanding highwaymanship? |
| DD = UPTAKE | |
| 25 | Keen having silly walk to go walking about (8) |
| Hike (walking) about (walk)* = HAWKLIKE | |
| 26 | German individual stops pig scratching at soil (6) |
| Ein (German individual) in hog (pig) = HOEING | |
| 27 | Resonant information spy gathers (8) |
| Plant (spy) around gen (information) = PLANGENT |
DOWN
| 1 | Ustinov takes month off in RC country (6) |
| Ustinov – nov (month) in RC = RUSTIC | |
| 2 | Dad right to nurse sick supporter (6) |
| Pa (dad) + r (right) around ill (sick) = PILLAR | |
| 3 | Blow hot and cold – shock for disabled Wheeler? (4,5) |
| Bat (blow) + h (hot) + c (cold) + hair (shock) = BATH CHAIR | |
| 4 | Successful era that puts take-away on counter (6,6) |
| Indian (take-away) + summer (counter) = INDIAN SUMMER | |
| 6 | Republican flees bad-tempered elk (5) |
| Morose (bad-tempered) – r (republican) = MOOSE | |
| 7 | Going round, round, round, round with junk (8) |
| Ring (round) round o(round) + tat (junk) = ROTATING | |
| 8 | First patient is lunatic (8) |
| Head (first) + case (patient) = HEADCASE | |
| 11 | Sturdy defence Darwin has rewritten entirely (8, 4) |
| (Darwin has)* + all (entirely) = HADRIANS WALL | |
| 15 | Evil cat having smile about a milk supply (9) |
| Grin (smile) around (a milk)* = GRIMALKIN | |
| 16 | Speak unfavourably about HM, and about duke perhaps (8) |
| (about HM = d)* = BADMOUTH | |
| 17 | And the rest turned up holding property box (8) |
| Rev (etc(and the rest)) about Asset (property) = CASSETTE | |
| 19 | Join leader from party in some cake (6) |
| Slice (some cake) about p (leader from party) = SPLICE | |
| 20 | Feline receives welcome warning (6) |
| Cat (feline) about Ave (welcome) = CAVEAT | |
| 22 | UK gets into that North American banker (5) |
| Yon (that) about UK = YUKON |
When I was working, completing the Indy was a rare triumph. In retirement I’m hoping that the increase in time will offset the decrease in prowess.
Time will tell.
I think the nesting in 7D justifies a fifth ROUND, instead of WITH. You could even have a sixth.
Going round (ROTATING) round (RING) round (around) round (O) round (all around) round (a palindromic synonym for) junk (TAT).
Thanks to all the bloggers for putting me right over the years, and to the setters for leading me astray.
14ac required a heavy duty electronic word search and then looking up what I found in Wikipedia. I had read the Odyssey, but that was many years ago, and the name was buried very deep in my memory.
Not sure I understand the DD at 24ac.
1dn was a guess for me, and I guessed wrong. I thought it was RUSSIA, well, it is a Russian name. Incidentally, there’s a minor typo in the blog – the month is “nov”.
24ac I perhaps should has explained a little further – Uptake is understanding and a highwayman being on a horse was up and he took from those he encountered so “highwaymanship?” was uptake. as to my typo – I have a dodgy v on my keyboard – apologies
I couldn’t parse my biffed PORTIA so thanks for that. Count me as another who needed aids to get LAESTRYGONES. I could see how the clue worked but I had absolutely no idea how to put the anagram fodder together. If I had ever read the Odyssey it would have helped.
Thanks for the explanation, twencelas. And looking closely at my paper, I see I couldn’t parse 10ac, so thanks for that, too.
It was definitely a toughie.
Got there in the end with a little help from the check button. Needed the blog for some of the parsings, especially PORTIA and PLANGENT; for the latter I had ‘plan’ as the information and couldn’t see how ‘gent’ = ‘spy’ except in a very vague sense – Bond, J for instance? And I too thought of ‘Russia’ for 1dn, but realised that as Russia isn’t a Catholic (RC) country – it’s Orthodox – the RC had to be part of the answer. In 7dn I saw how the clue worked but lost count of the ’rounds’ and which were answer and which were wordplay.
Thanks, Tees and Twencelas
Well, exactitude: that’s crossword compiling for me, at least.
LAESTRYGONES is an &lit, so good luck philistines.
Many thanks twenceslas and contributors.
Tees.