A very clean, straightforward crossword. A pleasure to solve, with some neat clues. Thanks, Artexlen
| Across | ||
| 1 | CREDIT |
Believe Canute originally, king turning back the waves (6)
C (first letter of Caute) + R (king) plus EDIT (tide – the waves – reversed) |
| 5 | TOREADOR |
Partially restore a dormitory for foreign competitor (8)
Contained in the second, third and fourth words of the clue. |
| 9 | COLOSSAL |
Giant’s defeat when deluged by rocks (8)
LOSS (defeat) inside COAL (biological sedimentary rock) |
| 10 | LIE LOW |
Hide fabrication beside base (3,3)
LIE (fabrication) plus LOW (base) |
| 11 | WELL UP |
Become emotional after leader goes missing from balloon (4,2)
sWELL UP (balloon) minus its initial letter |
| 12 | NORMALCY |
Rampant Roman regularly lucky – the usual state of affairs in the US (8)
An anagram of Roman plus the first, third and fifth letters of lucky. |
| 13 | BULLDOG CLIPS |
They grab sheets and pills, suffering with cold bug (7,5)
An anagram (suffering) of PILLS, COLD and BUG |
| 17 | KNIGHT ERRANT |
King and Queen after dark angrily yell for absent horseman (6-6)
K for king + NIGHT (dark) +ER (HM the Q) +RANT (yell angrily). |
| 20 | WINDSURF |
Berkshire town with university for old fellow to do water sport (8)
WINDSOR is the Berkshire town. Substitute U for university for O for old, add F for fellow and there you have it. |
| 23 | DRAWER |
Returned premium boxlike container (6)
A reversal of reward, or premium. |
| 24 | GOSSIP |
Turn one’s back on son and quietly chat (6)
GO (turn) + S for son +SI (reversal of one as a Roman numeral and s) +P (piano) |
| 25 | STOPGAPS |
Prevent spring recoiling after good temporary measures (8)
STOP (prevent) + APS (reversal of spa) after G for good |
| 26 | PERSONAL |
A long time to house relative in place that’s private (8)
SON (relative) inserted into ERA (long time) inserted into PL for place |
| 27 | ENCODE |
Company intervening in final close of sale scramble (6)
Co for company inserted into END (final) plus E, the last letter (close) of sale. |
| Down | ||
| 2 | ROOTED |
Reportedly, found a way to get to firm (6)
Sounds like routed. |
| 3 | DOODLEBUG |
Due to play with dog, lob projectile (9)
An anagram (to play) of DUE, DOG and LOB |
| 4 | TEST PILOT |
Person up for trial (4,5)
A cryptic definition |
| 5 | TALONED |
Retaining energy, bats to land with claws (7)
An anagram (bats) of TO LAND, with E for energy inserted |
| 6 | RULER |
Measure Aga, perhaps (5)
A double definition. An aga was a Turkish ruler |
| 7 | AKELA |
A parrot circles head of lone wolf (5)
A plus KEA (nestor notabilis, a New Zealand parrot) around L (first letter of lone). Jungle Book |
| 8 | OTOSCOPE |
Manage to support upended drunk after initially obtaining medical device (8)
TOS (sot, or drunk, reversed) following O, the first letter of obtaining, followed by COPE (manage) |
| 14 | GRANDIOSE |
Magnificent region, sad to undergo redevelopment (9)
An anagram (undergoing development) of REGION and SAD |
| 15 | LETHARGIC |
Sluggish mobile – charge it after end of call (9)
An anagram (mobile) of CHARGE and IT after L, the last letter of call |
| 16 | ANTIGONE |
Legendary female hybrid animal in a novel (unfinished) (8)
TIGON (cross between a tiger and a lioness) in A NEw minus the final letter. Antigone was the legendary daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta and is Linda’s real-life swimming coach. |
| 18 | REFUSAL |
No official expected to be disheartened (7)
REF (officiates in football match) plus USuAL (expected) minus its centre |
| 19 | KEYPAD |
What might help to get you in important set of papers (6)
KEY (important) plus PAD (set of papers) |
| 21 | DOSES |
Finishes eating second portions (5)
DOES (finishes) with S for second inserted. |
| 22 | UNPIN |
Detach page with superior French article at home (5)
UN (French article) above (superior) P for page plus IN (at home) |
Thanks to both blogger & setter.
I agree this was a very neat straightforward puzzle – though I did confidently write in RANGE for 6D until the crossers made it clear it was wrong – I still think it fits the clue as well as RULER – Aga = range (cooker) & to range = to measure (as in artillery).
Shikasta – we should have done the same as you on 6D, but we had the L from lie low already in place.
Shikasta, that is a royal “we” from David – I had ruler!!! (and possibly now a divorce!)
Don’t like 3d. Easy enough, but a doodlebug (assuming this refers to the German WW2 V1 flying bomb) is by definition not a projectile, being self-propelled.
Neb 4 Most people use projectile interchangeably with missile, rather than in the restricted definition of an object on which the only force acting is gravity. Most people wouldn’t make the distinction.
Many dictionaries (including Collins and AHD) include rockets and self-propelling missiles in their definition of projectile. So in my opinion at least there is nothing at all wrong with the clue.
Thanks D&L and Artexlen.
I have to disagree with the term ‘clean’ since I also had RANGE for 6dn before it was ‘ruled’ out by the Americanism at 12ac. To my mind, there should be only one solution to any clue – once you’ve worked out the word play.
Is Artexlen an alter ego of Philistine in the Guardian I wonder. I found myself doing this puzzle on the same day as Guardian 26,654 (still 4 weeks behind in that paper) and there’s ANTIGONE again.
Maybe just a coincidence.
Last ones in were Drawer and Keypad – both tricky in their own right. Still not really sure that Reward = Premium.
Thanks for the blog and marriage would be dull if you agreed on everything.
Bruce
Exactly. You come up with a list of possibles and you see which of them fits the intersecting letters (depending on how confident you are about them). It’s all part of the fun.
Bruce
There seems to be a glitsch in the matrix as I am responding before you made your comment.
Spooky!
Thanks Artexlen and D&L
Thought that it was a clearly clued crossword. Although I’d thought of the AGA stove for a moment, I also had the L and so it was clearly RULER. I’m of the school that a clue can be ambiguous with multiple possibilities, as long as their are crossing clues that mean that only one of them can be correct.
Think that UNPIN was my favourite, after finally nutting out what was going on with the cryptic part of it.
Finished in the SE with UNPIN, GOSSIP and ANTIGONE the last few in.
Hi David … yep … looks like Geoff hadn’t fixed his server timing issue. The other spooky thing here related to Hamish’s comment, where he had just finished the Guardian Philistine puzzle with the ANTIGONE clue. I also only posted on that puzzle on the same day as this one – had finished it earlier but hadn’t checked it till this last weekend ! 🙂