[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
It’s always a pleasure to draw an Anax on blogging day. This was actually a solve of two halves for me, the top half falling in steadily before I ground to a halt.
The long anagram at 11/14 down proved remarkably stubborn for me. That it shared two checked squares with 5 across, with its well-hidden definition, also made things harder.
A bit of cheating was eventually needed to finish things off. Good stuff all the same, and I don’t think there’s any shame in being beaten by Anax from time to time.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PREDISPOSITION | Bent, maybe from eating unfinished meal (14) |
| DIS[h] in PREPOSITION. | ||
| 9 | OVER-THE-TOP | What potty contains is a little extreme (4-3-3) |
| A sort of reverse abbreviation, as “potty” contains OTT. | ||
| 10 | FEW | Iron and tungsten are rare (3) |
| Fe + W. | ||
| 12 | ROONEY | United will feed Hodgson a striker (6) |
| ONE in ROY Hodgson, and of course England’s now highest-ever scoring striker, Wayne. | ||
| 13 | NO-GO AREA | New/old part of India, mostly concrete, exclusive location (2-2,4) |
| N + O + GOA + REA[l]. | ||
| 15 | EPISCOPAL | See relevant record is given to business partner (9) |
| EP + IS + CO + PAL. | ||
| 17 | PUT UP | Advance from left or right (3,2) |
| The wordplay just means that the answer is reversible. | ||
| 18 | GRITS | Goes to America, welcoming right breakfast there? (5) |
| R in GITS. | ||
| 20 | SASQUATCH | Monster taps letters on it low down (9) |
| SA (“it”) + SQUAT + C + H (the letters on taps). | ||
| 22 | OUTLAWRY | Being banished until, oddly, nothing wrong about it (8) |
| U[n]T[i]L in (0 + AWRY). | ||
| 23 | HAWSER | Rope that woman takes in was knotted (6) |
| WAS* in HER. | ||
| 26 | EGG | One exemplified by ‘good’ (3) |
| EG + G &lit. As in “(s)he’s a good egg”. | ||
| 27 | IMPERVIOUS | Arrogant nurses see proof? (10) |
| V in IMPERIOUS. As in water proof etc. | ||
| 28 | SURFACE TENSION | A water feature‘s unlikely use, for instance (7,7) |
| (USE FOR INSTANCE)*. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | RAVIOLI | Italian dish recipe, middle bit of liver in mayonnaise (7) |
| R + ([li]V[er] in AIOLI). | ||
| 3 | DIRGE | Lament putting up online crossword item (5) |
| E–GRID<. | ||
| 4 | SOHO | I’m surprised to enter very popular bit of London (4) |
| OH in SO. At least I assume “popular” is part of the definition, since I couldn’t find evidence of “so” meaning “very popular”. | ||
| 5 | ORTHOCLASE | Mineral found as earth cools off (10) |
| (EARTH COOLS)*. | ||
| 6 | IMPROMPTU | Devilish play, thus regularly unrehearsed (9) |
| IMP + ROMP + T[h]U[s]. | ||
| 7 | INFARCT | Actually accepting instruction to take dead tissue (7) |
| R in IN FACT. | ||
| 8 | NEW HAMPSHIRE | State added words to book supporting Tyneside pop group (3,9) |
| NE (postcode for Newcastle) + WHAM + PS + HIRE. | ||
| 11/14 | GREENGROCER’S APOSTROPHE | Small part of shop error – grape’s etc gone off (12,10) |
| (SHOP ERROR GRAPES ETC GONE)*. | ||
| 16 | COSTA RICA | Lead, with another one, around country (5,4) |
| CO–STAR + I + CA. A slightly puzzling one, as my parsing means “with another one” has to do double duty, as part of the definition of CO-STAR, and to give the following I. | ||
| 19 | INTEGER | Figure to bury put outside empty grave (7) |
| EG in INTER. | ||
| 21 | TESTUDO | Protecting screen TVs originally used to broadcast (7) |
| (T[vs] + USED TO)*. | ||
| 24 | ADIOS | A daughter I love beginning to say goodbye (5) |
| A + D + I + 0 + S[ay]. | ||
| 25 | FREE | Out cold, lifeless (4) |
| FREE[zing]. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
In the end 25dn defeated me, even after a word search. Just couldn’t see it. Your parsing looks right, but it is not at all obvious.
It took me a long time to get 11/14, too, not helped by entering OUTLAWED for 22ac.
20ac amused me. I’d just last month been to the World Science Fiction convention in Spokane in the US. It was call Sasquan and had a sasquatch as its mascot, so the word was fresh in my mind.
Thanks Simon
I didn’t see any double duty in 16dn which I parsed as CO-STAR (lead, with another) I (one) CA (Around).
Thanks Gaufrid, that makes sense. I think that’s how I saw it on solving, so why I couldn’t retrace my steps while blogging is beyond me.
25dn also one of, and perhaps actually my last one in too.
25dn was my LOI too, entered more in hope than expectation. I then surprised myself by parsing it at once; I agree with you and Dormouse.
Two contenders for CoD; OVER THE TOP and the aforementioned FREE.
Thanks, Anax and Simon
Count me as another for whom a parsed FREE was the LOI. Tricksy indeed. I also had “outlawed” for a while even though I couldn’t parse it, and it was only after I knew that GREENGROCER’S APOSTROPHE had to be the long answer that I saw the correct OUTLAWRY and how it was parsed. Another good mental workout from Anax IMHO.
Thought that the clue for “Greengrocer’s apostrophe” was very elegant – especially as it contained one.
Indeed xenopus did wonder if anyone else would spot that! Cheers anax and Simon.
Seemed as though this was going to be pretty easy until I came to a stop with only about half the clues in. I really liked the long anagram at 11/14 (not helped by initially putting PIG for EGG for 26) and especially 25d, another one of those little 4 letter clues which are much harder than they first appear. A few new words – 20a (couldn’t make the World Sci-Fi convention!) and 5d – to spice up the dish so all in all a challenging puzzle and satisfying solve.
Thanks to S&B.