An enjoyable challenge with some great surfaces.
This one took me a good half an hour to solve with a couple of parsings giving me trouble, but I got there in the end, with OBITER and ROESTI being the last ones in.
Although this was a tough and enjoyable puzzle overall (I especially liked 8dn and 22dn, but most of the surfaces were excellent), I do have some minor quibbles.
The wordplay at27 ac is slack to my mind, and in 7dn, the “are” in the clue is wrong, and could have been avoided by simply omitting it.
A word on the grid – this one felt more like four mini-puzzles as each of the corners is a bit isolated.
Thanks, aardvark
PS – usual note of caution – I am notoriously bad a t spotting themes and NINAs, but don’t think there are any here.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SCHISM | Hosts taken aback about man’s separation (6) |
| <=MCS (“masters of ceremonies” = “hosts”) about HIS “(man’s”) | ||
| 4 | STAMP OUT | Scotch and beer sustains a politician (5,3) |
| A M.P. in STOUT | ||
| 9 | NASEBY | Retreating army controlled by noble, at the margins, close to battle (6) |
| <=SA ((Salvation) “army”) in N(obl)E + BY
The battle of Naseby (1645) was a defest for the Royalists in the English Civil War. |
||
| 10 | FEEL LIKE | Want English butcher back in charge (4,4) |
| <=E KILL in FEE | ||
| 11 | NOODLE | In New York, head for pasta (6) |
| Double definition
I hadn’t really considered “noodle” to be an Americanism, but at least one of the online dictionaries indicates it is. |
||
| 12 | RYE BREAD | Study conducted about the old British bakery produce (3,5) |
| READ (“study”) about YE (“the old”) Br. (“British”) | ||
| 13 | POE | Writer’s iPhone used regularly (3) |
| iPhOnE | ||
| 14 | ARDOUR | Increasingly difficult for Eastender reporting fire (6) |
| Homophone of ” ‘arder” | ||
| 17 | SUBDEAN | Tone down article dismissing second upper-class cleric (7) |
| SUBD(u)E + AN | ||
| 21 | LOVAGE | Herb, a guy primarily besotted? (6) |
| A G(uy) in LOVE | ||
| 25 | PEG | Girl’s parking among others (3) |
| P (“parking”) + E.G. (“among others”) | ||
| 26 | TURNOVER | What one does with a page bringing pastry? (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 27 | IRON ON | Sort of patch in middle of skirt appearing repeatedly (4-2) |
| (sk)IR(t) + ON twice (“repeatedly”)
This doesn’t work for me as “middle of skirt” is either KIR or I |
||
| 28 | MAKE SAIL | Mother and I visiting Lakes, shakily begin voyage (4,4) |
| MA + I in *(lakes) | ||
| 29 | PLACID | Police on mountain returning undisturbed (6) |
| C.I.D. on <=ALP | ||
| 30 | CONSIDER | Judge is firm with staff member maybe losing head (8) |
| CO + (i)NSIDER | ||
| 31 | ASTERN | Like a bird towards the tail (6) |
| AS + TERN | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SON-IN-LAW | Relative cooking at home chops salad (3-2-3) |
| ON (“cooking”) + IN in SLAW | ||
| 2 | HAS WORDS | It’s hard when having to comprehend landing-place in wartime disputes (3,5) |
| SWORD in H + AS
Sword was one of the Normandy landings |
||
| 3 | SIBELIUS | Brother perhaps joined priest and American composer (8) |
| SIB (“brother perhaps) + ELI (“priest” in the Old Testament) + US
Refers to Jean Sibelius, the Finnish composer who died in 1957. |
||
| 5 | TIE-DYE | Italian lifted daughter inside to view stained garment (3-3) |
| <=IT + D in EYE | ||
| 6 | MALIBU | New album snaps start to indicate Pacific resort (6) |
| I(ndicate) in *(album) | ||
| 7 | OBITER | Soldiers are grabbing a mouthful by the way (6) |
| OR is (not are?) grabbing BITE | ||
| 8 | TRENDY | Latest score in rugby’s entertaining final (6) |
| END (“final”) in TRY (“core in rugby”) | ||
| 12 | ROE DEER | Right dictionary always needed to find “small ungulate” (3,4) |
| R + O.E.D. + e’er | ||
| 15 | RUM | Odd tipple drunk by crewman? (3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | PAL | Friend’s running 400 metres backwards (3) |
| <=LAP
400m is the size of a lap of most athletics tracks |
||
| 18 | NO FRILLS | Father has ailments after cutting back on budget (2,6) |
| <=ON + Fr. + ILLS
Def: A budget airline could also be described as a no frills airline. |
||
| 19 | BARNACLE | One firmly sticks rod on clean ground (8) |
| BAR + *(clean) | ||
| 20 | REINED IN | Checked on freshwater fish being served up in pub (6,2) |
| RE(“on”) + <=IDE in INN | ||
| 22 | ATOMIC | Tiny centrepieces displayed in Bath, Rome, Nice (6) |
| The centre pieces of bATh, rOMe and nICe | ||
| 23 | BROKEN | Faulty globe put up, given knowledge (6) |
| <=ORB + KEN | ||
| 24 | ROESTI | Potato dish from Ireland left around English street (6) |
| R.O.I (Republic of “Ireland”) around E St. | ||
| 25 | PETITE | Slight favourite that is maintaining second in steeplechase (6) |
| PET + (s)T(eeplechase) in I.E. | ||
*anagram
Thanks, loonapick. I took the parsing of HAS WORDS to be H, with SWORD inside AD. I haven’t checked, but I assumed Sword was the code name for a D-day landing (or the first invasion of Iraq?). Great puzzle, Aardvark
Typo. I meant, of course, ‘sword’ inside ‘as’
Re 2d, ‘Sword’ was the code name of one of the landing beaches in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944.
Thanks, I meant to go back to that clue after I finished, but in my haste to publish, I forgot.
With regard to 7D, I would have thought that OR (standing for Other Ranks) would be plural not a collective noun
Aid@5
The point I was making relates more to crossword grammar. Soldiers = OR, the letter combination, not the individual letters O and R. The letter combination OR is grabbing BITE.
In the same way, we wouldn’t use “I am in a plot” for “PLAIN”, for example, because in crossword grammar, I is no longer me, but the letter I, and should be followed by “is”, not “am”.
Of course, I’m a setting rookie, so I may be wrong, so please, someone with more experience, please tell me if that’s the case.
loonapick@6
Surely OR, being an abbreviation of Other Ranks, is two letters i.e. “O” and “R”, not a letter combination like say Co, Ltd, Inc. So we have “O and R are grabbing BITE”. If “soldiers” was cluing “Men” I would agree with you.
Thanks Aardvaark and loonapick
It certainly took me longer than half an hour, as I blocked myself by having HER for 25A – definition GIRL’S, embedded (parking) in otHERs…ah well!
Aardvark can write really great clues, but spoilt this with too many weak synonyms and obscure solutions like ‘subdean’ and ‘roesti’.
I give this 6/10.
I’m with Robbie here, and personally my noodle can only hold so many old battles and military abbreviations.
Thanks loonapick and Aardvark.
Agree with your analysis overall 27ac was sloppy.
I know of Sword because my father landed there on D Day so not obscure for me.
Thought SCHISM was excellent.
Thanks Aardvark and loonapick
A tough assignment that took a whole elapsed day to complete across a number of sessions – a couple of train rides, lunch and one last look late for ROESTI to fall.
Agree that there was some uncharacteristic sloppiness with some of the clues, but the others more than made up for it.
Finished all over the place with HAS WORDS (had no idea about Sword being a Normandy landing-place until coming here), REINED IN and the unknown ROESTI the last in.