An excellent Saturday puzzle, challenging but ultimately manageable. I’m particularly struck by the exceptional quality of the surface readings.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BABE RUTH – BABE + RU + TH[e]. |
| 5 | DIKTAT – KID< + TAT. |
| 9 | SCRUBBER – dd. |
| 10 | WARM TO – ARM in TWO*. |
| 12 | INAUSPICIOUS – I[rish] N[aval] A[dventure] + [s]USPICIOUS. |
| 15 | CREDO – [medio]CRE DO[ctor]. |
| 16 | LEADBELLY – LEAD + BELLY. Huddie Leadbetter, blues singer and guitar player. |
| 18 | UP AND DOWN – [p]UP AND DOWN. |
| 19 | GENTS – GEN + ST<. |
| 20 | ILLEGITIMATE – I[mmora]L + LEG IT + 1 + MATE. |
| 24 | GLOVER – G + LOVER. |
| 25 | KOHLRABI – KOI “about” (HL + BAR<). |
| 26 | YES-MEN – S in YEMEN. |
| 27 | ASTERISK – (T[h]E[y]R[e] + IS) in ASK. |
| Down | |
| 1 | BASH – BAS + [suc]H. |
| 2 | BARE – BAR + E, “e” being the most common letter in “Leeds”. |
| 3 | ROBIN HOOD – ROBINHO + O[utplaye]D. |
| 4 | THE FULL MONTY – dd. A reference to Colin Montgomerie. |
| 6 | ISAAC – dd. Isaac Singer, the inventor who gave his name to Singer sewing machines. |
| 7 | TOM COLLINS – COL “impeded” TOMLINS[on]. |
| 8 | TROTSKYIST – TROT + SKY + 1ST. |
| 11 | SPHAGNUM MOSS – (SHAG “consumed” P[ub]) + SUMMONS*. |
| 13 | ACCUSINGLY – AC + CU + SINGLY. |
| 14 | MEDALLIONS – (SN + OIL + LAD + E[mpty] M[ostly])<. |
| 17 | BAGATELLE – (BALL “around” GATE) + [trifl]E. |
| 21 | GREBE – GREECE, with B “to conquer” EC. |
| 22 | TAXI – IT< “accommodates” (A + X) &lit. |
| 23 | MINK – MIN[s]K. |
This was very tough and rigorously accurate as I’ve come to expect from Scorpion – favourite THE FULL MONTY. For a little while, I thought there might have been a slip-up in 14 dn where the wordplay led to MEDALLIONS as above whereas I thought of MEDAILLONS, but dicts confirm it, as does an ad for Lidl in my paper today (not the Indy…).
The one I still don’t quite follow is:
4D Film how Scottish golfer feels after putting away satisfactorily? (3,4,5)
I got it from the crossing letters and the def. “Film” though I didn’t understand the reference to Colin M. But even now that’s been explained how is “The Full” a feeling? Is it a golfing term?
It’s a pun on putting – putting away food ie eating so being full and putting in golf on the green, I think.
Beermagnet
I think it is a reference to someone being ‘full’ after eating or ‘putting away’ food. I think in this case ‘putting’ was not used as a specific golfing term; an excellent bit of misdirection.
I understand now.
I didn’t read the eating sense of “putting away” at all. I was very well misled. (I wondered if there was something equivalent to “out on the full” as in the Rugby sense.)
Thanks both.
Got 6d correctly as ISAAC but I thought of the writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. Trouble is, I can’t now remember exactly what the clue was (and the paper was collected for recycling this week) so I’m not sure exactly how I understood the clue.
A nice satisfying puzzle with some humorous touches in the clueing.
Hi Allan_C – the clue was “Leader in Genesis, Singer”, so I guess it could be either of them. I’d only heard of Singer sewing machines so plumped for that one.
What has a scrubber to do with a ‘risqué website’? Collins says ‘promiscuous woman’ – is that it or is there something more subtle to do with rubber?
I was tempted by ‘grower’ rather than ‘glover’, thinking about flower beds and rowing as ‘manually creative’, though the clue didn’t quite justify it.
Nonetheless, a first-class puzzle with twists and turns and delights galore.
Duggie – re “scrubber”: a fair question, and something I hovered over whilst solving.
Whilst, errm, a friend told me that there are lots of websites featuring promiscuous women, I felt honour-bound to chase it up, and a Google image search for the term in question was surprisingly fruitless. That said, I did learn a lot about air pollution control facilities, which was nice.
I’ll have to admit I put SCRUBBER in without further thought after I saw ‘subject of risqué website’ but maybe I’ve been mixing with the wrong people over the years …
I liked the Full Monty clue, too, but, just for the record, he’s Colin Montgomerie. 🙂
He is now! Fixed – thanks Eileen.
Not sure I get the reasoning for the final ‘e’ in (17) Bagatelle. I would have thought Balle(t)(ie Ballet close t’) was a more plausible option but neither is very good, perhaps it’s just Bagatell is nearly Bagatelle and we won’t worry about the missing ‘e’ – a mere trifle.
17d works if the ‘missing e’ Terry mentioned is supplied by ‘close to the’ and the definition is ‘trifle’.