A tough Thursday workout
Chalmie offers us a mental workout this morning, with many of the answers appearing obvious, but difficult to parse, and a few difficult ones thrown in for good measure. A very enjoyable experience – thanks, Chalmie.
Apologies for the short blog – I have a meeting to go to in a few minutes.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PUTS OFF | Postpones advertisement about sending back unopened mail (4,3) |
| PUFF (“advertisement”) about <=(p)OST | ||
| 5 | TIPSTER | Pundit’s article erased from history during row (7) |
| P(a)ST in TIER | ||
| 9 | MOREL | Extra-large mushroom (5) |
| MORE (“extra”) + L | ||
| 10 | ANCHOVIES | Keeping his head, top-class corporal maybe competes for fish (9) |
| A N.C.O. keeping H(ead) + VIES | ||
| 11 | OVERTAKES | Finished with attempts to film passes (9) |
| OVER (“finished”) + TAKES (“attempts to film”) | ||
| 12 | INLET | Small piece of land reverses direction to become small piece of water (5) |
| Take ISLET (“small piece of land”) and change the S to N (“reverse direction”) – Thanks, Andrew for pointing out my mistake! | ||
| 13 | FOR GOOD MEASURE | To give up somehow aroused me too (3,4,7) |
| FORGO + *(aroused me) | ||
| 18 | LORD OF THE ISLES | Prince Charles frantically rifles toolshed (4,2,3,5) |
| *(rifles toolshed)
An ancient title, one of many held by the current Prince of Wales. |
||
| 20 | SPAWN | Singular man’s offspring (5) |
| S + PAWN | ||
| 22 | MASTERFUL | Arrogant graduates crying when one goes missing (9) |
| MAs + TE(a)RFUL | ||
| 24 | IRREGULAR | Extraordinary Irish piece returned by retired artist (9) |
| Ir. + <+LUGER (“piece”) + <=R.A. | ||
| 25 | GORSE | Little bit of string wound around prickly plant (5) |
| GORE (“wound”) around S(tring) | ||
| 26 | SALUTES | Playing back stringed instruments shows respect for rank (7) |
| <+AS (“playing”) + LUTES | ||
| 27 | MOTHERS | Parents mark the rest (7) |
| M + OTHERS | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | POM-POM | With grand ceremony, order anti- aircraft gun (3-3) |
| POMP + O.M. (Order of Merit) | ||
| 2 | THREE-FOUR | Round featuring hard key and time signature (5-4) |
| TOUR (“round”) featuring H + REEF (“key”) | ||
| 3 | OWLET | Don’t start being mean and allow nestling (5) |
| (l)OW + LET | ||
| 4 | FRANKFORT | Town open instead of shut, in the end (9) |
| FRANK (“open”) FOR (“instead of”) (shu)T
The only two Frankforts that I’m aware of are hardly towns – one is a major city in Germany and the other is the capital of Kentucky. |
||
| 5 | TACKS | Put pressure on, say, for changes of direction (5) |
| Homophone of TAX (“put pressure on”) | ||
| 6 | PRODIGALS | In favour of controls over German spendthrifts (9) |
| PRO + DI(G)ALS | ||
| 7 | TRILL | Musical figure not going through insignificant line (5) |
| TRI(via)L + L | ||
| 8 | ROSETTES | Decorations essentially from opposing groups (8) |
| f(RO)m + (SET + <=SET) (“opposing groups”) | ||
| 14 | GOODNIGHT | Try doing the exercise when lacking energy – I’m off! (9) |
| GO + *(doing th) | ||
| 15 | MAELSTROM | Spread more salt at beginning of major turbulence (9) |
| *(more salt) + M(ajor) | ||
| 16 | USED FORCE | Physically assaulted old policemen (4,5) |
| USED (“old”) + FORCE (“policemen”) | ||
| 17 | PLASTICS | Materials keep on going into films (8) |
| LAST in PICS | ||
| 19 | BLEEDS | Lose clothes in county drains (6) |
| L(os)E in Beds. (Bedfordshire) | ||
| 21 | APRIL | Be sick about voting system which takes 30 days (5) |
| AIL about P.R. (Proportional Representation, a voting system) | ||
| 22 | MOLES | Spots infiltrators (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 23 | EIGHT | Cargo abandoned by French crew (5) |
| (Fr.)EIGHT | ||
*anagram
Thanks loonapick – I think you’ve done the substitution the wrong way round in 12a: the ISLET is a small piece of land, and the INLET is the water (and therefore the answer).
Andrew@1 – You’re right, of course – post edited accordingly.
Thanks
Thanks loonapick-great blog (but dont we call the German city frankfUrt -well in English)- there had to one be in USA.
I’m not used to this setter- his parsing is er different.Was going to give this a miss but reneged on your recommendation-
I’ll add him to the list!
I got stuck because I entered “spies” for 22down. It fits!
Thanks loonapick and those who’ve commented. I take the point that the definition of FRANKFORT was a bit vague – sorry.
But I always love seeing “enjoyable” in the blog and/or comments, since that’s my chief objective.
Thanks Chalmie and loonapick
There was certainly a bit of work in this one – with my last one in, TRILL, spilling in to the second day before I could understand what was going on with it.
Found a town called FRANKFORT in New York State to fit the clueing, but am sure that wasn’t the one being targeted !
Found it a good combination of finding a word and then working out why and seeing the wordplay that generated an answer.
Good stuff from Chalmie here !
Thanks Chalmie and loonapick.
Yes Chalmie, I did enjoy this thank you. I had the same misgivings about calling FRANKFORT a town (and I’ve seen places in the US with populations under 100 which still call themselves “cities”) but all’s fair in crossword land so long as the answer has to be what it is.
APRIL was one of those clues that I solved before I got to the definition. Whereas both GORSE and TRILL took a lot of effort to work out.
A good mixture for a relaxing diversion while waiting for the car to be serviced!