I prepared for this by doing the Club Monthly Special, which took a while. Sometimes I find the complexities and obscurities of that one dull the apprehension of the rather more straightforward daily fare, but not, it seems, this time, as I rattled through in 14.26.
As you will see, a familiarity with the quaint practices and antique wording of Choral Evensong turned out to be rather useful, as does a (very) basic understanding of cricket, a knowledge of the NATO alphabet, and the merest smattering of French.
As you will see, a familiarity with the quaint practices and antique wording of Choral Evensong turned out to be rather useful, as does a (very) basic understanding of cricket, a knowledge of the NATO alphabet, and the merest smattering of French.
We have a full set of the alphabet to place around the grid, which the setter has managed without too much by way of obscurity. The tyrant may not be in everyone’s day to day vocabulary, but the wordplay leaves little room for doubt.
You have clues, definitions, SOLUTIONS, explanations and ramblings below.
ACROSS
1 Bank accepting support is failing (8)
MORIBUND Bank is MOUND, taking in or accepting RIB for support, more of the structural than the anatomical kind
5 Charlie not wanting two servings of energy drink (6)
COFFEE NATO Charlie, doesn’t want, so is OFF, (something), plus E(nergy) twice
9 Is taken aback a small amount about network making hissing sound (8)
SIBILANT IS taken aback (literally backwards) then a BIT for a small amount (ignore the A) surrounding LAN for (Local Area) network. The old form of the Lord’s Prayer gets very sibilant when it gets to “forgive us our trespasses”.
10 Brooded, putting blame on tyrant (6)
SATRAP Originally, I think, a Persian provincial governor: Darius, who threw Daniel into the lions’ den, had 120 of them. Chambers develops it into a general tyrannical person, so our definition is fine. The wordplay is easy brooded: SAT, with blame: RAP put on.
12 Democrats in race, worn down, offering compromise position (6,6)
MIDDLE GROUND You need two D(emocrats) in MILE for race, and then translate worn down as GROUND.
15 Whole parts of African city with time regressing (5)
UNITS The African city is TUNIS, send its T(ime) backwards a bit.
16 Month exactly right to host second parade (5,4)
MARCH PAST The random month Is MARCH, exactly right is PAT with S(econd) “hosted”
18 Old cigar — it’s unusually immoderate (9)
ORGIASTIC Our first anagram (unusually) of O(ld) CIGAR IT’S
19 Left bar, ignoring last of indecent language (5)
LINGO L(eft) and bar: INGOT without the last (letter) of indecenT
20 Queen is as nothing I suspect, after jack’s special quality (2,2,4,4)
JE NE SAIS QUOI Our second anagram (suspect), though you have to work a bit to get the fodder. QUEEN IS AS O (nothing) I, following J(ack)
24 One cricket club hosting cricket side I considered very special (6)
ICONIC Well, the first Test has started, with NZ rather stretching England, so a cricket clue is surely permissible. Here one is I, Cricket Club is just CC, and the cricket side is ON. I is I. A little deft construction.
25 With no clear candidate emerging, success involves info about European (4-4)
WIDE-OPEN (The hyphen is optional). Success is WIN, with DOPE for information surrounding E(uropean) inserted.
26 One directs roofer to add extra line (6)
TILLER Roofer is TILER, to which an extra L(ine) is added.
27 Recognise power draws in sort without real engagement (4-4)
SKIN-DEEP Recognise is SEE, add P(ower) and insert (draw in) KIND for sort.
DOWN
1 Radio report’s failed to notice obscurity (4)
MIST A homophone, so hearable on the radio, of MISSED for failed to notice.
2 Red Guard initially abandoning sport (4)
RUBY the initial G of guard abandons the sport of RUGBY
3 Somehow a cable is absorbing temperature in marine environment (6,3)
BALTIC SEA An anagram (somehow) of A CABLE IS absorbing T(emperature)
4 Holy woman recording it is involving German with part of evening service (4,8)
NUNC DIMITTIS “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace”. A rather atmospheric version by Geoffrey Burgeon covered the end credits of the 1979 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Here the holy woman is a NUN, the recording a CD, IT IS is in plain sight, and the German with, MIT, is involved/inserted.
6 Broadcasting revolutionary extract of Hungarian opera (2,3)
ON AIR Fortunately, you don’t need your extensive list of Hungarian operas, because this is a reverse (revolutionary) hidden (extract) of the same: HungaRIAN Opera.
7 Protocol over occupying uniform part of track for racing (7,3)
FORMULA ONE Protocol is FORM, then O(ver) “occupies” U(niform) (NATO again) and LANE for part of track.
8 Expect to lose half printing speed (10)
EXPEDITION EXPect loses its (second) half, and printing is EDITION.
11 One right, say, to retire, with church living no longer very profitable (3-4-5)
GET-RICH-QUICK One is again I, RighT is represented by its first and last letters, and say give EG. Reverse those (to retire), add CH for church, and then add another bit of Choral Evensong, from the 1662 version of the apostles’ creed in which living is rendered as QUICK: “He will come…to judge the quick and the dead”.
13 Whence meat juices flow in disorderly manner (3,2,5)
OUT OF JOINT Well, yes, that’s where meat juices come from. But Hamlet act 1 scene 5 is the origin of the more metaphorical phrase:
“The time is out of joint—O cursèd spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!”
14 Flourishing iris loving fresh earth (6,4)
VIRGIN SOIL Flourishing is our anagram indicator, and IRIS LOVING the fodder
17 Sound conclusion, mostly, about vulgar festival (9)
HALLOWEEN (ignore the apostrophe) Sound is HALE (as in …and hearty) and conclusion mostly is ENd without the D. Insert LOW for vulgar.
21 Take control of French square (5)
SEIZE Oh, clever. It just happens that SEIZE Is French for sixteen, which is the square of four, or in their case, quatre.
22 Environment Agency upset about MPs heading off for recess (4)
APSE The EA abbreviation is in Chambers. Upset (reverse) it and insert MPS without the heading M. Good surface.
23 Lifted slates without much notice (4)
SNAP As in election and such. PANS for slates (criticises) reversed (lifted).
Edited at 2021-06-03 12:31 pm (UTC)
Lots of biffy stuff without fully bothering with the cryptic — COFFEE, MARCH PAST, JE NE SAIS QUOI (from just the J checker), GET RICH QUICK, FORMULA ONE, HALLOWEEN
Thanks to commenters for the explanation of ‘no longer’ which confused me for a while. COD to seize. Liked out of joint too.
Thanks blogger and setter.
Edited at 2021-06-03 01:43 pm (UTC)
FOI SIBILANT
LOI EXPEDITION
COD SEIZE
TIME 7:35
LOI was SATRAP, a word recently learnt from crosswords. Also held up by EXPEDITION and parsing LINGO.
By chance I watched the last episode of Tinker Tailor last night and now know how to pronounce “shewed”. And the music at the end has been in my head all day.
Enjoyed the puzzle.
David
I think my wife has a bit of a crush on Alec Guinness!
Enjoyed today’s puzzle.
Good variety of clues with personal COD 21 d “Seize” mainly because I didn’t have the opportunity to study French at school. Our first foreign language was German for some reason which at least allowed me to put the “mit” in 4dn “Nunc Dimittis”.
Thanks to Z for an enjoyable blog and to the Setter.
Snobs only
NUNC DIMITTIS known from somewhere and in from the MIT
MIST and MORIBUND last two in. Wasn’t entirely sure the former was the same as mist and like John Dun wanted bra in there before the light dawned
Nice puzzle — thanks setter and Mr Z