A top quality puzzle, I thought, not difficult but with some tortuous wordplay and a bit of general knowledge needed. 23 minutes.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Stop off, stopping off in remote region (7) |
| OUTPOST – I’m not sure exactly how to explain this wordplay. POST is an anagram of STOP, so take the OFF away from STOP OFF and rearrange the remaining STOP I suppose. | |
| 5 | Writer backing leading group, penning volume with twisted end (7) |
| NABOKOV -VAN reversed = NAV (‘backing leading group’), insert BOKO = BOOK (volume) with twisted end. Chap who wrote Lolita in 1955 and no doubt some other stuff. | |
| 9 | Paper’s checked by acting Head of News, one writing legal documents (9) |
| DRAFTSMAN – FT’S (paper’s) inside DRAMA then N[ews]. | |
| 10 | City’s a large African city, not the capital (5) |
| URBAN – [D]URBAN I presume. Durban is the seventeenth largest city in Africa, with about 4 million population. Quite large. | |
| 11 | You shouldn’t have weed in lake (5) |
| TAHOE -TA ! (you shouldn’t have, thanks!), HOE (weed the garden). Lake Tahoe is on the border between California and Nevada, I have some friends who live on the California side. | |
| 12 | Making houses the French study with IT (1-8) |
| E-LEARNING – EARNING (making), insert LE (the in French). | |
| 14 | Match organiser arranged one boring game, struggling without funds, right? (8,6) |
| MARRIAGE BROKER – (GAME)* gives MAGE, insert both ARR[anged] I; BROKE = without funds, R[ight]. | |
| 17 | Where drinkers go after getting a round in? (10,4) |
| NINETEENTH HOLE – golf related cryptic definition. | |
| 21 | Assistant referee’s helper books oddly trim Italian star (9) |
| PAVAROTTI – PA (assistant) VAR (referee’s helper), OT (books), T[r]I[m]. | |
| 23 | Receive poor grade in a prestigious university (5) |
| ADMIT – D (poor grade) inside A MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is a research university). | |
| 24 | Kind of stew with sage I put in another place (5) |
| IRISH – a RISHI is a Sanskrit sage, move the I. No Sunak jokes please. | |
| 25 | Most anxious European saved by a nap in Spain, mostly (9) |
| UNEASIEST – E inside UNA SIEST[a]. | |
| 26 | Spooner’s ideal skin colour gets international agreement (4,3) |
| TEST BAN – Spooner would have said BEST TAN. | |
| 27 | Is she extremely disruptive, tucking into drink? (7) |
| LADETTE – D[estructiv]E inside LATTE a coffee drink. Could be an &lit. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Crank party up with timeless tune (6) |
| ODDITY – OD (DO reversed) DIT[T]Y = time-less tune. | |
| 2 | Tube train less popular? Long to board it (7) |
| TRACHEA – TRA[in] = train, less in; insert ACHE = long. | |
| 3 | Not upset, ambassador and leftist in a row (2,3,4) |
| ON THE TROT – ON T = (NOT)*, HE (ambassador), TROT = leftist. | |
| 4 | Disposition of soldiers in eastern desert after work, for a while (11) |
| TEMPERAMENT – TEMP (work for a while), E[astern], MEN inside RAT = desert. | |
| 5 | Element of renunciation for devoted person (3) |
| NUN – hidden word, slightly. | |
| 6 | Racier English Britpop band covers (5) |
| BLUER – E inside BLUR a Britpop band. | |
| 7 | Film-maker from this country, flipping good egg (7) |
| KUBRICK – UK reversed, BRICK = good egg. Stanley Kubrick’s last film was Eyes Wide Shut, previewed days before he died. It’s one of my top movies along with 2001: A Space Odyssey, Spartacus, Lolita, and more. Best director ever, IMO. | |
| 8 | Very popular track containing say A sharp (8) |
| VINEGARY – V[ery], IN (popular), EG (say), RY (track) with A inserted. | |
| 13 | Shocking swimmer’s return, on swallowing frozen water by lake (8,3) |
| ELECTRIC EEL – ELECT = return, RE (on), insert ICE, add L. | |
| 15 | Ran through Kent area? Tried again to tour it (9) |
| REHEARSED – REHEARD = tried again, in court; insert SE = Kent area. | |
| 16 | Well preserved Plotinus works (8) |
| UNSPOILT – (PLOTINUS)*. | |
| 18 | They may dig verse included in blues (7) |
| NAVVIES – NAVIES (blues) has V inserted. Navvies dug the canals, or ‘navigations’. | |
| 19 | Keen to get hold of book displaying brilliance (7) |
| LAMBENT – insert B for book into LAMENT = keen. | |
| 20 | A day to support Saint David, for example (6) |
| STATUE – ST (saint) A TUE[sday]. | |
| 22 | Run with Jack after what reduction in speed? (5) |
| REHAB – R (run) EH? (what?), AB (Jack Tar, Able Seaman). | |
| 25 | Uniform put on group who serve hot drink in this (3) |
| URN – U (uniform), RN (group who serve). | |
17:20 – Neatly put-together puzzle solved in a somewhat messier fashion. Never parsed OUTPOST – having bunged in a similarly unparsed OUTBACK – until the crossers sorted me out, so thanks for the explanation, which was less convoluted than seemed likely at first glance.
Finished most of it fairly quickly but had a few left in the SE, including the NHO ‘lambent’, surely more obscure than ‘Rishi’? I misspelt NABOKOV as ‘Nabakov’, so that was another wrong one, which I couldn’t parse. I didn’t quite understand PAVAROTTI till I looked at the blog either , as I thought ‘Varpaotti’ would make more sense but the parsing seems obvious now I’ve looked at the explanation.
Thought I’d finished with all correct and only one unparsed in 36.43, only to discover that, like quite a few others, I thought it was NABUKOV. I didn’t take the hint that because I couldn’t parse it, it must be wrong, but I was so convinced that I’d seen it spelt in this way it must be right.
I’ve been logged out again today (that’s every day since the weekend). Why is it when they change something, it always gives one grief?
41 mins with LOI the NHO LAMBENT once I finally saw the keen/lament bit.
I liked the two long clues and the Spoonerism.
Thanks Pip and setter.
28:27
For me this was the most enjoyable puzzle for a long time – mainly because of the witty surfaces.
Tahoe was COD. Nabokov loved puzzles and I think he would have liked his own clue.
Thanks to Pip and the setter.
37:46
Vaguely remembered LAMBENT as the sort of word used by Derek Jewell on his radio 3 programme in the late seventies. “Verily it is a lambent benison” comes to mind.
Just over 24 mins for me – felt like longer, sitting on a very delayed train home from London. FOI and COD NINETEENTH HOLE. Didn’t understand OUTPOST so grateful for explanations
It looks like I was the only one who went down the (L)USAKA route at 10a. It made the NE corner somewhat trickier than it was!
I forgive YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE for TA, because it allowed the wonderful double-meaning of WEED. Never parsed NABOKOV because I presumed the VOLUME was V. But it couldn’t have been anything else with those checkers. Can’t remember where I first heard of Lake Tahoe. The Godfather? Near Las Vegas, no? 23’44”.
I first read of Lake Tahoe in one of Mark Twain’s books (“Roughing It”?). He was mighty impressed with its beauty. I’ll visit it one day, after I win the lottery…
Excellent puzzle today, with lots of twisting and very witty clues. Almost no unknowns (maybe LAMBENT and ON THE TROT) and the wordplay was always clear, but that didn’t make the puzzle easy and I took 40 minutes for it. Clues I liked especially were DRAFTSMAN (with DRAMA for “acting”), TAHOE with its wonderful surface reading, TRACHEA, VINEGARY and STATUE. A very enjoyable and refreshing solve.
23 more or less
Late entry so just recording my time. Nice puzzle and nice blog
Logged out again, I’m getting fed up with this., and, yes. I do ALWAYS hit the « remember me » button, though God knows why it’s there, ‘cos it doesn’t!
Anyway, I have to say brilliant blog Z. I laughed like at a drain at some of your comments. Much more entertaining than the crossie, IMHO.
No time as I started at eight o’clock this morning and have just finished, having a day full of … you know what!
PRO-AM is not just for golfers, I once won a pro-am tennis tournament at Hurlingham with John Lloyd as my partner. We beat some good guys on the way through and he was very charming.
Thanks again Z and setter.
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