Yet another delightful delve into the dark dungeons of the dictionary and wonderfully witty wordplay that makes the Monthly Club Special such a treat. This one took me about 56 1/2 minutes, so it was a good test without being intractable. I struggled to parse a few at solving time, but I think I’ve cracked the cleverest ones now. Thank-you clever setter for the great entertainment.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Graduate wearing formal top returned old conductor’s cloak (9) |
| DJELLABAH – BA (graduate) in DJ (dinner jacket; formal top), HALLE (old conductor) [returned -> ELLAH. | |
| 6 | Cycling around commonest part of Rajasthan, keep firm hold on turban (5) |
| PAGRI – A [commonest part; letter in] rAjAsthAn, in GRIP (keep firm hold) [cycling] -> PGRI. | |
| 9 | Perhaps Orcadian pens cursive works (7) |
| CRUIVES – (cursive)* [works]. A Scottish word, hence from the Orkneys. | |
| 10 | Wide-open firm will lose its way (7) |
| RINGENT – {st}RINGENT without the ST (street; way). | |
| 11 | Wants, as some might say, large savoury snacks, mainly wraps (5) |
| TALPA – L (large) in TAPA{s] (savoury snacks) [mainly]. Both Wants and TALPA mean moles. | |
| 12 | Bob finally asks — did Chuck cheat down under? (9) |
| DUCKSHOVE – DUCK (bob), last letter of askS, HOVE (did chuck; past tense of heave). The answer’s an Australian word, hence “down under”. | |
| 13 | Male frenzy ought to lead to hanky-panky (5) |
| MUSTH – MUST (ought to), first letter of Hanky-panky. | |
| 14 | Power to buy and sell houses regularly buried, at one time getting through fraud (9) |
| OBREPTION – Alternate letters of BuRiEd in OPTION (power to buy and sell). An archaic word, hence the “at one time”. | |
| 17 | Hard-to-break, wily, twisting, parasitic threadworms (9) |
| STRONGYLS – STRONG (hard-to-break), SLY (wily) [twisting] -> YLS. | |
| 18 | Provide income for now, somehow borrow tomorrow, as all do? (5) |
| ENDOW – All those words END in OW. Nice one. | |
| 19 | Former Spanish hothead, mostly amusing, maybe chops tropical tree (9) |
| CACAFUEGO – [mostly] FU{n} (amusing) E.G. (for example; maybe) in CACAO (tropical tree). | |
| 22 | Assess dated understanding on the radio (5) |
| CENSE – Sounds like, [on the radio], SENSE (understanding). “Dated” as the meaning is obsolete. | |
| 24 | Tragic hero‘s love introduced by different (clipped) lines (7) |
| OTHELLO – OTHE{r} (different) [clipped] LL (l for line twice; lines) O (love). | |
| 25 | Tramp almost pinching ribbon round centrepiece of ancient Maori ornament (3-4) |
| HEI-TIKI – TIE (ribbon) [round] -> EIT, in HIK{e} (tramp) [almost], and middle letter of ancIent. | |
| 26 | Sign at either end of passage in westbound congestion (5) |
| SEGNO – Reverse hidden in cONGEStion. The passage is a musical one. I remember seeing “Da capo al segno” in music I’ve played being an instruction to go from the start up to the sign. | |
| 27 | Brought back discipline, increasing strength of an army (9) |
| STRATONIC – ARTS (discipline) [brought back] -> STRA, TONIC (increasing strength). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | One way to clean Caledonian Canal when temperature plummets (5) |
| DICHT – DITCH (canal) moving the T (temperature) to the bottom. A Scottish word. | |
| 2 | Score-settler shot exposed CIA squealer (9) |
| EQUALISER – ({c}I{a} squealer)* [shot], where “exposed” means take off the outside letters. | |
| 3 | Ultimately driven under through being framed by chiefly deadly hulk (9) |
| LEVIATHAN – VIA (through) inside all but last letter of LETHA{l} (deadly), then last letter of {drive}N. | |
| 4 | Arguably rusty or smutty manner of speaking linked to solver outside church beginning to tear into singer (15) |
| BASIDIOMYCETOUS – IDIOM (manner of speaking), CE (Church of England; church) inside YOU (solver), all inside BASS (singer). One of the main groups of fungi incorporating rusts and smuts. | |
| 5 | Totty bothers rich husband, cutting through source of poison (4,11) |
| HERB CHRISTOPHER – [totty] (bothers rich)*, H (husband) in PER (through). A novel anagram indicator! | |
| 6 | Shifting ecstasy, menials who’ll be on the right side of dealer? (5) |
| PONES – PEONS (menials) shifting the E (ecstasy) -> PONES. | |
| 7 | Composer disheartened over hooded jacket (5) |
| GREGO – GR{i}EG (composer) [disheartened], O (over). | |
| 8 | Informed about what gutted family accompanying someone admits (2,3,4) |
| IN THE KNOW – EH (what?) [about] -> HE, K{i}N (family) [gutted] in IN TOW (accompanying someone). The answer came easily enough from the definition, enumeration and checkers, but it took me a while to parse! | |
| 13 | Eg banana-like superb fruit essentially divided among some performers (9) |
| MUSACEOUS – ACE (superb) and middle letter of frUit [essentially] separately inside MUSOS (some performers). | |
| 15 | Law formerly put pressure on author again? (9) |
| PRESCRIPT – P (pressure) RESCRIPT (author again). | |
| 16 | Depression blocking judgment when out of work? Space needed before new start (9) |
| INDENTION – DENT (depression) in {op}INION (judgement) without the OP (work). | |
| 20 | Clam following salmon is good (5) |
| COHOG – COHO (Pacific salmon), G (good) [following]. | |
| 21 | Large-format book list’s half covered by money raised (5) |
| FOLIO – Half of LI{st} in OOF (money) [raised] -> FOO. | |
| 23 | Early US computer Wouk’s ship sent over (5) |
| ENIAC – Herman Wouk authored The Caine Mutiny (mutiny on the ship U.S.S. CAINE) [sent over] -> ENIAC. | |
Ta for the blog. No typos this time. A bit different from usual. Normally it’s a process of entering the easy ones, then making steady progress through most of the rest, and then taking a while over the last four or five. For this one, the middle bunch took longer to work out, but the last few were then straightforward. Apart from TALPA, though once I’d noticed I’d entered EQUAAISER on the way down, and that the across entry wasn’t T-A-A, it was a bit easier.