I liked this, a classic type puzzle with several tricky anagrams and nothing obscure (unless you don’t know French). I particularly liked 14a, 22a, 26a and 16d. I expect many will biff 6d and 10d and move on. It took me about half an hour to do and parse.
Across | |
1 | Habitually drink tea, mostly outside work (4) |
TOPE – Insert OP (work) into TE[A]. | |
3 | Attainable diamonds regularly found here (2,3,5) |
ON THE CARDS – double definition, one cryptic. | |
9 | Drivers, one prevaricating about vehicle on track (7) |
RAILCAR – All reversed (= “about”): RAC (drivers) LIAR (one prevaricating). | |
11 | Posh politician one socialist judged (7) |
UMPIRED – U (posh) MP, 1, RED. | |
12 | Profanity from guru admitting constant anger (9) |
SACRILEGE – SAGE (guru) insert C (a constant) RILE (anger). | |
13 | Aid when strolling round love boat (5) |
CANOE – Insert O love) into CANE (aid when strolling). | |
14 | Liquid lunch? Ugly lawman tipsy with it (12) |
MULLIGATAWNY – (UGLY LAWMAN IT)*. What an improbable looking but brilliant anagram! | |
18 | Searcher wielding rod more beatific after drink (5,7) |
WATER DIVINER – WATER (drink) DIVINER (more beatific). | |
21 | Nitrogen close to ocean absorbed by marine plant (5) |
SENNA – SEA (marine) insert N for nitrogen and N end of ocean. | |
22 | Seemingly take the excitement out of stay (9) |
DEFERMENT – Well, to ferment could be to excite, so to DE-FERMENT would be to take out excitement. STAY as a noun here. | |
24 | Cunning vehicle for winter trekkers primarily (7) |
SLEIGHT – SLEIGH, T = trekkers primarily. As in sleight of hand. | |
25 | Fabled kingdom is lacking a capital (7) |
ATLANTA – ATLANTIS with IS lacking, A. Capital of Georgia, USA. | |
26 | Able to grasp floating sphere with line (10) |
PREHENSILE – (SPHERE LINE)*. Another cracker of an anagram. | |
27 | Race often won by such effrontery (4) |
NECK – double definition. |
Down | |
1 | Irritating irregular rise in volume (8) |
TIRESOME – (RISE)* inside TOME = volume. | |
2 | Noble needs to practise guarding king in church (8) |
PRINCELY – PLY (practise) insert R (king) IN CE (Church). | |
4 | Tend to run up banks of Seine (5) |
NURSE – NUR (run up) SE (outer letters of Seine). | |
5 | Servant to take in nuts I’ll crack (9) |
HOUSEMAID – HOUSE (take in) MAD (nuts) insert I. | |
6 | Top eastern state bounded by waterway where craft launched (4,9) |
CAPE CANAVERAL – CAP (top) E(astern) CANAL (waterway) insert AVER (state). | |
7 | Enthusiastic band of artists? (6) |
RARING – an RA RING is a band of artists. | |
8 | Waterlogged lair beneath turf (6) |
SODDEN – SOD (turf) DEN (lair). | |
10 | What reviewer usually offers maybe beyond which reflection less than total (8,5) |
CRITICAL ANGLE – double definition. If this is all Greek to you and Snell’s Law is unfamiliar, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_internal_reflection | |
15 | Brief relations ceased, not unexpectedly (9) |
ANECDOTES – (CEASED NOT)*. | |
16 | Expecting what’s required for defence in test (8) |
ENCEINTE – double definition, the first being French for pregnant, the second being the enclosure or ramparts of a fortification. Not sure what IN TEST is adding, unless it implies the defences have to be tested? Ah, at last some one below has pointed out it’s also HIDDEN in DEF(ENCE IN TE)ST so that’s why in test appears. The word enceinte appears a lot in France, on every drug label and in every doctor’s cabinet, telling people what to avoid if in that condition. | |
17 | Young achievers, having defect, quietly coming in second (8) |
BRATPACK – BACK = second; insert RAT (defect, jump ship) P (quietly). | |
19 | Finishes milk drink (4,2) |
USES UP – USE (milk, take advantage of) SUP (drink). | |
20 | Quick expulsion of unknown European, first seen at sea (6) |
SNEEZE – (SEEN)*, Z (unknown), E(uropean). | |
23 | Beat learner driver involved in crash (5) |
FLAIL – Insert L for learner driver into FAIL for crash. |
Very enjoyable overall, liked (like) mulligatawny. Thanks Pip and setter.
BRATPACK also delayed me as I had an incorrect checker for a while supplied by 27ac where I had been working my way through the parts of a horse by which a race may be won, first NOSE, then HEAD and then finally NECK.
ENCEINTE has not appeared before and I’m not surprised I was never taught it in French classes at school because that was a time when the English equivalent ‘pregnant’ would have been referred to only in hushed tones in polite company.
The rest of the puzzle was rather good.
Edited at 2020-10-21 06:06 am (UTC)
Thanks to setter and Pip, most enjoyable.
27 minutes all told; I suppose I’m quite lucky in seeing MULLIGATAWNY and CAPE CANAVERAL quite quickly and being able to biff CRITICAL ANGLE and PREHENSILE with barely a second thought. FOI 1a TOPE LOI 16d ENCEINTE COD 3a ON THE CARDS.
Edited at 2020-10-21 06:17 am (UTC)
On the face of it, this suggests that the 10d clue is wrong in describing the reflection as “less than total”. That said, I’m no scientist, and perhaps I’ve misconstrued the cryptic parsing.
I wanted 22ac to be DECORSETTE…..
FOI 1ac TOPE
COD 6dn CAPE CANAVERAL (now and then Cape Kennedy?)
WOD 16dn ENCIENTE was vaguely remembered. It was interesting to recall that the word ‘pregnant’ was taboo.
Old Welsh wives’ tale:
‘Our Rita’s gettin’ married!’
“Oh, dear, Blodwyn! Is she…you know…. pre…?”
‘Oh no! Not at all!’
“There’s posh!”
Rita was therefore not an actress!
Edited at 2020-10-21 07:04 am (UTC)
Thanks Pip for explaining the biffs, and setter for a great workout.
Edited at 2020-10-21 07:12 am (UTC)
17 minutes, no typos
Another five mins to crack those.
Good crossword IMHO.
Thanks setter and Pip.
PS Forget to say, I think 15dn is a brilliant clue.
Edited at 2020-10-21 07:43 am (UTC)
No problem with ENCEINTE, though.
Excellent crossword and well done, Pip!
Edited at 2020-10-21 07:44 am (UTC)
Was totally unaware of the defence meaning for the nearly unspellable enceinte, which I now see as a regular noun can be pluralised with an S.
Andyf
Mainly easy. Feel like a doofus, though, as enceinte took me a few minutes to spot, which is a bit of a blooper for a French teacher. Got it eventually, without seeing the hidden. Thanks pip.
LOI ENCEINTE of course. I have more than a smattering of French but have never come across the word which is probably just as well.
Like Matt and doubtless others I relied on the old rule “if there hasn’t been a hidden and the letters make a hidden possible and you have no idea what’s going on with the clue then it’s a hidden.”
I knew nothing about the critical angle and having carefully read the pertinent part of Pip’s link I’m still in pretty much the same position.
Edited at 2020-10-21 11:34 am (UTC)
Still, a really good exercise so thanks setter- and not forgetting blogger.
Many lovely clues including UMPIRED (simple but effective), MULLIGATAWNY (even though I only tried it once!) and ENCEINTE (which was very well hidden).
COD goes to TIRESOME which was very satisfying to unravel.
Thanks to the setter for a 34-minute workout and to Pip for the enjoyable blog.
The same delays to completion as many others – BRATPACK, NECK and ENCEINTE LOI
Edited at 2020-10-21 06:34 pm (UTC)
ENCEINTE nicely – um – enceinte, and NECK my last in on the grounds that it could have been anything until BRATPACK suppled the K.
RACECAR for a while because I thought prevaricating supplied the ER and about the CA, though of course it didn’t work.
I remember MULLIGATAWNY as sort of brown Windsor with added curry powder and a special treat on cold nights.
Edited at 2020-10-21 06:48 pm (UTC)