I found this puzzle quite tricky, with a stuffing and sprouts overdose perhaps responsible for my stupor. A few unknowns, though only one needed to go in with fingers crossed.
As this is my blog closest in time to the New Year, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the setters, editor, and commenters for their contributions during 2017, and offer my best wishes to all for 2018.
Definitions are underlined, * = anagram, {} = omission, dd = double definition
| Across | |
| 1 | Holding a cape, mount a grazing animal (6) |
| ALPACA – A + C (cape), inside ALP (mount) + A. We don’t often see the c=cape equivalence in daily cryptics or Jumbos. | |
| 5 | Brit maybe showing discipline (7) |
| SUBJECT – dd, the first in the sense of someone who owes allegiance to a monarch, the second in the context of (say) academia | |
| 9 | European leaves room with coat of any cloth (8) |
| CHAMBRAY – CHAMB{e}R (European leaves room) + A{n}Y (coat of any) | |
| 13 | How one ham with tight clothes dances for all (3,5,8-5) |
| THE WHOLE SHOOTING-MATCH – (HOW ONE HAM + TIGHT CLOTHES)*, though none of the usual sources have this expression containing a hyphen | |
| 14 | Craftsman‘s business in arrears regularly (8) |
| RESTORER – STORE (business) in {a}R{r}E{a}R{s} (arrears regularly) | |
| 15 | One knew funny lines is what writer may need (7) |
| INKWELL – I (One) + KNEW* + LL (lines) | |
| 16 | Team’s beginning less well? Captain should have this in hand (6) |
| TILLER – T (Team’s beginning) + ILLER (less well) | |
| 17 | Bitter and a small wine, getting round in (10) |
| ASTRINGENT – A + S (small) + TENT (wine) around RING (round) | |
| 20 | Stars tippled, with litre getting spilt (6,6) |
| LITTLE DIPPER – (TIPPLED + LITRE)* | |
| 23 | Wheel to fix on Sierra (4) |
| SPIN – S (Sierra) + PIN (to fix). The surface is presumably referring to the Ford Sierra, one of the best-selling cars in Britain in the ’80s/’90s. | |
| 24 | Part of speech a man makes without changes (8) |
| VERBATIM – VERB (Part of speech) + A + TIM (man) | |
| 26 | Return bag with tools, dropping large items a climber needs (8) |
| TENDRILS – reversal of NET (bag, i.e. to secure), + DRIL{l}S (tools, dropping large) | |
| 29 | Staff backing work protest, gathering round leader’s place (4,8) |
| POLE POSITION – POLE (Staff) + reversal of OP (work), + SIT IN (protest) around O (round) | |
| 30 | Amazing Egypt, if sun’s out (10) |
| STUPEFYING – (EGYPT IF SUN)* | |
| 32 | Conflict with flier featured in foreign tale (10) |
| CONTRAVENE – RAVEN (flier) in CONTE (foreign tale – all the usual sources indicate that this is an English word, though it originally came from French) | |
| 34 | Woman’s piercing shriek before comic actor’s bloomer (6,6) |
| CHERRY LAUREL – HER (Woman’s) in CRY (shriek), + LAUREL (comic actor, i.e. Stan Laurel). I can’t say I knew this but the answer as indicated by the wordplay seemed reasonable enough. | |
| 36 | New uranium parts hot and unstable (8) |
| NEUROTIC – N (New), + U (uranium) in EROTIC (hot) | |
| 38 | Brainbox stumped by probing articles abroad (8) |
| EINSTEIN – ST (stumped by) in EIN + EIN (articles abroad, i.e. a German word for “a” twice) | |
| 39 | Reportedly, be in power shower (4) |
| RAIN – homophone of REIGN (be in power) | |
| 41 | Bird is a lark caught with trouble, a whopper (12) |
| CAPERCAILLIE – CAPER (a lark) + C (caught) + AIL (trouble) + LIE (a whopper) | |
| 43 | Finished run in fleece (10) |
| OVERCHARGE – OVER (Finished) + CHARGE (run) | |
| 44 | Extremely fast body of water (6) |
| SOLENT – SO (Extremely) + LENT (fast) | |
| 46 | Polish city in central Europe provided retreats (7) |
| FINESSE – reversal of ESSEN (city in central Europe) + IF (provided) | |
| 48 | Holy man, finishing early, cut verse (8) |
| CLERIHEW – CLERI{c} (Holy man, finishing early) + HEW (cut) | |
| 50 | Pick up revenue before a gambler’s go (4,1,4,3,3,6) |
| TAKE A TURN FOR THE BETTER – TAKE (revenue) + A TURN FOR THE BETTER (a gambler’s go) | |
| 51 | Get back from River Tees, flowing out of South (8) |
| RETRIEVE – (RIVER TEE{s})* | |
| 52 | Chat about dust marks in Muslim clothing (7) |
| YASHMAK – YAK (Chat), around ASH (dust) + M (marks) | |
| 53 | Holy wine by fire, mostly (6) |
| SACRED – SAC{k} (fire, mostly) + RED (wine) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Beverage knocked back with others drinking what sounds like tea (5) |
| LATTE – reversal of ET AL (with others) around T (what sounds like tea) | |
| 3 | A fellow to ramble with nothing on, a stripper (5,6) |
| AGENT ORANGE – A + GENT (fellow) + O (nothing) + RANGE (to ramble), and an oblique reference to the defoliant | |
| 4 | Clingy female’s gripped by a depression (8) |
| ADHERENT – HER (female’s) in A + DENT (depression) | |
| 5 | Fly without large type of battery (5) |
| SOLAR – SOAR (Fly) around L (large) | |
| 6 | Musician‘s help following Brahms’s intro (7) |
| BASSIST – B (Brahms’s intro) + ASSIST (help) | |
| 7 | Look and see next exploding shell (11) |
| EXOSKELETON – (LOOK + SEE NEXT)* | |
| 8 | Tax, or what time it’s raised (5) |
| TITHE – reversal of EH (what) + T (time) + IT | |
| 9 | Stupid nit called not very bright? (9) |
| CANDLELIT – (NIT CALLED)* | |
| 10 | Bill’s given university grant (5) |
| ADMIT – AD (Bill) + MIT (university) | |
| 11 | Do politicians need to support courage? (6,5) |
| BOTTLE PARTY – BOTTLE (courage) + PARTY (politicians) | |
| 12 | Get king out of capital city in some discomfort (7) |
| ACHIEVE – {K}IEV (king out of capital city) in ACHE (some discomfort) | |
| 18 | Student hopes room will get tidied up (9) |
| SOPHOMORE – (HOPES ROOM)* | |
| 19 | Religious loner before penning sentence being rebuffed (7) |
| EREMITE – ERE (before) around reversal of TIME (sentence) | |
| 21 | Body part close to collapse, and nose is distended (9) |
| TUMESCENT – TUM (Body part) + {collaps}E (close to collapse) + SCENT (nose) | |
| 22 | Study Count, back from soirée in fine material (8) |
| DENTELLE – DEN (Study) + TELL (Count) + {soiré}E (back from soirée). Another unknown but this time I would not have been surprised if I’d got it wrong, as it didn’t seem beyond the bounds of possibility that another word meaning count could have fitted ?E?L. | |
| 25 | British show good horsemanship in old gaol (9) |
| BRIDEWELL – B (British) + RIDE WELL (show good horsemanship) | |
| 27 | Enduring short underwear, with nothing on the outside (9) |
| LINGERING – LINGERI{e} (short underwear) + N{othin}G (nothing on the outside) | |
| 28 | Loving ancient city’s uncontrolled movement (8) |
| ROMANTIC – ROMAN (ancient city’s) + TIC (uncontrolled movement) | |
| 31 | Give a lift to solver texting kind words (7) |
| UPRAISE – U (solver texting, i.e. the word “you” in textspeak) + PRAISE (kind words) | |
| 33 | During rocky trek, cheered wildly for kind of sandwich (5-6) |
| THREE-DECKER – CHEERED* in TREK*. Another unknown that seemed right when constructed from wordplay. | |
| 34 | Argument against tax is circulating about lower rates (11) |
| CONCESSIONS – CON (Argument against) + CESS (tax) + IS around ON (about) | |
| 35 | Fanciful airline’s cut loose (11) |
| UNREALISTIC – (AIRLINE’S CUT)* | |
| 37 | Lock fixer‘s firm peeved to lose edging work (9) |
| COIFFEUSE – CO (firm) + {m}IFFE{d} (peeved to lose edging) + USE (work) | |
| 40 | Intriguing people society encourages, inspiring millions (8) |
| SCHEMERS – S (society) + CHEERS (encourages) around M (millions) | |
| 42 | Champion bitter about job (7) |
| APOSTLE – ALE (bitter) around POST (job) | |
| 43 | Top Labourite group to show a bit of guts (7) |
| OMENTUM – {M}OMENTUM (Top Labourite group, where “Top” is used in the sense of “to take off the top of” and Momentum is (Wikipedia): “a left-wing British political organisation”) | |
| 45 | On the up: pressman with skill for business (5) |
| TRADE – reversal of ED (pressman) + ART (skill) | |
| 47 | Silly accommodation in US state (5) |
| NINNY – INN (accommodation) in NY (US state, i.e. New York), with the definition a noun (as in “You big silly”) | |
| 48 | Composer’s first to hum a little sound (5) |
| CREEK – C (Composer’s first) + REEK (to hum, i.e. to smell badly) | |
| 49 | Unopened alcohol that is rum (5) |
| EERIE – {b}EER (Unopened alcohol) + IE (that is) | |
Chiefly British A small inlet in a shoreline, extending farther inland than a cove.??? whereas definition 3 for creak is :: noun:
A grating or squeaking sound.
Having said all that, I got it wrong 🙂
2. Is that four prizes you’ve won in the last 3 or 4 months?!
Up the Boro indeed, but don’t tell BW!
Even without any analysis, though, I would think that the Mephisto is the best bang for your buck, as it seems to put a lot of people off because the vocabulary is a bit more obscure than the dailies, yet still offers five prizes. Your two pen winnings seem pretty unlikely as I would guess the Sunday Times cryptic gets thousands of entries. Hope your luck continues throughout this year!
As for the rest of the crossword… I think I found it a little tricky but finished in less than an hour without aids, despite a few unknowns derived from teh wordplay… OMENTUM and DENTELLE to name but 2. An entertaining challenge. Thanks setter and mohn.
Ong’ara,
Kenya.
My dad had a Ford Sierra as a company car when we were kids, which helped. Also knowing French: I’m not very good on fabrics generally but DENTELLE is just French for ‘lace’. And CAPERCAILLIE was familiar: as I write I am drinking coffee from a mug with a picture of one on it.