Once more the best crossword of the month with some exotic words and inventive wordplay. It took me 1hr 19minutes finishing with the relatively simple (once you see it) MHO. Word and clue of the month goes to the delightful RUMLEGUMPTION with its two members.Thank-you clever setter.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Equipment cuts narrow openings, twisting curved old blades (8) |
| STRIGILS – RIG (equipment) in SLITS (narrow openings) [twisting] -> STILS. | |
| 6 | Eastern condiment that double helping of medicinal plant would contain (6) |
| SAMBAL – Hidden in BALSAM BALSAM (medicinal plant) twice. | |
| 9 | Failure points condemned ductile metal bearing (13) |
| PLATINIFEROUS – (Failure points)* [condemned]. | |
| 10 | Mostly optimistic when delivering first new monkey (6) |
| SAGUIN – SA{n}GUIN{e} (optimistic) [mostly] without the first N (new). | |
| 11 | Acceptable training clothes on cool Canadian lounger? (8) |
| SLOWPOKE – OK (acceptable) in P.E. (training) after SLOW (cool). | |
| 13 | Lizard seen in ditch area bordering rampart (10) |
| CHUCKWALLA – WALL (rampart) in CHUCK (ditch) A (area). | |
| 15 | North Sea Gas light progressively shows yellow for locals (4) |
| NESH – North sEa gaS ligHt, [progressively] – i.e. 1st then 2nd then 3rd then 4th letters. | |
| 16 | Scots daydream of whiskey loco going round Borders (4) |
| DWAM – MAD (loco) [going round] -> DAM outside W (whiskey in the phonetic alphabet). | |
| 18 | Body in blood found in uncovered skip by staff, reportedly (10) |
| AMBOCEPTOR – {g}AMBO{l} (skip) [uncovered], CEPTOR sounds like SCEPTRE (staff). | |
| 21 | Son boards deck on liner amidships wearing excellent boots (8) |
| FINNESKO – S (son) in, middle letter of liNer in FINE (excellent), KO (knockout; deck). It took me a while to get the parsing of this one. | |
| 22 | Closer to identifying unknown flower marked with wavy lines (6) |
| GYROSE – Last letter of identifyinG Y (unknown) ROSE (flower). | |
| 23 | Droll member beginning to upset another actively into common sense (13) |
| RUMLEGUMPTION – RUM (droll) LEG (member), first letter of Upset, MP (another member), (into)* [actively]. Clever wordplay and fun word. | |
| 25 | Puff on joint blocks senior Irish author (6) |
| STOKER – TOKE (puff on joint) in SR (senior). | |
| 26 | Periodically keep subordinates probing gross swindle (8) |
| FAKEMENT – Alternate letters of KeEp, [periodically], MEN (subordinates) all in FAT (gross). | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Stale beer at first treated as poor “wallop”? (7) |
| TAPLASH – First letters of Treated As Poor, LASH (wallop). | |
| 3 | Half of pictures with bloke dominated by missus that’s incredible (2,1,8) |
| IM A DUTCHMAN – Half the letters of IMA{ges} (pictures), DUTCH (missus) MAN (bloke). | |
| 4 | Thessalian king exposed bribery over charges (5) |
| IXION – O (over) in {f}IXIN{g} (bribery) without the outside letters, [exposed]. | |
| 5 | Two fifths of scrap iron initially picked up taking away waste metal (7) |
| SCISSEL – [two fifths of] SC{rap}, first letter of Iron, LESS (taking away) [picked up] -> SSEL. | |
| 6 | Gun operator starts to aim into channel with a narrow opening (9) |
| STENOPAIC – STEN (gun) OP (operator) and initial letters of Aim Into Channel. | |
| 7 | Former unit deserted by front, as this observer sees it (3) |
| MHO – {i}MHO (in my humble opinion; as this observer sees it) without the first letter. | |
| 8 | Clovers the same in appearance around southern tip of Spain (7) |
| ALSIKES – S (Southern) in ALIKE (the same in appearance), and first letter of Spain. | |
| 12 | Evolutionary theory criticises 60 per cent of sexually liberated maidens (11) |
| PANSPERMISM – PANS (criticises), 6 of the 10 letters of PERMIS{sive} (sexually liberated) M (maidens). | |
| 14 | In literature, anything that he wrote was unopened, sadly (9) |
| WHATSOE’ER – (he wrote {w}as)* [sadly]. | |
| 17 | Slender racer gets extra “line” twice and “blow” once (7) |
| WHIRRET – WHIPPET (slender racer) with both Ps getting an extra line to turn them into Rs -> WHIRRET. An inventive wordplay device. | |
| 19 | Mistake about including rampant misery in epic poem (7) |
| BEOWULF – WOE (misery) [rampant] -> EOW, in FLUB (mistake) [about] -> BULF. | |
| 20 | Blood serum component’s old ID code cracked by boy (7) |
| OPSONIN – O (old), SON (boy) in PIN (ID code). Rats. I miscopied this from my paper copy in entering online to put OPSINON. Grr. | |
| 22 | Wan celeb covering Maori village folk dance (5) |
| GOPAK – PA (Maori village) in GOK (Wan), celebrity fashion consultant and TV presenter. | |
| 24 | Run away from goal to induce Glaswegian? (3) |
| MAK – MA{r}K (goal; definition 32 in Chambers) without the R (run). | |
Just in under the hour, though with quite a bit of help from Magic Chambers. I was a bit concerned about SLOWPOKE with the Canadian attribution, as it feels more like a Western thing. And I couldn’t get readily from cool to SLOW: even slow cooking is a bit warm.
Best word in the grid RUMLEGUMPTION, though I didn’t quite work out the wordplay, for which congratulations and many thanks!
Thanks for the blog. You’re not the only one with a typo. Mine was GOPKK. (Despite typing it from the paper copy, and checking twice.)