A bit of a transatlantic feel to this one, with North American flora and fauna, some cowboy gear, a nod to Mark Twain and an iconic cartoon character all in play. At the same time, we had ancient Greeks and Romans putting in an appearance, and a rare cameo from Java Man in his full multisyllabic glory.
Most enjoyable puzzle, with 2dn and 27ac being stand out clues, I thought, and several others that were very elegant (particularly liked 5dn and 23 dn). Thanks to Jeff for a fine offering.
I’ll be in transit from Australia to the UK when this goes online (coming back home after a 13 year stint in the sunburnt country), and will not be able to field comments or fix up any howlers until Sunday evening UK time, so apologies for that.
Definitions underlined, DD = Double Definition, anagrams indicated by *(–).
| Across | |
| 1 | After depression, the ranch arranged new work for old man (15) |
| PITHECANTHROPUS – PIT (depression) + *(THE RANCH) with “arranged new” as the anagrind + OPUS (work), which all add up to the chap generally referred to as Java Man. Whether “new” in the clue is strictly required might be open for debate, but it seems to make the surface flow a little better, at least for me… | |
| 9 | Understanding an order (7) |
| COMMAND – DD, with the first being the usage “a good command of macroeconomics” | |
| 10 | Cotton flower placed on fancy crib (7) |
| CAMBRIC – CAM (flower – and site of numerous embarrassing incidents for yours truly as a novice punter many years ago) + *(CRIB). Linen originally from Cambrai, as I subsequently learned. | |
| 11 | Clean without water (4) |
| NEAT – DD. I’m not sure of the extent to which the “neat” as in “undiluted” usage applies outside the UK | |
| 12 | Crush her mac in arrangement for long walk (10) |
| ROUTEMARCH – ROUT (crush) + *(HER MAC). One word or two? The debate will no doubt rage… Unfortunately I don’t have access to my usual reference books as they are in transit to the UK, but there seems to be at least some online support for the single word variant. I’m sure others will comment more definitively on this one… | |
| 13 | Agent takes in unknown graduate performers (3,4) |
| BOY BAND – BOND (agent) ‘takes in’ Y (unknown) and BA (graduate). Neat. | |
| 15 | Clobber person in a sauna? (7) |
| SWEATER – DD, the second slightly cryptic | |
| 17 | Rod contains anger entering ranch (7) |
| FIREARM – The answer comprises IRE (anger) ‘entering’ FARM (ranch), with rod being gangster slang for a firearm, which I vaguely recalled from somewhere. I was a bit puzzled by the role of ‘contains’ in the clue to start with, but then just put it down to helping the surface read well. May have missed some further subtlety here | |
| 19 | Most of camp moving into fortress (7) |
|
BASTION – BAS |
|
| 20 | Drug dealer hides small notes in log (10) |
| DISPENSARY – S (small) + PENS (notes) hide inside DIARY (log). Wasn’t altogether sure about ‘notes’ for ‘pens’, but seems close enough, I guess… | |
| 22 | One leaves navigator map (4) |
|
PLOT – Take the I (one) out of P |
|
| 25 | Left someone making bread for a student (7) |
| LEARNER – L (left) + EARNER (someone making bread). One of today’s couple of gimmes | |
| 26 | Cowboy gear – don’t change it, young man (7) |
| STETSON – STET (don’t change it) + SON (young man). Very droll. For the benefit of those younger than me (i.e. probably the majority on this site!) STET (Latin ‘let it stand’) was a very useful kind of “undo” command back in the days before word processing when one had wrongly crossed something out in a draft document and required the strike out to be ignored in the next typed up version… | |
| 27 | The grammarian’s name for it? (8,7) |
| DEFINITE ARTICLE – Lovely cryptic clue, I thought, which might also be a Semi & Lit although I am always wary of these things. In any event, an ingenious clue which also sent me down some bizarre byways as I initially thought we were looking for some kind of pun based around what a grammarian might call sex / sex appeal. I’ve clearly spent too long in Crosswordland | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Use middle of open prison to produce a tree (5) |
| PECAN – PE (middle of oPEn) + CAN (prison) | |
| 2 | Mayor associated with wets – sadly he was infatuated with Thatcher (3,6) |
| TOM SAWYER – *(MAYOR + WETS) with “sadly” as the anagrind. Reference to young Tom’s yearnings for Becky Thatcher. Great surface, delightful clue. | |
| 3 | Finally nibble crackers passed round with this? (4) |
|
EDAM – Nice cryptic, albeit not hard to decipher. Wordplay is last letter (finally) of |
|
| 4 | One chasing Doctor Who finally enters with robot (7) |
|
ANDROID – A bit of untangling to be done here. I (one) after (chasing) DR |
|
| 5 | Understood American historian (7) |
| TACITUS – TACIT (understood) + US (American). Very elegant. | |
| 6 | Celebrates runs with English folk in the Lords pavilion? (9) |
| REMEMBERS – R (runs) + E (English) + MEMBERS (folk in the Lords pavilion) | |
| 7 | One cuts half of pack with King and Queen (5) |
|
PARER – PA (half of PA |
|
| 8 | Tea bag – initially trendy slimming aid (9) |
| SACCHARIN – SAC (bag – initially – i.e. at the beginning) + CHAR (tea) + IN (trendy) | |
| 13 | Being confused, Bugs Bunny’s enemy left sack outside (9) |
| BEFUDDLED – E (Elmer) FUDD (Bugs Bunny’s enemy- the wabbit hunter ) + L (left) all surrounded by BED (sack outside) | |
| 14 | King soon goes round quarry on mare (9) |
| AGAMEMNON – ANON (soon) ‘goes around’ GAME (quarry) + M (mare) | |
| 16 | Doctor left receipts for alcohol (6,3) |
| TRIPLE SEC – *(L + RECEIPTS) with Doctor as the anagrind. Essential for a well stocked cocktail cabinet | |
| 18 | Maiden on river upset sailor’s rodent (7) |
| MUSKRAT – M (maiden – cricket abbreviation) + USK (river) + TAR reversed (upset sailor) | |
| 19 | Starbucks employee in Zanzibar is Taiwanese (7) |
|
BARISTA – Hidden (loosely speaking) in |
|
| 21 | Scottish isle contracted workers (5) |
|
STAFF – STAFF |
|
| 23 | It could be perfect if stretched (5) |
| TENSE – DD – first being the grammatical usage. Very neat clue | |
| 24 | Corrupt grass(4) |
| BENT – DD, with bent grass being a common type of grass used for home lawns and golf greens (although I must admit I’ve never noticed much similarity between the two!) | |
Really excited about being home.
M for mare (14 d) – I can’t see it in Ch; I was thinking it might be an abbreviation for mare as in sea (on the moon)?
Edited at 2015-10-04 06:33 pm (UTC)
Apologies – I should have at least checked Collins as that is available online.