14:16. Another immensely enjoyable puzzle from Bob, which I found quite tricky. As usual the surfaces are wonderful. Just look at 16ac, for instance. A marvel of the setter’s art.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, anagram indicators are in italics.
Across |
1 |
Decorator’s coat is long past being mended |
|
GLOSS PAINT – (IS LONG PAST)*. |
8 |
On notice to adopt wild animals |
|
ABOARD – A(BOAR)D. |
9 |
Broadcaster’s novel dares rubbish the Queen |
|
NEWSREADER – NEW, (DARES)*, ER. |
10 |
Idea that’s not finished yet |
|
THOUGH – THOUGHt. |
12 |
Root of resistance to a recipe |
|
RADISH – R, A, DISH (recipe). |
14 |
Old American tanks housing university fish collection |
|
OCEANARIUM – O, (AMERICAN)* containing U. |
16 |
Standard heroes possess grit alongside guts |
|
STARS AND STRIPES – STAR(SAND, TRIPE)S. |
18 |
Drink trader left in charge of pound stores |
|
OFF-LICENCE – OF, F(L, IC)ENCE. This seems a little loose to me: a pound is an area enclosed by a FENCE, not the FENCE itself. It didn’t cause me a problem though. |
21 |
Port passed, offering bottles to the left |
|
ODESSA – contained (bottled) reversed in ‘passed offering’. |
23 |
Is prejudiced leader replaced at last? |
|
EXISTS – SEXIST with the first letter moved to the back. |
25 |
Fashion classification becoming less extreme |
|
MODERATING – MODE, RATING. |
26 |
Enlightenment leads to turning out in Eastern dress |
|
SATORI – SA(Turning Out)RI. I vaguely knew this word, almost certainly from past puzzles. |
27 |
Sort of rock song collection put together for radio |
|
CRYSTAL SET – CRYSTAL, SET. A set is the list of songs a band plays at a concert. This definition could arguably have done with an archaism indicator. |
Down |
1 |
Kind of shop officers ran |
|
GENERAL STORE – GENERALS TORE. |
2 |
Bottomless vessel full of American food |
|
SUSHI – S(US)HIp. |
3 |
Through prayer, God provides abundance |
|
PLETHORA – PLE(THOR)A. |
4 |
Moving, deep and nice end to Yankee anniversary |
|
INDEPENDENCE DAY – (DEEP AND NICE END)*, Y (Yankee). |
5 |
Times article about a rare material |
|
TARTAN – two Ts (time), A, R (rare) and AN (article). Assemble according to instructions. |
6 |
Beginnings of love ought to stop grim poet’s misery |
|
DOLOUR – DO(Love, Ought)UR. This word reminds me of Macbeth: ‘New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows/ Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds/ As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out/ Like syllable of dolor’, which has always stuck in my mind because ‘like syllable of dolor’ is such a strange formulation. |
7 |
Dress up and show off |
|
BRAG – reversal of GARB. |
11 |
Frank trailing in last part of the race |
|
HOME STRAIGHT – HOME (in), STRAIGHT (frank). My first thought was HOME STRETCH and it took me a while to discard it. Sometimes a wrong answer can get into your head somehow and block the right one even when (as here) it’s obviously wrong. |
13 |
Thief finally confronted over coffee |
|
DECAFF – reversal of thieF, FACED. |
15 |
Complex mix of simple forces |
|
IMPELS – (SIMPLE)*. |
17 |
High priest, maybe, that keeps rejoicers oddly suppressed |
|
THEOCRAT – TH(rEjOiCeRs)AT. |
19 |
How to sound lower class |
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LESSON – sounds like ‘lessen’. |
20 |
Publication about someone originally from space |
|
COSMIC – CO(Someone)MIC. |
22 |
Praise almost imparted by husband once |
|
EXTOL – EX (husband once), TOLd. |
24 |
Period celebrated by mother and son |
|
XMAS – X (by), MA, S. |
23:47
Did you know that the best version of Rule Britannia was sung by an American?
Is that an omen?
Collins has the archaic definition for “pound” as “to confine in a pound,” which is as close as I’ve seen the word come to “fence.” Bothered me too. And this was probably my LOI.
I got the long answers saluting my homeland first and figured I’d finish the rest off quickly, but it took longer than I expected.
FOI 4dn INDEPENDENCE DAY
LOI 26ac SATORI
COD 11dn HOME STRAIGHT
WOD 27ac CRYSTAL SET
I shall be watching k.o 3:00am!
Edited at 2021-07-11 03:42 pm (UTC)
I hadn’t come across SATORI though it wasn’t difficult to guess with wordplay and crossers. I know what you mean about getting an answer into your head which blocks out other possibilities and had exactly the same problem with HOME STRAIGHT myself.
CRYSTAL SET(s) may be “archaic” (as I must be too, as I remember them well!), but they’ve been making a few appearances in crossword land over the past few months along with another old term for a ‘radio’ in the G last week.
Thanks to setter and blogger and good luck to the Poms (not really a term you associate with European football) tonight.
I think my COD goes to OCEANARIUM which was a clever anagram. Plus points to: EXISTS, XMAS, LESSON and ABOARD. Fortunately I saw the 4th of July theme early on.
I didn’t notice it before, but I wonder whether the symmetrical pair of 1 and 11 down is part of the mini-theme. “General store” seems mainly US usage to me, with “village shop” a more likely term here, and “home straight” here is more definitely “home stretch” across the Atlantic.
I was rattling along quite nicely, but was slowed down by three clues in the SW. When I eventually spotted LESSON (with a groan), EXISTS fell straight away. Obviously my LOI immediately followed — I’ve been tricked by “X = by” far too often. It’s clearly a case of “X marks the blind spot” !
FOI GLOSS PAINT
LOI XMAS
COD STARS AND STRIPES
TIME 18:14
Like others thought OCEANARIUM was excellent
Thanks Keriothe and Robert
The two long crossing clues were first in here, and like others got slowed up getting through the rest. Didn’t properly parse GENERAL STORE, thinking that it was just an unsatisfactory cryptic definition – should have known better !
Had similar issues with FENCE and ‘pound’ but found that they both me to enclose – still not sure whether they could be interchanged in a sentence. It was the penultimate entry with the clever DECAFF the last one in.
Your parsing for 16a is STAR(SAND, TRIPE)S — but that leaves out the S between SAND and TRIPE. Maybe it should be STAR(SAND)S TRIPES?
(But can tripe be plural? maybe if one cow produces one tripe, two cows can produce two tripes? Sounds a little odd.)
Jim Clarke
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/tripes