11:51. A mostly straightforward puzzle from Robert this week, but with a few slightly trickier bits.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Sexist receives backing of legendary primate |
| BIGFOOT – BIGOT containing a reversal of, er, OF. Other bigots are available! | |
| 5 | We shout with glee regularly in pubs |
| BAWLERS – BA(W, |
|
| 9 | Uniform for Nato service vessel |
| URN – U (Uniform in the Nato alphabet), RN (Royal Navy, service). | |
| 10 | Fine subordinate found by senior winemaker? |
| ELDERFLOWER – ELDER (senior), F, LOWER [shudders]. | |
| 11 | Artisan curries prepared as appetisers |
| CURTAIN RAISERS – (ARTISAN CURRIES)*. | |
| 13 | Swollen nut, say, turned in grease |
| ENLARGED – EN, LARD containing EG reversed. In printing and typesetting, an en is half the size of an em and also called a nut. | |
| 15 | Knotty subject almost ending in feud |
| MATTED – MATTE |
|
| 17 | Marry in church after short divorce |
| SPLICE – SPLI |
|
| 18 | Go and look — one’s entitled |
| LIFE PEER – LIFE (go, energy), PEER. | |
| 20 | Odd habits etc incite cries to change |
| ECCENTRICITIES – (ETC INCITE CRIES)*. | |
| 23 | Action by cartels focusing on damage |
| PRICE FIXING – |
|
| 24 | Garden footwear with scratched edges |
| HOE – |
|
| 25 | Queen wearing fake ring, briefly in power |
| CONTROL – CON, T(R)OL |
|
| 26 | Suits and ties |
| MATCHES – DD, the second definition here meaning ‘marriages’. Neat! | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Sad case, half-cut, eating mostly comfort food |
| BLUE CHEESE – BLUE(CHEE |
|
| 2 | Voting process officer picks, not taking sides |
| GENERAL ELECTION – GENERAL, |
|
| 3 | Final letter to the Corinthians |
| OMEGA – CD. | |
| 4 | Vintner forced to accept five hundred for set meal? |
| TV DINNER – (VINTNER)* containing D (500). ‘Set’ here is a noun, not an adjective. | |
| 5 | Treasurer is part of a joint role originally |
| BURSAR – BURSA, R |
|
| 6 | Poison plant raising energy seizes stream |
| WOLFSBANE – reversal of E, NABS, FLOW. | |
| 7 | Old king with the hard edge redressed |
| EDWARD THE EIGHTH – (WITH THE HARD EDGE)*. | |
| 8 | God that’s flipping painful! |
| SORE – reversal of EROS. A very simple but delightful clue. | |
| 12 | They should get what’s coming to them |
| ADDRESSEES – CD. | |
| 14 | Noise on organ sounded criminal |
| RACKETEER – RACKET, homophone of ‘ear’. | |
| 16 | Learner in his Mini suffering lack of belief |
| NIHILISM – (L HIS MINI)*. Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism… | |
| 19 | A legal test by an upper chamber |
| ATRIAL – A, TRIAL. I’m slightly unsure about the use of the word ‘by’ here. Perhaps meaning ‘via’? | |
| 21 | House not started, last of that block |
| INGOT – |
|
| 22 | Saga still seen online? |
| EPIC – or E-PIC. | |
I ended up with a typo for GENERAL ELECTION after a leisurely but very enjoyable solve. Sorry, this is probably what you mean, but I suppose ‘by’ in 19d is to turn ATRIUM into the adjective ATRIAL as in a “left atrial contraction” = a “contraction by the left atrium”.
I liked the top and bottom rows, though little ones can be pretty handy (think 1986) too!
Thanks to Robert and keriothe
Very enjoyable but with too many interruptions to be able to offer a solving time.
NHO BURSA and I missed the parsing of CHEESE in 1dn, so thanks for that, K.
I now remember wasting an inordinate amount of time trying to justify BARGEES at 5ac before I had enough checkers to rule it out completely. I’d thought of BARS for ‘pubs’ (obviously!), and ‘glee’ in the clue contained all the other letters I needed, but ‘regularly’ didn’t quite do the necessary eliminating just the L. The reference I’d had in mind but muddled is actually ‘swear / curse like a bargee’, dating back to the 18th century when bargees began to be renowned for their exceptionally colourful and inventive vocabulary which they shouted at other canal users, lock-keepers, or anyone else blocking their path.
I didn’t sort out the wordplay for 1d. Thanks for the explanation keriothe.
Of course BURSA and BURSAR are related, the latter derived from the former, which means purse. Bursa was well known to me as one who suffers bursitis quite often, especially the tennis elbow variety (but never housewife’s knee though i did get a bout in my hip joint once after an all-day session of plastering. I told my GP it must be plasterer’s buttock)
I corrected my diagnosis to gardener’s knee. I’ve had to move the blanket box to a different bedroom as it is exactly the same height as my bursitis, even an occasional bump caused me to invoke Gordon Bennett, or even quote Gordon Ramsay.
What has happened to today’s crossword? You wouldn’t think it was a prize one since all the usual things from midweek like the Check button and Reveal are there. There seems to be no mechanism for sending in the entry, yet at the end of it all it says something like “Your entry has been submitted”. This used to happen a bit and I sent them an email and it didn’t happen for a while. Now it seems to have reverted.
About half an hour.
– I parsed PRICE FIXING with ‘action by cartels’ as the definition, with focusing=fixing ‘on’ damage=price, rather than as a CD
– Didn’t parse the second part of BLUE CHEESE
– BURSAR went in with a shrug as I’d never heard of bursa
Thanks keriothe and Robert.
FOI Urn
LOI Price fixing
COD Curtain raisers
Yes that’s probably right, thank you.
Damn cartels control everything. It’s the Age of Monopoly. PRICE-FIXING reminds me of “price gouging,” which is not the same thing; it is not the prices that are being “gouged” (wouldn’t that make them… lower?) but the consumer who is gouged by the prices. Copy-editor’s observation: “Price gouging” is not in the dictionary as a verb but only a noun, which sometimes forces me to rewrite someone’s sentence.
Yes price gouging is the exploitation of (often temporary) market conditions to put up prices. A single firm can do this, whereas PRICE FIXING requires collusion. The former is usually legal, that latter isn’t.
Ah, so it’s a holiday over there too tomorrow.
That must explain where everybody is today…
Steady entertainment until loi Wolfsbane. This turned into one of those clues where the more you stare at it, the harder it gets. When I eventually sorted it out, it made a faint chime with something in Harry Potter.
Thanks Robert and keriothe
Very late to this one and struggled a bit with it, taking 73 minutes across a couple of sessions to complete the grid. Couldn’t properly parse BLUE CHEESE (the last bit), INGOT (the ‘house’ definition of BINGO) and didn’t really connect ‘go’ and LIFE in 18a.
Didn’t really understand the nina across the top and bottom lines this time either.
Had ‘ties’ being sporting MATCHES rather than marital ones at 26a.
Finished in the right hand side with BAWLERS, MATTED and that LIFE PEER as the last one in.