Time: 18 minutes
Music: Bach, Cello Suite #3, Janos Starker
Another easy Monday, although the preponderance of longish answers provided some challenges, along with some interesting words. I wasn’t sure about clarinettist, but apparently it is T in the US and TT in the UK. It also took me a minute to see how the parsing of nitre works. The puzzle is just a bit on the musical side, which goes well with this week’s music.
I have been asked to remind everyone – bloggers and commenters alike- that off-topic discussions of politics and religion are not required here. While living people can now be included in these puzzles, and this includes politicians and religious leaders, the fact that they exist and are who they are is sufficient for the purposes of the puzzle. If you wish to discuss these matters, there are thousands of other web sites available devoted to these topics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Urban dwellers drag sign round Aussie state (10) |
| TOWNSWOMEN – TOW (NSW) OMEN – New South Wales. | |
| 6 | Buzzer quietly making high-pitched sound (4) |
| BEEP – BEE + P. | |
| 9 | Country customs one’s misquoted at first in slanted script (10) |
| ITALICISMS – ITALIC(I’S M[isquoted])S | |
| 10 | A biblical giant showing eager curiosity (4) |
| AGOG – A + GOG, the associate of Magog. | |
| 12 | Musician at home dipping into wine is gripped by Times (12) |
| CLARINETTIST – CLAR(IN)ET + T(IS)T. | |
| 15 | Workman in Berlin with touch of henna on hair? (9) |
| LOCKSMITH – LOCKS + MIT + H[enna]. | |
| 17 | Detest a house in outskirts of Bangor (5) |
| ABHOR – A + B(HO)R – Bangor, Maine, for best effect. | |
| 18 | Reddish brown, some of these pianos (5) |
| SEPIA – Hidden in [the]SE PIA[nos]. | |
| 19 | UN climate blunders come to a head (9) |
| CULMINATE – Anagram of UN CLIMATE. | |
| 20 | Self-aggrandising Scot taking in English girl and Arab (12) |
| MEGALOMANIAC – M(E GAL + OMANI)AC. | |
| 24 | Squad satisfied about touring area (4) |
| TEAM – MET backwards around A. | |
| 25 | Deliver study after worst dominated (10) |
| BESTRIDDEN – BEST + RID + DEN, with a rather peripheral literal. | |
| 26 | Quiet European married Arkwright’s son (4) |
| SHEM – SH + E + M, with a sly literal. | |
| 27 | Free from strain, though ultimately this bald? (10) |
| STRESSLESS – [thi]S TRESSLESS. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Catch on small branch of tree (4) |
| TWIG – Double definition. | |
| 2 | Northern river sport? (4) |
| WEAR – Another double definition. | |
| 3 | Be indecisive talking of stupid girl in pub? (12) |
| SHILLYSHALLY – Sounds like SILLY SALLY if the speaker has been drinking strong ale. | |
| 4 | Cockney stocking seller and basket maker (5) |
| OSIER – [h]OSIER. A tree used to make baskets, that is. | |
| 5 | Half of them came upon prince stabbed by knight? Hard cheese! (9) |
| EMMENTHAL – [th]EM + ME(N)T HAL. I would have biffed this if I were confident of my spelling abilities. | |
| 7 | Disposition of Niamh’s Glen, a UK native (10) |
| ENGLISHMAN – Anagram of NIAMH’S GLEN. For bonus points, pronounce Niamh correctly. | |
| 8 | Boy attendant going over artist’s gripping story (4-6) |
| PAGE-TURNER – PAGE + TURNER. | |
| 11 | Note in sitar playing sounded different for instrument maker (12) |
| STRADIVARIUS – D inside anagram of SITAR + sounds like VARIOUS. | |
| 13 | Stylish graduate became firm over pupils taught together (10) |
| CLASSMATES – CLASS + MA + SET upside-down. | |
| 14 | Mischief-maker’s son finally running in S African event (10) |
| SCAPEGRACE – S CAPE ([runnin]G) RACE. | |
| 16 | Parson popular with Latin faculty? (9) |
| INCUMBENT – IN + CUM + BENT, a rather old-fashioned locution. | |
| 21 | In Near East it’s an explosive substance (5) |
| NITRE – N(IT)R + E. You have to lift and separate Near East, because NR E is not a valid abbreviation for that. | |
| 22 | Commercials on radio identifying woodworker’s tool (4) |
| ADZE – Sounds like ADS. | |
| 23 | Responsibility — and where ours falls (4) |
| ONUS – ON US. | |
As others, really held up by the (dare I say it?🥴) archaic BESTRIDDEN. Also NHO INCUMBENT only applying to parsons, and still not happy with BENT as faculty. Was however happy to ‘see’ Arkwright (very good) which helped with SHEM. But CLARINETTIST just looks wrong with that double T – what is the point of it? I put it in though. Like Edric above, I always struggle with the use of the female versions (despite being one), so TOWNSWOMEN was hard to finish off. Good fun.