A number of unknowns and vaguely-heard-ofs, not to mention, the dreaded anagram of a foreign word, made this a much stiffer test than one normally is given on a Monday. Even following the instructions may therefore not be enough.
I’m not sure what I thought about this one, so I will await with interest the reaction from the floor. Will Waldorf and Statler drown out the voices of those who are enchanted by it?
Will Reggie Perrin prevail over the Great/Supers?
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Dicky waits round university for dance (6) |
| WATUSI – U in anagram* of WAITS; a short-lived 1960s dance craze named after a tribe featuring in a couple of films inspired by Rider Haggard’s book King Solomon’s Mines, the second of which, released in 1959, was called Watusi. Watusi was a word for those now known as Tutsi.
If you don’t know the word, different arrangements of the vowels are very plausible. |
|
| 4 | Teacher turned offensive when bored by Roman statesman (8) |
| EDUCATOR – CATO in RUDE reversed | |
| 9 | Backing separate sink — it keeps things fresher (3,4) |
| GAS TRAP – reversal of PART SAG; a drain/sewer trap, or an apparatus for separating natural gas from the petroleum in which it is dissolved, so I am told | |
| 11 | Soiled article brought to pawnbroker (7) |
| UNCLEAN – UNCLE AN | |
| 12 | One in set following European writer (5) |
| ELIOT – E I in LOT; I once met a person who enjoyed reading Eliot | |
| 13 | What was the Left? Rather mean and a bit cowardly? (9) |
| YELLOWISH – YE (archaic spelling of definite article, i.e. ‘what was the’) L (left) LOWISH (rather mean) | |
| 14 | Overlooked point he’s had emphasised to some extent (2,3,5) |
| IN THE SHADE – the first of two (yes, two – shock horror!) hiddens | |
| 16 | Baby boomer‘s delight consuming Ecstasy (4) |
| JOEY – E in JOY | |
| 19 | A Christmas Carol — heartless story (4) |
| NOEL – NO |
|
| 20 | Liver in flames looking bloody unfortunately flipped when chap’s interrupted (10) |
| SALAMANDER – MAN in reversal of RED ALAS | |
| 22 | An emperor overthrown by unusually fair religious follower (9) |
| RASTAFARI – reversal of TSAR of FAIR* | |
| 23 | A large number of birds without beak (5) |
| GROSS – I’m a bit confused by this one and welcome contributions from the gallery – is it the very rarely seen ‘grossbill’ without its bill/beak? I somewhat doubt it. A gross is 12 dozen. That, I know. [thanks to K for pointing out that it’s the lesser spotted GROSSBEAK, without its ‘beak’] | |
| 25 | I’m forty — moving cause to feel humiliated (7) |
| MORTIFY – IM FORTY* | |
| 26 | Medal being presented by current Italian dramatist (7) |
| GOLDONI – GOLD (medal) ON (presented by) I (current) | |
| 27 | Outrage at first of redevelopments to old urban centre (8) |
| ATROCITY – AT R~ O CITY | |
| 28 | A nerd or a kagoule? One of the two there will do! (6) |
| ANORAK – [thanks to keriothe for the wordplay] ‘one [letter, the first one] of the two [words ‘nerd’ and ‘anorak’] will do’ to give you A N OR A K; a coat and someone who is boring because he devotes too much time to a particular hobby or interest. None on this site, so far as I am aware… | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Who’s beginning to anticipate a new Ring in development? (9) |
| WAGNERIAN – A |
|
| 2 | Excerpt from Rigoletto stirred composer (5) |
| TOSTI – Sir (sic) Francesco Paolo Tosti was an Italian composer and teacher (now best known fof his songs), who became a British citizen and was knighted in 1908 by his friend, King Edward VII. | |
| 3 | Drink salesmen turning up outside hotel (8) |
| SPRITZER – RITZ in REPS reversed | |
| 5 | Deceit upped London borough by 100 per cent (6-7) |
| DOUBLE-DEALING – the setter has ‘doubled Ealing’ | |
| 6 | What’s about in our land that bird call introduces? (6) |
| CUCKOO – C (circa, about) in UK in COO (bird call); unless I’m missing something (always the safest bet), ‘introducing’ would suggest that COO comes before UCK, rather than encompassing it. Another all-in-one | |
| 7 | Rage engulfs business circle in Black Sea port once (9) |
| TREBIZOND – BIZ O in TREND; old name for modern Trabzon | |
| 8 | Billions lost from local railway station in Australia (5) |
| RANCH – |
|
| 10 | A sly sycophant possibly who understands when person’s lying? (13) |
| PSYCHOANALYST – A SLY SYCOPHANT*; another all-in-one, but a less felicitous one, as one doesn’t associate psychoanalysts with sycophancy; [on edit, thanks to galspray] actually, my explanation is somewhat infelicitous, as the shrink does his stuff, stereotypically, when the patient’s on the couch | |
| 15 | Deal mostly with less dubious accountant? (9) |
| TREASURER – TREA |
|
| 17 | More than one American garden parasite produces scale (9) |
| YARDSTICK – YARDS (more than one American garden) TICK (parasite) | |
| 18 | Trafficked mammal’s long suffering during distress (8) |
| PANGOLIN – LONG* in PAIN; mammals trafficked in large numbers from west Africa to China | |
| 21 | Mother raised money as source of meal (6) |
| MANIOC – MA COIN reversed; another name for cassava | |
| 22 | Questionable degree in Afro-Cuban music (5) |
| RUMBA – RUM BA | |
| 24 | Social event smothered by everybody’s scent (5) |
| ODOUR – DO in OUR | |
Crikey…. either these are getting harder or I’m getting slower!
Felt a bit like a barred puzzle, with many obscurities. I solved everything bar the port- I just couldn’t accept business=biz.
Having looked through the comments, I feel I’ve done ok today.
Since I started solving again in mid February, I’ve found these tough going. No easy days.
COD to YELLOWISH (and JOEY).
Thanks for the excellent blog and thanks Setter.
42:32, with LOI the unknown TREBIZON. Like most others, I had quite a few words never heard of, so far more reliant on the wordplay than usual.
Thanks Ulaca and setter.