I spent exactly an hour on this and solved all but two clues before resorting to aids to polish them off. I wasn’t particularly happy with either clue, but we’ll come to that later…
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Empty box protecting organ (5,3) |
| CLEAR OUT | |
| CLOUT (box – beat) containing [protecting] EAR (organ) | |
| 5 | Cricket side close to revolt (6) |
| OFFEND | |
| OFF (cricket side), END (close) | |
| 10 | Top-notch crust of rhubarb tart (5) |
| ACERB | |
| ACE (top-notch), R{hubar}B [crust of…] | |
| 11 | Courts Romeo in a Butlin’s resort (9) |
| TRIBUNALS | |
| R (Romeo – NATO alphabet) contained by [in] anagram [resort] of A BUTLINS. For those overseas who may not know, Butlin’s is a chain of seaside resorts aka ‘holiday camps’. It was founded in the mid-1930’s and the brand still exists today although not quite in the original form. | |
| 12 | Occasionally strange things drunk at male event (4,5) |
| STAG NIGHT | |
| Anagram [drunk] of {s}T{r}A{n}G{e} [occasionally] + THINGS | |
| 13 | Keynote article by the author (5) |
| THEME | |
| THE (definite article), ME (author – setter) | |
| 14 | Game point Tom? (6) |
| TIPCAT | |
| TIP (point), CAT (Tom). Not a game I’m familiar with, but at least I’d heard of it. Collins: a game in which a short sharp-ended piece of wood (the cat) is tipped in the air with a stick. | |
| 15 | Tragic hero serves up ideology, being somewhat reflective (7) |
| OEDIPUS | |
| Hidden (somewhat) and reversed [reflective] in {serve}S UP IDEO{logy} | |
| 18 | Pep with expression of triumph when reversing hybrid (7) |
| TANGELO | |
| TANG (pep), then OLÉ (expression of triumph) [reversing]. I’m not entirely convinced by ‘pep / tang’. Chambers Crossword Dictionary has ‘tang / pep’ but not the other way round, which seems a bit odd. A tangelo is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit. | |
| 20 | Fool dropping the first bit of puzzle (6) |
| LUMMOX | |
| {f}LUMMOX (puzzle) [dropping the first bit]. I found this hard to come up with. | |
| 22 | Bond is topless superhuman (5) |
| IONIC | |
| {b}IONIC (superhuman) [topless]. I knew Ionic as a style of architecture but not the ‘ionic bond’ aka ‘electrovalent bond’. Collins again: a type of chemical bond in which one atom loses an electron to form a positive ion and the other atom gains the electron to form a negative ion. The resulting ions are held together by electrostatic attraction. | |
| 24 | West Indian brother (9) |
| DOMINICAN | |
| Two meanings, from the island or a member of the order of friars. | |
| 25 | Narrow-minded friend transfixed by a mixed choir (9) |
| PAROCHIAL | |
| PAL (friend) contains [transfixed by] A + anagram [mixed] of CHOIR | |
| 26 | Sage, second one to take lead in race (5) |
| IRISH | |
| RISHI (sage) becomes IRISH when the second I (one) takes the lead. A Hindu word with a meaning that most of us have probably learned only recently. | |
| 27 | Year in Moroccan home close to Marrakech city (6) |
| RIYADH | |
| Y (year) contained by [in] RIAD (Moroccan home), {Marrakec}H [close to…]. SOED this time: riad – in Morocco, a large traditional house built around a central courtyard, often converted into a hotel. I didn’t know the home so I biffed the answer with assistance from checkers. | |
| 28 | Daddy Cool, not so free from stress (8) |
| PAINLESS | |
| PA (daddy), IN (cool – fashionable), LESS (not so) | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | It becomes girl in large town to be elegant (6) |
| CLASSY | |
| C{it}Y (large town) becomes C(LASS)Y (elegant) when ‘it’ becomes LASS (girl) | |
| 2 | Tesla possibly included in Joy’s promotion (9) |
| ELEVATION | |
| EV (Tesla possibly – Electric Vehicle), contained by [included in] ELATION (joy) | |
| 3 | Vital chemical ran out? (11,4) |
| RIBONUCLEIC ACID | |
| Anagram [out] of RAN = RNA (vital chemical – Ribonucleic Acid). I spotted what was going on here which gave me ACID, but I didn’t know what RNA stood for, so even with all the checkers in place I had to resort to aids. Not the fairest of clues for the non-scientist, I feel. | |
| 4 | Finished drunk and on edge (7) |
| UPTIGHT | |
| UP (finished), TIGHT (drunk) | |
| 6 | Hums rendition of Wasted Time (6,9) |
| FOURTH DIMENSION | |
| Anagram [wasted] of HUMS RENDITION OF | |
| 7 | The beginning of Evil Dead bringing cheer (5) |
| ELATE | |
| E{vil} [the beginning], LATE (dead) | |
| 8 | Detectives essentially split up (8) |
| DISPERSE | |
| DI‘S (detectives – Inspectors), PER SE (essentially) | |
| 9 | Restaurant has tail of lobster in gravy (6) |
| BISTRO | |
| {lobste}R [tail] contained by [in] BISTO (gravy). Aah, Bisto! Gravy powder since 1908 and still going strong as granules. The name is said to derive from ‘Browns, Seasons and Thickens in One’ although that doesn’t quite work as an acronym, does it? | |
| 16 | Ban for writer (9) |
| PROSCRIBE | |
| PRO (for), SCRIBE (writer) | |
| 17 | Southern holidaymaker is one who’s likely to peel (8) |
| STRIPPER | |
| S (southern), TRIPPER (holidaymaker) | |
| 19 | Invest in road building (6) |
| ORDAIN | |
| Anagram [building] of IN ROAD | |
| 20 | Plate of honey eaten by tellytubby (7) |
| LAMELLA | |
| MEL (honey) contained [eaten] by LA-LA (tellytubby). I have nits to pick here. The answer is an obscure word which has never before appeared in a 15×15 in the TfTT era so one might have hoped the wordplay would be helpful, but part of this is MEL as honey which is also obscure with only one outing in a 15×15, admittedly blogged by me, but that was 5 years ago. Most importantly, ‘Tellytubby’ is a misspelling of ‘Teletubby’, and the creature referred to is not called ‘La-La’, its name is Laa-Laa. Those fortunate enough never to have come across this revolting ‘entertainment’ aimed at innocent babies can read about Teletubbies here, if they wish. 485 episodes were made for the BBC over a period of 21 years.
On edit: Also, in addition to being misspelt, ‘tellytubby’ in the clue should have had a capital T. Thanks to Isla for pointing this out. |
|
| 21 | Creeps in Red Square? Just the leader (6) |
| INCHES | |
| IN, CHE (red), S{quare} [just the leader] | |
| 23 | Irritable chest in city (5) |
| NARKY | |
| ARK (chest) contained by [in] NY (city) | |
The Arabists amongst us will know that Riad and Riyadh are the same word. It means Gardens. I’m not saying that delegitimises the clue. I’m just saying it’s funny. Did this in 24’54”, slowed down by the LAMELLA-LUMMOX pairing. I saw RNA but had to check it. Assumed TIPCAT was a bit like TIP THE CAN. Was wrong but it didn’t matter. Thanks to all.
Also just over an hour (not counting a long break partway through because I was nodding off), but I rather enjoyed this and found the clues hard, but clever and never really unfair (LAMELLA might be an exception to that, but I mostly biffed that one). RIBONUCLEIC ACID and FOURTH DIMENSION were absolutely brilliant, DIS PER SE and CLASSY were not bad either.
I should have got TANGELO and ORDAIN but knowning neither LAMELLA nor MEL I didn’t really have a hope with that one. I didn’t think much of 1d until I saw the blog and realised I hadn’t parsed it properly. I managed to avoid the Teletubbies in real life but LA-LA sounded sufficiently inane to be likely correct. I wonder if 3d could have been made a more complete (and fair) clue just by adding the word “briefly” as in “Vital chemical briefly ran out” as that would have signalled the abbreviation as well as the anagram. I definitely think points should be lost for question marks if they’re avoidable! Thanks the blog.
I really enjoyed this puzzle, despite finding it tough and despite entering “Isiah” instead of “Irish” (and I’m sure I’ve even spelled Isiah incorrectly!).
Never mind – some lovely clues – and thanks for explaining Ribonucleic Acid.
Same problems in the SE as many others: never saw IRISH or INCHES or the NHO LAMELLA. 3d too clever for me (and too scientific), so had to look it up ( SHTLIU?), and a lot of the rest was also a bit of a grind.
Liked OEDIPUS, STAG NIGHT and DOMENICAN.