Hi everybody. Most of this flew in, then a few held me up a few minutes, and ultimately I failed on 3d. I resorted to a search as I didn’t know or had forgotten the mongoose, and had more-or-less forgotten the cardinal from my last meeting with him in Jumbo 1675. Plus I had a careless spelling error in 1d. I don’t have a COD, perhaps because the surfaces aren’t jumping out at me as particularly brilliant, but enjoyed the solve. Thanks setter.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Indian dish served in Maryland port? No more (5) |
| BALTI — BALTI[more] (Maryland port) – no MORE | |
| 4a | Bog standard wine about to overcome character opening inn (8) |
| MEDIOCRE — MEDOC (wine) and RE (about) surrounding (to overcome) the first letter of (character opening) Inn | |
| 8a | Work with the school map, perhaps: it’s for examining pupils (14) |
| OPHTHALMOSCOPE — OP (work) with an anagram of (… perhaps) THE SCHOOL MAP | |
| 10a | Small group Elder perhaps notes outside hotel (9) |
| THREESOME — TREE (elder perhaps) plus SO ME (notes) outside H (hotel) | |
| 11a | Athlete’s approach getting old rail union down? (3-2) |
| RUN-UP — If RUN is going UP, that would mean NUR (National Union of Railwaymen: old rail union) is going down | |
| 12a | Obsequious sergeant major and his area of influence (6) |
| SMARMY — SM (sergeant major) and ARMY (his area of influence) | |
| 14a | Eye-catching feature high-flyer goes round with minder at first (8) |
| LANDMARK — LARK (high-flyer) goes round AND (with) and Minder at first | |
| 17a | Old city bloke left Derby finally as a top priority (8) |
| URGENTLY — UR (old city) + GENT (bloke) + L (left) + DerbY finally | |
| 18a | Dry American senator in Rome way back (6) |
| BRUTUS — BRUT (dry) + US (American) | |
| 20a | “Like a bone?” First of underfed Labradors raced back (5) |
| ULNAR — The first of Underfed Labradors + RAN (raced) back | |
| 22a | Lorry governor used to carry agreed plant (9) |
| ARTICHOKE — ARTIC (lorry) + HE (governor) holding (used to carry) OK (agreed) | |
| 24a | Game birds? (5,3,6) |
| DUCKS AND DRAKES — DUCKS AND DRAKES are birds, and I inferred it must also be a game Collins and Oxford confirm that this is a stone-skipping game, and it is also mentioned in the Wikipedia article |
|
| 25a | A new compiler mostly imbibing single liqueur (8) |
| ANISETTE — A + N (new) SETTEr (compiler) without the last letter (mostly) taking in (imbibing) I (single) | |
| 26a | Gaseous element unknown in French — or Norwegian originally (5) |
| XENON — X (unknown) + EN (in, French) + Or Norwegian originally | |
| Down | |
| 1d | A Jurassic herbivore, or a son 18 abandoned? (12) |
| BRONTOSAURUS — An anagram of (… abandoned) OR A SON with BRUTUS (18 – 18a) I checked enough of the anagram fodder to avoid a BRONTESAURUS … but then went and entered BRONTASAURUS instead |
|
| 2d | Nonsense writer engaging husband as composer of music (5) |
| LEHAR — LEAR (nonsense writer) engaging H (husband) | |
| 3d | Mongoose in Germany I associated with cardinal in speech (9) |
| ICHNEUMON — ICH (in Germany, I) plus what sounds like (… in speech) NEWMAN (cardinal – the 19th century cardinal John Henry) | |
| 4d | Flowering plant requiring market’s first permit (6) |
| MALLOW — Market’s first + ALLOW (permit) | |
| 5d | Doctor once said to be connected with Bath and Wells perhaps (8) |
| DIOCESAN — Anagram (doctor) ONCE SAID | |
| 6d | Eg Hammerstein’s gigantic vehicle? (5) |
| OSCAR — OS (gigantic) + CAR (vehicle) | |
| 7d | Sorry about worker shut up inside (9) |
| REPENTANT — RE (about) and ANT (worker) with PENT (shut up) inside | |
| 9d | Representative of Evita touring south pursuing wheel components? (12) |
| SPOKESPERSON — PERON (Evita) around (touring) S (south), all pursuing SPOKES (wheel components) | |
| 13d | Old Native American, key one of five inspiring long novel (9) |
| ALGONQUIN — A (key) and QUIN (one of five) taking in (inspiring) an anagram of (… novel) LONG | |
| 15d | Dreadful pranks reportedly stopped by cold woman in charge (9) |
| DIRECTRIX — DIRE (dreadful) + TRIX, homophone of (… reportedly) TRICKS (pranks) with insertion of (stopped by) C (cold) | |
| 16d | Likable prayers introducing a set of holy books (8) |
| PLEASANT — PLEAS (prayers) preceding (introducing) A + NT (set of holy books) | |
| 19d | Comedian’s foil swapping a ring for daughter’s heavy food (6) |
| STODGE — STO[o]GE (comedian’s foil) swapping an O (ring) for D (daughter) | |
| 21d | Libertines encountered in Marrakesh? (5) |
| RAKES — The answer is encountered in MarRAKESh | |
| 23d | Old man carrying article made of wood (5) |
| OAKEN — O (old) and KEN (man) carrying A (article) | |
23 mins. Started off like a train, not the Mallard but a reasonable chugger. Had all bar four done in 11 mins. Unfortunately, the four were interconnected and I struggled for another 12 minutes before completing. Not helped by spelling ophthalmoscope wrong .
Finished with mediocre- how apt- the other three delayers being directrix, landmark and diocesan. NHO of the mongoose but generously clued.
So I’m in the “one error” club. But if I smugly brag about getting ICHNEUMON right, I’ll have to admit that I fat fingered OAKNN. So I’m going to pretend to have been beaten by an outrageous obscurity, not my own carelessness.
12.05. Almost certainly a PB.
FOI was BALTI. LOI, DIOCESAN. The NE held out longest. Like others I’d heard of the wasp and knew the cardinal, so was able to piece the answer together from the wordplay and being fairly sure it ended MON. Didn’t have a clue about the mongoose though. LANDMARK and MEDIOCRE just preceded DIOCESAN. 21:28. Thanks setter and Kitty.
Had to get the mongoose from the dictionary. Is that cheating ? Never managed to parse RUN-UP.Otherwise easy Monday puzzle.
Well that was a fun start to the week. Mostly a write in, POI landmark, LOI Diocesan after a slight delay from not recognising doctor as an indicator.
thank you setter for several smile inducing clues, and blogger for elucidations, and also thanks to several contributors regarding the status of bronto/apatosaurus and the game, which I’ve vaguely wondered about but not enough to look it up. Also for Greek meaning of ichneumon, I knew both beasts, and never swat the fling kind, blessed destroyers of lawn grub.