Solving time: 25 minutes with one answer missing, so technically a DNF. Shame I couldn’t manage a clean sweep within my half-hour target for my 700th 15×15 blog.
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]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Old man going round front of African deity’s temple (6) |
| PAGODA | |
| PA (old man) containing [going round] A{frican} [front of…] + GOD (deity) | |
| 5 | Erudite academic with Afghan possibly in Bow (8) |
| PROFOUND | |
| PROF (academic), {h}OUND (Afghan possibly) [in Bow – cockney] | |
| 9 | Share regularly billed and apt for citation (8) |
| QUOTABLE | |
| QUOTA (share), B{i}L{l}E{d} [regularly] | |
| 10 | Declare supporter to be overcome by drink (6) |
| ALLEGE | |
| LEG (supporter) containing [to be overcome by] ALE (drink) | |
| 11 | Worst Irish cause to get moving (6) |
| BESTIR | |
| BEST (worst), IR (Irish). ‘Best’ and ‘worst’ can both mean ‘defeat’ in a competition or battle. | |
| 12 | Amateurish agent brought back in one immediately following (8) |
| INEXPERT | |
| REP (agent) reversed [brought back] contained by [in] I (one) + NEXT (immediately following) | |
| 14 | English dialect confusing man — Brit or Hun (12) |
| NORTHUMBRIAN | |
| Anagram [confusing] of MAN BRIT HUN | |
| 17 | Anorak Del Boy possibly carries travelling in spa? (12) |
| TRAINSPOTTER | |
| TROTTER (Del Boy possibly) contains [carries] anagram [travelling] of IN SPA. A reference to Derek “Del Boy” Trotter, the lead character in the sitcom Only Fools and Horses. |
|
| 20 | Monkey in scruffy state seen around Lincoln? (8) |
| MANGABEY | |
| MANGY (in scruffy state) contained by [seen around] ABE (Lincoln). NHO this making its first appearance here today, but I worked it out. | |
| 22 | Certain stars will accept conclusion of this prayer (6) |
| ORISON | |
| ORION (certain stars) containing [will accept] {thi}S [conclusion of…]. Archaic or literary. | |
| 23 | Marksman’s son backtracking about method of authentication (6) |
| SNIPER | |
| S (son), RE (about) + PIN (method of authentication) reversed [backtracking] | |
| 25 | Evidence of injury restricting first person with German sword (8) |
| SCIMITAR | |
| SCAR (evidence of injury) containing [restricting] I (first person) + MIT (with, in German) | |
| 26 | A sidekick bored by this writer’s bitterness (8) |
| ACRIMONY | |
| A, CRONY (sidekick) containing [bored by] I’M (this writer’s) | |
| 27 | Course in French given by elder? (6) |
| ENTREE | |
| EN (in, in French), TREE (elder). ‘By’ is sufficient for placement so ‘given’ must be there just for the surface. | |
| Down |
|
| 2 | Charm of talisman originally supporting a cross (6) |
| AMULET | |
| A, MULE (cross), T{alisman} [originally] | |
| 3 | Superior? Not in status (11) |
| OUTSTANDING | |
| OUT (not in), STANDING (status) | |
| 4 | Warning over fat, some say, a waxy substance (9) |
| AMBERGRIS | |
| AMBER (warning light on a traffic signal), then oral wordplay [some say] GRIS / “grease” (fat). Extracted from whales and used in perfume-making. | |
| 5 | Tetchy expression of contempt involving old magistrate endlessly (7) |
| PEEVISH | |
| PISH (expression of contempt) containing [involving] {r}EEV{e} (old magistrate) [endlessly]. Two old-fashioned elements of wordplay here. There’s a Reeve’s Tale in Chaucer which may be how many know of the second one. | |
| 6 | Old man of wisdom, a Native American of the past (5) |
| OSAGE | |
| O (old), SAGE (man of wisdom) | |
| 7 | Creature found in oxbow lakes (3) |
| OWL | |
| Hidden [found] in {ox}OW L{akes} | |
| 8 | African abandoned reign after initially breaking hip? (8) |
| NIGERIAN | |
| Anagram [abandoned] of REIGN, then A{fter} [initially] contained by [breaking] IN (hip) | |
| 13 | Eg Raeburn’s characteristic is encapsulated by wine (11) |
| PORTRAITIST | |
| TRAIT (characteristic) + IS contained [encapsulated] by PORT. Did not solve. Simple enough wordplay but since I hadn’t the remotest idea who or what Raeburn might be I had no clue as to the meaning of the word I was looking for. Sir Henry Raeburn (1756 – 1823). The only one I knew of was an agony aunt on Capital Radio in the 1970s. |
|
| 15 | Rocky object encountered mounting old English ceremony (9) |
| METEORITE | |
| MET (encountered), then O (old) + E (English) rversed [mounting], RITE (ceremony) | |
| 16 | American Republican publication is able to set up drink (8) |
| ARMAGNAC | |
| A (American), R (Republican), MAG (publication) then CAN (is able to) reversed [set up] | |
| 18 | Poem about unknown ship on unknown travels (7) |
| ODYSSEY | |
| ODE (poem) containing [about] Y (unknown) + SS (ship), then Y (unknown) | |
| 19 | Journey’s over in five year period (6) |
| VOYAGE | |
| O (over) contained by [in] V (five) + Y (year), then AGE (period) | |
| 21 | Limited accommodation for rabbit or donkey (5) |
| BURRO | |
| BURRO{w} (accommodation for rabbit) [limited] | |
| 24 | Greek character’s afterthought on India (3) |
| PSI | |
| PS (afterthought), I (India) | |
Same NHOs as most of the above! The monkey, Raeburn, though I knew the skating Rev, just not who painted him or that he did mainly portraits. My LOI was BESTIR, where I had the IR in place, but couldn’t imagine what word ended in it, actually misreading it when I first put it in as ‘best-eer’ and thinking, but that’s not a word! Did the same with ENTREE, wondering if there was a race course called that ( thinking of Aintree?) until the penny clanged. I had heard of OSAGE from Osage County and ORISON was also familiar, from various sources. PORTRAITIST and TRAINSPOTTER went in from most of the crossers, the latter bifd and then parsed, the former from wordplay, as I’d guessed PORT and IS and had to get a 5-letter word for characteristic, which wasn’t too difficult.
ARMAGNAC, up the river Adour from Dax, is an enchanting part of France. LOI BESTIR. Considered BETTER but avoided the trap. Assumed Raeburn was a portraitist but have to admit I’d never heard of him. 13’54”
Guessed MANGABEY correctly fortunately. I enjoyed this but then I always do when all correct.
FOI PAGODA
LOI BESTIR
My apologies, did not intend to repost that.
I second your comment and am amazed by jakkt’s effort, for which much thanks.
Mangabey added to Cheat dictionary, maybe it will reappear some day as a mix of Japanese comic and Turkish governor?
Apologies to anyone adversely affected by this late post. Maybe no-one will notice.
My friend and I have shifted our affections recently from the Australian to the London Times so that we could post in a timely manner.
However we got sucked into this one. And glad we did.
Firstly congratulations to Jackkt for the fine work. Always glad to see one of yours – no offence to the other bloggers (not a homophone).
This was an enjoyable puzzle and gave us our current PB of 1.5 hours – with all correct and mostly fully parsed.
Had to net research the English (county) dialect 14ac to see what the anagram was pointing to, and the significance of Raeburn – which becomes a real cheat when one sees what he was.
Guessed 14ac (with some crossers) based on an anorak being UK slang for a nerd, but had to look up Del Boy to get the name for the parsing to give confidence.
20ac was guided by the clue, but had to look up to confirm there was such a primate.
In 11ac not inspired by the worst/best thing. Is this something like the X-word world ‘ton’ for style or fashion – which I still do not understand, or ‘it’ for sex – which I do not like, even though Betty Boop was kind of cute.
Finally, in 15d found the order of O and E hard to deduce from clue.
Thanks for your kind comments about my blogs, Mayfair. The duty blogger for any puzzle is notified by email whenever new comments are posted, however long after the event, and doesn’t even have to visit the blog to read the content, so late postings will always be read by one person at least.