Solving time: 40 minutes
Not too difficult by comparison with some recent offerings.
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 now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Dodgy dealer putting note on Maserati? (9) |
| CARDSHARP | |
| CAR (Maserati), D SHARP (note – D#) | |
| 6 | Bill going round church lot (5) |
| BATCH | |
| TAB (bill) reversed [going round], CH (church) | |
| 9 | One wrongly taking stone imprisoned by His Majesty? (7) |
| RUSTLER | |
| ST (stone) contained [imprisoned] by RU~LER (His Majesty). I spent too long trying to use HM or CR as ‘His Majesty. ‘Ruler’ is somewhat less specific. | |
| 10 | Island hunter stalking soldiers (7) |
| MENORCA | |
| MEN (soldiers), ORCA (hunter – killer whale) | |
| 11 | Go round in tutu? (5) |
| SKIRT | |
| Two not entirely unrelated meanings | |
| 12 | Gradually acquire qualifications, you say? (2,7) |
| BY DEGREES | |
| Aural wordplay [you say]: “buy” (acquire) / BY, then DEGREES (qualifications) | |
| 13 | Material at one time mainly found in Greek island (8) |
| CONCRETE | |
| ONC{e} (at one time) [mainly] contained by [found in] C~RETE (Greek island) | |
| 14 | Note motorway sign briefly coming back (4) |
| MEMO | |
| M (motorway) then OME{n} (sign) [briefly] reversed [coming back] | |
| 17 | Nobody moving east for such bright lights? (4) |
| NEON | |
| ‘None’ (nobody) moving E (east) becomes NEON. Rather amusing as the E actually has to move west. | |
| 18 | Poignant dropping leader’s case (8) |
| VOCATIVE | |
| {e}VOCATIVE (poignant) [dropping leader]. First met in Latin grammar lessons. | |
| 21 | Spooner saying delay right-winger? It seems unlikely (4,5) |
| TALL STORY | |
| As Spooner would say: Stall Tory (delay right-winger) | |
| 22 | Vice-admiral departs Harrow (5) |
| DRAKE | |
| D (departs), RAKE (harrow). ODE: harrow – an implement consisting of a heavy frame set with teeth or tines which is dragged over ploughed land to break up clods, remove weeds, and cover seed. I wasn’t aware of Sir Francis Drake’s specific rank. | |
| 24 | Storeroom, say, involved in case of burglary (7) |
| BUTTERY | |
| UTTER (say) contained by [involved in] B{urglar}Y [case of]. A room for storing food and drink. | |
| 25 | Bitterness evident in Tehran courtroom (7) |
| RANCOUR | |
| Hidden [evident in] {Teh}RAN COUR{troom} | |
| 26 | Fire judge in middle of week with court evacuated (5) |
| EJECT | |
| J (judge) contained by [in] {w}E~E{k} [middle of…], C{our}T [evacuated] | |
| 27 | Obviously one boards without trying to push in? (9) |
| PATIENTLY | |
| I (one) is contained by [boards] PAT~ENTLY (obviously) | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Trees mostly concealing Resistance unit (5) |
| CORPS | |
| CO~PS{e} (trees) [mostly] containing [concealing] R (resistance). An army unit. | |
| 2 | Irresolute aunts in a dither? It could be fatal (7,8) |
| RUSSIAN ROULETTE | |
| Anagram [in a dither] of IRRESOLUTE AUNTS. Cryptic definition. |
|
| 3 | Good pay includes workers receiving raise (8) |
| SALUTARY | |
| SAL~ARY(pay) contains [includes] TU (workers – trades union) reversed [receiving raise]. Producing good effects; beneficial. | |
| 4 | Article on Europeans welcoming British performers (8) |
| ACROBATS | |
| A (indefinite article), CRO~ATS (Europeans) containing [welcoming] B (British) | |
| 5 | Insane writer’s written about shock treatment (6) |
| POMADE | |
| PO~E (writer) containing [written about] MAD (insane). A scented ointment or oil applied to the hair. Shock – an unkempt or thick mass of hair. | |
| 6 | Harmless getting inebriated a little on way north (6) |
| BENIGN | |
| Hidden / reversed [a little / on way north] in {getti}NG INEB{riated} | |
| 7 | Book about coxed pair? (5,3,2,1,4) |
| THREE MEN IN A BOAT | |
| Cryptic. The book is by Jerome K Jerome. I haven’t found ‘coxed pair’ in any dictionary but Wiki advises that it’s a racing shell used in competitive rowing designed for two persons who propel the boat and steered by a coxswain (cox). | |
| 8 | One’s death possibly memorialised here? (9) |
| HEADSTONE | |
| Anagram [possibly] of ONE’S DEATH | |
| 13 | Officer with Italian horses (9) |
| CONSTABLE | |
| CON (‘with’ in Italian), STABLE (horses) | |
| 15 | Scripture worthily translated (4,4) |
| HOLY WRIT | |
| Anagram [translated] of WORTHILY | |
| 16 | Ran off with moped, sorry! (6,2) |
| PARDON ME | |
| Anagram [off] of RAN MOPED | |
| 19 | Maintain the Speaker’s a sure thing (6) |
| ASSERT | |
| Aural wordplay [the Speaker’s]: “a cert” (a sure thing – certainty) | |
| 20 | Try to gain favour with commanding officers? Of course (4,2) |
| COSY UP | |
| CO’S (commanding officers), YUP (of course – yes) | |
| 23 | Almost losing knight in advance (5) |
| EARLY | |
| {n}EARLY (almost) [losing knight – ‘n’ in chess notation] | |
25:38 – slow in the NW, where CARDSHARP and SALUTARY were a long time coming, but a satisfying work-out.
28 mins, as above the NW proved to be hard. When I got it, I particularly liked the D sharp. That left -O-A-I-E. I hate these all vowel words, and I had to get help from the Scrabble prog to complete.
40 minutes with LOI Skirt – I was sure I was searching for a ballet term. I’ve just booked a holiday to Menorca, which helped.
My COD to the clever Cardsharp, closely followed by Menorca and Benign.
Struggled on the Western Front and only got started BY DEGREES. Made good progress in the Orient after that, although DRAKE’s rank was unknown, and gradually got going in the SW. How it took so long to see RUSSIAN ROULETTE, I don’t know, but that really helped. A biffed TWIRL at 11a allowed me to see “salary” for pay, which brought in SALUTARY which EJECTed TWIRL and produced SKIRT. A bit of a detour! CORPS was another that took far too long to see, despite my having considered it early in the solve. CARDSHARP went in with a resounding clang, leaving 24a and 13d to solve. BUTTERY came first and CONSTABLE brought up the rear. 26:48. Thanks setter and Jack.
13.45
Nice puzzle helped in the NW by seeing POMADE quite quickly.
Thanks Jackkt and setter
First time I’ve seen “TU” for workers. Tried usual BEE, ANT, MAN, even NUT….but got there in end. TU added to the crossword vocabulary!
Finished during lunch break which is very good for me, but woe, noon for the now obvious NEON. Many happy hols in MENORCA but none in Mallorca (Majorca) 😁 Failed to parse DRAKE, BENIGN (a dreaded hidden, oh dear), PATIENTLY and CONSTABLE along the way. Many thanks for sorting it all out Jack.
Very much enjoyed, as this was pitched perfectly for me. 23 minutes of fun – thank you setter, and Jack for the blog.
A fun puzzle. I particularly liked CARDSHARP, CONSTABLE,POMADE and VOCATIVE.
Thanks to Jack and the setter
Well I almost finished in 16:11 except I was rushing and overconfident and for my LOI put LOCATIVE when it should have been (E)vocative. Damn!
Thanks setter and blogger
45mins but with NoON requiring correction. I feel give the ? mark it’s probably as valid an answer as NEON. I generally solve in about the same time as Jack, so seeing he had taken 40mins I was willing to give it ago and my time was only extended by an alphatrawl for NHO VOCATIVE. I had a feeling I needed a -TIVE for a grammatical case but stumbled there by volatile fitting the checkers and then seeing eVOCATIVE. DRAKE also went in fingers crossed but everything else was parsed.
24:54, with SKIRT and DRAKE my last two in. I spent ages trying to think of deadly sins and other vices.
COD to CARDSHARP.
Thanks Jack and setter
21.10 Came to this a bit late so off for some zzzzs.