Time: 20.57
A couple of NHOs at most in this very doable puzzle, showcasing some clear, concise cluing and plenty of smooth, believable and often amusing surfaces. Long clues are not always clunky, and short clues can be mystifying, but it is notable that no clue here runs to more than eight words, reinforcing my sense that this is a setter at the top of his/her game.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Monkey better run away from roguish child (8) |
| CAPUCHIN – CAP (better as a verb) + URCHIN without an R. | |
| 5 | Move doctor taken in carriage (6) |
| GAMBIT – Our variety of doctor here is an MB which is placed within GAIT.
No problem with the synonym though in chess, GAMBIT is used with reference to an opening (such as the Queen’s Gambit; King’s Gambit; Benko Gambit) rather than a single move. |
|
| 10 | Eliot’s thought muddled about her unfinished work (2,3,10) |
| TO THE LIGHTHOUSE – (ELIOTS + THOUGHT + HE)*.
Very nice misleading surface. I’ve not read Woolf’s famous 1927 novel but learning about it, might put it on the list. |
|
| 11 | Pie cooked with kipper for refined diner (7) |
| EPICURE – An anagram of PIE plus CURE (kipper).
Another nice surface, presumably intended to be tongue in cheek… |
|
| 12 | Group discussing reassembled remains (7) |
| SEMINAR – (REMAINS)* | |
| 13 | Put pins round seat covering tailor’s frame (8) |
| STRADDLE – Our seat is SADDLE which we put around TR. Lovely definition. | |
| 15 | Ducks mobbing rook in weeds (5) |
| DRIPS – DIPS around R (rook in chess notation). I smiled at this surface as well. | |
| 18 | Mum’s bed concealing Frenchman’s necktie (5) |
| ASCOT – Frenchman is M for monsieur which we have to delete from MA’S COT.
This is a very regular visit to the shores of Crosswordland, so I thought I might investigate exactly what it is. The answer: a cravat with a distinctive knot. |
|
| 20 | Sharpness had effect splitting very fine line (8) |
| ACERBITY – If something has taken effect, one might say it has BIT and this is placed between an amalgamation of ACE (very fine) and RY (line, as in railway line). | |
| 23 | Backed leading bank as more unstable? (7) |
| POTTIER – TOP is our word for “leading”, which is reversed and added to TIER. That sort of unstable. | |
| 25 | Records reflecting desire to spend heavily (7) |
| SPLURGE – A reversal of LPS + URGE. | |
| 26 | Little evil one in poet’s pool (6,9) |
| POCKET BILLIARDS – Here we have POCKET for “little” then (ILL + I) inside BARDS.
I wasn’t familiar with this expression as a synonym for POOL, and needed plenty of checkers before grasping what was going on. |
|
| 27 | River creature found by water rat (6) |
| ROTTER – R + OTTER (creature found by water). Not difficult but a nice lift and separate, with a believable surface. | |
| 28 | Live with increasingly savage fox (8) |
| BEWILDER – BE + WILDER. Again, not difficult but a nice clue. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Small boat first to capsize say (6) |
| CUTTER – C + UTTER.
Not sure that CUTTERS are always small as such (there are plenty of smaller crafts) but its inclusion helps the surface. |
|
| 2 | Loyal Irishman in charge containing insurrection (9) |
| PATRIOTIC – PAT + IC around RIOT. | |
| 3 | Pause revolutionary scheme air industry group adopts (7) |
| CAESURA – I struggled to remember exactly what the relevant authority is, and to get “plan” out of my head for “scheme” but eventually worked out CAA (for Civil Aviation Authority) which goes around a reversal of RUSE.
The term is used for a break in music or poetry. |
|
| 4 | Compound that is entered by unlit turning (5) |
| IMIDE – IE into which we put a reversal of DIM. | |
| 6 | Embarrassed where no professional leader at News? (7) |
| ASHAMED – If you are not professional you might be an amateur, or a SHAM which is the synonym we need to give us A SHAM ED. | |
| 7 | Bear, black one shut inside chicken enclosure (5) |
| BRUIN – B for black (from pencils) and then I inside RUN for “chicken enclosure”.
The name of the bear in Reynard the Fox, but more generally a name for a bear, especially in children’s stories. |
|
| 8 | Gold secured by one believing speculator (8) |
| THEORIST – Gold is almost always OR or AU. Here it is the former which goes inside THEIST, being “one believing”. Another simple but excellent clue with us needing slightly different senses for “believing” and “speculator” to those in the surface. | |
| 9 | Henry wears tight nose peg in lethal gas (8) |
| PHOSGENE – Henry gives us H around which we place (NOSE PEG)* with “tight” the anagram indicator. A NHO but it seemed the only sensible arrangement of the letters. I rather skipped over this when solving but “tight nose peg” is really rather good. | |
| 14 | Harangue from district attorney about island race (8) |
| DIATRIBE – Another simple construction: DA around I and then TRIBE. | |
| 16 | Crossed Bury, picked up money (9) |
| INTERBRED – The INTER bit was easy. BRED (homophone of bread) caused me some delay with so many different types of money to choose from and I wasn’t sure if we were looking at a homophone or a reversal. And if that weren’t enough there are quite a few possibilities for “crossed”, of which the answer wasn’t the first to spring to mind. | |
| 17 | Musician’s grand spot close to audience in pub (8) |
| BAGPIPER – “Spot” is another word which gives you a few options. Here we needed PIP (in the context of cards or dice) which goes after G and before E (last letter of audience) all of which is contained within BAR. | |
| 19 | Galley test sheets read aloud (7) |
| TRIREME – Homophone of “try” and “ream”. | |
| 21 | The Spanish tucked into pancake and mixed drink (7) |
| BELLINI -Our knowledge of foreign languages is not too stretched by needing EL for “the” in Spanish, which we insert into BLINI.
As I am sure everyone knows, a BELLINI is a cocktail made of prosecco and peach juice, first made in Venice. |
|
| 22 | Tricky question from trustee involving labour shortage (6) |
| TEASER – If one is not labouring, one might be said to be at EASE, which we insert into TR (a valid abbreviation for trustee). | |
| 24 | Silent, songbird’s caught a cold (5) |
| TACIT -TIT around A + C. | |
| 25 | One divided by five — find an answer (5) |
| SOLVE -SOLE around V. | |
Thanks for those suggestions
Late to the party on this one but I agree it’s a first class puzzle. I didn’t quite have all the vocabulary but I don’t care because it was all so well clued and I learned something. No need for Scrabble dictionaries here 🙂 Thanks for the blog.
Thoroughly enjoyed, mostly because I had few halts ( held up in 1a thinking that it had to be COPYCAT? for monkey/ape, and had forgotten the lovely monkey name!) and STRADDLE, as I never saw the pun “put pins around”, but now is my COD. Another held up by D?I?S for a while, but the lower half went in fairly smoothly (knew POCKET BILLIARDS, but being female, had NHO the schoolboy version). Only hold-up there was TEASER, as I couldn’t get poser out of my mind. Lovely puzzle, worth the extra effort.
I’m with those who quibble at musician bagpipers, apart from Black Bear I can’t discern one ‘tune’ from another.
I think a cutter was originally a small boat carried on a sailing ship, lots of references in O’Brien and Alex Kent.
My downfall was a biffed phosphene, didn’t recognise tight as an anagrist.
thanks to setter and blogger.