Hello again. This crossword I really enjoyed. It has excellent surface readings, not a single cruciword or obscurity, and neat and tidy clues with no unnecessary punctuation. I always find a plethora of ?s and !s rather off-putting. In other words, a model of its kind, and I can’t fault it.
Difficulty I thought was somewhere about the middle. I found both 1ac and 5ac to be write-ins, always a cheerful start.
I use the standard conventions like underlining the definition, CD for cryptic definition, DD for a double one, *(anargam) and so forth. Nho = “not heard of” and in case of need the Glossary is always handy
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Drink tea perhaps, maintaining sober condition at first (6) |
| MESCAL – S(ober) C(ondition), in MEAL (tea, perhaps). More often mezcal, a distilled drink made from agave. Tequila is a form of mezcal. Not my poison… | |
| 5 | Story books editor gifted (8) |
| TALENTED – TALE (story) + NT (books, specifically the new testament) + ED, editor.. | |
| 9 | Bravo leaving Edinburgh after assassination? (5,3) |
| HIRED GUN – *(EDINBURGH), less the B(ravo). Assuming that “assassination” is to be treated as an anagrind, this seems to be an &lit., the entire sentence being both definition and wordplay. | |
| 10 | Dangerous section of river primarily perilous in storms (6) |
| RAPIDS – P(erilous) in RAIDS (storms). I expect there is a world in which storms = raids. The nearest Collins dictionary gets is storms = “a direct assault on a stronghold.” Not quite near enough imo, but hey. | |
| 11 | Concerned about fellow ruler (6) |
| REGENT – RE (about) GENT (fellow) | |
| 12 | Merganser actively shunning northern lake (8) |
| GRASMERE – *(MERGANSER), less the N(orthern). | |
| 14 | Checking drawbacks connected with exercise (12) |
| CONSTRAINING – CONS (drawbacks) + TRAINING (exercise). This clue could hardly be any simpler. Why did it take me so long? | |
| 17 | Maybe servants baron studies suspiciously (12) |
| SUBORDINATES – *(BARON STUDIES). | |
| 20 | Revolt reported on much of central part of island (8) |
| CORSICAN – So, I think this is COR(e) (much of central part) + “sicken,” sounds like SICAN. I tend to think that homophones and puns share one thing: the worse they are, the better and more fun they are. So this is a really good one! | |
| 22 | Feel me regularly probing inflamed wound (6) |
| REELED – (f)E(e)L (m)E, inside RED, inflamed. | |
| 23 | Speculation of mould’s origin in wall section (6) |
| GAMBLE – M(ould) in GABLE, a wall section. | |
| 25 | Pledges to leave old in favour of new unclad property (8) |
| PREMISES – PROMISES (pledges), with the O(ld) replaced by (n)E(w), new unclad. As it were. | |
| 26 | Worker on crossing oiled nut according to Spooner (8) |
| FERRYMAN – Spooner would say “Merry fan,” | |
| 27 | Taxing task poorly tackled by king and queen (6) |
| KILLER – ILL (poorly) in between K(ing) and ER, queen. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Artist and author’s personal pronouns — start to finish (6) |
| EMINEM – MINE and ME, our setter’s personal pronouns, with the initial M sent to the end. Eminem, m’lud, is a popular exponent of music known as a “Rapper.” Very popular, not necessarily all that musical, but he is extremely successful. So much so that even I had heard of him. | |
| 3 | Smart person using pivoted device to split two hundred timber pieces (6,5) |
| CLEVER CLOGS – LEVER, a pivoted device, in between CC, two hundred, + LOGS, pieces of timber. | |
| 4 | Top of leg cramped, not initially eased (9) |
| LIGHTENED – L(eg) + (t)IGHTENED, cramped but not initially. | |
| 5 | Later on drunk eats (7) |
| TONIGHT – ON, in TIGHT (drunk). | |
| 6 | Lady in caravan rolled up (5) |
| LORNA – hidden reversed, as above. | |
| 7 | Pinch small amount of alcohol (3) |
| NIP – a DD. Possibly the alcohol is mezcal or tequila? | |
| 8 | Staying close with university group (8) |
| ENDURING – END (close) + U(ni) + RING, a group. | |
| 13 | A lot remains to be resolved about brothers (11) |
| MONASTERIAL – *(A LOT REMAINS) | |
| 15 | Pack beneath post somewhere on ship (9) |
| AFTERDECK – AFTER (post, as in post mortem) + DECK, a pack of cards. | |
| 16 | Have machines take over from assistant beneath car (8) |
| AUTOMATE – AUTO (car) + MATE, an assistant, eg to a ship’s captain. | |
| 18 | Square leg is one often hit by ball (7) |
| NINEPIN – NINE (a square, of three specifically) + PIN, a leg. | |
| 19 | Greatly admire the other side having lost final to rivals (6) |
| REVERE – REVERSE, the other side, without the (rival)S | |
| 21 | Pick cosmetic product (5) |
| CREAM – another DD | |
| 24 | Strip naked, almost entirely (3) |
| BAR – BAR(e) | |
Didn’t quite get the HIRED GUN meaning so looked up BRAVO, apparently, it can refer to a ‘hired assassin’, (listed as historical) making it an even better &lit.
Another friendly offering which I found enjoyable. Knew it had to be CORSICAN but was slow to twig to the ‘sicken’ part. Liked CLEVER CLOGS. Don’t think I’ve heard of GRASMERE before but the checkers and angrist left little doubt. EMINEM, my LOI, had me stumped looking for a more traditional artist before seeing the light. MONASTERIAL was a great anagram and needed most of the checkers for it. Liked PREMISES for the swapping of ‘old to new’, clever. COD to REELED, which had me thinking of the ‘hurt’ meaning for a while.
Thanks Jerry and setter.
This puzzle had a lot of clever stuff in it, and I solved it carefully – but not carefully enough. Having monastarial really messed me up for a while, until I decided a vowel-count was needed. This made reeled and revere possible, but not easy – a lot of words fit _ E _ E _ E. Hired gun was also tough, but it was a brilliant &lit. Surprisingly I was also stuck on regent – no excuse.
Time: 27:24
Tough but enjoyable up to the point where I became stuck on the two remaining clues 1ac and 2dn which had they not been intersecting I may have stood a chance at, but as it happened I lost patience eventually and resorted to aids. I can’t say I’m particularly aware of MESCAL as a drink but it has appeared here a number of times previously. As for EMINEM, he’s been mentioned at least half-a-dozen times in the wording of clues but this appears to be his first appearance as an answer. Needless to say I don’t know his work and have zero interest in finding out about it.