A breezy challenge from ARTEXLEN to end the workweek.
FF: 8 DD: 6
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BLOODTHIRSTY |
Kinship with figure restraining son being aggressive (12)
|
| [ BLOOD ( kinship ) THIRTY ( figure ) ] around S ( son ) | ||
| 10 | ORANGES |
Ordered no grapes, eschewing soft fruit (7)
|
| [ NO GRApES ( without P – soft ) ]* | ||
| 11 | COTERIE |
Group finding somewhere to rest by lake (7)
|
| COT ( somewhere to rest ) ERIE ( lake ) | ||
| 12 | LIE-IN |
Left a German on island for extended stay (3-2)
|
| L ( left ) [ EIN ( a , german ) after I ( island ) ] | ||
| 13 | REDSTART |
Bird daughter found in boot again (8)
|
| D ( daughter ) in RESTART ( boot again ) | ||
| 15 | ROTISSERIE |
I resist wrongly entering eggs in cooking apparatus (10)
|
| [ I RESIST ]* in ROE ( eggs ) | ||
| 16 | MERE |
Male with unopened present that’s paltry (4)
|
| M ( male ) hERE ( present, unopened i.e. without first letter ) | ||
| 18 | EONS |
Heroines oddly ignored for ages (4)
|
| hErOiNeS ( oddly ignored ) | ||
| 20 | HULLABALOO |
Din from sailor stuck in part of ship, a latrine (10)
|
| AB ( sailor ) in [ HULL ( part of ship ) A LOO ( latrine ) ] | ||
| 22 | REVIEWED |
Gave report of cleric that is married (8)
|
| REV ( cleric ) IE ( that is ) WED ( married ) | ||
| 24 | ENDOW |
Provide tip with nothing in return (5)
|
| END ( tip ) [ W ( with ) O ( nothing ), reversed ] | ||
| 26 | NICOSIA |
First-rate society in westerly capital city (7)
|
| AI ( first rate = A1 ) SOC ( society ) IN , all reversed | ||
| 27 | ITCHIER |
Greek character participating in weird rite becomes more uncomfortable (7)
|
| CHI ( greek character ) in [ RITE ]* | ||
| 28 | SILVERFISHES |
Insects shiver less if flying (12)
|
| [ SHIVER LESS IF ]* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | LEANEST |
Meadow home for creature that’s most skinny (7)
|
| LEA ( meadow ) NEST ( home ) | ||
| 3 | ORGANIST |
Having time for European, manage player (8)
|
| ORGANISe ( manage, with E – European replaced by T – Time ) | ||
| 4 | TEST |
Check out river (4)
|
| double def | ||
| 5 | INCREDIBLE |
Current wild rice blend is superb (10)
|
| I ( current ) [ RICE BLEND ]* | ||
| 6 | SITES |
Lots of quotes read aloud (5)
|
| sounds like CITES ( quotes ) | ||
| 7 | YARDAGE |
Measure half of eggs lost with a cart overturning (7)
|
| EG ( half of EGgs ) A DRAY ( cart ), all reversed | ||
| 8 | ROLLER BEARING |
Engineering part joining posh car with carriage (6,7)
|
| ROLLER ( posh car, rolls royce ) BEARING ( carriage ) | ||
| 9 | CENTRE FORWARD |
Footballer restricted by decent ref or war develops (6,7)
|
| 14 | RECUPERATE |
Recover on cue, filled with power and speed (10)
|
| RE ( on ) [ CUE containing P ( power ) ] RATE ( speed ) | ||
| 17 | ABSENCES |
After moving, scan bees for deficiencies (8)
|
| [ SCAN BEES ]* | ||
| 19 | NOVICES |
Amateurs out of ways to keep grip? (7)
|
| NO ( out of ) VICES ( ways to keep grip ) | ||
| 21 | LUDDITE |
Protester from Germany I’d upset breaking instrument (7)
|
| [ D ( germany DI ( reverse of I’D ) ] in LUTE ( instrument ) | ||
| 23 | EASEL |
Stand shelter up to cover a sewer’s opening (5)
|
| EEL ( reverse of LEE, shelter ) containing [ A S ( Sewer, first letter ) ] | ||
| 25 | TIFF |
Female apt to go over argument (4)
|
| F ( female ) FIT ( apt ), all reversed |
A thoroughly entertaining and steady solve this. Some great wordplay to get stuck into (20) and what a super hidden answer in 9d (thought it was an anagram too, at first)
Thanks to Artexlen, on a welcome return, and Turbolegs.
I still can’t fully understand 9d. It isn’t the anagram given in the blog, which has one too many E’s. Also, what is “restricted” doing?
Thanks Diane. Missed that altogether.
Thanks Diane@1 . I was a bit too quick on 9d and didnt stop to check my parse.
Regards,
TL
9D is not an anagram. It is a phrase “restricted” within “de- CENT REF OR WAR D” evelops”
Quite appropriate as Putin has just declared war on the the free world.
Steady solve for a most enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to Artexlen and Turbolegs for the helpful blog.
I would disagree on the definition of 5d. INCREDIBLE does not mean superb.
Very entertaining. Yes, CENTRE FORWARD gets my vote for clue of the day – great hidden. The surface for HULLABALOO wasn’t far behind.
SM @6, I know what you mean about 5d, but at the risk of sounding like a stuck record and recognising that one can disagree with what is in a dictionary, “It’s in…”, qualified parenthetically as being “informal”. Maybe a question mark would have helped.
Thanks to Artexlen and Turbolegs.
Thanks WordPlodder. Perhaps I am being pedantic and will just have to accept loose definitions. A question mark would indeed have helped.
In 10 across, why is Soft == P ?
Musical notation Harry :p is piano (soft)
Thanks Artexlen and Turbolegs
Harry@9: A lot of standard musical terminology comes from Italian, As well as p (piano) for soft or quiet, as explained by SM@10, note also pp for very quiet, f (forte) for loud and ff for very loud.
While I am in, I am sure that the informal meaning of incredible is now used much more often than the literal meaning. If you want a dodgy definition in this puzzle, try Amateur = Novice.
Thanks SM@10 and Pelham@11.
In 16 across, why does UNOPENED == without 1st letter?
Harry @ 13: the blog tells you why
Harry @13: you need to interpret “unopened” as “without an opening” and hence “without the first letter”.
Thanks for the blog, Diane @1 says it all for me.
Harry@13 there a lots of little tricks used by the setters to remove first , or last , letters. We all had to learn them at some stage. Look out for detailed , used to take the last letter from a word. ( the “tail” is removed ) .
Thanks Artexlen for a pleasant crossword. I liked the anagram in SILVERFISHES, the surface of HULLABALOO, and the trick employed in ORGANIST. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Pelham Barton @11 . Yes you are spot on about Amateur=Novice. Just what I would expect from an old pro like you
Pelham @15. Thanks. A beginner here!
Harry@19: No worries; we were all beginners once. There are a lot of “tricks” to learn. Soon you’ll be helping the rest of us from time to time.
Late to the party as we’ve been busy all weekend, but we liked this. Particularly appreciated misdirection in 28ac where we thought for ages the answer had to to be *******FLIES and 5dn where we initially thought ‘blend’ was the anagram indicator.
Thanks, Artexlen and Turbolegs
Harry@19: As EdK @ 20 says, we were all beginners once – some of us many years ago – and are stil, learning. But you might find this list of ‘usual suspects’ useful: https://crypticcrosswords.net/crosswords/usual-suspects/
allan_c@21, yes, 5d was very clever, as it has two similar anagram constructions that work equally well, so you have to try both of them – either I=current plus anagram (wild) of rice blend, or IN=current, plus anagram (blend) of wild rice. And the crossers fit with both possible anagrists. I too started with blend as the anagrind, but couldn’t make a word, and then the penny dropped. That was one of my favourites in this crossword, along with the hilarious HULLABALOO at 20a.
Thanks, Artexlen and Turbolegs for the fun.
Thanks Artexlen and Turbolegs
I had actually forgotten to print this one off and only did so yesterday and whilst the grid didn’t take as long to fill as what it does usually for this setter, there was still lots to enjoy – especially the long hidden at 9d, the neat trick with 3d and some of the long anagrams. Agree that there were some definitions right on the edge of the pub test.
ORANGES was the first one in with ITCHIER and SILVERFISHES the last couple.