ARTEXLEN kicks off the week…
A mostly straightforward puzzle, though I’d not come across 25a before, so that took me a while.
Thanks ARTEXLEN!
ACROSS
1. Man painting Ben, legendary figure (4,6)
KING ARTHUR
KING (man) + ART (painting) + HUR (Ben)
7. Quietly feeding timid parrot (4)
COPY
P (quietly) feeding COY (timid)
9. Content to canter after turning mount (4)
ETNA
([c]ANTE[r] (content to))< (<after turning)
10. Insect, beast native to Africa, crossing river to get home (10)
MOTHERLAND
MOTH (insect) + (ELAND (beast native to Africa) crossing R (river))
11. Fantastic runner led all regularly (6)
UNREAL
[r]U[n]N[e]R [l]E[d] A[l]L (regularly)
12. Flattered being lauded at swimming (8)
ADULATED
13. Characters arrested by coppers on aeroplane (8)
PERSONAE
[cop]PERS ON AE[roplane] (arrested by)
15. Location is place interesting to tourist, we’re told (4)
SITE
“sight” = SITE (place interesting to tourist, “we’re told”)
17. Work with aluminium and stone (4)
OPAL
OP (work) with AL (aluminium)
19. Supports pre-eminent player in rounders (8)
BACKSTOP
BACKS (supports) + TOP (pre-eminent)
22. Add more detail to vegan maxim? (5,3)
FLESH OUT
Double (cryptic) definition
23. Pretty lady’s after scoundrel (6)
RATHER
HER (lady) after RAT (scoundrel)
25. Initially confused when American with paunch announced reason for war (5,5)
CASUS BELLI
C[onfused] (initially) + AS (when) + US (American) with “belly” = BELLI (paunch, “announced”)
26. Pop group from estate disregarded in part of London (4)
WHAM
W[est] HAM (part of London, EST (estate) disregarded)
27. Extremely cagey reviewer holds back (4)
VERY
([cage]Y REV[iewer])< (holds, <back)
28. Floral collection one regards untidy (4,6)
ROSE GARDEN
DOWN
2. Great in numbers, Everton’s lead (7)
INTENSE
IN + TENS (numbers) + E[verton] (lead)
3. Mark became dull in speech (5)
GRADE
“greyed” = GRADE (became dull, “in speech”)
4. Queen on stroll talking at length (8)
RAMBLING
R (queen) + AMBLING (on stroll)
5. What better tools to forge bed- warming devices? (3-5,7)
HOT-WATER BOTTLES
(WHAT BETTER TOOLS)* (*to forge)
6. Sorry French road endlessly congested (6)
RUEFUL
RUE (French road) + FUL[l] (congested, endlessly)
7. Colonel drinks establishments empty and keels over (9)
COLLAPSES
COL (colonel) + LAPS (drinks) + E[stablishment]S (empty)
8. Joke with fellow that’s sharp (7)
PUNGENT
PUN (joke) with GENT (fellow)
14. Speak about city in Northern Ireland briefly — cathedral city (9)
SALISBURY
SAY (speak) about LISBUR[n] (city in Northern Ireland, briefly)
16. Deriding Carol, say, keeping company with sailors (8)
SCORNING
SING (carol, say) keeping (CO (company) with RN (sailors))
18. Raid shelled small settlements with superior power (7)
PILLAGE
[v]ILLAGE[s] (small settlements, shelled) with superior P (power)
20. Go over school subject with class (7)
OPERATE
O (over) + PE (school subject) with RATE (class)
21. Car accessory is to deform road surface, according to Spooner (3,3)
TOW BAR
“bow tar” (deform road surface, “according to Spooner”)
24. Tall building to west engineers erected (5)
TOWER
TO + W (west) + (RE)< (engineers, <erected)
Or GRAZE for 3D?
I must admit I put in GRAZE reading the clue as ‘becomes dull’ for some reason. Mostly straightforward. Hadn’t met CASUS BELLI but easy to guess. Not keen on 1a. Feel it works better if it was BEN HUR, rather than BEN-HUR.
I parsed KING ARTHUR incorrectly as KING = man and then ARTHUR as ‘Ben Arthur’ (mountain in Scotland) thereby ignoring the word ‘painting’ – must pay more attention to detail instead of jumping too quickly to enter a solution that just seems correct.
Otherwise all good fun.
Thank you Artexlen and Teacow.
I can’t make my mind up about Ben-Hur. Part of me thinks it’s clever, but I am inclined to agree with Hovis. It made me wonder whether “Full Bin” would be a fair clue for Laden. SCORNING was my favourite.
I agree about 1a: if you’ve ever actually seen the film (or read the book, I suppose–I haven’t) you know that the character is Judah Ben-Hur. So, not a guy named Ben.
I know pretty much thing zero about rounders, except the fact that it’s an ancestor of baseball. Interestingly, in baseball a BACKSTOP is a thing, not a person. (It’s the barrier behind home plate that prevents wild pitches from leaving the field.)
Just to add to the Ben-Hur debate, ‘Ben’ is a prefix meaning ‘son of’. The answer is clear but it does feel a bit dubious.
I also struggled with 1ac but got the rest. All I could come up with for Ben was large clock in London and Scottish mountain. I was left wondering if I had missed a story about King Arthur painting a mountain. It’s probably standard crosswordese but is man not a rather loose synonym for King? Loved CASUS BELLI and enjoyed the rest. Many thanks to all
Thanks for the blog , some neat clues , I was for GRADE , GRAZE would be becomes dull .
NsN@7 , man=KING for chess , all pieces are men , even the queen .
Not so Newbie @7. ‘Man’ for ‘King’ crops up every now and then. You need to think of chess, where the pieces are referred to as men.
All fairly straightforward apart from the dubious ‘Ben’, although we needed a wordfinder for 13ac, having failed to spot it was a hidden. That dubious ‘Ben’ reminded us of the hoary old joke – ‘We named our cat Ben, then it had kittens so we renamed it Ben Hur’.😾
Thanks, Artexlen and Teacow.
I ticked UNREAL (clever), HOT WATER BOTTLES (obvious, but nice anagram and surface), VERY (nice surface with an answer that took a while to see), PERSONAE (well hidden), and FLESH OUT (LOI, made me smile)
I needed the blog to parse KING ARTHUR, not even thinking of Ben Hur, so I am unable to enter the fray. I thought the spoonerism and PILLAGE were a bit weak
Thanks Artexlen and Teacow
Quick then slow for me but enjoyable on average. Thanks both. Same moans as others but liked hot water bottles and quite a few others.
Two of my last three were hiddens (VERY & PERSONAE) which is irritating. Yes, I realise personae in particular should have been obvious but we all have our moments.
Thanks Artexlen and teacow
Very enjoyable and nicely doable.
No problem with Ben = Hur
Wham was last but one in, as I was fixed on the idea of taking Est out of West End……😂