BOBCAT kicks off the week…
A very enjoyable puzzle, with the expected feline Nina.
Thanks BOBCAT!
ACROSS
1. Strategy from A to Z? (4,3)
ROAD MAP
Double (cryptic) definition
A-Z are a range of street atlases in the UK that people used to use before getting smartphones
5. Rock singer jammed with Madonna originally (7)
TREMBLE
TREBLE (singer) jammed with M[adonna] (originally)
9. Cutting sort of writer used to be withdrawn (7)
HACKSAW
HACK (writer) + (WAS)< (used to be, <withdrawn)
10. Inadequate line feeding transmitter (7)
SLENDER
L (line) feeding SENDER (transmitter)
11. Spirit enshrouded in Christian imagery (5)
ANIMA
[christi]AN IMA[gery] (enshrouded in)
12. Cut Blue Peter broadcast about American worthy (9)
REPUTABLE
(BLU[e] (cut) PETER)* (*broadcast) about A (American)
13. Veronica’s drug source (9)
SPEEDWELL
SPEED (drug) + WELL (source)
15. Bar entered, having exchanged words (5)
INGOT
GOT IN (entered, having exchanged words)
16. Board curtailed drug unit (5)
TABLE
TABLE[t] (drug unit, curtailed)
18. Caution inadequate lavatory cleaner (9)
DETERGENT
DETER (caution) + GENT[s] (lavatory, inadequate)
21. General, good for France, isolated by exile in the end (9)
BONAPARTE
BON (good, for France) + APART (isolated) by [exil]E (in the end) & lit
24. Tolerate a president losing what he shares with Johnson (5)
ABIDE
A + BIDE[n] (president, losing N (what he shares with Johnson))
25. Plant sample of Iron Age rootstock from the East (7)
OREGANO
([ir]ON AGE RO[otstock] (sample of))< (<from the East)
26. Discontented extremists should embrace lawful causes (7)
ELICITS
E[xtremist]S (discontented) should embrace LICIT (lawful)
27. Recognise European sailors on recording (7)
DISCERN
(E (European) + RN (sailors)) on DISC (recording)
28. Greek god assumes face of youth in attempt to deceive (3,2,2)
TRY IT ON
TRITON (Greek god) assumes Y[outh] (face of)
DOWN
1. Woman on the rebound gets close to losing head and tries again (7)
REHEARS
(HER)< (woman, <on the rebound) + [n]EARS (gets close to, losing head)
2. Having missed two points, look through compiler’s records (7)
ARCHIVE
[se]ARCH (look through, having missed S E (two points, South and East) + IVE (compiler’s)
3. Screw up husband and smile, desperately (9)
MISHANDLE
(H (husband) + AND SMILE)* (*desperately)
4. Force debtor to underwrite pence (5)
POWER
OWER (debtor) to underwrite P (pence)
5. International conspiracy to detain Israel’s top airman (4,5)
TEST PILOT
TEST (international) + PLOT (conspiracy) to detain I[srael] (top)
6. Choose to put up with left eclipsing right (5)
ELECT
ERECT (put up, with L (left) eclipsing R (right))
7. Packaging available for a stiff charge (4,3)
BODY BAG
8. Most parsimonious to defer opening payment (7)
EARNEST
NEAREST (most parsimonious, to defer N (opening))
14. Atrocious wind almost erodes cover (9)
EIDERDOWN
(WIND + ERODE[s] (almost))* (*atrocious)
15. Extremely tiny airline’s gone bust, as a matter of fact (2,7)
IN REALITY
(T[in]Y (extremely) + AIRLINE)* (*gone bust)
16. Newspaper sent up officer affiliated to naked polo club (7)
TABLOID
(DI (officer) affiliated to [p]OL[o] (naked) + BAT (club))< (<sent up)
17. Explosives in crates (7)
BANGERS
19. Raise hat vigorously — it’s for the best (7)
ELITIST
(TILE)< (hat, <raise) + (ITS)* (*vigorously)
20. Student fired by warning about issue giving offence (7)
TREASON
(A[l]ERT (warning, L (student) fired))< (<about) + SON (issue)
22. Stage expression’s not right (5)
PHASE
PH[r]ASE (expression, not R (right))
23. Sinner leads in national tennis tournament (5)
EVENT
EVE (sinner) + N[ational] T[ennis] (leads in)
I parsed 20D as you did, except son = issue.
Please excuse my previous comment. I just realized that there is probably a typo in your solotion – a missing s.
Thanks!
Thanks Bobcat and Teacow
1ac: I still use my fairly extensive collection of A to Z maps and atlases.
Thanks both. Generally fine but a few tricky ones. Got a couple of extra letters from the Nina which was v helpful
I don’t get Earnest – I took ‘most parsimonious’ to be the definition – and don’t see why it should be ‘payment’ as definition. I don’t see the wordplay either way.
Also I think the ‘top’ goes with ‘Airman’ (for the definition of test pilot) rather than with Israel which I imagine is the country abbreviation thingie.
I forgot about the feline nina thing at the wrong moment, as it would have helped by putting the I in EIDERDOWN.
I got there in the end, though, and it was pretty straightforward.
BONAPARTE, TEST PILOT and EVENT (it seems harsh on Eve to write her off with one word, but it was a primitive tale anyway, so I won’t worry about it too much.)
Thanks Tonyc@2… I’ve fixed the typo
There were many nice surfaces today, with TREMBLE, ELICITS and BANGERS getting my three ticks. I also thought OREGANO was a clever, reverse-hidden-word clue.
The deletion clues raised the level of difficulty for me in an otherwise approachable puzzle. I also thought 23d was a bit tough on poor EVE, and learned EARNEST to mean payment and SPEEDWELL.
Thanks Bobcat and Teacow
James P@4 The synonyms for EARNEST and NEAREST, were, frankly, ones that I did not know, and I had to rely on my mate Nick to justify them.
I feel i can almost hear PB thumbing through Chambers
8dn by popular demand and using Chambers 2016
earnest² payment given to confirm a contract (p 484);
near stingy, parsimonious (inf) (p 1027).
For the wordplay “to defer opening” means that the initial N (the opening letter) of NEAREST is moved to a point later in the word.
Further to 10, it sometimes surprises me which definitions are questioned and which are not. I actually knew earnest and thought near to be a reasonable shortening of the word near-going, which was also familiar to me. On the other hand, in FT 18,386, also at 8dn, I had either never heard of or, much more likely, forgotten press meaning “cupboard”, but no-one questioned that one.
Thanks Bobcat for a top-notch crossword with my favourites being TREMBLE, BONAPARTE (COTD), OREGANO, BODY BAG (great surface), and PHASE. I spotted the LION and saw a second one lurking nearby using the L from SPEEDWELL the I from INGOT and the ON from LION. (Most likely an unintended coincidence.) I had a few parsing gaps — INGOT & EARNEST — thanks Teacow for explaining.
Pelham Barton@11… I’m half Irish, and have hung around with enough Irish people to be comfortable with press
Most enjoyable. We saw the four white spaces in the middle row and guessed the nina would be there; probably ‘lion’ (or possibly ‘puma’ and LION it proved to be. We have to admit that that helped us to see EIDERDOWN. We weren’t sure about ELICITS for ’causes’ but Chambers has ‘evoke’ as one meaning of ‘elicit’ so we suppose that’s near enough. Favoutite was the clue-as-definition, BONAPARTE.
Thanks, Bobcat and Teacow.
Reflecting on what PB@11 wrote, it must be pretty difficult for anyone to anticipate the words other people do and do not know. We all have such different lives and experience.
In some ways, it may be even more difficult for a professional crossword setter. The job is so different to other occupations and unlikely to afford contact with people in other countries.
[Teacow@13: I solved FT 18,386 on a train journey. I always solve unaided anyway, but it meant a longer delay before I could check press = cupboard. I note that ODE 2010 marks the relevant meaning of press as “chiefly Irish and Scottish” (p 1405), but there is no such restrictive marking in Chambers 2016 p 1229 or Collins 2023 p 1581.]
PB@10 thank you sir. I feel vindicated if teacow was also unfamiliar with both.
As to PB@11 I’ve Irish in-laws and agree press is still commonplace over there. Never heard it England except from Mrs P.
I’m surprised that Chambers defines EARNEST as a payment to confirm a contract. Whilst it can be, that isn’t a very helpful or specific definition. An earnest is a deposit, paid to show you are in earnest about going ahead with the deal, and intend to pay the balance in due course. I would say that usually an earnest is not a payment to confirm (the existence of) a contract, but to secure the performance of one that has already been made, and whose existence does not need confirming.
Sorry, why am I bothering you all with this absurd quibble?
JamesP@17: I suspect you’re not a civil servant. For more than 30 years of my working life I didn’t hear an office storage unit described as anything other than a press. Until I joined the civil service I had come across this use of press only on holiday in Ireland, where a hot press was what I call an airing cupboard.