A fine puzzle from Slormgorm, with long solutions crossing in the middle to lock everything into place.
Nothing too difficult, but I did have to ponder a bit to see what was going on with BRIO and ACRE.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | BARE |
Nude shows in club a revelation! (4)
|
| Hidden in (shows in) [CLU]B A RE[VELATION] | ||
| 8 | AMBULATORS |
Spicy roast lamb draws in posh pedestrians (10)
|
| Anagram of (spicy) {ROAST LAMB} around (draws in) U (posh) | ||
| 10 | ABSENT |
A preference to house son miles away (6)
|
| A + BENT (preference) around (to house) S (son) | ||
| 11 | OPERATOR |
A trooper, criminal or a machinist? (8)
|
| Anagram of (criminal) A TROOPER | ||
| 12 | PRETENCE |
Vacuous pope swallows awfully recent ruse (8)
|
| Outside letters of (vacuous) P[OP]E around (swallows) anagram of (awfully) RECENT | ||
| 13 | ENERGY |
What’s saved by greener gymnasium? (6)
|
| &lit and hidden in (saved by) [GRE]ENER GY[MNASIUM] | ||
| 15 | HORSE CHESTNUT |
Drug addict hanging around box tree (5,8)
|
| {HORSE (drug) + NUT (addict)} around (hanging around) CHEST (box) | ||
| 18 | OPIATE |
Drug one consumed after work (6)
|
| OP (work) + I (one) + ATE (consumed) | ||
| 20 | ADMITTEE |
Lawyer reviewed uni support for new student, say (8)
|
| DA (lawyer) reversed (reviewed) + MIT (uni) + TEE (support) | ||
| 22 | COVENANT |
Group who cast new tenor without a contract (8)
|
| {COVEN (group who cast, i.e., spells) + N (new) + T (tenor)} around (without) A | ||
| 24 | STOP BY |
Pop in small black bottles best before end of July (4,2)
|
| [{S (small) + B (black)} around (bottles) TOP (best)] + last letter of (end of) [JUL]Y | ||
| 25 | A TALL ORDER |
Tough task for a lofty band of brothers? (1,4,5)
|
| Double/cryptic definition, the latter referring whimsically to a monastic order | ||
| 26 | ACRE |
Unit of beer left out for our monarch (4)
|
| A[L]E (beer) minus (out) L (left) substituting with (for) CR (our monarch) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BARBERSHOP |
Type of music in Barnet establishment (10)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | BEE-EATER |
Yeoman of the guard dumps fine flapper (3-5)
|
| BEE[F]EATER (yeoman of the guard) minus (dumps) F (fine), referring to a bird | ||
| 3 | CANTON |
Fleece-wearing soldier in Swiss division (6)
|
| ANT (soldier) inside (wearing) CON (fleece) | ||
| 4 | BLEEDERS |
Extortionists can be despicable people (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | AT EASE |
Chilled drinks served in cafe regularly (2,4)
|
| TEAS (drinks) inside (served in) alternate letters of (regularly) [C]A[F]E | ||
| 6 | BRIO |
Spirit making writer’s stomach turn (4)
|
| B[IR]O (“writer”) with inside letters inverted (making . . . stomach turn) | ||
| 9 | BROKEN-HEARTED |
Drunk on the dark beer could be thus (13)
|
| Anagram of (drunk) ON THE DARK BEER. Chambers lists this as hyphenated. | ||
| 14 | GOTHENBURG |
Cook up grub, then go to have a port (10)
|
| Anagram of (cook up) GRUB THEN GO. This might also parse as simply: GO + THEN + inverted (up) GRUB, with “cook” indicating a rearrangement of the elements. | ||
| 16 | ELEVATOR |
Up-and-down sort of a voter mad about the French (8)
|
| Anagram of (mad) {A VOTER} around (about) LE (the [in] French) | ||
| 17 | NATIONAL |
Subject of widely-distributed paper (8)
|
| Double definition, the first in the sense of “citizen” | ||
| 19 | AGE-OLD |
A medal laid across European antique (3-3)
|
| {A + GOLD (medal)} around (laid across) E (European) | ||
| 21 | MISERY |
My rise faltered in a very unhappy state (6)
|
| Anagram of (faltered) MY RISE | ||
| 23 | OUTS |
Hooligans losing head should make exits (4)
|
| [L]OUTS (hooligans) minus first letter (losing head) |
Not much to say about this one. Liked ABSENT, OPERATOR, BRIO, and could not parse ADMITTEE or 15ac (did not know HORSE is a drug). Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria.
A likeable puzzle without hiccups though it took a while to remember ‘bent’ in the sense of ‘preference’.
Favourites were COVENANT, BLEEDERS and BROKENHEARTED for providing a generous helping hand.
Thanks to Slormgorm and Cineraria.
I had to reveal ACRE, and still didn’t understand it till I came here. Quite devious, methought. And I had FLEECERS for 4d. All else fell into place and was enjoyed.
I parsed GOTHENBURG as the blogger’s second version, not much of an anagram otherwise.
Also had FLEECERS for 4d, must be a Down Under thing.
Likewise re FLEECERS.
Could be an Asia thing.
Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria.
I too had FLEECERS at 4dn and have never spent more than 12 consecutive nights of my life outside England. Could be an English speaking world thing.
Interesting discussion about BLEEDERS. I do not see any attribution for FLEECER[S] that does not specifically mention something akin to extortion, swindling, or fraud, but for BLEEDER[S], Chambers does also include a definition for: “a (nasty) person (sl).” But I grant that the word FLEECER[S] could very well exist in the wild as a more generic term of abuse.
4dn revisited: It seems to me that double definition clues can be ranged on a scale from “two takes on the same definition” to “two words of different origin that have converged in spelling”. I agree with Cineraria that BLEEDERS is a more satisfactory answer to this clue. However, I would say that fleecers (in the sense of swindlers) are despicable people, and would suggest that FLEECERS fits within the range used in the FT. Accordingly, I claim it as a good enough solution that a solver who has found it could reasonably feel no need to look for a better one.
Lovely puzzle though I was didn’t parse BRIO or ACRE.
Liked: ABSENT, HORSE CHESTNUT, COVENANT
Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria
No trouble with BRIO but a friend solved ACRE for me. I also had FLEECERS but didn’t like it.
Finished with no errors for the first time in a while. Parsed “brio” since I remember getting a biro at age 12 (around 1947), when they were the latest thing in writing implements. the trademark was lost when people started calling any ballpoint pen a “biro”. is the word still in use or was this a clue for we oldies?
I ruled out Fleecers, because I had already done 3d. The BRIO BIRO confusion features in “Oh, What a Carve up”, so came to mind.
Enjoyed this… john#11, by the time I joined the planet, Biros were still available, but was used as a generic term. Always disliked them intensely, as they ended up leaking and ruining shirts, preferred proper pens filled from a bottle of Quink! I saw the nice anagram of GRUB, THEN GO and didn’t ask any further questions, whilst COVENANT, caused all sorts of issues for me, trying to stich something out of TENOR, A, N +?, with all the crossers, I stabbed and accepted the win. Cineraria elegantly explained it, but left me feeling very inadequate. Everything else was pretty straightforward.
Thanks Slormgorm and, again, Cineraria
Ps BLEEDERS stood out for me
Peter@12: I am not sure that I would regard the presence of the word “Fleece” in the clue at 3dn as ruling out FLEECERS as an answer in 4dn. At least, I assume that is what you meant. If it was something else, please clarify.
I too initially put in Fleecers but thought it unsatisfactory, especially with Fleece appearing in the previous clue. The correct answer then emerged. Otherwise, fairly straightforward though I struggled with Covenant, my LOI.
Thanks.
PB@14 It was what I meant. I agree it would not be impossible, but would have been uncharacteristically inelegant.
Rather like Moly@15 we thought of ‘fleecers’ for 4dn but thought it unlikely from a setter of Slormgorm’s calibre given the occurrence of ‘fleece’ in the previous clue and the correct answer eventually dawned on us.
We couldn’t parse BRIO, though. but had no trouble with ACRE. And we thought there might be a hint of double duty (unintentional, perhaps) in 8ac where ‘posh’ indicated the letter U but AMBULATORS could be seen as a posh word for pedestrians. That was our favourite, too.
Thanks, Slormgorm and Cineraria.
Though not a fan of hidden word solutions, i thought 13a had a nice surface. A quick solve once I downloaded the grid this afternoon.
Thanks to Slormgorm and Cineraria
4dn: There is a further point I meant to make, but forgot when I was writing comment 14. I would regard “despicable people” as an acceptable definition for “extortionists” – the other way round, it would need to be indicated as a definition by example. In any case, my point here is that the two definitions given are, in my view, not sufficiently distinct in their meaning. If one of the definitions had been replaced by a more literal definition as an agent noun from the verb “bleed”, there would have been much less risk of an ambiguous answer.
I also entered fleecer and was put off when I saw fleece in the previous clue. I also agree with PB@19.
PB@19 I take your point, but that is why BLEEDERS is clearly a better solution as it provides two similar but different definitions, someone who bleeds you dry and a nasty person. Fleecers is just the same thing twice.
I was distracted by fleecers too, but didn’t in any way think it was the solution. Merely one of those that one knows to be wrong but can’t dislodge from one’s brain. I’d barely registered the fleece in 3D.
I had so many write ins on my first pass I thought I was heading for a PB, but I was slowed down by the BLEEDERS, COVENANT and last one in ADMITTEE.
I liked the idea of a HORSE NUT Ooh, this is lovely heroin, you must tell me where you found it, quite divine!
I like BEE EATERS.
Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria.
Weighing in on the BLEEDERS/FLEECERS debate, I put in BLEEDERS because, as others said, “fleece’ had already appeared but also because with Brummie family members, ‘bleeders’ was a term often bandied about in my youth. In the grid, BLEEDERS even intersects with BAB (an 021-er’s term of endearment akin to pet, love or duck) across the top of the grid. In any case, I think we can all agree that fleecers are bleeding BLEEDERS.