ARTEXLEN kicks off the week…
A lovely start to the week, a fun puzzle. I now need to watch the football.
Thanks ARTEXLEN!
ACROSS
1. Directly hit twice (4-4)
SLAP-BANG
6. Queen carried in taxi close to getting irritable (6)
CRABBY
R (queen) in CABBY (taxi)
9. I’m coming in for article of waste to be sparing (6)
SCRIMP
IM coming in for (A article of) SCRAP (waste)
10. Grip carton tight, keeping it overturned (8)
TRACTION
(CARTON)* (*tight) keeping (IT)< (<overturned)
11. Parent cycling son joins (4)
ADDS
DAD (parent, cycling), S (son) joins
12. English girl and a priest uncovered spies (10)
EMISSARIES
E (English) + MISS (girl) and A + [p]RIES[t] (uncovered)
14. Emptying circle a ringmaster goes around (8)
CLEARING
[cir]CLE A RING[master] (goes around)
16. Fine starters from oyster kitchen are yummy (4)
OKAY
O[yster] K[itchen] A[re] Y[ummy] (starters from)
18. Opponent cannot win regularly (4)
ANTI
[c]A[n]N[o]T [w]I[n] (regularly)
19. Old enclosure surround by grass is unlocked once again (8)
REOPENED
(O (old) + PEN (enclosure)) surrounded by REED (grass)
21. Alcohol good with unlimited herb crackers and biscuits (6,4)
GINGER NUTS
GIN (alcohol) + G (good) + [h]ER[b] (unlimited) + NUTS (crackers)
22. Say when retiring is wise (4)
SAGE
(EG (say) + AS (when))< (<retiring)
24. Aquatic plant, nothing small, ultimately spread (8)
DUCKWEED
DUCK (small) + WEE (small) + [sprea]D (ultimately)
26. Visibly embarrassed admitting row sounded ferocious (6)
ROARED
RED (visibly embarrassed) admitting OAR (row)
27. Bothersome thing, extremely lamentable grinding tool (6)
PESTLE
PEST (bothersome thing) + L[amentabl]E (ultimately)
28. Concluded fellow back in alehouse exaggerated (8)
OVERDONE
OVER (concluded) + DON (fellow) + [alehous]E (back in)
DOWN
2. Secured case of champagne guarded by boy (5)
LACED
C[hanmpagn]E (case of) secured by LAD (boy)
3. Father on social media site? Man is careful (11)
PAINSTAKING
PA (father) on INSTA (social media site?) + KING (man)
4. Pastry a very quiet Greek character consumed in shelter (5,3)
APPLE PIE
A + PP (very quiet) + (PI (Greek character) consumed in LEE (shelter))
5. Finally addressing being active, couple announced (7,6,2)
GETTING AROUND TO
GETTING AROUND (being active) + “two” = TO (couple, “announced”)
6. Elegant girl in Cyprus (6)
CLASSY
LASS (girl) in CY (Cyprus)
7. Sailor has sunken top craft (3)
ART
RAT (sailor, has sunken top)
8. Go-between’s business is out of money? Madness! (9)
BROKERAGE
BROKE (out of money) + RAGE (madness)
13. House acquired by poor saddler in US state (5,6)
RHODE ISLAND
HO (house) acquired by (SADDLER IN)* (*poor)
15. Some distance until dog collapsed close to me (9)
LONGITUDE
(UNTIL DOG)* (*collapsed) + [m]E (close to)
17. Keep fiddles before hosting summit for violinists (8)
CONSERVE
CONS (fiddles) + ERE (before) hosting V[iolinists] (summit for)
20. Be very cold following winds, when exposed (6)
FREEZE
23. Wind energy mostly environmentally- friendly (5)
GREEN
(ENERG[y] (mostly))* (*wind)
25. Use needles knocking out new teamwear (3)
KIT
K[n]IT (use needles, knocking out N (new))
I think 20 parses as F (following) B(reeze)s [winds when exposed, i.e. ends away].
Congrats to England!
@1 BrianB I think you’re right. I occasionally chuck in a few question marks, and normally come back to them. I hope I’m forgiven given the game today.
I ticked BROKERAGE.
Kudos to Artelexen for setting girl to be LASS and MISS, not female names. I am afraid GINGER NUTS is yet another British colloquialism and I do not understand how “goes around” in CLEARING is a hidden word indicator. I could not parse FREEZE, so thanks to BrianB@1.
I see England beat Mexico, and I hope that is your team, Teacow.
Thanks Artexelen and Teacow
Ginger Nuts staple fare down here, Martyn @3, but then we only stopped singing God Save The Queen a minute ago 🙂
Good fun. My only head scratch was longitude/distance.
I think CRABBY is R (queen) inside (carried in) CAB (taxi) + BY (close to), definition = irritable.
Thanks Artexlen and Teacow. I am still getting over the disappointment of yesterday’s Final in the only World Cup that is of any interest to me this year, but Australia were always the favourites to win. I would like to say that it is not too much of a loss with only 17 balls remaining, but with only three wickets down I think Australia were coasting home towards the end of the game.
6ac I had the same way as Cineraria@6.
15dn: Collins 2023 p 1157 gives longitude as “distance in degrees east or west or the prime meridian …”, so I think we can take “distance” as a reasonable definition.
20dn: FREEZE went in unparsed, but the correct parsing as given by Brian@1 popped into my mind as I was reading the blog, but before I saw the comment.
@6 Cineraria – agree.
Couldn’t parse FREEZE.
[PB @7, yes I was hoping for a closer fight, but in the end our girls were strolling …]
An enjoyable solve with no real problems. In the clue for 19ac we think ‘surround’ should read ‘surrounded’ but the answer was obvious anyway. Favourites were TRACTION and PESTLE.
Thanks, Artexlen and Teacow.
Thanks for the puzzle – enjoyable fun. Could FREEZE be F (following) + exposed BREEZES (winds)?
Justin@11: Yes it could, as already suggested in the first comment on this blog.
Little typo in the blog, for 24a. Should be DUCK (nothing) I believe.
I got stuck on 12a for a while, trying to make EAVESDROPS work for spies.
Good fun, thanks.
Let’s be honest here. Hands up all who confidently entered CHOP-CHOP at 1a. It is a more accurate solution than the correct one.
Nevertheless I won’t be crabby about this puzzle, and I won’t scrimp in my praise for Artexlen and Teacow for the more than okay Monday merriment. (I hope my praise is not overdone.)
I especially liked the neat charade and excellent surface of 3d PAINSTAKING.
Cellomaniac@14, I had CHOP-CHOP (with P starting 3d) and couldn’t get any of that quarter of the puzzle until realizing only SLAP-BANG would fit. Otherwise, agree an excellent puzzle and not too difficult for me.
GINGER NUTS I recognized from Herman Melville’s story Bartleby the Scrivener.
LOI was Pestle, took me a while for some reason. I wasn’t familiar with RAT being a sailor. Otherwise a gentle solve.
Grazer@16: I think RAT is an error in the blog at 7dn. The clue works with TAR as sailor dropping the letter T to a later position in the word.