The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hello everyone. Today’s crossword took me less time than usual for this setter, but I don’t have a feel for whether Tyrus was going a smidge gentler on us in the heat or if I was on fire.
I liked 10a, ECUMENICAL (men are people too!) and 11a, ASSIST, reminding me of Dolly Parton’s donation during the pandemic. 12a’s rock chick, the neatly anagrammed garment manufacturers in 15a and 24a’s Sky feature complete my pick of the acrosses. In the downs I liked the wordplay and surfaces of MAESTRI (8d) and ELAN (8d). That long list is my way of saying I can’t pick a favourite. Thanks Tyrus!
Edit: thanks to Matthew@1 and Hovis@2 for pointing out the Father Ted nina:
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 5a | Can love tailless bird (7) |
| TINAMOU — TIN (can) + AMOUr (love) without its last letter (tailless …) | |
| 7a | Count time mother’s without (6) |
| MATTER — T (time); MATER (mother) is outside (without) | |
| 9a | Gather agent’s hiding 10% from accountant (4) |
| REAP — REP (agent) is enclosing (hiding) the first letter of the ten-letter word (10% from) Accountant | |
| 10a | Clue (1ac) solved – people involved promoting co-operation (10) |
| ECUMENICAL — CLUE IAC anagrammed (solved) with MEN (people) included (involved) | |
| 11a | Dolly Parton’s behind first benefit (6) |
| ASSIST — The American word for (Dolly Parton’s) behind, ASS, plus IST (first) | |
| 12a | Rock chick shortly gets back in club (6) |
| BASALT — LASs (chick) without the last letter (shortly) is reversed inside (gets back in) BAT (club) | |
| 15a | Garment manufacturers designed kit with tennis legend (8,7) |
| KNITTING NEEDLES — An anagram of (designed) KIT with TENNIS LEGEND | |
| 19a | Cope with success that’s netted Bill a thousand (4,2) |
| HACK IT — HIT (success) having taken in (that’s netted) A/C (Bill) and K (a thousand) | |
| 22a | Turkey meal comes round with dinners originally for four (6) |
| TETRAD — TR (Turkey, IVR); TEA (meal) surrounds (comes round) + Dinners originally | |
| 24a | Wearing headphones, I stick around for late-starting Sky feature (5,5) |
| CANIS MAJOR — Inside (wearing) CANS (headphones), I followed by JAM (stick) reversed (around) + fOR without its first letter (late-starting) | |
| 26a | Pick up from the armourer’s (4) |
| HEAR — The answer is taken from tHE ARmourer’s | |
| 27a | To demand money with threats no longer wrong (6) |
| EXTORT — EX– (no longer) + TORT (wrong) | |
| 28a | May very stupid person attempt to influence voters? (7) |
| CANVASS — CAN (may) + V (very) + ASS (stupid person) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Lover in government leaving note – feeling the pressure (9) |
| STRESSING — [mi]STRESS (lover) + IN + G (government) omitting (leaving) MI (note) | |
| 2d | Terminus open in Telford deserted surprisingly (3,5) |
| END POINT — An anagram of (… surprisingly) OPEN IN with TelforD missing its inner letters (deserted) | |
| 3d | Teacher’s wig sent up by third of students (4) |
| GURU — RUG (wig) reversed (sent up, in a down entry) by the third letter of (third of) stUdents | |
| 4d | Charismatic female working with computers? (2,4) |
| IT GIRL — A cryptic definition: an IT GIRL is a charismatic female; the answer could also mean a female working in IT, and it’s possible – if not terribly likely – that she could be both of those things | |
| 6d | Working times are reduced for distinguished practitioners (7) |
| MAESTRI — An anagram of (working) TIMES ARe without the last letter (reduced) | |
| 7d | Comes across English baseball team outside (5) |
| MEETS — E (English) with METS (baseball team) outside | |
| 8d | Horny African shaking rear in style (4) |
| ELAN — ELANd (horny African) divesting itself of its last letter (shaking rear) | |
| 12d | One narrow-minded old priest, ultimately under grown-up (5) |
| BIGOT — O (old) and the last letter of (… ultimately) priesT under BIG (grown-up) | |
| 13d | & 16. Mention about upsetting kind of acid (6) |
| ACETIC — Reversed (… upsetting) CITE (mention) and CA (circa, about) | |
| 14d | Bones in state – one arm shattered (9) |
| METATARSI — An anagram of (… shattered) STATE , I (one) and ARM | |
| 16d | See 13 |
| 17d | Rene not swimming in canal (7) |
| ENTERON — RENE NOT anagrammed (swimming) | |
| 18d | Wife and husband European (8) |
| DUTCHMAN — DUTCH (Wife) and MAN (husband) | |
| 20d | Aftershave at first was effective round female? Not much (1,3,2) |
| A BIT OF — Aftershave at first, BIT (was effective), O (round) and F (female) | |
| 21d | Tory leader drops one point – neat (5) |
| KEMPT — KEM[i] (Tory leader) discards (drops) I (one) + PT (point) | |
| 23d | Nothing you said that’s wrong or not genuine (4) |
| FAUX — FA (nothing – as in sweet FA) +U (you, said) + X (that’s wrong) | |
| 25d | Lift up ball on green (4) |
| JACK — Two definitions, verb and noun | |
I liked ECUMENICAL, CANIS MAJOR, KEMPT and FAUX. I somehow finished with ELAN which I should have got earlier.
There’s a “quotation” from a TV show and a homophone of the name of its speaker in the grid.
Thanks, Kitty and Tyrus
In Father Ted, Father JACK could only say ARSE, GIRLS, DRINK FECK (nina) but learnt to say ‘That would be an ECUMENICAL MATTER’ in one episode.
I see Matthew alluded to this while I was typing.
Like Kitty, I found this pretty easy for a Tyrus (aka Vlad) with ENTERON the only unknown for me. Maybe a few years ago, I would have struggled – I like to think I’m improving.
Absolute delight !
Rather like Hovis, I feel I must be improving as this was probably my fastest ever solve of a puzzle by this setter in either of his forms. I did think of the Father Ted sketch when ECUMENICAL appeared but I rarely even think to look for ninas – despite the number of times I have encountered them (and I’ve even set quite a few so have absolutely no excuse). Thanks to those who spotted it – and, come to think of it, that is the kind of nina I might expect from Tyrus!
REAP, ASSIST, BASALT, CANIS MAJOR, CANVASS (surely not a reference to Clacton?), KEMPT and JACK my faves.
Thanks both
Many thanks Matthew@1 and Hovis@2. I’ve added mention of the nina to the blog.
The fact that I finished it seems to indicate that this was less difficult than this setter can be. I’ll vote for KEMPT as my favourite, though it was all good.
Thanks both. Asked for assistance with TINAMOU by instructing AI to find a 7-letter bird beginning ‘tin’ and on reflection no idea why I didn’t persist. Equally disappointed to look for but not see the culturally excellent Nina. My only points of confusion otherwise were wondering if female was doing double duty in IT GIRL and the strange word order for DUTCHMAN when I felt “European wife and husband” might read more naturally.
We struggled with quite a lot of this but did eventually finish. We saw there was a nina but it meant nothing to us as we are pleased to say that we never watched, or wanted to watch, Father Ted – even brief snatches seen unavoidably when changing channels were enough to put us off.
An interesting puzzle, nevertheless. We got TINAMOU and ENTERON from the wordplay and crossing letters but had to check them in the dictionary. Favourites were ECUMENICAL and CANIS MAJOR.
Thanks, Tyrus and Kitty
Thanks to Kitty for a lovely blog and to others who commented. A word of appreciation too to Matthew and Hovis for explaining the nina and other Father Ted references.