Thanks to Brummie for an entertaining puzzle, with some helpful anagrams to get things moving.
Seeing GALILEO and MONTEVERDI made me think we might be in for an Italian theme, but I can’t see anything else relevant. There’s also the French WATTEAU and MADAME, with several French elements used in the clues, but again not enough to constitute a theme. I could well have missed something, of course.
| Across | ||||||||
| 9 | DIME NOVEL | ‘Evil demon vanquished!’ makes sensational reading (4,5) (EVIL DEMON)* |
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| 10 | CAVER | Sporty type beneath the surface, but one who’ll give in? (5) Double definition |
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| 11 | OCTOBER | Court award presented in alternative month (7) C[our]T + OBE in OR |
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| 12 | GALILEO | Astronomer’s western partner, one with a sign (7) GAL (western partner, as in guys & gals) + I + LEO (astrological sign) |
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| 13 | INCH | Tongue-in-cheek, creep inside (4) Hidden in tongue-IN_CHeek |
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| 14 | MONTEVERDI | Composer of divertimento managed without it (10) DIVERTIMENTO less IT |
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| 16 | TANGENT | Treasure’s almost buried by explosive – touching (7) ANGE[L] (treasure, as an endearment) in TNT |
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| 17 | WATTEAU | Artist’s Power Unit and Evian Water (7) WATT (SI unit of power) + EAU (French “water”) |
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| 19 | EMBODIMENT | Model person appearing in NME, Time Out (10) BOD (person) in (NME TIME)* |
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| 22 | BRAT | Child has right to enter club (4) R in BAT |
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| 24 | CENTRED | Focused on getting money – shamefaced (7) CENT + RED |
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| 25 | SEDUCER | Deceiver, foreign nobleman, featured in Observer (7) DUC (French duke) in SEER |
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| 26 | ARSON | Minister without Portfolio’s capital offence (5) PARSON (minister) less the first letter (capital) of Portfolio |
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| 27 | MERCILESS | Very hard as level of gratitude abroad reduced? (9) MERCI (French “thank you”) -LESS |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | A DROP IN THE OCEAN | Not much of an experience for the Artemis II crew at the end (1,4,2,3,5) Double definition, referring to the splashdown of a spacecraft |
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| 2 | EMOTICON | Smiley book’s going up I learn? (8) Reverse of TOME + I + CON (study, learn) |
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| 3 | SNUBS | Insults marrow in seconds (5) NUM (bore, marrow) in S S |
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| 4 | OVERCOAT | Company actor initially wearing plain attire (8) CO A[ctor] in OVERT (plain) |
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| 5 | BLIGHT | Black, easily portable mould (6) B + LIGHT – mould/blight as in diseases of crops |
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| 6 | ACCLIVITY | Incline to quash civil act by end of day (9) (CIVIL ACT)* + [da]Y |
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| 7 | OVULAR | Valour shown after detonation of part of a plant (6) VALOUR* |
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| 8 | ARBORICULTURIST | Tree expert’s concoction of citrus and oil-tar rub (15) (CITRUS OIL TAR RUB)* |
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| 15 | DEODORANT | It refreshes dictionary’s backing – and work by Bellow (9) Reverse of OED (Oxford English Dictionary) + DO (work) + RANT (to bellow) |
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| 17 | WINDSURF | Travel on board Chinook, say, seated on foam (8) WIND (Chinook is a wind in the Rocky Mountains) + SURF (foam) |
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| 18 | ENRICHED | Buddy possibly needs energy to be put in goal and improved (8) RICH (Buddy Rich, jazz drummer) + E in END (goal) |
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| 20 | BANISH | Elected, elevated and taken to party’s heart – then shut out (6) Reverse of IN (elected) in BASH (party) |
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| 21 | MADAME | Nice woman gets a daughter into musical? (6) A D[aughter] in MAME (Jerry Herman musical), with the familiar trick of using Nice as the French city |
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| 23 | ADMIT | Sing and entertain (5) Double definition – to sing is to admit to a crime |
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Thanks Andrew. Slight typo – SNUBS is NUB in SS.
I was impressed by the surface for ARBORICULTURIST. CAVER took me far too long. Is this the second appearance of MADAME this week? I realise I got DIME NOVEL wrong, entering ‘demi’ for the first word, getting confused with demi-monde, so a red face from me. Good to see Buddy Rich in the fodder. I agree with Andrew that this was a very inventive and enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to Brummie and Andrew.
Thanks Brummie and Andrew
Very entertaining. Favourite WINDSURF (once I remembered that Chinook was originally a wind); lots of other good ones too.
A couple I didn’t like, for a similar reason – TANGENT and EMBODIMENT both needed not very obvious synonyms for a word in the clue to be inserted. Did anyone think “treasure’s almost – that’ll be ANGE then”?
@3 muffin, no, I managed to guess TANGENT then took several seconds to work out what treasure ANGE_ was.
Didn’t know BOD, Buddy RICH (not into jazz much) or MAME, and couldn’t parse BANISH or ARSON. Otherwise, not too taxing; ADMIT my LOI and a favourite clue, along with BLIGHT. If there’s a theme, I can’t identify it. Thanks Brummie and Andrew!
I had diver for CAVER initially. It seemed to work. I hadn’t heard of MAME so look longer on that one despite spotting the Nice woman device. I’m glad I’m good at French this week.
Good puzzle. Thanks Brummie and Andrew.
I made quickish work of the northern half of this, but took a while to solve some of the later clues. LOI was WINDSURF, which was my fave in the end. I felt that ADMIT wasn’t an exact fit for either of the clued definitions – yet it still sprung to mind before I had any of the crossers. And liked DEODORANT, even though ‘bellow’ might only be a loose synonym for ‘rant’, for mine. Overall a very enjoyable finish to the week!
Martin @6 I had ‘diver’ too at first, before tackling the anagram.
I only thought of Buddy Rich after rejecting Holly, Greco and Guy. PARSON was my favourite. Muffin@3 maybe only Spurs supporters?
Liked CAVER, INCH, A DROP IN THE OCEAN, ACCLIVITY and BANISH.
INCH
Liked the unconventional construction.
A D I T OCEAN
Def 1 of Def 2 —acceptable. right?
Thanks Brummie and Andrew.