Steerpike is this morning’s setter.
This was my first blog back after a two-week break, and there were points where I thought my brain was still on holiday. The southeast corner held out for quite a while but once I saw TEASER, I had enough crossers to work out the rest. A good range of clues with nothing obscure. although the wordplay held me up on a couple of occasions.
Thanks, Steerpike.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DISPATCH |
Report murder? (8)
|
| Double definiition | ||
| 5 | RANCID |
Bad knight caught in incursion (6)
|
| N (knight, in chess notation) + C (caught, in cricket) in RAID (“incursion”) | ||
| 9 | BROWBEAT |
Spoilt child clutches medal broken by Welsh bully (8)
|
| BRAT (“spoilt child”) clutches OBE (Order of the British Empire, so “medal”) broken by W (Welsh) | ||
| 10 | ASHRAM |
Retreat from wood pursued by horned beast (6)
|
| ASH (“wood”) pursued by RAM (“horned beast”) | ||
| 11 | NUMERATE |
Maureen struggling to admit model’s skilled in arithmetic (8)
|
| *(maureen) [anag:struggling] to admit (Model) T | ||
| 12 | ANNUAL |
Publication damning US ally is oddly ignored (6)
|
| (d)A(m)N(i)N(g) U(s) A(l)L(y) [oddly ignored] | ||
| 14 | TRUNCHEONS |
Formal meals initially cancelled by heads of top-flight rugby clubs (10)
|
| (l)UNCHEONS (“formal meals”, initially cancelled) by [heads of] T(op-flight) + R(ugly) | ||
| 18 | FISHMONGER |
Trained frogmen guarding island silence shopkeeper (10)
|
| *(frogmen) [anag:trained] guarding I (island) + SH (“silence”) | ||
| 22 | ESTEEM |
Revolutionary bumps into European count (6)
|
| [revolutionary] <=(MEETS (“bumps into”) + E (European)) | ||
| 23 | STAGNATE |
Remain at a standstill in Spooner’s horse country (8)
|
| Spooner’s attempt to say STAGNATE may have sounded like NAG STATE (“horse country”) | ||
| 24 | DREW IN |
Retracted affidavit, essentially about wife meeting Italian on vacation (4,2)
|
| (affi)D(avit) [essentially] + RE (“about”) + W (wife) meeting I(talia)N [on vacation] | ||
| 25 | LITANIES |
Salient changes involving international lists (8)
|
| *(salient) [anag:changes] involving I (international) | ||
| 26 | REEFER |
Taking portion of meagre fee, realtor flipped joint (6)
|
| Hidden backwards in [taking portion of…flipped] “meagRE FEE Realtor” | ||
| 27 | BELABOUR |
Keep going on about extremely baroque party (8)
|
| [extremely] B(aroqu)E + LABOUR (political “party”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DEBUNK |
Prove false, young lady excoriated attractive men (6)
|
| DEB(utante) (“young lady”) + [excoriated] (h)UNK(s) (“attractive men”) | ||
| 2 | STORMY |
Passionate tale entertains medium (6)
|
| STORY (“tale”) entertains M (medium) | ||
| 3 | AUBURN |
Gold polish turned base of crown reddish-brown (6)
|
| Au (chemical symbol for “gold”) + <=RUB (“polish”, turned) + [base of] (crow)N | ||
| 4 | CHAPTER ONE |
Companion taking tea, say, in opening of novel (7,3)
|
| CHAPERONE (“companion”) taking T (tea, say) | ||
| 6 | ABSINTHE |
Sailor finally falls in the drink (8)
|
| AB (able-bodied seaman, so “sailor”) + [finally] (fall)S + IN THE | ||
| 7 | CORDUROY |
Material boys discovered chasing dog across ring road (8)
|
| (b)OY(s) [discovered, i.e having covers removed] chasing CUR (“dog”) across O (ring) + Rd. (road) | ||
| 8 | DEMOLISH |
Flatten misshapen shield employing standard method (8)
|
| *(shield) [anag:misshapen] employing MO (modus operandi, so “standard method”) | ||
| 13 | INTERTWINE |
Blend ultimately potent drink after three months without whiskey (10)
|
| [ultimately] (potential)T + WINE (“drink”) after (w)INTER (“three months” without W (whiskey, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 15 | OFFENDER |
Bid to control outcome for criminal (8)
|
| OFFER (“bid”) to control END (“outcome”) | ||
| 16 | AS IT WERE |
One might say waiter’s high on Ecstasy (2,2,4)
|
| *(waiters) [anag:high] on E (ecstasy) | ||
| 17 | IMBECILE |
Steerpike’s peevishness about church upset halfwit (8)
|
| I’M (“Steerpike’s”) + BILE (“peevishness”) about <=EC (“Church” of England, upset) | ||
| 19 | IGUANA |
Animal droppings mostly dumped in middle of Adriatic (6)
|
| GUAN(o) (“droppings”. mostly) dumped in [middle of] (adr)IA(tic) | ||
| 20 | CASINO |
Partaking in fracas in opulent entertainment venue (6)
|
| Hidden in [partaking in] “fraCAS IN Opulent” | ||
| 21 | TEASER |
Promotional footage regularly claimed Greens made it up (6)
|
| [regularly… up] <=((g)R(e)E(n)S (m)A(d)E (i)T) |
Indeed, Loonapick, TEASER was hidden well enough that it was my last entry. I finished but made heavy weather of the puzzle; looking back, I can’t really see why. [I don’t have a recent holiday to excuse my dullness today – hope yours was enjoyable].
My favourite was NUMERATE for its surface.
Thanks both.
Well, TEASER was so well hidden from me that I just couldn’t see it and gave up. Don’t know why, I have no recent holiday as an excuse either! The rest of it was enjoyable but I made rather heavy weather of it too. Thanks both.
I struggled with some of this, too, though I enjoyed it. I can’t quite see ESTEEM = COUNT, though I got it from the wordplay.
Thanks Steerpike and loonapick.
I found this reasonably approachable, but with a few clues that required time. I ticked ESTEEM and DISPATCH. All parsed
Thanks Steerpike and loonapick
Really enjoyed this but needed a couple of parsing confirmations so many thanks to Steerpike and the returning loonapick.
Faves were BELABOUR, CORDUROY, INTERTWINE, TEASER.
Agree with Sourdough #3 re ESTEEM.
Lem’s picked some good ones @5. I liked this but having written DISPATCH and RANCID straight in on the top row, things definitely slowed down later. ESTEEM was my last. Like Diane, looking back, I can’t see what held me up. There are lots of good clues.
Thanks loonapick
SE corner held me up too. You could say I belaboured it! I liked STAGNATE – I’m a sucker for a good Spoonerism. Thanks, @STEERPIKE.