An interesting challenge from ARRIETTY.
FF: 8 DD: 8
I think some parsings can be improved upon.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MASS MEDIA |
Maid struggling with a mess — newspapers etc (4,5)
|
| [ MAID A MESS ]* | ||
| 6 | HO-HUM |
Boring piece of macho humour (2-3)
|
| hidden in “..macHO HUMour” | ||
| 9 | ABRIDGE |
Cut short card game faced with ace (7)
|
| A ( ace ) BRIDGE ( card game ) | ||
| 10 | ALL-OVER |
Fan of Pacino in every part? (3,4)
|
| AL ( pacino ) LOVER ( fan ) | ||
| 11 | IDLER |
Slacker regularly ignored algebra past papers (5)
|
| ID ( papers ) LER ( aLgEbRa, alternate letter of ) | ||
| 12 | MARCO POLO |
Organised carpool inspired by second traveller (5,4)
|
| [ CARPOOL ]* in MO ( second ) | ||
| 13 | INSIDE JOB |
Kind of crime found within Old Testament? (6,3)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 15 | GAFFE |
Faux pas from boss scratching backside (5)
|
| GAFFEr ( boss, without backside i.e. last letter ) | ||
| 16 | SUNNY |
Optimistic divers showing note for doctor (5)
|
| SUNdrY ( divers, with N – note replacing DR – doctor ) | ||
| 18 | COCKATIEL |
Parrot what’s heard in Dog & Duck (9)
|
| sounds like COCKER ( dog ) TEAL ( duck ) | ||
| 20 | LORDLIEST |
Most arrogant lieutenant charged with failing soldier (9)
|
| LT ( lieutenant ) containing [ SOLDIER ]* | ||
| 23 | DODOS |
Fools originally dole out a lot of money (5)
|
| DO ( starting letters of “..Dole Out..” ) DOSh ( money, a lot of i.e. without last letter in this case ) | ||
| 25 | ELECTRO |
One who chooses to push back over dance music (7)
|
| ELECTOR ( one who chooses ) with O ( over ) moved to the back | ||
| 26 | IN A SPIN |
Panicking, Indiana twice grabs snake (2,1,4)
|
| IN IN ( indiana, twice ) containing ASP ( snake ) | ||
| 27 | TRY ON |
Attempt to deceive Terry occasionally working (3-2)
|
| TRY ( TeRrY, alternate letters of ) ON ( working ) | ||
| 28 | SEPULCHRE |
Dead body’s location close to Thames — Hercule Poirot initially puzzled (9)
|
| S ( thameS, last letter of ) [ HERCULE P ( Poirot, initially ) ]* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MIAMI |
City two goals up? Not quite (5)
|
| MIA MIa ( goal = AIM, two of, not quite i.e. without last letter ) | ||
| 2 | SURPLUS |
Periodically squirt yellow liquid around loch or lake (7)
|
| SUR ( SqUiRt, periodically ) [ PUS ( yellow liquid ) around L ( loch ) ] | ||
| 3 | MODERN-DAY |
Current article in Berliner Zeitung probing what’s coming up after the weekend (6-3)
|
| DER ( the, article in berliner zeitung, implying german language ) in MONDAY ( what comes after the weekend ) | ||
| 4 | DREAM |
Imagine being embarrassed cycling in the morning (5)
|
| DRE ( embarrassed = RED, with D moving from back to front ) AM ( morning ) | ||
| 5 | ANAEROBIC |
Lacking oxygen and weak, Mike surrenders to Nick (9)
|
| ANAEmIC ( weak, with M – mike being replaced by ROB – nick ) | ||
| 6 | HELLO |
That man will ring and say this? (5)
|
| HE’LL ( that man will ) O ( ring ) | ||
| 7 | HIVE OFF |
Separate issue with new lead character (4,3)
|
| gIVE OFF ( issue, with first letter changing ) | ||
| 8 | MARMOREAL |
Monkey’s scenery changed to concrete resembling rock (9)
|
| MARMOset ( monkey, with SET – scenery changing to REAL – concrete ) | ||
| 13 | INSOLVENT |
Part of shoe reduced by outlet broke (9)
|
| INSOLe ( part of shoe, reduced i.e. without last letter ) VENT ( outlet ) | ||
| 14 | JACKEROOS |
One leaving cookie jars in disarray for Victoria’s trainees? (9)
|
| [ COOKiE JARS ( without i – one ) ]* | ||
| 15 | GUARD RAIL |
Some peculiar draughts from below barrier (5,4)
|
| hidden, reversed in “..pecuLIAR DRAUGhts..” | ||
| 17 | NURSERY |
North Surrey works where charges are raised (7)
|
| N ( north ) [ SURREY ]* | ||
| 19 | IN-DEPTH |
Comprehensive record yielding times patient discharged by hospital (2-5)
|
| INDEx ( record? without X – times ) PT ( PatienT, discharged i.e. without inner letters ) H ( hospital ) | ||
| 21 | LET ON |
Reveal permit to board (3,2)
|
| double def | ||
| 22 | TWIRP |
Bit of red in cap worn by lead character in Where’s Wally? (5)
|
| [ R ( Red, bit of ) in TIP ( cap? ) ] around W ( Where, first letter ) ; had to confirm with the chambers that this spelling is correct | ||
| 24 | SINGE |
Letters from disingenuous char (5)
|
| hidden in “..diSINGEnuous..” |
Thanks Arrietty – very enjoyable with fave being COCKATIEL.
Struggled with some parsings so thanks also to Turbolegs.
Still can’t see 16A Sundry/divers but am sure it’s me being thick…
Good weekend all.
Thanks for the blog , it all seems fine to me , TWIRP usually with an E , tip=cap as the highest point . INSIDE JOB , the second bit refers to the book of Job in the OT .
JACKEROOS , the Victoria refers to Australia where the word is used .
Lem@1 I always think divers is wrong but it is just an old alternative for diverse which does mean sundry .
Great puzzle , so much clever wordplay , I like all the swapping around . ANAEROBIC a good example but several more .
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,”
-Hebrews 1:1
Lake = surplus me no get yet
Alan. People refer to such things as a ‘wine lake’ or ‘milk lake’ or even ‘butter lake’ to refer to a large surplus which cannot be sold on.
The use of “divers” in the stead of diverse seems to have become over-used, lately, and thereby a bit weak. Using the variant TWIRP, 22(d), is a bit of a low blow.
I enjoyed the puzzle, very nicely put together, smart definitions. However, the setter has got into a rut with repetition of devices, including anagrams, word truncations, alternate letter plays,
substitutions and others…so it got a bit deja vu.
Still a thumbs up, and thanks to Turbolegs
I saw this as many nice clues, offset by some overly-convoluted parsing. I best liked HO HUM, MIAMI, HELLO, JACKEROO (even though I would not spell it that way), LOI SUNNY and GUARD RAILS.
I thought 13, a bit suspect, and I also did not understand the connection between SURPLUS and lake. Thanks Hovis for the explanation.
Thanks Arrietty for an enjoyable puzzle and Turbolegs for the blog
I made a dog’s dinner of this but it was all there in the end with just SUNNY unparsed. I think I’m tired. No further comment.
Thanks Arrietty and Turbolegs.
It was probably past my bedtime when the blog appeared but I second Roz @3. Another very interesting outing from Arrietty, including some nice surfaces, not least those for HELLO and MIAMI.
GUARD RAIL was neatly concealed and I liked SEPULCHRE, COCKATIEL and JACKEROO too.
Thanks to Arrietty and Turbolegs.
Phew. Got there on Sunday. I didn’t find this easy, but to be fair, there were some marvellous clues.