ARTEXLEN kicks off the week…
A reasonably gentle puzzle with a few clues that took a while to parse. Very enjoyable.
Thanks ARTEXLEN!
ACROSS
1. Cure six-footer; to die otherwise (8)
ANTIDOTE
ANT (six-footer) + (TO DIE)* (*otherwise)
5. Duplicated recording containing single (6)
CLONED
CD (recording) containing LONE (single)
10. Recalled trap used in duplicate puzzles (7)
ENIGMAS
(GIN (trap) used in SAME (duplicate))< (<recalled)
11. Items snapped up close (7)
COUPLES
12. Approached an errand drunkenly, having imbibed whiskey (5,4)
DRAWN NEAR
(AN ERRAND)* (*drunkenly) having imbibed W (whiskey)
13. Cross whichever bridges lead to getting Romeo (5)
ANGRY
ANY (whichever) bridges (G[etting] (lead to) + R (Romeo))
15. Third character dropped from team of fantastic folk (5)
ELVEN
EL[e]VEN (team, third character dropped)
16. Enthusiasm when accepting relay with four going round (8)
AVIDNESS
AS (when) accepting (SEND (relay) with IV (four))< (<going around)
19. Introduces American woman with vice (6,2)
USHERS IN
US (American) + HER (woman) with SIN (vice)
20. Crow and rook tucked into baked product (5)
CRAKE
R (rook) tucked into CAKE (baked product)
21. Game board art student covers (5)
DARTS
[boar]D ART S[tudent] (covers)
23. Try essentially dull remains after burning stews (9)
GOULASHES
GO (try) + [d]UL[l] (essentially) + ASHES (remains after burning)
25. Veteran against eating bananas (7)
VINTAGE
V (against) + (EATING)* (*bananas)
27. One turning writerly almost finished novel (7)
TWIRLER
(WRITERL[y] (almost finished))* (*novel)
28. Fairly despicable person snubbed present (6)
RATHER
RAT (despicable person) + HER[e] (present, snubbed)
29. Fault editor that’s gone to the opposition? (8)
DEFECTED
DEFECT (fault) + ED (editor)
DOWN
1. Demand on graduate from south somewhere in Scotland (8)
ABERDEEN
(NEED (demand) + RE (on) + BA (graduate))< (<from south)
2. Online travel firm has little about rent and cover (11)
TRIPADVISOR
(TAD (little) about RIP (rent)) and VISOR (cover)
3. “Bash rodents eating bread” is command (9)
DOMINANCE
DO (bash) + MICE (rodents) eating NAN (bread)
4. Liking head of nation to be brought down (5)
TASTE
STATE (nation, head to be brought down)
6. Girl from France, the content of mural (5)
LAURA
LA (from France, the) + [m]URA[l] (content of)
7. Nothing to fasten bar back on camera (3)
NIL
N[a]IL (fasten, bar [camer]A (back on))
8. Old-fashioned son bound by moral obligation (5)
DUSTY
S (son) bound by DUTY (moral obligation)
9. Derision about irrational love for venomous type (8)
SCORPION
SCORN (derision) about (PI (irrational) + O (love))
14. Composer’s vault plagued with ghosts (6,5)
GUSTAV HOLST
(VAULT with GHOSTS)* (*plagued)
16. Given a ship and one grand, returned home (8)
ASSIGNED
A + SS (ship) and I (one) + G (grand) + (DEN)< (home, <returned)
17. Dash around in square gathering tree’s first fruit (9)
NECTARINE
((RACE)< (dash, <around) in NINE (square)) gathering T[ree] (first)
18. Steady sea ferries advanced fast (8)
MEASURED
MED (sea) ferries (A (advanced) + SURE (fast))
21. Daughter finished port (5)
DOVER
D (daughter) + OVER (finished)
22. Be silent and mimic model (5)
SHAPE
SH (be silent) and APE (mimic)
24. Not disheartened wearing uniform that is free (5)
UNTIE
(N[o]T (disheartened) wearing U (uniform)) + IE (that is)
26. Fan that’s attached to bolt (3)
NUT
Double (cryptic) definition
Very enjoyable. CRAKE was new to me, and i couldn’t parse NIL. RATHER took me a while.
A pleasant solve. I got hung up trying to get Trivago into some kind of cover until the penny dropped.
Very nice crossword. Favourites were ANGRY and GOULASHES for their very elegant surfaces. I couldn’t parse MEASURED so thank you, Teacow, for explaining that and for the great blog and thank you, Artexlen, for the enjoyable crossword, as always.
Thanks Artexlen for a great set of clues with my top picks being CLONED, DRAWN NEAR, ANGRY, CRAKE, SCORPION, GUSTAV HOLST, NECTARINE, and DOVER. (I knew CRAKE from the Margaret Atwood novel ‘Oryx and Crake’.) There was no way I was ever going to parse NIL. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
Really enjoyed this crossword. All of it went in steadily with the exception of NIL, which like Geoff and Tony, I couldn’t parse. I ticked a number of entries but GOULASH was probably my favourite.
Thanks Artexlen and Teacow (especially for N(A)IL).
I must have been in the wrong mood, as I found this quite difficult and mostly thought the surfaces were clunky.
SCORPION, MAHLER and USHERS IN earned ticks for good surfaces.
I too could not parse NIL, as well as AVIDNESS, and MEASURED
Thanks Artexlen and Teacow
Thanks Artexlen and Teacow. Another NIL points for the parsing of 7dn so special thanks to Teacow for that one.
Martyn@6: Did you mean Holst rather than Mahler?
Oh dear, you are correct PB@7. I did mean HOLST and not Mahler. It is no wonder I made such a meal of the puzzle.
I enjoyed this one. I got a bit stuck in the bottom right corner with Avidness holding me up. I did manage to parse everything – – Nil holding me up longest. . But never heard of a Crake as a crow. I remember listening to corncrakes calling on Iona. A marvellous sound, a bit like rubbing a fingernail over a comb.
Like Moly @ 9, I don’t think a crake is a crow either. Crows are jays, magpies, choughs, jackdaws, rooks, ravens, etc, aren’t they?
20ac: Chambers 2016 p 361 has crake¹ (dialect) n a crow, raven; – and then various other meanings.
I found this quite hard. I did parse NIL but certainly had parsing gaps elsewhere. Tired. I’ll revisit this blog tomorrow.
Thanks Teacow.
I took CRAKE to mean ‘crow’ in the sense of ‘boast’ not a corvid.