Thank you to Qaos. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Again, apologies for the late posting.
Across
1. One born with natural chemistry? (4-4,4)
TEST-TUBE BABY : Cryptic defn: A baby conceived by an outside-the-body medical process in a laboratory.
9. Snooker legend’s success covered by the Guardian (5)
WHITE : HIT(a success/winner) contained in(covered by) WE(self-referential pronoun for this entity, the Guardian, which publishes this crossword).
Answer: Jimmy …, English professional snooker player who has won several titles.
10. 19 made fare for Paddington (9)
MARMALADE : Reverse clue, somewhat: Anagram of(FALSE, part of the answer to 19 across) [ALARM, the other part of the answer to 19 across + MADE].
Answer: Favourite food/fare of the fictional Paddington Bear.
11. Creature with many feet evenly toed after growth (7)
POLYPOD : 2nd and 4th letters of(evenly) “toed” placed after(after) POLYP(a growth protruding from a mucous membrane in the body)
12. Computer programs hiding that woman’s problems (7)
BOTHERS : BOTS(automated software/computer programs that perform tasks for other programs or users) containing(hiding) HER(third-person pronoun for a/that woman).
Defn: …/troubles.
13. Dividing and taking away, see – use nine digits randomly (10)
DISUNITING : Anagram of(… randomly) [ “use nine digits” minus(taking away) “see” ].
15. Son playing with type of mobile? (4)
SNOW : Anagram of(… playing) SON + W(abbrev. for “with”).
Not a telephone but this:
18. In this country cricket initially follows 500 for 0 (4)
DUCK : [UK(abbrev. for this country, the United Kingdom) containing(In …) 1st letter of(… initially) “cricket” ] placed after(follows) D(Roman numeral for 500).
Defn: Term for a 0 score in cricket.
19. Wrong treating malaria without AI? No need to panic (5,5)
FALSE ALARM : FALSE(wrong/untrue) + anagram of(treating) [ “malaria” minus(without) “AI” ].
22. God returns good tablets as they contain absorbing material (7)
NAPPIES : Reversal of(… returns) PAN(a god in Greek mythology) + PI(in slang, short for “pious”/religious/good, in a disapproving sense) + ES(an informal term for tablets of the drug Ecstasy).
24. 1 + 100 divided by 1/9 clean? (7)
ASEPTIC : [ A(a single quantity/1) + C(Roman numeral for 100) ] containing(divided by) [SEPT I](abbrev. for “September 1”, with the Roman numeral substitution, or 1/9 in date format in UK and most of Europe).
Defn: …/sterile.
25. Drunk soldier breaking promises to be combative in court (9)
LITIGIOUS : LIT(slang for drunk/intoxicated) + [ GI(informal term for a soldier in the US Army) contained in(breaking) IOUS(informal documents/promises to pay back debt) ].
26. Perhaps Clio, without drop of oil, it squeaks (5)
MOUSE : MUSE(an example of which/perhaps is Clio, the Muse of history in Greek mythology) containing(without) 1st letter of(drop of) “oil”.
Defn: It/this creature squeaks.
27. Catholic tried gambling college to manage church’s financial crisis (6,6)
CREDIT CRUNCH : C(abbrev. for “Catholic”) + anagram of(… gambling) TRIED + C(abbrev. for “college”) + RUN(to manage, say, an organisation) + CH(abbrev. for “church”).
Down
1. Drinksss? (6,3)
TRIPLE SEC : [ TRIPLE(3 times) SEC(like S, abbrev. for “second”) ](sss).
Answer: A clear, sweet orange-flavoured liquer.
2. Idle PM once does U-turn to stop evil government (8)
SLEEPING : Reversal of(… does U-turn) PEEL(Robert, once PM of the UK) contained in(to stop) [ SIN(a wrongdoing/an evil) + G(abbrev. for “government”) ].
3. Lacking courage to finally count 110001500? (5)
TIMID : Last letter of(finally) “count” + [ I(Roman numeral for 1) + M(ditto for 1000) + I(ditto for “one”) + D(ditto for 500) ](110001500).
4. Basic facts on display at the Natural History Museum? (4,5)
BARE BONES : Double defn: 1st: …/the fundamental details of something); and 2nd: Things that can be seen/…, in this case, fossilised bones.
5. Wager wins gold and yen with stunner (6)
BEAUTY : [ BET(a wager/gamble) containing(wins) AU(symbol for the chemical element, gold) ] plus(and) Y(symbol for the Japanese yen, unit of currency).
Defn: A …/an extremely attractive person.
6. Young man subdued by extremely brittle weapon (5)
BLADE : LAD(a young man) contained in(subdued by) 1st and last letters of(extremely) “brittle”.
Answer: A sword or such like weapon.
7. Stolen diamonds hidden under small sponge (6)
SWIPED : D(abbrev. for the suit of diamonds in a deck of playing cards) placed below(hidden under, in a down clue) [ S(abbrev. for “small”) + WIPE(to rub a surface to clean it with, in this case, a sponge) ].
8. Rough seas crossing east and west, back and forth (6)
SEESAW : [Anagram of(Rough) SEAS containing(crossing) E(abbrev. for “east”) ] plus(and) W(abbrev. for “west”).
Defn: To move …..
14. After G&T exchanged, relative’s left with delight (9)
TRANSPORT : [“gran”(informal term for ones’ grandmother) with “t” replacing(After … exchanged) “g”]’S + PORT(the left side, say, of a ship).
Defn: …/bliss.
16. Close shave: trim cut by edge of razor that hurts (4,5)
NEAR TOUCH : NEAT(trim/tidy) containing(cut by) 1st or last letter of(edge of) “razor” + OUCH!(an exclamation meaning “That hurts!”).
Defn: …/a narrow escape from disaster.
17. Trader starting to swindle pub landlord? (8)
SALESMAN : 1st letter of(starting to) “swindle” + ALESMAN(whimsically, a pub landlord, who sells ales among other things).
18. Trump beat an old Democrat (6)
DONALD : Anagram of(beat) AN OLD + D(abbrev. for a member of the Democratic Party).
Defn: First name of …, current US President.
20. Doped drink that’s taken in fun (6)
MICKEY : Double defn: 1st: Short for “Mickey Finn”, a drink laced with a drug/dope to make the one who drinks it pass out); and 2nd: From the phrase “to take the mickey”/to make fun of or tease someone.
21. Burned a little and witnessed core lifting (6)
SINGED : SIGNED(of a witness, put his/her signature on a legal document to record that he/she has observed that the document has been properly signed by the relevant parties) with reversal of(… lifting, in a down clue) its middle 2 letters(core).
23. Safe removing tungsten from alloy (5)
PETER : “W”(symbol for the chemical element, tungsten aka wolfram) deleted from(removing … from) “pewter”(a tin alloy).
Defn: A …, where one may keep valuables.
24. Rise up to support American gods (5)
AESIR : Reversal of(… up,in a down clue) RISE placed below(to support, in a down clue) A(abbrev. for “American”).
Answer: In Norse mythology, the main group of gods, led by Odin.
>
On the gentler side for Qaos, with a cute theme that included SNOW WHITE, SLEEPING BEAUTY, DONALD DUCK, PETER PAN and MICKEY MOUSE. TEST-TUBE BABY was FOI which helped a lot and I thought MARMALADE was particularly clever.
Ta Qaos & scchua.
AlanC @1 Yes I saw those, but it seemed rather desultory as a theme. Qaos’s themes are generally more pervasive than that, so I thought I might be missing some.
All done, but had no idea of a theme.
Big range of Guardian crosswords, yesterday I solved 4 clues!
Thanks both
Normal service resumed with the fairly obvious theme only noticed retrospectively.
It took me a while to parse DISUNITING (for which I initially tried to enter DISSECTING) and ASEPTIC. It was plain sailing elsewhere, despite not recalling the Nordic god collective. I wasn’t familiar with NEAR TOUCH either.
MARMALADE was nice. Despite the Peruvian connotations of the clue, it is a word of Portuguese origin (along with the likes of cashew, flamingo, piranha and mango). Having imbibed a few cocktails last night, I enjoyed the fun clue for TRIPLE SEC.
(My son’s first name was partially inspired by Jimmy White. A remarkable talent awith some excellent personality traits along with some more self-destructive tendencies.)
Thanks Qaos and scchua.
Good fun, thanks Qaos and sschua. Spotted the theme, for once.
As my Scottish friend observed, there’s never a Qaos puzzle that disnae have a theme. MARMALADE was brilliant and ASEPTIC very clever too.
Lovely to see The WHIRLWIND get a mention at 9ac. Often considered the greatest player never to have won a World Snooker Championship, a beaten finalist six times. And I think the snooker balls must have got in the way, for I never noticed the theme. Yet again. NEAR TOUCH not as familiar to me as Near Thing. Thought BEAUTY very good amongst several others, however…
Probably the easiest Qaos I have ever done. After completion it still took me ages to see the theme!
My thanks to Qaos and scchua.
…and the Trump clue that revealed DONALD did make me smile….
Fun puzzle. Theme came too late to help, but puzzle was gentle enough to be solvable without.
Re: 14d. If a clue mentions relative, delight and an exchange of letters, it’s got to be daughter/laughter, right? Not this time!
Numerical clues as usual with Qaos a lot of fun.
Both Mr WHITE and the expression NEAR TOUCH were new to me but quick solves nonetheless. On the other hand, DUCK took me far too long, and I didn’t see the parsing of ASEPTIC until some time after it had been bunged in. Thanks to Q and scchua
Top ticks for TRIPLE SEC, ASEPTIC and a personal pat on the head for finally remembering LIT=drunk in LITIGIOUS. It had to happen one day
Martin @4 my miracle recovery from theme blindness continues and even helped with DONALD. I did wonder if he was the beast to go with BEAUTY
Cheers Q&S
DUCK and DONALD were the first clues I filled in, so I had the theme to work with going forward. Agree with others that this was a kinder, gentler Qaos.
“Disney” have a theme, Petert@6… very droll. I spotted this one fairly early, but was looking for a beast to go with the BEAUTY I already had – d’oh! It also helped with the NHO snooker player. Thanks, Qaos and scchua.
As well as the main theme, do I detect a reference to late-70s Sussex punk rock? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_the_Test_Tube_Babies
I always enjoy Qaos’s conjuring tricks with numbers and letters (getting the final D helped a lot with TIMID), but how could I have missed this country = UK in DUCK? But I did. Or 1/9 = SEPT I? (though that will translate to JAN 9 across the pond). I haven’t encountered NEAR TOUCH for a damned close-run thing before, and I managed to miss the theme. Never mind, I shall go and console myself with a MARMALADE sandwich. Nice to see Jimmy WHITE – a joy to watch in his day.
It’s always a pleasure to see Qaos’s name at the top of a crossword and I really enjoyed this one. I had ticks for the FALSE ALARM about malaria, the god’s NAPPIES, the ASEPTIC Sept 1st, the TRIPLE SEC drink, the G&T leading to TRANSPORT, and the surface for NEAR TOUCH, which Wiktionary says is dated. My jorum for today is AESIR.
Thanks Qaos and scchua.
I have not heard of NEAR TOUCH before, but what else could it be? I know close call, near thing, near miss, and various others, but not this one.
Of course I missed the theme.
Thank you Qaos and scchua.
I join the nho chorus for NEAR TOUCH and Mr. WHITE (or any other snooker player).
A SEESAW goes up and d
own, not back and forth, at least this side the pond.
I didn’t get the theme. I didn’t look for it very hard, since Qaos’s themes are so often hit songs by some obscure 70’s band or films by some equally obscure Albanian director.
Thanks, Qaos and scchua.
I’m puzzled why nobody has yet mentioned the ninas ETYUKPIE (an alien-made unappealing pastry) and DEERIACY (the ability to tell different kinds of cervidae apart).
Martin @ 4 – Gosh! White is an unusual name for a boy, but I like it! 😇
I agree this was a straightforward solve, but crisp and elegant in so doing; very enjoyable…
DUCK slowed me down, and AESIR (unknown to me) risked this being my first ever defeat by Qaos!
Many thanks, both and all
Can I join the legion of cruciverbalists who do not want to see Trump referenced in crosswords? It’s bad enough in the news.
A nice one though I did share Lobsterdarts’ “It’s that man again”* feeling a bit. For once I saw the theme and even had it help me fill it in, as I hadn’t got MICKEY MOUSE by then… this would have clued me in to WHITE if I hadn’t guessed and checked it.
CoD for me was the elegant way the growth slotted into 11ac.
Thanks Qaos and scchua.
*theme of the most impenetrable, to me, crossword I have ever tried… I think? was there an entire puzzle about ITMA or am I just traumatized by one clue about Mrs. Mopp?
I enjoyed this puzzle, and actually spotted the theme for once (although not in time to help in solving). But I’m an old curmudgeon, so some complaints:
I don’t like “gambling” as an anagrind.
I expected “exchanged” in 14dn to mean that the answer had both a G and a T, and we were instructed to, well, exchange them. I’m not sure that a one-sided replacement is really an exchange.
Didn’t spot the theme until after, but still finished it all in less time than usual for a Qaos puzzle.
Biffed NAPPIES, couldn’t parse the second half – so thanks blogger for the clarification.
NHO AESIR but it sounded God-like enough….
Didn’t get MICKEY or NAPPIES (put in “napkins” unparsed), the rest was very fine, favourite MARMALADE. Thanks Qaos and scchua
Thanks to scchua for the blog and for parsing 24A ASEPTIC which I bunged in based on the crossers. NHO AERIS so was surprised to find it was a real word.
Could there be a double theme?
Donald
Litigious
Sleeping
Salesman
2x orange things (Marmalade and Triple Sec)
Disuniting
A slow, steady and enjoyable experience. MARMALADE went in unparsed as I knew it was all he ate. DUCK stymied me so DNF as took lots of biffs and country searches and DRC etc to no avail. Should have thought more laterally and focussed on the 0. AESIR a TILT as was NEAR TOUCH, both very fairly clued. Missed the theme but once explained I thought PETER can’t be there without reason and sure enough, NAP leads to the P of PETER so a PETER PAN of sorts.
Thanks QAOS and scchua.
Note to self. Visit a previous puzzle by the setter in here to see if they set thematic, Nina, Pangram types.
Martin W @28
Good spot! One can have a lot of fun with that theme, several others leapt out…
Swiped… Grifter in chief
A Septic…. Rhyming slang, Septic Tank = Yank
SeeSaw… Very much his business style
Baby… The Man Child
Bothers… Everyone
False Alarm… Fake News
Nappies… just rumours, but…
Aesir… Messianic inclinations
Mouse…. TACO
etc etc
Taffy @29: Qaos ALWAYS has a theme. Sometimes it’s subtle–this is the least subtle one he’s done in a long time–and often it’s unfamiliar if you’re not British, but it’s usually something from popular culture.
mrpenney @31 — I know Qaos always has a theme, and I always look out for it, but very often I fail to spot it. Sometimes it’s something I never had a chance of spotting — characters from a TV show I’ve never seen or something like that — but quite often it’s one I feel I should have spotted.
Thanks Qaos for the usual fun. I needed the guess-then-check method for a few in the NW but overall this was smooth sailing. Lots of clever clues including BOTHERS, NAPPIES, ASEPTIC (liked Sept 1), BARE BONES, TRANSPORT, and DONALD. I saw the theme after I completed the grid. Thanks scchua for the blog.
Thanks for the blog , ASEPTIC was clever and PETER very neat . I suspect AISER was just a dead-end in the grid .
So far this has been the easiest week ever to play guess the setter .
Lobsterdarts @22: I agree that crosswords have ‘too much Trump’ and I think that the obsession with him (pro and con) is very unhealthly. However, the word itself can mean a variety of things (see Chambers) so setters will continue to use it in the same way they use Bush, May, Peel, and Truss.
(Somehow I misread mrpenney @31’s comment as a response to me. It doesn’t really matter, but I just thought I’d mention that I’d noticed that and apologize for my confusion.)
I didn’t spot the theme until I finished the puzzle and read the comments btl at the Guardian site.
New for me: AESIR = Norse gods; Jimmy WHITE = snooker player; NEAR TOUCH. Also 20d MICKEY [Finn] = doped drink (I probably knew this a long time ago but had forgotten about it).
I realise now that I did not fully parse 24ac and 1d.
Agree, Valentine @19, it goes up and down downunder too; his mind zigged when it should have zagged, but nevermind …
My favourite setter. A good solve, thanks.
Martin W@28 and Taffy@30 😊. I think you can add CREDIT CRUNCH to his list given how many times the Idiot has gone bankrupt.
Chambers has an entry for NEAR AS A TOUCH, but I hadn’t heard that before today either.
didn’t see the theme, I seldom do unless it’s also a nina….. even as mouse crossed into mickey, I was still raging at the clutchiness of some of the clues. quite a few things I had NHO…. aesir, peter…. still, it whiled away an hour or so while I dealt with our russian commentators & their internet problems.
Busy day, so late posting. To me it seemed tougher than usual for Qaos, but then maybe my brain’s in a lull, having struggled recently. Last few were pretty sticky. 24d went in when I finally caved and looked up AESIR, and was rewarded (I know, Roz, trust the wordplay). 24a ASEPTIC went in unparsed — thanks scchua. Saw the theme after looking for it
Favourites 10a MARMALADE (clever construction), 27a CREDIT CRUNCH (great charade, “gambling” as anagrind), 14d GRAN’S PORT
Lobsterdarts@22, Ay-men!
There is a mistake on the Grauniad app – G&T in 14d appears in the clue as G& amp;
The theme helped me with WHITE and DONALD. I always enjoyed puzzling out Qaos’s number clues but might not have got 1/9 if I hadn’t seen a comment about Americans not being able to see it,
I didn’t get a chance to look at this yesterday, and it was past noon when I finally turned to the crossword, and solved it within half an hour, which is very quick for me. Didn’t bother looking for a theme. I’ve never heard of TRIPLE SEC, so that was my last in, and it sounds pretty awful, sweet and sticky and not dry at all. Yuk!
Thanks to Qaos and Scchua.
I had not heard of the band in Phil Ramsden @15, looked them up on Wikipedia, where is a comment relating to the US president.