A typical Steerpike puzzle.
Steerpike puzzles are normally pangrams, and this was no excpetion. The lack of a J or a Z in the other clues helped me get JEZEBEL. My favourite clue was that for HOSED.
Thanks, Steerpike.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | EXCUSE |
Condone stripping sexy American in church (6)
|
| [stripping] (s)EX(y) + US (American) in CE (“Church” of England) | ||
| 4 | STENCH |
Smell of fish on Sabbath (6)
|
| TENCH (“fish”) on S (Sabbath) | ||
| 8 | JEZEBEL |
Zulu renegade initially spurned by extremely juvenile floosy (7)
|
| Z (Zulu, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + (r)EBEL (“renegade”, initially spurned) by [extremely] J(uvenil)E | ||
| 9 | INQUEST |
Poles kept apart in remarkably quiet hearing (7)
|
| N & S (North and South “poles”) kept apart in *(quiet) [anag:remarkably] | ||
| 11 | PARLIAMENT |
Standard complaint involving international ruling body (10)
|
| PAR (“standard”) + LAMENT (“complaint”) involving I (international) | ||
| 12 | ITEM |
Gift seems oddly superfluous object (4)
|
| (g)I(f)T (s)E(e)M(s) [oddly superfluous, ie odd letters not required] | ||
| 13 | HOSED |
Some of those deviants like men in tights! (5)
|
| Hidden in [some of] “tHOSE Deviants” | ||
| 14 | NARWHALS |
Beasts rushed around lobbies heartlessly pursuing women (8)
|
| <=RAN (“rushed”, around) + HA(l)LS (“lobbies’, hearltessly) pursuing W (women) | ||
| 16 | FOREWENT |
Sacrificed sheep close to kitchen within stronghold (8)
|
| EWE (“sheep”) + [close to] (kitche)N within FORT (“stronghold”) | ||
| 18 | INFER |
Presume speaker’s wearing ermine? (5)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [speaker’s] of IN FUR (“wearing ermine”) | ||
| 20 | PISA |
Detective starts to search area in Tuscan province (4)
|
| PI (private investigator) + [starts to] S(earch) A(rea) | ||
| 21 | HULLABALOO |
Bear east of British port before a storm (10)
|
| BALOO (“bear” in The Jungle Book) east of HULL (“British port”) before A | ||
| 23 | RAGGEDY |
Poorly-dressed model leaves play hugging German (7)
|
| (Model) T leaves (t)RAGEDY (“play”) hugging G (German) | ||
| 24 | MINCING |
Digging up stuff about Charlie acting effeminately (7)
|
| MINING (“digging up stuff”) about C (Charlie, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 25 | SPLASH |
Get wet cat onto evacuated ship (6)
|
| LASH (“cat”) onto [evacuated] S(hi)P | ||
| 26 | SNIPER |
Rifleman pins back English beside river (6)
|
| <=PINS [back] + E (English) by R (river) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ENEMA |
Detachment of militiamen eagerly knocked back constipation remedy (5)
|
| HIdden backwards in [detachment of…knocked back] “militiAMEN Eagerly” | ||
| 2 | CREOLES |
Old king’s entertaining on subject of languages (7)
|
| Old KIng COLE’S entertaining RE (“on subject of”) | ||
| 3 | SKEDADDLE |
Mutant Daleks orbiting perimeter of devastated Earth? Flee! (9)
|
| *(daleks) [anag:mutant] orbiting [perimeter of] D(evastae)D + E (earth) | ||
| 5 | TENET |
Doctrine that can be read both ways (5)
|
| TENET is a palindrome, so “can be read both ways” | ||
| 6 | NOURISH |
Foster child turned up outside university lesson on heroin (7)
|
| <=SON (“child”, turned up) outside U (university) + RI (religious instruction, so “lesson”) on H (heroin) | ||
| 7 | HOSTELLER |
Roll these out for guest (9)
|
| *(roll these) [anag:out] | ||
| 10 | BEANSTALK |
Blankets tangled round a plant stem (9)
|
| *(blankets) [anag:tangled] round A | ||
| 13 | HOOLIGANS |
Thugs ultimately rough soldier up in dodgy saloon (9)
|
| [ultimately] (roug)H + <=GI (American “soldier”, up) in *(saloon) [anag:dodgy] | ||
| 15 | RUINATION |
Pagan priest laid bare country’s bankruptcy (9)
|
| (d)RUI(d) (“pagan priest”, laid bare) + NATION (“country”) | ||
| 17 | EVANGEL |
Book time off, lying about pressing danger essentially (7)
|
| <=LEAVE (“time off”, lying about) pressing (da)NG(er) [essentially] | ||
| 19 | FLAT CAP |
Cloth covering Spooner’s pet’s point of access? (4,3)
|
| A pet’s point of access would be a CAT FLAP, but to Spooner, that may have been FLAT CAP | ||
| 21 | HADES |
Underworld figure seen regularly in cheap dress (5)
|
| [seen regularly in] (c)H(e)A(p) D(r)E(s)S | ||
| 22 | OWNER |
Landlady sparing daughter from dispiriting event (5)
|
| D (daughter) from (d)OWNER (“dispiriting event”) |
I got most of this rattled off before breakfast although a couple were a little too subtle for me.
That said there was enough to enjoy that I didn’t mind the few I missed.
Thanks to STEERPILE and loonapick
To pick a nit, just for fun, you infer something from evidence but you can presume something without it …
23A: G is German, not D. Good blog.
Thanks Steerpike and Loonapick
23ac I agree with Cineraria@3: it is an extra G that is inserted into (t)RAGEDY; it could go either before or after the G that is already there.
Presumably just a coincidence, but two answers here also appeared in Monday’s Philistine in the Guardian, with similar clues:
Commotion when a bear seen near city (10)
Tom’s entry for Spooner’s headgear (4,3)
Andrew. I noticed that. One of those weird coincidences.
I also didn’t feel ‘infer’ and ‘presume’ equated but not surprised to find them together in Chambers thesaurus.
Cineraria @3 – of course, you’re right. Have amended the blog accordingly.
We weren’t thinking about a pangram when we started but then X J Z and Q turned up in the first four acrosses so we were then on the lookout for one. Just as well, as we needed it to get our penultimate two in, RAGGEDY and EVANGEL.
Plenty to enjoy on the way, though; favourite was HULLABALOO.
Thanks, Steerpike and loonapick.
I found this difficult, I think due to the large number of words that I would encounter no more than once a decade. There also seemed to be a lot of clues involving deductions, which I find one of the most difficult types.
I too liked HOSED, and also ticked HOSTELLER, ENEMA, and PARLIAMENT.
I forgot lesson = RI and BALOO the bear, so could not parse NOURISH or 21. I missed seeing dRUId and HAiLS so I could not parse RUINATION and NARWHALS either. Hmmm.
Thanks Steerpike and loonapick
I always appreciate a puzzle that I think I am not going to finish, but then do. I can see how the idea of a bear near Hull would be attractive to setters.
Very enjoyable – thanks Both.
Hullabaloo, parliament and skedaddle were favourites.
Evangel eluded me.
Maybe the easiest of my week so far. That doesn’t mean I aced it but I did tune straight in. Weird to have those clues repeated from the other place. Everything has been said about the solve already, but it’s a lively set of words.
Thanks Steerpike and loonapick.
Thanks. I came here for EVANGEL which escaped me. I had HA(L)LS for lobbies and still think it works.. was a good challenge.
Simon@13 re 14ac: HALLS for lobbies omitting the middle letter is exactly what loonapick had, but he has put the omitted L in lower case.
Thanks Pelham. Been a long.day.
Got it done over morning coffee. Pangram helped for the q in SQUANDER. I can no longer see the word HOOLIGANS without thinking of the standup routine by the late Bill Hicks. Thanks.
I like words that trip off the tongue and sound like what they mean, so 3d SKEDADDLE and 21a HULLABALOO were two of my favourites today. I also thought 23a RAGGEDY was very clever.
Thanks S@L for the Superb and Lively puzzle and blog.