The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/30052.
A splendid puzzle from the ever-reliable Qaos, with more than usual use of numbers. Qaos always has a theme, but I have not been able to spot it here, despite several entries that look as if they ought be part of one.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | DELICATE |
Fine food store providing meals 50% off (8)
|
| A charade of DELI (‘food store’) plus CATE[ring] (‘providing meals’), discarding the last four of its eight letters (‘50% off’). | ||
| 9 | PUNCH |
Wordplay by church magazine in the past (5)
|
| A charade of PUN (‘wordplay’) plus CH (‘church’). | ||
| 10 | FREE |
Release knot after cycling (4)
|
| REEF (‘knot’) ‘after cycling’. | ||
| 11 | DETENTIONS |
50 leave prayers over 10 school punishments? (10)
|
| An envelope (‘over’) of TEN (’10’) in DE[vo]TIONS (‘prayers’) minus V (Roman numeral ‘5’-) and O (-‘0’). | ||
| 12 | BARREN |
Lord caught being unproductive (6)
|
| Sounds like (‘caught’) BARON (‘Lord’). | ||
| 14 | EMBODIED |
Half of them plot to protect cricket match represented (8)
|
| An envelope (‘to protect’) of ODI (One Day International, ‘cricket match’) in EM (‘half of thEM‘) plus BED (‘plot’). | ||
| 16 | SHUFFLE |
Prepare to deal in Harlem, maybe (7)
|
| Double definition; the first referring to cards, and the second, a dance, the Harlem Shuffle. | ||
| 18 | EXPRESS |
Ruler deports 1,000 to win vote, say (7)
|
| EMPRESS (‘ruler’) with the M (Roman numeral ‘1,000’) removed (‘deports’) and repalced by (‘to win’) X (‘vote’). | ||
| 21 | OFF AND ON |
Occasional cricket sides (3,3,2)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 23 | PADDLE |
Wearing white, England finally get 500 with sweep (6)
|
| An envelope (‘wearing’) of D (‘EnglanD finally’) plus D (Roman numeral, ‘500’) in PALE (‘white’). | ||
| 24 | TENNIS BALL |
One in court sent in criminal to get shot (6,4)
|
| A charade of TENNIS, an anagram (‘criminal’) of ‘sent in’; plus BALL (‘shot’). | ||
| 26 | WING |
Wide initially given following batting side (4)
|
| A charade of W (‘wide’) plus IN (‘batting’) plus G (‘initially Given’). | ||
| 27 | DANCE |
Perhaps Hamlet seizes Claudius’s crown in play (5)
|
| An envelope (‘seizes’) of C (‘Claudius’s crown’) in DANE (‘perhaps Hamlet’). | ||
| 28 | DRUM ROLL |
‘Beats drinking alcohol’ – aristocrat on reflection with slice of lemon (4,4)
|
| An envelope (‘drinking’) of RUM (‘alcohol’) in DROL, a reversal (‘on reflection’) of LORD (‘aristicrat’); plus L (‘slice of Lemon’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | REPROACH |
Scold or preach conversion (8)
|
| An anagram (‘conversion’) of ‘or preach’. | ||
| 2 | TIME |
Magazine’s obligation to describe source of material (4)
|
| An envelope (‘to describe’) of M (‘source of Material’) in TIE (‘obligation’). | ||
| 3 | PARDON |
What even number is divided by 5000? (6)
|
| An envelope (‘is divided by’) of D (Roman numeral, ‘500’-) plus O (-‘0’), in PAR (‘even’) plus N (‘number’). | ||
| 4 | FEATHER |
Iron Lady’s bored by acting Tory leader’s ‘soft touch’ (7)
|
| An envelope (‘bored by’) of A (‘acting’) plus T (‘Tory leader’) in FE (chemical symbol, ‘iron’) plus HER (‘lady’). | ||
| 5 | SPIN |
Country rejects American PR (4)
|
| A subtraction: SP[a]IN (‘country’) minus the A (‘rejects American’). | ||
| 6 | UNHINDERED |
10 hide under end of divan, trembling (10)
|
| An anagram (‘trembling’) of ‘hide under’ plus N (‘end of divaN‘). with the definition being FREE, the answer to 10A (’10’). | ||
| 7 | CHANGE |
Transfer money (6)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 13 | REFRAINING |
Stopping official education ignoring tense (10)
|
| A charade of REF (referee, ‘official’) plus [t]RAINING (‘education’) minus the T (‘ignoring tense’). | ||
| 15 | BOX |
Beauty product to go in container (3)
|
| A subtraction: BO[to]X (‘beauty product’) minus TO (‘to go’). | ||
| 17 | LED |
Guided light (3)
|
| Double definition, the second being originally an initialism for Light Emitting Diode, but which has become a word in its own right. | ||
| 19 | SILENTLY |
Foolish to steal ten pounds without a sound (8)
|
| An envelope (‘to steal’) of ENT, an anagram (‘pounds’ – would pound be better?) of ‘ten’ in SILLY (‘foolish’). | ||
| 20 | EN GARDE |
Take defensive position as grenade’s thrown (2,5)
|
| An anagram (‘thrown’) of ‘grenade’ | ||
| 22 | FIENDS |
Demons? Companions, run away! (6)
|
| A subtraction: F[r]IENDS (‘companions’) minus the R (‘run away’). | ||
| 23 | PULL UP |
Stop going both ways? (4-2)
|
| The wordplay indicates a palindrome. | ||
| 25 | STEP |
Society backing favourite way to go up in the world (4)
|
| A charade of S (‘society’) plus TEP, a reversal (‘backing’) of PET (‘favourite’). | ||
| 26 | WORM |
Creature of indeterminate gender? (4)
|
| W OR M (woman or man, ‘indeterminate gender’) – and indeed earthworms are hermaphrodite. My first thought was F OR M. |
I agree with PeterO’s preamble. Very enjoyable. Now that I check, I see I got 14a EMBODIED wrong (EMBEDDED). Didn’t know the cricket reference (of course — abcr), so made a guess. I figured a journalist embedded with a military unit is a press representative? Ah well, dnf
Lots of favourites, though. Maybe single out 18a EXPRESS for the political surface, 24a TENNIS BALL for the “One in court” definition, 28a DRUM ROLL (“Beats”), and 3d PARDON, creating a question with the definition
Like PeterO I had initially had FORM instead of WORM at 26d, which held me up for a while, before my loi, 26a WING
Many thanks for a fine blog, and Qaos for an enjoyable puzzle
Sweep oars are typically a bit long to be called a paddle, but hey ho, a mere quibbletino in, yes, a pretty sweet and smooth puzzle, ta PnQ.
Good fun, plenty of smiles. DETENTIONS was the only one I couldn’t parse.
Like others, I had FORM first. Is M a standard abbreviation for Man (M for male is pretty common)?
Also, in the context of gender, F or M seems to work better.
Took a while to parse DETENTIONS. PARDON uses the same trick again. Just saying.
Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
Nice puzzle. There’s a lot of cricket here. PUNCH (down the ground), SHUFFLE (across one’s stumps), EXPRESS (pace), OFF AND ON, PADDLE (sweep), TENNIS BALL (bounce), FEATHER (-ed behind), SPIN, BOX, PULL…
I couldn’t parse DETENTIONS so thanks for that. Agree with KVa@4 with the repeated mechanism with PARDON.
Also glad to see that there’s more to WORM than I thought at first.