I usually find Bobcat clever but accessible, but for some reason, I found myself struggling from start to finish on this one. The clues were fairly constructed, so I am not sure what the disconnect was.
The customary feline nina appears across the middle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | INSURGENCE |
Guarantee to cover officer heading for certain rebellion (10)
|
| INSURE (guarantee) around (to cover) {GEN. (officer) + first letter of (heading for) C[ERTAIN]} | ||
| 6 | SHUN |
What’s conveyed by Cheshunt bypass? (4)
|
| Hidden in (what’s conveyed by) [CHE]SHUN[T] | ||
| 9 | CORN CIRCLE |
County force surround strange figure in field (4,6)
|
| CO. (county) + RN (force) + CIRCLE (surround) | ||
| 10 | ETON |
College in meltdown? Nothing odd there (4)
|
| Even letters only of (nothing odd there) [M]E[L]T[D]O[W]N | ||
| 12 | VANISHING POINT |
Focus of very eccentric paintings in Ohio (9,5)
|
| V (very) + anagram of (eccentric) {PAINTINGS + IN + OH (Ohio)} | ||
| 14 | HOMAGE |
Institution introduces silver service (6)
|
| HOME (institution) around (introduces) AG (silver) | ||
| 15 | NARRATOR |
I tell of North American bishop beginning to achieve eminence (8)
|
| NA (North American) + RR (bishop) + first letter of (beginning to) A[CHIEVE] + TOR (eminence) | ||
| 17 | SEASHELL |
Insiders fleeing sure as hell getting protection on the outside (8)
|
| Outside letters of (insiders fleeing) S[UR]E + AS + HELL | ||
| 19 | GAUCHE |
Clumsy cowboy at last leaving for Spain (6)
|
| GAUCH[O] (cowboy) last letter exchanged for (at last leaving for) E (Spain) | ||
| 22 | WASHING MACHINE |
Appliance from China weighs man erratically (7,7)
|
| Anagram of (erratically) CHINA WEIGHS MAN | ||
| 24 | IRAN |
Princess cycles around Asian territory (4)
|
| RANI (princess) moving the last letter to the front (cycles around) | ||
| 25 | ON THE HOUSE |
Where solar panels may be free of charge (2,3,5)
|
| Cryptic/double definition | ||
| 26 | EDEN |
Premier spot for ignorant nudists (4)
|
| Cryptic definition, referring to Adam and Eve. See Roz@6. | ||
| 27 | JET-SETTERS |
More than one wealthy crowd member gushes — about the sun? (3-7)
|
| JETS (gushes) around (about) SETTER (cryptically the sun?) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | INCH |
Measurement that’s key for the Scots (4)
|
| Double definition, the latter in the sense of “island” | ||
| 2 | SARCASM |
Contempt expressed by resistance corps’ leader as missile stalls (7)
|
| SAM (missile) around (stalls) {R (resistance) + first letter of (leader [of]) C[ORPS] + AS} | ||
| 3 | ROCKING CHAIR |
Doddering board member finds somewhere to sit down (7,5)
|
| ROCKING (doddering) + CHAIR (board member) | ||
| 4 | EARTHY |
In good spirits, Henry’s declined to be coarse (6)
|
| HEARTY (in good spirits) with H (Henry) lowered (declined) | ||
| 5 | COLONIAL |
Settler: one at large originally (8)
|
| COLON (:) + I (one) + first letters of (originally) A[T] + L[ARGE] | ||
| 7 | HIT LIST |
Intended victims of strike fired grasping strikers’ leader (3,4)
|
| HIT (strike) + LIT (fired) around (grasping) first letter of (leader [of]) S[TRIKERS] | ||
| 8 | NON-STARTER |
Dud northern actor bores observer (3-7)
|
| {N (northern) + STAR (actor)} inside (bores) + NOTER (observer) | ||
| 11 | APPROACH SHOT |
Top Pharaoh’s caught suffering a stroke (8,4)
|
| Anagram of (suffering) {TOP + PHARAOH’S + C (caught)}, referring to golf | ||
| 13 | GHOST-WRITE |
Put down life for payment and don’t accept credit (5-5)
|
| Cryptic definition, translating essentially to “be hired to write another person’s autobiography without claiming authorship” | ||
| 16 | ELEGANCE |
Polish national hacking into output of server supporting E.ON’s first branch (8)
|
| {First [letter of] E[.ON] + LEG (branch)} + {N (national) inside (hacking into) ACE (output of server, as in tennis), with “supporting” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 18 | AT STAKE |
Girl escaping from Athens with escort’s in danger (2,5)
|
| AT[HEN]S minus (escaping from) HEN (girl) + TAKE (escort) | ||
| 20 | CONSUME |
Take against South Australian boomerangs (7)
|
| CON (against) + S (South) + EMU (Australian) inverted (boomerangs) | ||
| 21 | YACHTS |
Yale cheats regularly operating in pairs to exhibit craft (6)
|
| Alternating pairs of letters (regularly operating in pairs to exhibit) YA[LE] CH[EA]TS | ||
| 23 | LENS |
One effecting light diversion is inclined to lose heart (4)
|
| LE[A]NS (is inclined) minus central letter (to lose heart) |
I also found this tough and it took a while to finish. For me, several oblique, cryptic definitions made it difficult to sort out what sort of clue I was facing. I must admit I did not feel I was very rewarded for the time and effort. I ticked COLONIAL and WASHING MACHINE. I would have ticked INCH, but it was a clue you either knew or you did not.
I guess SARCASM is close enough to contempt expression. I could not parse it anyway. Nor could I parse IRAN, not knowing Princess Rani. I also parsed CORN CIRCLE as CORN for Cornwall, and could not see the purpose of “force”. Thanks for the steers, Cineraria
Thanks Bobcat and Cineraria
A dnf as I gave up staring and revealed the g to get ghost-write, and only then realised who the ignorant nudists were! The rest was ok, although I bunged in crop circle first, and I missed the SAM missile, d’oh. Thanks both.
… also, rocking is not a great match for doddering, imo …
I enjoyed the clues I managed to solve. Both of them.
Very good puzzle. Great blog.
Thanks Bobcat and Cineraria.
My picks: VANISHING POINT, ON THE HOUSE, JETSETTERS, NON-STARTER
and GHOST-WRITE.
IRAN
RANI is an Indian word for queen. The C boss says, Queen or princess.
So fair game.
Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues and pretty tough overall .
COLONIAL was very neat , I like a clue using a symbol .
I think RANI is fairly common in crosswords with various spellings , maybe I have seen it in Azed a lot .
EDEN is a double definition , a former Premier (PM) of the UK from the Suez crisis .
Roz@6: For EDEN: I was focusing on the sense “premier” meaning “first” or “most ancient,” with reference to the Garden in Genesis, but I suppose the cryptic clue still works if we dispense with “premier” altogether. Anthony Eden pops up quite a lot in crosswords.