A fun challenge with a couple of obscure parses.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ARGOSY |
Good to board a bright Venetian vessel (6)
|
| G ( good ) in [ A ROSY ( bright ) ] | ||
| 4 | IMPORTED |
Shipped in from island refuge surrounded by sea (8)
|
| I ( island ) [ PORT ( refuge ) in MED ( sea ) ] | ||
| 9 | AGENCY |
Business where dope stocks account with yen (6)
|
| GEN ( dope ) in [ AC ( accoun ) Y ( yen ) ] | ||
| 10 | SCOT FREE |
Second bed delivered without repercussions (4,4)
|
| S ( second ) COT ( bed ) FREE ( delivered ) | ||
| 12 | ACTAEON |
Hunter torn apart long time after deed (7)
|
| ACT ( deed ) AEON ( long time ) | ||
| 13 | THESEUS |
Hero Weasley here and there enters accordingly (7)
|
| ESE ( wEaSlEy, alternate letters of ) in THUS ( accordingly ) | ||
| 14 | AXES |
X Y and Z advancing initially with the other reversed (4)
|
| A ( Advancing, first letter of ) XES ( reverse of SEX – the other ) | ||
| 15 | BENEVOLENT |
Kindly man with rodent admitted to hospital department (10)
|
| BEN ( man ) [ VOLE ( rodent ) in ENT ( hospital department ) ] | ||
| 18 | FULFILLING |
You texted to block pitch about stuff in meeting (10)
|
| U ( you, in text ) in [ FLING ( pitch ) containing FILL ( stuff ) ] | ||
| 19 | OPUS |
Work round with Manx cat? (4)
|
| O ( round ) PUSs ( cat, manx i.e. without its tail or last letter ) | ||
| 22 | ROWLING |
Controversial writer Heather on line (7)
|
| ROW ( line ) LING ( heather ) | ||
| 24 | FLAVOUR |
Taste shown in two-by-two framing loo (7)
|
| LAV ( loo ) in FOUR ( two times two ) | ||
| 25 | IGNORANT |
Backward soldier retreated — and not another soldier? (8)
|
| IG ( reverse of GI, soldier ) NOR ( ~and not ) ANT ( soldier ) | ||
| 26 | SAFARI |
American fine wearing dress for expedition (6)
|
| [ A ( american ) F ( fine ) ] in SARI ( dress ) | ||
| 27 | NEATENED |
A number want sandwiches trimmed (8)
|
| [ A TEN ( number ) ] in NEED ( want ) | ||
| 28 | SNEEZE |
Cold symptom — a tissue picked up? (6)
|
| sounds like A TISHOO ( a tissue ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ATACAMA |
Desert area with river coursing through central Qatar (7)
|
| [ A CAM ( river ) ] in ATA ( qATAr, central part of ) | ||
| 2 | GREAT SEAL |
Lord Chancellor keeps this rat eagles tormented (5,4)
|
| [ RAT EAGLES ]* | ||
| 3/11/20 | SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE |
16 9 church in Leicester — in Leicester — regularly given ground (6,12,7)
|
| [ CE ( church ) LEICESTER LEICESTER IN GVN ( GiVeN, regularly ) ] | ||
| 5 | MACK THE KNIFE |
Old woman trained female thick-knee for Messer (4,3,5)
|
| MA ( old woman ) [ F ( female ) THICK KNEE ]*; from a german song “die moritat von mackie messer”, adapted in the ” the threepenny opera” – all of this from googling | ||
| 6 | ON THE DOT |
Sharp tooth end needs reshaping (2,3,3)
|
| [ TOOTH END ]* | ||
| 7 | TORTE |
Austrian cake in good condition did you say? (5)
|
| sounds like TAUT ( good conditon, of a ship, from chambers ) | ||
| 8 | DEEP-SET |
Undersea lodge? Sunken (4-3)
|
| DEEP ( undersea ) SET ( lodge ) | ||
| 16 | ESPIONAGE |
ESP in later years retains old in clandestine work (9)
|
| ESP [ { IN AGE ( years ) containing O ( old ) } ] | ||
| 17 | FILIGREE |
Something twisted from bad girlie in force with earl (8)
|
| [ GIRLIE ]* in F ( force ) E ( earl ) | ||
| 18 | FOREIGN |
Strange men affect nurses (7)
|
| OR ( men ) in FEIGN ( affect ) | ||
| 21 | CANAAN |
Ancient region’s literary collection preserved? (6)
|
| ANA ( liteary collection ) in CAN ( ~ preserved ) | ||
| 23 | WANDA |
Fish in film additionally appearing in Washington (5)
|
| AND ( additionally ) in WA ( washington ) |
As part of my German studies I had to give a presentation in German and I spoke about the threepenny opera, so at least Mack the knife wasn’t unknown to me. Tough start to the day for me, thank you neo and turbolegs.
14ac held me up for ages until I had a pdm.
Fun puzzle and excellent blog.
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs.
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs
3/11/20dn: I took the precise parsing on trust when solving, but it must be CE (church) contained in (the first “in” of the clue) [LEICESTER IN LEICESTER GVN (regularly given)]*, with “ground” as the anagram lead. Having CE as part of the anagram would make it indirect, and also would mean that one of the two occurrences of “in” would be surplus to requirements.
The Ballad of Mack the Knife, as translated into English, became a jazz standard. The best known recording is Bobby Darin, but I’ve also heard it sung by Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. Which I guess makes it Kurt Weill’s most widely heard composition. Anyway, not that obscure…
If you’re going to define TORTE as specifically an Austrian cake, you should probably also cope with the fact that it’s a two-syllable word in German. Leave it as just “cake” and you get the English pronunciation.
7dn; I’m with Neo on this one. In an English cryptic crossword clue, “Austrian cake” can mean either the Austrian name for a cake, or the English name for an Austrian cake.. This clue works with the second option.
Thanks Neo for the mental workout. I enjoyed this quite a bit and was able to complete it except for the parsing of TORTE. My top picks were BENEVOLENT (liked the wacky surface), NEATENED, FOREIGN, and CANAAN. With 3/11/20 I didn’t bother to accurately work out a 25 letter anagram; I waited for enough crossers to make a guess and did a cursory check to see if the letters in the clue were the same. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Thanks for the blog , good set of clues , SIS has spectacular use of the double Leicester . I had it the same as Pelham Barton@3 , avoiding the wrath of the ursine Peruvian .
Quite a bit of guesswork or ‘it must be that’ involved for us, without bothering to dissect the various anagrams, as in 3/11/20, 5 (got that from knowing ‘Messer’ as German for ‘knife’) and 16. We needed a wordfinder for CANAAN but then saw the parsing at once. Otherwise no problems. Favourite was ACTAEON.
Thanks, Neo and Turbolegs.
He certainly likes his obscure references. I best liked IMPORTED and ON THE DOT for their surfaces.
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs
I had to guess CANAAN as I didn’t grasp the ana part of it. I hadn’t realized it is a word in its own right. Now I know, I’m surprised I haven’t come across it before as it must be very useful to setters.
21dn: The most recent FT puzzle I can find that used this meaning of ana was FT 18,022 by Gurney, who clued it as “anecdotes”. We had quite a discussion on the meaning and derivation of the word on that occasion
https://fifteensquared.net/2025/04/10/financial-times-18022-by-gurney/
Babbler @10: Before I switched to British crosswords I did American ones for years. ‘Ana’ appeared very frequently.
In New York torte doesn’t sound like taut but more like a lawsuit tort. Anyways thanks for a great deal of fun and thank you all
Anil @13: To my ears torte and taut don’t sound alike either but Chambers lists tort and taut as homophones so there you have it 😄
Anil @13: this is the rhotic/non-rhotic discussion that pops up here so often that we’re all tired of it. In summary, the majority of Americans and Canadians, and a significant minority of Britons, pronounce penultimate R’s; the majority of Britons (at whom these puzzles are targeted) do not. We can point this out until we turn blue in the face, but it won’t change the fact that we don’t speak the targeted dialect. The best way to adapt is to just treat these homophone clues as bad puns, at which point most of them wind up sort of fun and funny. Or, you can just solve them while adopting a Boston or Brooklyn or New Orleans or Low-Country Carolina accent.
That’s why I like ‘did you say?’ as a homind.
Thanks all, esp ‘true blogs’ (anag.).
This was a good challenge for me, all completed and parsed but just about at my limit! Thank you, @NEO!