Daedalus made his debut in the IoS a month or so ago, and I wasn’t mad keen on that puzzle, so he’s probably not too chuffed that his second outing has fallen to me to blog once again. If you read below you’ll see what I thought; but much more importantly, did you enjoy it?
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Kitchen surface perhaps, useful to prophet taking heroin …
FORMICA
MICAH was an Old Testament prophet, so if you take (away) H from that you’ve got MICA, then you need FOR to precede that.
5 … E.g. Gandhi, taking half of heroin etc through biro
BIOPIC
I think this is an insertion (‘taking’) of OPI[ATE] in BIC. But ‘heroin, etc’ would suggest OPIATES, surely? In which case it doesn’t work. In any case, it’s referring to the film.
10 Plenty of time is lost or reserved
ALOOF
A LO[T] OF
11 Creature such as bird in part
TO A DEGREE
A charade of TOAD, EG and REE. A REE is another name for the REEVE, the female of the RUFF, but my dictionaries mark it as ‘obsolete’, so perhaps not an ideal inclusion in an IoS crossword. And as the world knows, I like birds; but I’d never heard of that one.
12 Queen’s snotty ‘wit’ disrupted parlour game
TWENTY QUESTIONS
(QUEENS SNOTTY WIT)*
13 First of drivers leaves taxi rank sign for Savoy?
CABBAGE
I think this is CAB BA[D]GE.
15 Bottom attracts me; breast’s an interesting alternative initially
TITANIA
A charade of TIT, AN and IA for the first letters of ‘interesting alternative’. Referring to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where TITANIA, the Queen of the Fairies, falls in love with Bottom, the weaver, after he’s been made to put on the head of an ass. And why did Shakespeare transform Bottom into an ‘ass’? Go figure.
17 Struggle to accept old misfortune
TRAGEDY
An insertion of AGED in TRY.
19 Their predictions are unclear? Wrong – so clear!
ORACLES
(SO CLEAR)*
21 Thunder cracking with energy – if caught, you’ll get ill
UNDER THE WEATHER
(THUNDER E)* plus WEATHER, which is a homophone of ‘whether’, a synonym for ‘if’. The homophone indicator is ‘caught’.
24 Queen follows procedure herself before she visits Covent Garden
OPERA-GOER
I think this is OP, ER, AGO and ER again, but can someone explain it properly, please?
25 Grain arranged as a bouquet?
GARNI
(GRAIN)*
26 Spot man inside oil plant
SESAME
An insertion of SAM in SEE.
27 Small chance he’ll paint your car
SPRAYER
A charade of S and PRAYER. ‘Southampton haven’t got a prayer of finishing in a Champions League place.’
Down
1 Mad French caper
FRANTIC
A charade of FR and ANTIC.
2 Flower discernible in superior honey
RHONE
Hidden in superioR HONEy.
3 It turns out Charlie’s left you at eastern entrance
INFATUATE
IN FA[C]T, U, AT and E. ‘It turns out’ for IN FACT? Hmmm. Are ‘entrance’ and INFATUATE really synonyms? If you get the impression that I’m not warming to this puzzle, then you’re right.
4 Quite an upset from long ago
ANTIQUE
(QUITE AN)*
6 A date in March to beware – and time, that is
ID EST
A charade of IDES and T giving you the full Latin version of ‘ie’. ‘Beware the Ides of March’ was the advice given to Caesar, according to Will. But the Ides of a month had no particular connotation about being dangerous. Shakespeare made it up. As indeed he made up lots of things which have enriched our language.
7 A child bearing large staff
PERSONNEL
A charade of PERSON, NE and L. Well, ‘a child’ is PERSON, I suppose.
Edit: I have misparsed this; apologies to the setter. Sil explains it at comment no 1.
8 Where you might get buns or tea outside
CHELSEA
An insertion of ELSE for ‘or’ in CHA for ‘tea’. CHELSEA BUNS are not rabbits who support The Blues, but sticky cakes.
9 Art bold enough to be noticed in calendar – estimable!
DAREST
Hidden in calenDAR ESTimable. Daedalus is using ‘art’ in the old-fashioned second person singular sense: ‘Thou art bold enough!’ ‘How darest thou!’ More Shakespearean usage.
14 As a young man in the East End, don’t play so tough
BEARDLESS
My SOED gives for BEARDLESS: ‘ a young, immature man’ but doesn’t mark it as being a Cockney usage. It gives this for ‘beard’: ‘oppose openly; defy; attack audaciously.’ So if you don’t play so tough, you BEARD LESS. This is getting silly for an IoS crossword. It’s a cd cum dd. I think.
16 Scrap with the French getting wind up?
TRAFALGAR
I think this a whimsical reversal of RAG LA FART.
17 Germans bombed Euston after Tuesday
TEUTONS
A charade of T and (EUSTON)*
18 In 8 maybe I agree, there’s no end to rowdy, peevish type of politics
YAH-BOO
In CHELSEA (8 across) posh folk might say YAH! for ‘yes’. So it’s that, plus BOO[R]. I think.
19 Where you might see nurses getting ahead
ONWARDS
A dd, since nurses would be ON WARDS.
20 Worse-tempered knight and king overheard
SURLIER
A homophone of SIR and LEAR.
22 Land serious money
REALM
A charade of REAL and M.
23 Brave Thomas?
HARDY
A dd, referencing Thomas HARDY, the author of Jude the Obscure, Tess of the D’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, Far from the Madding Crowd, and much else. My joint favourite author, but I’m afraid that this was not one of my favourite puzzles.
Thank you to Daedalus.
Thanks Pierre.
I couldn’t get YAH-BOO (18d) but was generally happy with the rest.
In 1ac ‘taking’ is clearly the deletion indicator but I had to convince myself (did I, eventually?).
7d, however, was as simple as it was clever, I think.
PER (a) + SON (child) + NE (bearing) + L (large).
I am not as ‘negative’ as you are, Pierre.
The setter’s put a lot of thought into this puzzle.
I enjoyed it.
14D I think the underlined words should be just “As a young man” – who is beardless (more or less). In the East End, one might (whimsically) say “be ‘ard less”, equating to “don’t play so tough”.
5A Heroin is an opiate, so I see nothing wrong with the “opi” insertion.
I rather enjoy Daedalus so far; definitely a bit quirky, but variety is the spice etc. However, I consider YAH-BOO virtually ungettable.
Thanks to Daedalus and Pierre.
Thanks, gwep. Fair enough on BEARDLESS, but what is the ‘etc’ doing in 5ac? ‘Heroin, etc’ can’t be OPIATE, imho.
Re 5a, “opiate” is also an adjective (or it could be “opioid”). In either case, “heroin etc” (i.e. “opiates”) are all “opiate” (or “opioid”) in that they resemble, or are related to, opium.
I think you are on the right tracks with 24a. I read it as ER (“Queen”) following OP (“procedure”, in the sense of a surgical operation) + ER (“herself”) + AGO (“before”) to give OPERA-GOER, with the definition as you indicated, “she visits Covent Garden”.