What a treat from CHALMIE this Friday !! Thanks to setter for an absolute delight.
FF: 10 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ARBOURS | Retreats without black jackets (7) |
| bARBOURS (jackets, without B – black) | ||
| 5 | FOURTH | River goes past university quarter (6) |
| FORTH (river, scotland) containing U (university) | ||
| 8 | MARQUETRY | Quarter gets messed up in gracious woodwork (9) |
| QUARTER* in MY (gracious) | ||
| 9 | EDICT | Caught inside, backing current order (5) |
| C (caught) in reverse of TIDE (current) | ||
| 11 | EMPTY | Quarter of Arabian Desert has space with Australian company (5) |
| EM (space) PTY (australian company, short for ‘proprietary company’) – wiki here | ||
| 12 | PANETTONI | Greek god and alien change into cakes (9) |
| PAN (greek god) ET (alien) [INTO]* | ||
| 13 | ENTICERS | Some tempting logs I see inside (8) |
| ENTERS (logs) containing [ I C (see) ] | ||
| 15 | OBOIST | Player’s boot is undone (6) |
| [BOOT IS]* | ||
| 17 | CYCLIC | Evacuated Coventry cathedral with body of mice coming round regularly (6) |
| [CY (CoventrY) CL (CathedraL) evacuated – without inner letters ] IC (mICe, body i.e. inner letters) | ||
| 19 | EDGEWISE | Central part of hedge is eaten by sheep going sideways (8) |
| EDG (central part of hEDGe) [ IS in EWE (sheep) ] | ||
| 22 | SANTAYANA | Christmas visitor, any stupid American philosopher (9) |
| SANTA (christmas vistor) [ANY]* A (American) | ||
| 23 | SCREW | Prison warder put in an impossible position (5) |
| double def | ||
| 24 | SEE TO | Deal with Durham possibly being closed (3,2) |
| SEE (durham possibly) TO (being closed) | ||
| 25 | OVER THERE | Yonder covert heretics hide (4,5) |
| hidden in “..cOVERT HEREtics..” | ||
| 26 | STANZA | Verse central to alliance between Pakistan and Zambia (6) |
| central characters of “pakiSTAN ZAmbia” | ||
| 27 | TWO BITS | Fools host outside broadcast in American quarter (3,4) |
| TWITS (fools) containing OB (Outside Broadcast) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ARMY EXERCISES | Manoeuvres suggested by Mary (4,9) |
| reverse clue for MARY | ||
| 2 | BARMPOT | Titled fellow, one replaced by representative old northern idiot (7) |
| BARoneT (titled fellow, with ONE replaced by [MP (representative) O (old) ] ), scottish slang | ||
| 3 | USURY | Immense interest in American panel dismissing judge (5) |
| US (american) jURY (panel, without J – judge) | ||
| 4 | SET APART | Mushy pea tarts practising social distancing (3,5) |
| [PEA TARTS]* | ||
| 5 | FLYING | Force probably on the ground or up in the air (6) |
| F (force) LYING (probably on the ground) | ||
| 6 | UNEATABLE | Indigestible French article on a piece of furniture (9) |
| UNE (french article) A TABLE (piece of furniture) | ||
| 7 | TRIPOLI | Capital with power to stop small group initially living independently (7) |
| [ P (power) in TRIO (small group) ] LI (“..Living Independently”, starting letters) | ||
| 10 | THIRTEEN WEEKS | A quarter there knew ties need breaking (8,5) |
| [THERE KNEW TIES]* | ||
| 14 | CHINATOWN | Ethnic quarter feature, one keeping two busy (9) |
| CHIN (feature) [ AN (one) containing TWO* ] | ||
| 16 | ADJACENT | Bill judge a small sum at close quarters (8) |
| AD (bill) J (judge) A CENT (small sum) | ||
| 18 | CONVENT | Study archdeacon starting tombola in religious quarters (7) |
| CON (study) VEN (archdeacon) T (Tombola, first letter) | ||
| 20 | ISRAELI | Maybe Netanyahu is regularly treated with lithium (7) |
| IS RAE (tReAtEd, regularly) LI (lithium) | ||
| 21 | CANOLA | May look up advanced American oil (6) |
| CAN (may) OL (look = LO, reversed) A (Advanced) | ||
| 23 | SET TO | Hard, heading for argument (3-2) |
| SET (hard) TO (heading for) | ||
In addition to the various uses of QUARTER (nicely anagrammed in 8a I thought), this is a pangram. Failed to parse ARBOURS, not knowing “barbours” and failed on EMPTY. It was the only word I could see that fit but had no idea why.
I personally have no problem with “may” = “can” in 21d but remember as a child being told to say “Please may I leave the table?” after a meal. If I ever said “can” instead, the reply would always be “Yes you can but you may not”.
Thanks to Chalmie and Turbolegs.
Yes, a week-day treat, highly enjoyable, ingeniously themed cluing, pangram squeezed in, great stuff.
To Hovis @1: you were clearly drilled in the same way as I re ‘can’ & ‘may’ & clearly rebelled as I did. I have a similar disdain of the ‘rules’ about how to use or abuse an infinitive (sic).
Many thanks to Turbolegs & to Chalmie for a puzzle which, while raising many a smile, gave no quarter to the sloppy solver.
Sorry, Turbolegs, I guessed 1dn ARMY EXERCISES, but I still can’t parse it. Help, please. Thanks, Chalmie, for a cracker.
Hi Hornbeam@3,
EXERCISES functions as an anagram indicator that changes ARMY into MARY.
Regards,
TL
Yes, a very good challenge from Chalmie today. I’d never heard of TWO BITS for an ‘American quarter’ (dollar) or BARMPOT and couldn’t parse EMPTY – thanks for the link. I found ARBOURS especially tricky, as ‘without B(lack)’ meant excluding a B to solve the clue, but there was also a B contained within the answer just to make things more confusing.
Unfortunately ‘Mushy pea tarts’ can’t have been big sellers here given our recent depressing COVID numbers.
Thanks to Turbolegs and Chalmie.
WordPlodder. Oddly enough, “bampot” (a Scottish variant for barmpot) appeared as recently as this Wednesday’s FT puzzle by Julius in his clue for DWEEB.
How creatively Chalmie used the ‘quarter’ theme, my particular favourite being MARQUETRY. And I just loved the revolting-sounding ‘mushy pea tarts! As you say, Grant @2, no quarter given – not to the likes of me, anyway. With BAMPOT (16,529) still fresh in the memory, BARMPOT was a quick solve. OBOIST and CYCLIC were enjoyable too. I’ve heard the phrase TWO-BIT used to disparage, much as people from my neck of the woods used ‘Chad Valley’. However, I struggled to parse quite a few and had to go searching for the YANA part of SANTAYANA. Nevertheless, it was a highly rewarding challenge so thanks to Chalmie and Turbolegs for clearing the mist!
Hello Hovis @6, thanks, yes I missed it on Wednesday, but have only just now done Julius’ Wednesday FT (after today’s puzzle) and did see the ‘bampot’ def for DWEEB, realising it must be the Scottish variant. I know it’s been commented upon before, but it’s uncanny how often relatively uncommon words like this appear so close together. Anyway, hopefully I’ll recognise it when it next turns up in about five years!
There was much to enjoy here — CYCLIC, EDGEWISE, USURY, and CHINATOWN were favorites but I failed in the NW corner, not knowing MARQUETRY or BARMPOT. Thanks Turbolegs for parsing — I never got EMPTY, ignorant of PTY meaning Australian company. Thanks Chalmie.
Most enjoyable. We didn’t know the philosopher but he was easily deduced from crossing letters, and we couldn’t parse BARMPOT as we only thought of ‘baron’ rather than ‘baronet’
Favourites were OBOIST, CYCLIC and SET APART.
Thanks, Chalmie and Turbolegs.
THANKS TO BOTH. My LOI’s were ADJACENT and EDGEWISE much aided when I realized that I needed a J and a G to complete the panagram!
Thanks to both. This tok a while to get started but was immensely enjoyable when finished. Remembered the empty quarter from some stories years ago and had to check the odd one after entering. As always solved this mid afternoon and it was a welcome distraction as outside was continual wet and grey. Still is this morning.
Thanks everyone. I’m pleased to see at least 25% enjoyed it.
Thanks Chalmie and Turbolegs
Did this one throughout a busy work from home day on Friday and only got to check it off over the weekend.
Am a fan of the puzzle that uses a particular word with its variety of definitions in clues – think that there were seven different ones here, although it felt like there were more. A few new terms – BARMPOT (again !), SANTAYANA, BARBOURS and had to check on PANETTONI and the ‘EMPTY quarter’. Did grin at the second definition of SCREW as it went in.
Got a bit lost with English geography in 24a, thinking that ‘Durham’ was generating SE and after looking at a map to see that it was in fact in the NE – needed the blog to help find that it was the diocese instead.
Twigged to the possibility of a pangram quite early on, but as usual didn’t really make use of it and only checked for it again post solve. Finished with a couple of the ‘quarter clues’ – EMPTY (which had to check on the term) and CHINATOWN followed by the tricky ARBOURS (not being aware of the waxed cotton BARBOUR jackets).