A thorough workout from Mudd today. Thanks Mudd.
FF: 9 DD:8
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SLIGHT | Small lesion initially visible? (6) |
| L (Lesion, initially) in SIGHT (read together as being visible) | ||
| 4 | CLOSET | Private company welcoming Liberal group (6) |
| [ CO (company) containing L (liberal) ] SET (group) | ||
| 8 | GESTAPO | Brutal organisation goes potty about minor strike (7) |
| [GOES]* around TAP (minor strike) | ||
| 9 | UGANDAN | Union leader from India stops short of greeting an African (7) |
| U (union) GANDhi (leader from india, without HI – greeting) AN | ||
| 11 | VERNACULAR | Standard language strangely unclear, given brief change around (10) |
| [ UNCLEAR ]* in VARy (change, briefly) | ||
| 12 | LUSH | Drinker flourishing (4) |
| double def | ||
| 13 | CREST | Top prop behind opening in curtain (5) |
| C (Curtain, first letter) REST (prop) | ||
| 14 | DOVETAIL | Joint I loved jumping, I’m grateful to gain entry (8) |
| [I LOVED]* containing TA (~i’m grateful, thanks) | ||
| 16 | SNAPSHOT | Crack destroyed photo (8) |
| SNAP (crack) SHOT (destroyed) | ||
| 18 | ISSUE | Subject leader’s missed in paper (5) |
| tISSUE (paper, without first letter) | ||
| 20 | KIND | Benevolent species (4) |
| double def | ||
| 21 | CANTERBURY | See pace of horse, and hide (10) |
| CANTER (pace of horse) BURY (hide) | ||
| 23 | MELODIC | A thousand coiled snakes sounding good (7) |
| M (thousand) [COILED]* | ||
| 24 | TERRIFY | Cloth masks provided to cause fear (7) |
| TERRY (cloth) around IF (provided) | ||
| 25 | TIERED | Connection rare in layers (6) |
| TIE (connection) RED (rare) | ||
| 26 | ESTATE | Car in European country (6) |
| E (european) STATE (country) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SCENE | Spot spotted, we hear? (5) |
| sounds like SEEN (spotted) | ||
| 2 | INTENSE | Serious numbers in unlimited fines (7) |
| TENS (numbers) in INE (fINEs, without end characters) | ||
| 3 | HOPSCOTCH | Game bound to stop (9) |
| HOP (bound) SCOTCH (stop) | ||
| 5 | LAGER | Not entirely wonderful, A German drink (5) |
| hidden in “..wonderfuL A GERman..” | ||
| 6 | SINGLET | Adjustment in leg isn’t for upper garment (7) |
| [LEG ISNT]* | ||
| 7 | TRANSPIRE | A sprinter unlikely to turn out (9) |
| [ A SPRINTER ]* | ||
| 10 | GLADSTONE | Old British statesman delighted with jewel (9) |
| GLAD (delighted) STONE (jewel) | ||
| 13 | CONTINENT | Little money around on vessel seeking vast land (9) |
| CENT (little money) containing [ ON TIN (vessel) ] | ||
| 15 | VOICELESS | Unable to speak, five officers originally melted? (9) |
| V (five) O (Officers, originallt) ICELESS (~ melted) | ||
| 17 | PADRONE | Boss, lazybones after secretary (7) |
| DRONE (lazybones) after PA (secretary) | ||
| 19 | SIBERIA | River again rising in extensive Asian region (7) |
| reverse of AIRE (river) BIS (again) | ||
| 21 | CHILE | Talk about cold nation! (5) |
| sounds like CHILLY (cold) | ||
| 22 | RIFLE | Loading Luger firstly, rampant shooter (5) |
| L (Luger, first letter) in RIFE (rampant) | ||
25a should say RED (rare) not RARE (layers). I found this ok but fairly average. Thanks to S&B.
Thanks Hovis. I fell victim to the perils of multi tasking! 🙂
Cheers
TL
All fairly straightforward, although the SW corner held us up till the end with the TIERED/CHILE crossers – we just couldn’t see them for ages although they’re so obvious now.
DOVETAIL and HOPSCOTCH were our favourites.
Thanks, Mudd and Turbolegs
Thanks Mudd & Turbolegs.
Is 5 down an &lit?
It comes close but it depends on what you think of German beer!
In an &lit (or, in Pierre‘s Everyman terms, a CAD) everything is part of the wordplay while the clue as a whole is the definition.
Now, the latter may be the case for you (?) but ‘drink’ isn’t part of the wordplay – and so the answer to your question is, unfortunately, ‘no’.
Thanks Sil.
This was a “tough Mudder” for me as far as the SW corner goes. Not knowing “drone” as lazybones prevented me from completing that quadrant as well as missing the obvious (now) parsing of TIERED. Also, the “A” in 23ac apparently exists just to make the surface read better — I got stuck thinking it had to be used. I enjoyed the rest with VERNACULAR, CANTERBURY, and INTENSE being favourites. Thanks to both.
Thanks, Mudd and Turbolegs. SW corner was difficult until I got PADRONE, then it fell into place. Thanks for parsing SIBERIA and ESTATE – is the latter just a U.K. term? I used to own one but it’s always called “ station wagon” here.
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
This took about my average time to finish although it felt longer during the solve and wondered why when looking back at it.
Can’t remember coming across PADRONE before, but the rest were all common words that were just craftily constructed.
Finished in the SE corner with VOICELESS, the clever DOVETAIL and ESTATE (we call them station wagons down here too jeff@8) as the ladt few in.
This grid found me slow on the uptake at times but GLADSTONE provided the key and things accelerated from there. SPEED, CRACKPOT and CANTERBURY were favourites. PADRONE reminded me of Bertie Wooster’s chums at the Drones Club. I took a long time spotting MELODIC (that confusing ‘A’) and CREST eluded me entirely. Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs.