First time I am standing in, so feels strange to be out on a Tuesday. Thanks to Phsssthpok for a grid that really had me at my wits’ end!! Had to get some help for the parsing of some clues but at the end of it, felt like a really good challenge.
The NE corner kept me at bay for most part. There were quite a few clues that I really did like, 12ac and 5d being prime examples of very smooth surfaces.
Thanks Gaufrid for the extra help.
FF:9 DD:10
Across |
||
| 1 | SMOTHERS |
Messages get different envelops (8)
SMS (messages) around OTHER (different)
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| 6 | MAN FLU |
Disease that is acceptable setback for macho? (6)
MAN FUL (macho, with U – acceptable move to the back). The puzzle has this enumerated as 6 instead of 3,3.
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| 9 | FJORDS |
After swallowing, Jack wades across rocky inlets (6)
FORDS (wades across) swallowing J (Jack)
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| 10 | LOCH NESS |
Behold game featuring captured knight in monster’s lair (4,4)
LO (behold)[ CHESS (game) featuring N (Knight) ]
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| 11 | EBBS |
Leaders of England belittle British and Scottish flags (4)
First characters of “..England Belittle British (and) Scottish..”
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| 12 | ASTRONOMER |
He dissects star and moon with both ends of radio telescope (10)
Anagram of STAR MOON RE (both ends of Radio telescopE)
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| 14 | CHAMPION |
Guard for flower hot housed (8)
CAMPION (flower) housing H (hot)
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| 16 | EYOT |
Play up after opening of Easter Island (4)
E (Easter) YOT ( play = TOY, up = reversed)
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| 18 | AT IT |
Occupied by a songbird (2,2)
Charade of A TIT (a songbird)
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| 19 | IDENTITY |
Name in papers (8)
Double def
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| 21 | COLLOQUIAL |
Informal conference fell short in abolishing late openings (10)
COLLOQUIum (conference, fell short) AL (Abolishing Late openings)
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| 22 | EASE |
Reading letters in comfort (4)
Sounds like “E’s”
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| 24 | CALAMARI |
To be zoological, a marine constituent? (8)
&lit, hidden in “…zoologiCAL A MARIne…”
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| 26 | ELICIT |
Bring out legal drug first (6)
LICIT (legal) after E (drug)
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| 27 | OOMPAH |
Enthusiasm about a brassy sound (6)
OOMPH (enthusiasm) about A
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| 28 | EXTOLLED |
Former girlfriend charged a fee to get complimented (8)
EX (former girlfriend) TOLLED (charged a fee)
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| Down | ||
| 2 | MCJOB |
Rabble infected by disease nearly reach dead-end position (5)
MOB (Rabble) infected by CJd (disease, nearly; short for Creutzfeld-Jakod disease or popularly known as mad cow disease. Tough clue this!).
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| 3 | THRASH METAL |
Type of music Rattle has composed about the queen (6,5)
Anagram of RATTLE HAS ER (queen)
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| 4 | ECSTATIC |
City still jubilant (8)
EC (city) STATIC (still)
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| 5 | SPLIT INFINITIVE |
To quickly go and to unendingly live are among boundless examples (5,10)
What a clue !! SPLIT (to quickly go) [IV (lIVe, without its ends) in INFINITE (boundless) ]. Both “to quickly go” and “to unendingly live” are example of split infinitives.
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| 6 | MICRON |
Microphone raised – and not a small distance (6)
MIC (Microphone) RON ( and not = NOR, raised = reversed)
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| 7 | NUN |
Devout woman unaffected by looking in mirror (3)
Cryptic clue; NUN and its mirror image (when written in caps) can be read the same way.
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| 8 | LASHED OUT |
During hearing, tether suspect who struck at random (6,3)
Sounds like LASH (tether) DOUBT (suspect)
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| 13 | OVER THE HILL |
Obscured by the scenery past it? (4-3-4)
Cryptic clue
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| 15 | HOT POTATO |
Stew at nothing in controversy (3,6)
Charade of HOT POT (stew) AT O (nothing)
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| 17 | HELL BENT |
Over Bible, man will be determined (4-4)
HE’LL BE (man will be) NT (bible)
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| 20 | SQUASH |
Cordial game (6)
double def
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| 23 | SEIZE |
Grasp magnitude of concealing extraterrestrial origin (5)
SIZE (magnitude) concealing E (origin of Extraterrestrial)
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| 25 | ASP |
Snake bit head off stinging insect (3)
wASP (stinging insect, without head)
|
*anagram
Thanks, Turbolegs and Phssthpok. Quite a tough one, I thought.
It took me a while to get MCJOB, but the penny eventually dropped. I failed on 6 across, though. I might have got it if it had been enumerated as (3,3), but as a six-letter word I just couldn’t see it.
3d ‘Thrash Metal’ is an anagram of ‘Rattle has’ + ‘HM’ (Queen) not ‘ER’
Thanks Turbolegs and Phssthpok. I really enjoyed it but also failed on MANFLU. Like Tom_I, I like to think I would have had it with a 3-3 enumeration.
I also wondered if it was a bit unkind on McDonalds to attach that old label on them. They led the way on properly sourced ingredients in burger chains in the UK and my impression is that their manager training schemes and pathways to being a franchise holder (with 6 figure income) are to be praised. (I could of course have been the victim of the PR.) Nice clue though.
Thanks for the blog.
I started trying to do this crossword but was getting nowhere, so I thought I’d look up just 1 & 6 on the blog. Having done so, I’ll not waste my time trying to solve any more.
In 1 SMS is singular not plural. In 6 ‘u’ = ‘acceptable’ is usage which is completely unknown to anybody born after 1960.
Pretty tough. Put in MANFLU despite misgivings but MCJOB was unkown to me. Thanks to setter and TL
I’m a bit late to this, but thanks to setter & blogger.
I hadn’t understood the parsing for 5d before coming here, and now agree it’s an excellent clue.
My parsing for 21a is COLLOQU[y] + I[n] A[bolishing] L[ate]. Otherwise there is a problem parsing the word ‘in’.
Thanks Phssthpok and Turbolegs
I’m a lot late to this – because this was hard, especially that NE corner. Finally worked out LASHED OUT about a week ago … and finally today MANFLU suddenly manufactured itself from ‘manful’. 🙂
Even after all of that I still hadn’t parsed COLLOQUIAL properly before coming here.
A lot of nice varied clueing in a good challenge. Keenly await his next one.