A highly enjoyable puzzle (as usual) from Dean, although I found it to be slightly less tricky than some of his offerings. The surface of 8a alone was worth the price of admission, and I'm sure Ringo himself would have loved the deadpan, nonchalant delivery of such a bizarre image.
An intriguing cast of characters cropped up in one way or another - the Beatle, the poet, the knight and the comedian - and nice to see an oblique nod to Roger Moore who sadly took his final bow just a couple of weeks ago.
Some witty, beautifully concise cluing (24a and 4d being standouts in my book). 17d had me somewhat flummoxed in terms of understanding the definition, and I fear I may have gone off the rails there - we shall see.
Thanks to Dean for a most enjoyable Sunday special - here's my best attempt at unravelling it all.
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(--): omitted letters indicated by {-}.
An intriguing cast of characters cropped up in one way or another - the Beatle, the poet, the knight and the comedian - and nice to see an oblique nod to Roger Moore who sadly took his final bow just a couple of weeks ago.
Some witty, beautifully concise cluing (24a and 4d being standouts in my book). 17d had me somewhat flummoxed in terms of understanding the definition, and I fear I may have gone off the rails there - we shall see.
Thanks to Dean for a most enjoyable Sunday special - here's my best attempt at unravelling it all.
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(--): omitted letters indicated by {-}.
| Across | |
| 1 | Highest price to pay when initially cut (3,5) |
| TOP WHACK - TO + P W (Pay When initially) + HACK (cut) | |
| 5 | When talking, take off jumper (4) |
| FLEA - Sounds like (when talking) FLEE (take off) | |
| 8 | Ringo Starr involved with breast feeding group (6,9) |
| STRING ORCHESTRA - CHEST (breast) 'feeds' (into) *(RINGO STARR). As gloriously surreal images go, this surface takes some beating... | |
| 10 | Garmentto take to the cleaners (6) |
| FLEECE - DD (and a somewhat generous one at that) | |
| 11 | Bond completely frozen, and almost trapped (8) |
| ALLIANCE - ALL ICE (completely frozen) with AN{D} inside (and almost trapped) | |
| 12 | Lip balm’s first applied to lip (4) |
| BRIM - B (Balm's first) + RIM (lip) | |
| 14 | A rather round one’s a bonus (10) |
| PERQUISITE - PER (a) QUITE (rather) going 'round' IS (one's) | |
| 16 | In one second, Italian lady reverses old age (4,6) |
| ANNO DOMINI - IN I MO (in one second) + DONNA (Italian lady) all reversed. | |
| 19 | A, B, C, D, F or G (4) |
| NOTE - NOT E (the one missing from the series of musical notes). Cunning cryptic... | |
| 21 | A tackle cuts returned cross (8) |
| SWASTIKA - A KIT SAWS (A tackle cuts) all reversed (returned) | |
| 22 | Reject most of panel in Lincoln (6) |
| ABJURE - JUR{Y} (most of panel) in ABE (Lincoln) | |
| 24 | Party— free do? (3,4,4,4) |
| LET ONES HAIR DOWN - DD, with the second being a droll reference to liberating ones hair-do | |
| 25 | Views of earth all right (4) |
| EYES - E (earth) + YES (all right) | |
| 26 | Poet X’s name — curious, on reflection (8) |
| TENNYSON - TEN (X) + N (name) + NOSY reversed (curious, on reflection) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | It’s grabbed by ultra weird puppet? (7) |
| TITULAR - IT included in (grabbed by) *(ULTRA) with "weird" signalling the anagram. The definition caused me to hesitate initially, but a ruler in name only is likely to be a puppet. | |
| 2 | Love the sound of noses (5) |
| PRIZE - Sounds like PRIES (noses) | |
| 3 | It will blow up, presumably (4,9) |
| HIGH EXPLOSIVE - Cryptic definition. Maybe I've missed something more subtle here, but I think this works simply on the connection between "high" with "up" | |
| 4 | "Blue sky", said pirate (7) |
| CORSAIR - Sounds like (said) COARSE (blue - as in rude) + AIR (sky) | |
| 6 | Old comic sold as new comic (3,6) |
| LES DAWSON - *(SOLD AS NEW) with "comic" as the anagram indicator. Not sure how well-known the former purveyor of (somewhat tasteless, it has to be said)mother-in-law jokes is outside the UK. If you haven't come across him, I personally wouldn't recommend spending too long digging... His one-liner "I used to sell furniture for a living. Trouble was, it was my own" is probably about as good as he gets. | |
| 7 | A jar full of mostly mellow fruit (7) |
| APRICOT - A POT (a jar) 'full of' RIC{H} (mostly mellow). At least, I think that's how it works, although the rich/mellow equation left me with a sense of unease around the parsing. | |
| 9 | I pick a horse up on country trip (13) |
| HALLUCINATION - I CULL A H reversed (I pick a h{orse} - up) 'on' NATION (country) | |
| 12 | Pig runs away, seeing snake (3) |
| BOA - BOA{R} pig lose3s its R (runs away) | |
| 13 | Partners cutting low quality feldspar (9) |
| MOONSTONE - N and S (partners - in bridge) going between (cutting) MOO (low) and TONE (quality). One where I had to trust the wordplay as I was not familiar with feldspar, although subsequent research suggests I probably should be, as it relates to "the most important group of rock-forming minerals": live and learn... | |
| 15 | The day before still hasn’t finished (3) |
| EVE - EVE{N} (still hasn't finished) | |
| 17 | One present is not two presents (7) |
| NOWHERE - the wordplay is clear enough - NOW and HERE can both mean 'present' (i.e. two presents). The definition, however, had me somewhat flummoxed and I fear I may have gone off the rails. Best I can come up with is that if someone is present then they are here - as opposed to (not) "nowhere" - but that seems a bit tortuous... Looking forward to enlightenment from the assembled crew. | |
| 18 | Wilfred’s house in one part of windmill (7) |
| IVANHOE - HO (abbrev. house) 'in' I VANE (one part of windmill), Wilfred of Ivanhoe being the chap more generally known simply as Ivanhoe (at least to those of us who grew up with the TV series of that name - which was the late Roger Moore's first starring role). I originally thought "house" might be doing double duty here (serving as part of the definition - Wilfred of the House of Ivanhoe) and also giving us the HO in the wordplay, but on reflection I think the definition is just Wilfred. Either way, a timely nod to a great screen actor. | |
| 20 | Add lightweight fences to scrap (5,2) |
| THROW IN - THIN (lightweight) goes around (fences) ROW (scrap) | |
| 23 | Traitor not quite right to frame lawyer (5) |
| JUDAS - JUS{T} (not quite right) goes around (to frame) DA (lawyer - i.e. District Attorney). | |