A Puzzle by Buddy
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid
Buddy returns with another enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to him
Across
1a Awesome model I half-heartedly flirt with (10)
FORMIDABLE: Model/design plus I from the clue plus flirt (with) /tinker with one of the middle letters removed
6a Melt almost entirely; add dash of salt; stir (4)
FUSS: Melt/soften without its last letter plus initial letter of Salt
10a Boundaries of court in general shaped - like this? (9)
RECTANGLE: CourT inside GENERAL*
11a Big file lacks header (5)
OLDER: Type of file minus initial letter
12a Severe gash sewn up by casualty department (5)
ACUTE: Gash/split inserted into abbreviated hospital department
13a Course of action completely fit the bill (7,2)
MEASURE UP: A course of action plus completely/in full
14a Noggin filled with sanctimonious belief (7)
OPINION: Abbreviated pious in a vegetable/slang term for head
16a Select primarily liberal representative (6)
SAMPLE: Initial letter of Select plus liberal/plentiful
19a Hip and butt nobbled by strain (6)
TRENDY: Butt in the sense of tip inside strain/tax
20a Carbuncle indeed sounded painful (7)
EYESORE: Homophone of a synonym of indeed as an affirmative plus painful/tender
23a Unexpectedly encounter snag with a clue like this one (3,6)
RUN ACROSS: Snag (in tights say) plus where this clue is situated (not down!)
25a Material quantity imported by China (5)
CLOTH: Quantity/batch inside CHina
26a Lament killing river bird (5)
EGRET: Lament/rue without R
27a Regarding films, awfully mean critic shows no trace of respect (9)
CINEMATIC: MEAN CRITIC* minus the initial letter of Respect
28a Go up the mountain, finally passable (4)
OPEN: Final letters of the first four words
29a Even soldiers are entertained by thin Zola novel (10)
HORIZONTAL: OR (soldiers) inserted into THIN ZOLA*
Down
1d Distant past inspires recipe for hash (7)
FARRAGO: Distant/a long way plus an adverb meaning IN the past around an abbreviation for Recipe
2d Corrupt, cruel society that is keeping very isolated (9)
RECLUSIVE: CRUEL* plus abbreviation for Society plus IE around the abbreviation for Very
3d Picture, say, buddy in Paris, lying around (5)
IMAGE: Say/perhaps plus friend in French rev. I would have capitalized buddy here for extra misdirection
4d Exchange old silver without sign of hesitation (8)
ARGUMENT: An exclamation indicating hesitation inserted in an heraldic silver, without being a containment indicator.
5d Play Spooner's little song (6)
LEEWAY: Scottish little plus a short lyric put to music given the Spooner treatment
7d Inappropriate to cancel broadcast (5)
UNDUE: A homophone of a synonym of cancel/disallow. May work over the pond but it's a dud here
8d Disorder in Suffolk, possibly, when brawl leads to inevitable escalation (7)
SCRAPIE: Suffolk here is a breed of sheep. Brawl/fight plus initial letters of the final two words. Not keen on when linking definition to wordplay
9d Common people try cracking a clue (8)
POPULACE: Try as a noun plus A CLUE*
15d Show from small film studio snubbed by Ms. Blanchett (8)
INDICATE: A truncated (snubbed) show from a small studio plus the given name of Ms Blachett. Very nice
17d Reproduce noodle soup, turn over immediately (9)
PHOTOSTAT: A type of noodle soup plus T/O plus immediately (in prescriptions)
18d Capital the Spanish invest inside Hawaii (8)
HELSINKI: A Spanish article, plus a synonym of invest/put in inserted into the state abbreviation for Hawaii
19d Wreck nearly lacerated cycling dimwit (7)
TORPEDO: Lacerated/cut without its last letter plus a dimwit with the final two letters cycled to the front
21d Just a drop of tea spilling from frothy chai latte (7)
ETHICAL: CHAI LATTE* without A and initial letter of Tea
22d Seattle manager engaged in research on cholesterol (6)
HONCHO: Hidden
24d Care for shark, perhaps? (5)
NURSE: Double definition
25d Small role turned up - followed by Oscar! (5)
CAMEO: Turned up/arrived plus O. Very amusing
A very enjoyable lunchtime exercise – thanks to Buddy.
Top clues for me were 20a, 23a and 8d.
Thanks Buddy for an enjoyable start to my Saturday although there were some pauses for thought to slow progress here and there.
Smiles for 14a, 20a, 26a, 1d, 8d, and 15d.
Thanks again and thanks in advance to Stephen L(?).
As we’ve come to expect this from this setter, this put up quite a fight. However it was a very enjoyable battle from which I emerged battered but victorious. The only thing I can’t fully resolve relates to the parsing of 13a. Can anyone provide a sentence which shows that “completely” can mean “up”?
There was a distinct American flavour:
25a – I was going to say that I couldn’t find any reference to CH meaning China. It’s not listed in Chambers but then I found it in Collins in the American English listing. CH in Europe refers to Switzerland.
7d – I suspect you need to be an American for the homophone to work.
17d – “Stat” as an abbreviation for statim is not given in Chambers. Once again, I found it in Collins but only in the American English section.
22d – Hooray for the American indicator!
Not for the first time, I can’t improve on Gazza’s top picks of 20a, 23a and 8d.
Many thanks to Buddy for a splendid puzzle. Please keep them coming!
If you eat up your dinner you may have some sweet.
Hi Dave, thanks as always for the comments. We seem to be running into the “different versions of Chambers” issue again as my 13th ed (c2014) has both Ch. = China (and Chinese) and stat. = abbreviation for statim, immediately. (Plus I assumed we’d all seen enough medical dramas to know that one anyway.)
Use it up, use it completely; granted virtually all English speakers would say the first one. Plus, “it’s in Chambers!” (yes, the last refuge…).
Regarding the homophone, Chambers gives the pronunciation of both due and do as “doo” (as well as an alternate of “due” with a long u sound). I figured I was on solid enough ground there, but this is why I hesitate to write homophone clues.
Thanks for your reply, Buddy.
For convenience, I tend to use the Chambers app rather than the book itself. Not for the first time, I’ve been caught out by only looking for an abbreviation without a full stop (period?!) Today I only checked “ch” and not “ch.” and “stat” and not “stat.” When you are looking at the book rather than using the app all the entries are easily seen on the same page.
I only looked up “completely” and not “up”. I agree with you, I don’t think anyone would chose to say “completely”. But, as you say, it’s in the BRB!
I shall eat my humble pie completely!
BTW, we generally use CN for China over here to avoid confusion with China.
Great puzzle. Keep them coming please.
Sorry, I meant confusion with Switzerland.
An exercise which took a little more than ‘lunchtime’ and I did enjoy the solve
Thanks to Buddy and in advance to Stephen
It took us a while – and a lot of thought, but we got there eventually and enjoyably. Thank you, Buddy. Favourites 13a, 20a and 5d. Thanks in advance to Stephen also.
We found this both challenging and very satisfying. What more could we ask for? The Spoonerism in 5d gets our top vote.
Thanks Buddy.
A late night start yielded only a handful of answers but my subconscious must have been working on it overnight as I got eveything cleared up (completely?) this morning, though not without some delayed PDMs.
Thanks, Buddy and StephenL.
Catching up on NTSPPs after a long holiday and I very much enjoyed this offering from Buddy. The NE corner provided a bit of a tussle but PDMs on 16d followed by 9d eventually led to a grid fill.
I have a long list of ticked clues: 1, 10, 19, 26 & 27 across and 2, 5, 8, 9 and 22 down. 7d for me was in the ‘dodgy homophone’ category!
My thanks to Buddy and to StephenL.