27639

Guardian 27639

The puzzle is available from the Guardian site here. It was compiled by Paul (John Halpern) who is a full-time professional setter, possibly one of the two best at work today, together with Anax (Dean Mayer). Probably the trickiest.

ACROSS

1 SPIRIT - dd
4 DODGEM (fairground ride) O (wheel) inside DD (daughters) + GEM
9,7 FATA MORGANA (hazy mirage) (decei)T inside (anagram of a)* - a brilliant clue including an anagram of 'anagram' while on the surface suggesting a different anagram; COD
10 CHAIN STORE (commercial establishment) S inside AINT inside CHORE
11 see 16
12 PERUVIAN (national) Rugby Union inside NAIVE + P - all rev.
maupassant 13 BARBARITY (savagery) a pub is a 'bar' so BAR BAR - two of them - are 'pubs' + IT + (affra)Y
15 URSA (bear in Latin, and in astronomy) f(UR SA)y
16,11 TONY CURTIS (player) (country)* + TIS (archaic it's)
17 GHOST TOWN (place emptied) HOST (MC) inside GOWN
21 EUROPIUM (rare earth element) (ou[t] impure)*
22 REHASH (second use of an idea) EH (what?) inside RASH (ill-considered)
24 SHORT STORY (work of Maupassant perhaps - French writer Guy de Maupassant is best known for his contes - tales, short stories) SHORTS + BLUE (colour symbolising the conservative side of politics - in England, Tory) > Guy de Maupassant >
25 UTAH (state) A inside (r)UTH - book in the OT
26 see 23
27 BREEZE - dd

DOWN

1 SPATULA (implement) fondan(T) inside PAUL (me - the setter) inside SA (sex appeal = 'it')
2,6 I CAN'T GET OVER IT (it's hard to accept) - cryptic definition, and not a good one
3 INCISOR (cutter) (icons)* inside IR(ish)
5 OWNERS (landlords, say) N(ew) inside OWERS
6 see 2
7 see 9
8 CARPET SHAMPOO (cleaner) CAR (beetle) + PETS (dog and cat and budgie) + POO (manure)
15 BONGO DRUM (percussion instrument) GO (try) inside BOND (stick) + RUM (unusual)
16 TOUGHEN (reinforce) (huge)* inside TON (vast weight)
18 SPRAYER (can of deodorant, say) armpit(S) + PRAYER (monk, perhaps)
19 WASTAGE (how much lost) STAG (a rutter) inside WE (the puzzle is in 'our' paper, from the setter's point of view)
20 TISSUE (weak paper) broadshee(T) + ISSUE (put out)
23,26 HOUSE NUMBER (how might property be located) OUSE (one river) + N(eighbour) all inside HUMBER (another river)

27639

KEY

to abbreviations and symbols which may have been used

(raga man)* = anagram of 'anagram'
cd = cryptic definition
dd = double definition
incl. = inclusive ('hidden word')
def. = definition (synonym, literal)
rev. = reversed
anagind = anagram indicator
homophind = homophone indicator
surface - the apparent meaning of the clue, disguising what's really going on
&lit - a clue in which the whole clue is the 'definition'
COD = clue of the day (imo); FOI, LOI, first/last one written in
BIFF= 'bung in' - as in 'I bunged in the wrong answer from the definition before parsing it.' I'm not sure if the F stands for something - 'first', maybe.

Garry Gillard | New: 15 October, 2018 | Now: 13 October, 2018