This crossword puzzle mostly suited me, but there are a fair few I am not sure about but don’t have the time to check (or think about) this morning. I am sure they will shortly be explained or corrected by others.
I did this in 32 minutes.
Across
1 | ROBERT BURNS – anagram of ‘reborn burst’ |
9 | EASY MONEY – anagram of ‘yes one may’ – I am not sure about the jam reference. |
10 | CANON – I get the ‘set of books’ bit – what else? |
11 | LUCK,NOW – I’ve heard of the Indian city – can’t remember exactly what went on there in 1857. |
13 | TRACE? – a pinch of something could be a trace – not sure about the harness bit. |
15 | GRUB,B(I)EST – best and worst can both mean to beat someone – crafty. |
17 | LABYRINTH – I think this is anagram of ‘by rail’+ NTH (North). Actually I don’t think it is anymore. Oh man, not doing too well today – still feeling the effects of a stag weekend! |
19 | TO(KY)O – KY=Kentucky |
20 | WARFARE sounds like ‘wharf Ayr’ |
22 | LI(MOG)ES |
24 | MORSE – Chief Inspector Morse’s first name is Endeavour (Colin Dexter novels) |
25 | BAT,TL(E)AXE – EXALT reversed over E(English) |
28 | TO,WERB,RIDGE – WERB=brew, reversed |
Down
1 | RYE? – only drink I could think of – don’t know about the port. |
4 | [a]BAND(WAG)ON – WAG in a headless ABANDON |
5 | ROY,AL – briefly considered REG,AL |
6 | SUCCUMB anagram of CUCUMBERS-ER |
7 | FEN,U,GREEK |
8 | GENE,RATIONS |
11 | LITTLE WOMEN – got solely from the anagram – I have no idea what’s going on here. |
14 | A,MB,ER,GR,1,S – with a Queen Elizabeth and a King George in there. |
18 | RE,AGENT |
21 | ELBOW? I don’t get the wordplay. |
23 | GRAND? – Why two family members? |
17A – Puzzled by this. “BY RAIL” is easy enough but the rest of it looks like it doesn’t hang together. Any other suggestions?
20A – Wharfe / Aire
1D – Rye is indeed the name of a port.
21D – Reversal of WOBBLE with only one B.
23D – GRAN + D(aughter)
This was an odd one for me. Blasted through the first eight Across clues & thought it was going to be one of those ridiculously easy ones, but about half-way through I came to a dead stop. Several minutes later one answer (11D) slipped into view and I got the rest filled in about 5 minutes – I’d guess 20 minutes in all.
I’m tempted to offer COD to one` of the four 3-letter answers as all have been treated uncommonly well. For sheer deception I’d give it to 26.
11a – Lucknow was one of the centres of the 1857 mutiny
13a – “Trace” is also “either of the ropes attached to a harness”
11d – “Little Women” is about the March sisters.
Vijay
As others have commented, a potentially very easy one that had a sneaky propensity to hold one up at various points. About 45 mins for me.
Michael H
I thought we might have had an Irishman, rather than Rabbie, at 1ac given the day.(although we did have a Kelly at 8d)
12 minutes to complete
JohnPMarshall
I’m really annoyed that it took me so long to get 20 as the Wharfe runs through our village and the Aire is less than 15 miles away. It didn’t help that I’m far too masculine to have ever picked up Little Women (the book, that is) so didn’t have the first letter to help.
Some of our overseas solvers may struggle with Morse, warfare and Rye I’d have thought.
I though 28 was clever but will go with linxit in plumping for 16d as COD “Cover up furniture” just doesn’t look like a definition and this was the last clue to go in.
But Wharfe/ayr/aire was a killer for this antipodean!
I’ll join linxit and penfold_61 in giving 16D the nod.
7ac: “Part X” as a hidden indicator to mean “Part of X”?
9ac: “X Y Z exchange it” as an anagram indicator for “X Y Z”?
26dn: “X Y Z finishes” to mean “last letters of X, Y and Z”?
2dn/3dn: “by” and “of” respectively as link words?
19dn: “used to drink” as a definition of “tumbler”?
Plus quite a few extraneous words & phrases, e.g. “This covers” in 19ac and “from them” in 6dn.
Maybe I’m just being over-picky or am unreasonably taking a bad day out on the crossword, but I’m sure this was far less accurate than usual and didn’t enjoy it much. I did like WARFARE and MORSE though. 9:45 to complete.
Ali
It was ‘fenugreek’ that got me.
If you start doing this sort of thing in puzzles, you’ll never finish.
There are eight answers on the bench:
7a Part oF A Gun producing smoke (3)
FAG. No problem with PART as a hidden answer indicator.
12a Couch, having been extended, accommodates you, finally (7)
LO U NGER
27a Letters from abroad newspaper rejected (3)
NUS
2d In a taxi, one’s upset by standard (5)
BA S1 C. 1S in CAB upside down.
3d Story of ancient church (7)
ROMANCE. Double def (DD).
16d Cover up furniture in court case (9)
UP HOLSTER
19d – an acrobat used to drink (7)
TUMBLER. Another DD.
26d Watch thE waY hE finishes (3)
E Y E