…will appear here. My house was burgled last night so I’ve got a bit to sort out today. I’ll do the blog entry when I get a chance.
OK, so I’ve been a bit lazy. I’ve finally got round to it at 11pm on Monday! I forgot to record my time on this one, but I don’t recall it being that hard so I’ll guess around 15 mins.
Across
| 1 | IN FORM,AL(l) – I liked the long “where pupils may be” definition for INFORM. |
| 11 | R,UDDERLESS – “like a bull” = UDDERLESS is another good one, but the definition seemed unnecessarily wordy. |
| 13 | PAWN,BROKE,R – (man = chess piece) is one to watch out for. Uncle is slang for a pawnbroker (anybody know why?) |
| 17 | F(LOTS)AM(ily) |
| 20 | AFTERS,HAVE |
| 23 | CHURCHYARD – CHURCHILL with ILL replaced by YARD |
| 26 | T,UN((al)E)LESS – nice surface, although I disagree with the sentiment. It’s unpleasant to hear “time” no matter how much there is in your glass! |
| 27 | ET(HER,E)AL |
Down
| 2 | NATURIST – what’s left of “ON A TOUR IS TOO” if you remove the O’s. Not sure how to describe this clue – it’s sort of a hidden word I suppose… |
| 4 | M(iddle),E(ast),TROP,OLIS = “silo port” rev. |
| 5 | LE,T(D)OWN – I could only find “letting-down” in Chambers for aircraft descent, and that meaning isn’t even mentioned in Collins. |
| 7 | BEDE,C,K – ref The Venerable Bede. |
| 8 | ANGST,ROM – ROM is read-only memory in computers. |
| 14 | BALDER,D,ASH – Balder was the Norse god of love and peace, killed by the evil Loki, god of mischief. |
| 15 | OUT OF ORDER – the clue explains how “Oliver Smith” is an anagram of “his lover Tim”. |
| 18 | ANACOND(“Anna conned”),A |
| 19 | MAL(lAdIeS)E |
| 21 | T(RU)AN,T |
9a LanguagE IN STEINbeck shows genius (8)
EINSTEIN. No Mice nor Men in the land East of Eden.
10a Still check if there’s time for leading resistance (2,4)
A (R)T T EST. ARREST (check) becomes AT REST (Still) by changing the leading R for T.
12a Mine’s hard hats may be made of this (4)
PIT H
16a Get annoyed after after cut stalk is unproductive (7)
STE (M) RILE
22a Standard variety of plant (4)
FLAG. DD – Standard = Flag = Iris.
25a Passionate queen in translation of (Dante)*
A R DENT
3d Ask too much concerning Light Brigade’s action (10)
OVER CHARGE
6d When head has book destroyed (4)
(B) ONCE
16d Dearth of motors raising level of sulphur over London? (8)
SCAR CITY. Where the S in CARS gets raised to the top over a CITY that could be (?) London.
24d Part of shoe or hard slipper? (4)
H EEL