Thanks to Sarah and Marcos for stepping in for me for a couple of weeks. I’ve was too busy to even solve any puzzles then, let alone blog them, but I’ve just about caught up again now. This one was pretty friendly for a Saturday, solved in 12:30.
Across | |
1 | GOLD DUST – GUST (blow) around OLD (no chicken) + D(iner). “No spring chicken” means old, but as far as I know, “no chicken” only means brave. |
5 | OFF-KEY – KEY (opener) next to OFF (cricket side). |
10 | DECAF – a jumble of the notes in the musical scale, without G and B. |
11 | HOBGOBLIN – HOB (place of cooking) + [ NIL (duck) reversed, next to GOB (spit) ]. |
12 | HIT-AND-RUN – HIT (successful single) + [ DR inside A NUN ]. |
13 | TEMPE – hidden reversed in “Keep metal”. The Vale of Tempe in Greece has often been mentioned in poetry and literature as a place of beauty. |
14 | LECTERN – TERN (winger, i.e. bird) after L(eft) + EC (city). |
16 | SPOTTY – S(ingular) + POTTY (barking). |
18 | DO WELL – DOWEL (sort of rod) + L(ine). |
20 | ANFIELD – (A fine)* + LD. Liverpool’s football stadium. |
22 | HIKES – HIKE (serious constitutional) + S(outh) (point). |
23 | FRAGRANCE – RAG (charity event) in FRANCE (hence “cross-channel”). |
25 | ESOTERICA – (tea, rice)* around SO. |
26 | ASSAI – ASSAIL (set about) minus the last letter. Musical notation (and the Italian) for “very”. |
27 | REFUSE – REF (man in middle) + US (America) + E(nergy). |
28 | HANDRAIL – RAIL (protest) after HAND (worker). |
Down | |
1 | GODCHILD – DO reversed + CH(urch), inside GILD (paint in glittering colour). [ Explanation corrected after anonymous comment. ] |
2 | LICIT – C.I. (Channel Islands = Jersey etc) inside LIT (French for bed). |
3 | DEFENCELESSNESS – (fled scene senses)* |
4 | SAHARAN – HAS (keeps) reversed + ARAN (knitwear style). |
6 | FRONT-ROW FORWARD – FRONT (host) + ROW (argue) + FOR WAR (hawkish) + D(emocrat). |
7 | KILOMETRE – KIT (outfit) around LOME (West African port, capital of Togo) + RE (touching). |
8 | YONDER – (Rodney)* |
9 | T-BONES – B (type of blood) in TONES (veins). |
15 | CLOCK GOLF – cryptic definition. |
17 | EDGEHILL – EDGE (advantage) + H(andled) + ILL (poorly). The Battle of Edgehill was the first battle of the English Civil War, in 1642. Not too far from where I live, and I’ve been to the Castle Inn in the village, which overlooks the battlefield. |
19 | LEFTIE – if you took the odd letters of “wine”, “rice” or “fine”, you’d have LEFT IE. |
20 | AGA SAGA – AGA (feature of kitchen) + SAG (sink) + (dram)A. |
21 | OH DEAR – O(ld) + (heard)*. |
24 | NESTA – sounds like “nester” perhaps. |
re 1ac, this is from Collins: (slang) no longer young ⇒ “she’s no chicken”
The rugby player and the football stadium also caused me some problems.
Edited at 2013-04-27 05:09 pm (UTC)
Maybe these are all Britishisms, but they mean nothing to me. I will Google them, but I have to say that I haven’t encountered so many obscure (to me) clues and answers in one of these puzzles in a while.
Here’s a link for you: http://www.babynames.com/name/Nesta
And this one is in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag_%28student_society%29