Solving time: 6:30
Some good clues in this. As usual, this puzzle contained ERRATA, but for once only as a clue answer (15ac) – there were no editorial howlers this week (that I spotted, anyway).
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across |
| 1 |
HEAD + HUNTER – a hunter is a watch with a metal case. |
| 9 |
TR(I)AD |
| 10 |
INNOCENCE; INN + “NO CENTS” |
| 12 |
ABOLITIONISTS; (OTIS + LIBATIONS)* |
| 14 |
EEL + GRASS (= ‘shop’ as in ‘betray’) – new to me but the wordplay was clear. |
| 15 |
ERRATA – the ‘Make’ in this clue spoils it. |
| 17 |
RECIPE; (RICE + PE[as])* – a reasonable &lit. |
| 19 |
ALL THE GO; (LETHAL)* + GO (= ‘work’) |
| 21 |
PERPENDICULAR; (DECLARE PINUP)* around [cove]R |
| 24 |
LIFE SAVER (cryptic definition) – my favourite clue in this puzzle (“If you have a problem, one might crawl up to you”). |
| 26 |
S(AS)H |
| 27 |
FRICASSEES – S[on] in CASE, all in FRIES (= ‘cooks’) – my last entry. The wordplay just about works, but only if you change all the punctuation. |
| Down |
| 2 |
A + BIG + AIL – ‘sickly’ = AIL? Not really, but this doesn’t qualify as a mistake on the Sunday Times scale. |
| 3 |
HYDROGRAPHERS; (RARER PHD GO SHY)* – decent clue with a good surface reading. |
| 4 |
NO(I)SIEST |
| 5 |
ENNUI; [m]EN[s] [ge]NUI[ne] |
| 7 |
TUN(IS + I)A – an unjustified question mark. |
| 8 |
PRESS + BAR + ON |
| 11 |
CONGRATULATES; (ARGONAUTS + CELTS)* – another good anagram. |
| 13 |
NECROPOLIS; (EL + SCORPION)* – a bit of an indirect anagram, but ‘the Spanish’ almost never leads to anything other than ‘EL’. |
| 16 |
ELECTRIC; (LET ERIC C)* – good clue, referring to Eric Clapton. For some reason I couldn’t see this anagram, even with the L in place; I think I was subconsciously, and erroneously, putting ‘C’ as the first letter. |
| 18 |
CARAFES – ‘tent’ being a Spanish wine. I spotted that straight off, but unfortunately wrote in ‘cellars’, only correcting when I looked again at the clue for PERPENDICULAR. |
| 22 |
DOVE + R – should have got this straight off, but instead of ‘bird + river = port’ I thought of (and nearly wrote in) ‘ousel’ (river + lake = bird). |
| 23 |
OTIS (initial letters) – obvious wordplay, but a name sufficiently obscure as to be omitted from Chambers’ appendix of first names. Other than the Aardvark, the only Otis I could think of was the cricketer Ottis Gibson (spelt differently). |
Just the 4 “easies” for the bunnies today:
6a Block return of vessels (4)
STOP
25a Silent part of AtlanTA CITy (5)
TACIT
1d Dislike bowler – maybe opening for England (4)
HAT E
20d Some fEAR A CHEst pain (7)
EARACHE