Solving time: about 5 mins
Unfortunately I have only a few minutes to write this blog. This is a pity, because it was an excellent puzzle whose compiler I’m fairly confident I could identify. There are just a couple of things I’m not sure of but don’t have time to check (e.g. BIG MOTH at 22ac), and I have no idea how to play battledore.
| 1 |
MILKSOP; (SALMON PINK – ANN)* – an unusual composite anagram. |
| 5 |
GENESIS (2 defs) |
| 9 |
SOVERIEGN; (STATIONE[r] GIVES ONE)* – excellent clue. |
| 10 |
CANT + O |
| 11 |
AFRAID; rev. of F.A. + RAID – please, no more about the football. |
| 12 |
SEREN(AD)E |
| 14 |
DISCERNING; DISC (= ‘Record’) + “EARNING” |
| 16 |
MISS (hidden) |
| 18 |
SEAT; SEA (= ‘Blue’) + [pe]T[er] – I was distracted here by ‘blue’ = ‘sad’. |
| 19 |
BATTLEDORE; B + ATTLEE around rev. of ROD |
| 22 |
BIGMOUTH; BIG MOTH around U |
| 23 |
CAN APE |
| 26 |
ELIOT; rev. of TOILE[t] – the writer is T.S. Eliot (not George Eliot, who was female). |
| 27 |
INAMORATA; (O + A MARTIAN)* |
| 28 |
TEA LEAF; TAF[f] around E[nglish] ALE |
| 29 |
PREFECT; P + REF[l]ECT |
| 1 |
MUSTARD (2 defs) – referring to Colonel Mustard of Cluedo. |
| 2 |
L + OVER |
| 3 |
SARDINES; (IS SNARED)* |
| 4 |
PA(I)L |
| 5 |
GINGER NUTS; (TURNIN[g] EGGS)* – exceptional for dunking. |
| 6 |
NICKEL (2 defs) |
| 7 |
SAN MARINO; (ROMANIANS)* |
| 8 |
S + HOVELS |
| 13 |
SNEAK THIEF; (HATES KNIFE)* |
| 15 |
SHANGRI-LA; H[oney] and L[ime] in SANGRIA |
| 17 |
LET ALONE; TALON in LEE (= ‘river’, according to Chambers) |
| 18 |
SUBVERT; VERT (= ‘green’) after SUB (= ‘U-boat’) |
| 20 |
ELEGANT; (TEN GALE)* – can ‘excellent’ and ‘elegant’ be synonyms? |
| 21 |
BOTTLE (2 defs) – a very nice alternative to the tired ‘spirit’ version. |
| 24 |
A MAZE |
| 25 |
CAMP; P[rince] under CAM (the river, i.e. ‘flower’) |
Many thanks
Barry J
Ann and this 25 chap could be wearing salmon pink (7)
To confirm the defintion, after substituting ‘CAMP’ for 25, “this camp chap” defines MILKSOP. (A tad debatable for me as I don’t think someone camp is necessarily ‘timid or ineffectual’ which is how COD describes a milksop.)
The idea then is that ‘Ann’ and ‘milksop’ can be combined and anagrammed to give you “salmon pink”. This is indicated by “could be wearing”, where “wearing” is the anagram indicator. So to get the answer, you delete the letters of ‘ann’ in ‘salmon pink’ and jumble what’s left.
Pretty hard if you’re not used to composite/compound anagrams. They’re much more common in barred grid puzzles, and barred grid solvers learn to spot shared letters in potential anagram fodder and some other part of the clue.
I had both 1A and 22A down as iffy: like Peter (above), I wasn’t convinced of “this camp chap” defining MILKSOP; and I suspect there may have been a word – “important” perhaps – missing from the clue to 22A.
Chambers (2003) confirms that “excellent” and “elegant” can be synonyms. I’d imagined that “elegant” with that meaning was a comparatively recent usage (I’ve a vague recollection of Marilyn Monroe using it in one of her films), but citations in the OED go back to 1764. The OED doesn’t say that it’s specifically an American usage, but that’s where all the citations come from. (Cf “neat”.)
As for BATTLEDORE, the OED includes among its definitions: “The game played with this [sc. a battledore] by two persons who strike the shuttlecock to and from each other” – so badminton for kids, basically.
Barry J