Solving time : well, after 23 minutes, and almost 10 of them trying to figure out what on earth the answer to 23 down was, I put in a guess and find it is incorrect. So this one has me flummoxed. Everyone else on the leaderboard has no errors so there must be something pretty obvious I’m missing and I’m sure I’ll be corrected within nanoseconds of posting this. And eventually I’ll get round to adding what the correct answer is to the blog.
The rest… there’s some fascinating stuff in there, and a few I put in from definition alone and had to look up bits of the wordplay. So 23 is probably like that though I am still completely baffled by where it could be going. Victory setter.
Away we go!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | FRICTION: |
| 6 | DEAR ME: double def, one cryptic |
| 9 | IN FOAL: or INFO AL |
| 10 | S,’ANDBAGS: this was one I had to look up afterwards, apparently HANDBAG can mean to attack someone feebly, according to Chambers based on Margaret Thatcher |
| 11 |
|
| 12 | TAROT CARDS: cryptic def |
| 14 | CHESSMAN: the rare double container – SS in HEM in CAN |
| 16 | USSR: hidden reversed in manoRS SUch |
| 18 | MAXI |
| 19 | CHATEAUX: CHA then EA in TUX |
| 21 | ABLE-BODIED: (BOILED)* in A BED |
| 22 | CUSP: CUPS with the S brought forward |
| 24 | BALL PARK: the bouncer is a BALL and a reserve can be a PARK. I thought this was spelled as one word, but it’s two in Chambers |
| 26 | EYELID: EYE(survey) then 1 in LD(lord). I liked the definition here of “one to bat” |
| 27 | ADWARE: DWAR |
| 28 | NOT AT ALL: or NO,TA(polite refusal) then TALL(unlikely) |
| Down | |
| 2 | RUN-IN: double def |
| 3 | CLOTHES-LINE: (THIS,COLLEEN)* |
| 4 | IDLE TIME: 1 DIME around LET |
| 5 | NO SPRING CHICKEN: SPRING(well) surrounded by NO CHICKEN(valiant) |
| 6 | DONATE: DON(fellow),ATE(ended fast) |
| 7 | A,LB |
| 8 | MOGADISHU: MOG(queen as in cat) then DISH(to serve) surrounded by A,U(capital, as in Upper case). Although MOGADISHU is a capital (of Somalia, yes I looked that up too), it is still a city, so capital is OK as part of the wordplay |
| 13 | ACUTE ACCENT: ACUTE(serious) then ACCIDENT without ID |
| 15 | HEADBOARD: or HEAD BOARD. Got a sign on yours? |
| 17 | HARD(demanding),LEFT(split) |
| 20 | FORAGE: FOR AGE |
| 23 | I haven’t the foggiest. I put in SKILL as a guess but I hope a commenter will enlighten me Edit: near instant gratification – apparently two definitions of SPILL |
| 25 | LEA: take PS out of LEAPS |
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