Solving time : 24:20 on the club timer, which is my slowest time in a very very long time. This is a bit of a beast, and I can’t quite put my finger on what made it so difficult to me, since I think everything is above board, I was just a million miles away from the wavelength of the setter and some of the phrases and one reference are not in my addled little brain.
Some very odd phrasing in the clues, I should single out the clue that ends in a preposition but I’m not going to.
Away we go…
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | OF RIGHT: O(old), FRIGHT(person looking very unkempt) |
| 5 | CAMELOT: CAME(turned up), LOT(chance) |
| 9 | STATIONER: TI(note),ONE(I) in STAR |
| 10 | SPASM: SPAM containing S |
| 11 | DRYAD: DRY(quietly witty),AD(notice) |
| 12 | HAD BETTER: BETTER(gambler) after HAD(cheated) |
| 13 | AIRS AND GRACES: SAND(grit) in an anagram of CARRIAGES |
| 17 | THE BLUE DANUBE: TUBE(train) containing HE, BLUE(sounds like BLEW), DAN(anagram of AND) |
| 21 | ALL BLACKS: New Zealand rugby team, and if you had the maximum break in a game of snooker/pool, you would pot the black each time between potting reds |
| 24 | BAKER: double definition, the more obscure one being in the RAF phonetic alphabet, BAKER is the word for B, while Charlie is the word for C |
| 25 | GHANA: H with A,NAG reversed around it |
| 26 | SPUN A YARN: S, and then PUNY,RN each of which contains an A |
| 27 | TUESDAY: anagram of UNSTEADY missing N |
| 28 | SADNESS: hidden reversed in captiveS SEND A Signal |
| Down | |
| 1 | ONSIDE: my take on the first part is it is ON(willing), SIDE(play ball) but it might just be a longer definition for ON SIDE. The second one refers to the legal position in soccer, hockey etc |
| 2 | READY-MADE: READY(cash), MADE(earned) |
| 3 | GUILDER: GUIDER(captain in the Girl Guides) containing L |
| 4 |
TENTH-RATE: |
| 5 | CORED: dispensed with the centre – CO,RED |
| 6 | MASSEUR: (ERASMUS)* |
| 7 | LEAPT: P in LEAT |
| 8 | TAMARISK: TASK surrounding MAR,1 |
| 14 | DEAD SOULS: a book by Gogol – D,SOU(small bit) in DEALS |
| 15 | CHECKMATE: HECK,MAT in CE and a crafty definition, excellent clue! |
| 16 | STRAIGHT: SIGHT surrounding ART reversed |
| 18 | LOLLARD: LOL(laughing out loud), LARD. Something rang a bell here – it turns out I blogged an almost identical clue in 2010 (I’m amused by fat follower of Wycliffe) |
| 19 | UPBRAID: anagram of PUB, then RAID |
| 20 | PRUNUS: sounds like PRUNE US! |
| 22 | L,EASE |
| 23 | CUSHY: anagram of SUCH,Y |
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