Just back from a tiring and somewhat socially excessive golf trip, in unseasonably cold and wet Catalonia, I found this quite tough in places; it took me the bones of 45 minutes to get through it without biffing. Anyway thanks V for subbing on Wednesday last, that’s why I’m on duty today.
A couple of chemical or biochemical clues helped me get along, and we’ve had the answer to 24a recently so I spelt it right this time. We’ve had the Belgian dog fairly recently too, not sure where, but it was my FOI at 1a.
A couple of chemical or biochemical clues helped me get along, and we’ve had the answer to 24a recently so I spelt it right this time. We’ve had the Belgian dog fairly recently too, not sure where, but it was my FOI at 1a.
| Across | |
| 1 Dog worried sheep: pick another, finally (10) | |
| SCHIPPERKE – (SHEEP PICK R)*; a small Belgian sheepdog. | |
| 6 Grimacing, being devoid of fish in boat (4) | |
| SCOW – SCOWLING = grimacing, remove the LING being a fish. | |
| 9 Theatre: something coming off there to loud cheers? Then disapproval (7) |
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| REPROOF – REP = theatre, the ROOF is raised when you hear loud cheering. | |
| 10 Composer the nation listened to (7) |
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| BRITTEN – Sounds like BRITAIN. One of the few composers whose works I find un-listenable-to. | |
| 12 Insincere person is held by agent and broken down somehow (10) |
|
| FACTORISED – ACTOR (insincere person), IS, all inside FED = agent. | |
| 13 Money — about spent: what remains? (3) |
|
| ASH – CASH loses C (about). | |
| 15 One given sentence finally in jail for the ‘cooler years’ (3,3) | |
| ICE AGE – I – one, CAGE = jail, insert E = end of sentence. | |
| 16 Achievement of female getting down (8) | |
| FEATHERS – FEAT = achievement, HERS = of female. | |
| 18 Mark article penned by journalist who seeks to resolve problem? (8) |
|
| MEDIATOR – M = mark, EDITOR = journalist, insert A = article. | |
| 20 Quiet street abroad crossing a grand city (6) | |
| PRAGUE – P = quiet, RUE = street abroad, insert A G(rand). | |
| 23 Having no end of pain, call doctor (3) | |
| RIG – Took me a mo or two to reverse engineer this one, but with R*G it had to be. RING = call, remove the N being ‘end of pain’. | |
| 24 Artist’s faced with decline — specialist health advisers needed (10) | |
| DIETITIANS – DIE = decline, TITIAN’S = artist’s. As noted above I put in diteician last time but the painter made it easier to get right. | |
| 26 Primate not half pious intellectual, I’ll be bound (7) |
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| HOMINID – HO = pious (holy) not half; MIND = intellectual, insert I = I’ll be bound. | |
| 27 Believe I may go south in winter (7) |
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| SWALLOW – Double definition. | |
| 28 Woman getting a husband after heartless lie (4) | |
| LEAH – LE = heartless lie, A H(usband). | |
| 29 Racist perhaps managed to occupy home available for tenant (10) |
|
| INTOLERANT – IN = home, TO LET = available for tenant, insert RAN = managed. | |
| Down | |
| 1 Desperate shop with tons to dispose of (4) | |
| SORE – STORE = shop, dispose of the T. | |
| 2 Chemical pile, not a brown source of energy (7) | |
| HEPTANE – HE(A)P = HEP = pile not A; TAN = brown, E = ‘source’ of energy. Saturated hydrocarbon with 7 carbon atoms and 16 hydrogen atoms. A minor but undesirable component of petrol as it burns too explosively and causes ‘knocking’ | |
| 3 Label on boy without name in horrible prison compound (13) | |
| PROSTAGLANDIN – label = TAG, BOY = lad, INSERT n )NAME) = land. Insert all of that, TAGLAND, into (PRISON)*. I could explain for you exactly what kind of ‘compounds’ prostaglandins are and what physiological roles they play, but I’m too tired; have a look in Wiki if you’re dying to know. | |
| 4 4 Endeavour to put very loud men in sci-fi film (6) | |
| EFFORT – FF = very loud, OR = men, ordianry ranks; insert both into that old chestnut ET. | |
| 5 Put an end to rubbish culture ultimately absorbed by youngster (8) |
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| KIBOSHED – KID = youngster, insert BOSH = rubbish, E = culture ultimately. An odd word, with several possible origins; I think the derivation from Irish an chaip bháis meaning ‘black cap’ or ‘cap of death’ is the most suitable. | |
| 7 Time in bed, a long time, in type of hospital? (7) | |
| COTTAGE – COT = bed, insert T, AGE = a long time. | |
| 8 See guerrilla struggle’s origin in time of discontent? (10) | |
| WINCHESTER – WINTER, of discontent as in Richard III. Insert CHE and S (struggle’s origin). | |
| 11 Deem itinerant drunk to be unsettled (13) |
|
| INDETERMINATE – (DEEM ITINERANT)*. | |
| 14 High-ranking officer in broadcast — American with a plan being heard (3-7) |
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| AIR-MARSHAL – AIR as in broadcast, MARSHAL sounds like MARSHALL as in George, who instigated the Plan post WW II. | |
| 17 God’s attitude I assume! (8) | |
| POSEIDON – POSE = attitude, I DON = I assume. Neat. | |
| 19 Old letter in the morning glossy I’d flipped over (7) | |
| DIGAMMA – AM, MAG, I’D all reversed. I’d vaguely heard of it being an old Greek letter but went to Wiki to learn more. “Digamma, waw, or wau (uppercase: Ϝ, lowercase: ϝ, numeral: ϛ) is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet. It originally stood for the sound /w/ but it has principally remained in use as a Greek numeral for 6. Whereas it was originally called waw or wau, its most common appellation in classical Greek is digamma; as a numeral, it was called episēmon during the Byzantine era and is now known as stigma after the Byzantine ligature combining σ-τ as ϛ.. I’m sure Verlaine would have explained it without needing to look it up. | |
| 21 Group of baddies having trouble set up cell structures (7) | |
| GANGLIA – GANG = group of baddies, AIL reversed. | |
| 22 Girl’s firm, concealing a catastrophe (6) | |
| FIASCO – FI’s CO would be a girl’s firm; insert A. I spent a while trying to find a girl’s name based on C****O. | |
| 25 Tease son not joining in dance (4) | |
| TWIT – TWIST for dance, as in Chubby Checker; remove the S(on).TWIT can mean to tease as well as being a silly person. | |
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