A pleasant Monday puzzle with a minor nautical theme, lots of double definitions and anagrams, and a good excuse to listen again to the great Alan Bennett 21 29. 21 minutes.
As perspicacious types will notice, I am attempting to migrate to the fancy blogging style. This will be very much the alpha, testing week, I imagine, with multiple tweaks to be expected in the weeks ahead. Many thanks to mohn2 for his patient help.
| Across |
| 1 |
Rubber beetle (6) |
|
CHAFER – double definition |
| 5 |
Cheapest accommodation always provided in part of theatre? (8) |
|
STEERAGE – EER in STAGE |
| 9 |
Rich American abandoned the rightful Duke of Milan (8) |
|
PROSPERO – PROSPERO[us]; a reference to Shakespeare’s Tempest
|
| 10 |
Noteworthy contributor to rail safety (6) |
|
SIGNAL – double definition |
| 11 |
Like complex organisation, soldiers rejected it in pub (10) |
|
LOGISTICAL – GIS TI in LOCAL |
| 13 |
Look at commercial responsibility (4) |
|
LOAD – LO + AD |
| 14 |
The present compiler’s source of information? (4) |
|
MINE – double definition |
| 15 |
Futuristic art gave Dan shivers! (5-5) |
|
AVANT-GARDE – anagram* of ART GAVE DAN |
| 18 |
Girl visiting priest, one providing Italian food (10) |
|
CANNELLONI – NELL in CANON I |
| 20 |
Ridicule working model not out of bed? (4) |
|
MOCK – MOCK[-up] |
| 21 |
Hairy brother in Continental group without specific appeal? (4) |
|
ESAU – Not the smooth man… The benighted EU surrounds Sex Appeal (AKA SA or ‘it’) |
| 23 |
Oil producer backing woman addicted to marijuana? (5,5) |
|
LEMON GRASS – MEL reversed ON GRASS; never without some of this in my kitchen |
| 25 |
After a couple of pints, Zoe loses old English gemstone (6) |
|
QUARTZ – QUART Z[oe] |
| 26 |
Revolting tailless rodent circling uranium container (8) |
|
MUTINOUS – MOUS[e] around U TIN |
| 28 |
Like 20 down, painfully lacking energy to contain trouble (8) |
|
SAILORLY – AIL in SOR[e]LY |
| 29 |
Fork out to cover staff burlesque (6) |
|
PARODY – ROD in PAY |
| Down |
| 2 |
New chairman retaining old producer of notes (9) |
|
HARMONICA – O in CHAIRMAN* |
| 3 |
Joyous few touring east of France (7) |
|
FESTIVE – FIVE around EST (French for east) |
| 4 |
Twisted-sounding grass … (3) |
|
RYE – twisted is the original sense of the adjective (no, I didn’t know either); so, sounds like WRY |
| 5 |
… thus absorbing to Zeno, for one (5) |
|
STOIC – TO in SIC |
| 6 |
Doctor at a hostel in former Scottish county (4,7) |
|
EAST LOTHIAN – AT A HOSTEL IN*; quiz question: how many professional football teams have been named after a novel? |
| 7 |
Finery originally introduced in army corps celebration (7) |
|
REGALIA – I in RE GALA |
| 8 |
Good stories going around hotel in African state (5) |
|
GHANA – H in G ANA; ana can mean a collection of stories (as here) or a single story |
| 12 |
Pioneer’s dog lying on striped jacket, perhaps? (11) |
|
TRAILBLAZER – TRAIL + BLAZER |
| 16 |
Fuss woodman regularly raised (3) |
|
ADO – reverse alternative-letter hidden word in [w]O[o]D[m]A[n] |
| 17 |
Dog from Russian house briefly sent to Coventry, not north east (9) |
|
DACHSHUND – DACH[a] SHUN[ne]D; I am currently reading Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, but, though we have had a samovar, I’m disappointed that no dachas have popped up yet |
| 19 |
Indifferent motorists are still in this (7) |
|
NEUTRAL – our downwardly double definition |
| 20 |
Seafarer, one taken in by eponymous miser (7) |
|
MARINER – I in MARNER (Silas). I’ve not read this, but can recommend Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda by the same somewhat radical authoress |
| 22 |
Article in paper introducing a cleansing facility (5) |
|
SAUNA – A in SUN A |
| 24 |
Relative’s quiet cry of surprise (5) |
|
MUMMY – MUM + MY |
| 27 |
Place erected for male sheep (3) |
|
TUP – PUT reversed |
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