A fairly gentle workout for a Wednesday, I thought, with some straightforward anagrams and neat surfaces.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Sole trader? (10) |
| FISHMONGER – cryptic definition, play on sole. | |
| 6 | Skip over technical college (4) |
| OMIT – O[ver] MIT as in Massachusetts Institute of Technology. | |
| 9 | Major supplier of beluga canapés is a rogue (7,3) |
| CASPIAN SEA – (CANAPES IS A)*. | |
| 10 | Leader from Times in “wrong paper” shock! (4) |
| STUN – T[imes] inside SUN the other paper. | |
| 12 | A colourful compound wager at one race worked out (12) |
| BETACAROTENE – BET (wager) (AT ONE RACE)*. Never seen it spelt out without a hyphen or more usually the Greek β-. | |
| 15 | National team member always departs eastern archipelago (4,5) |
| CAPE VERDE – CAP (player for national team) EVER (always) D, E (departs, Eastern). | |
| 17 | Firm taken aback by name of offensive group (5) |
| OCTET – OC (CO, firm, reversed) TET (offensive in Vietnam in 1968) | |
| 18 | Wine temperature fine (5) |
| TOKAY – T (temp.) OKAY (fine). A sweet wine from Hungary. | |
| 19 | These gorgeous lips which might be to blame for a broken heart? (6,3) |
| CUPIDS BOW – best described as a double definition, I think, one being the M shaped upper lip which is supposedly attractive, and one being the result of a heart pierced by an arrow from Cupid’s bow. | |
| 20 | Least attractive suit lengths I tailored (12) |
| UNSIGHTLIEST -(SUIT LENGTHS I)*. | |
| 24 | Goodness regularly exhibited by Miss Mary? (1,3) |
| I SAY – alternate letters as above. | |
| 25 | They cover some guitar Paul insured (10) |
| TARPAULINS – hidden word as above. | |
| 26 | Look chaps! India’s opener’s caught (4) |
| MIEN – I inside MEN for chaps. | |
| 27 | Small shrew reportedly tunnelled into rolling transporter (10) |
| SKATEBOARD – S (small) KATE (the Shrew, as in The Taming of…), BOARD sounds like BORED tunnelled. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Confront female pilot who’s downed a few (4) |
| FACE – F for female, ACE a pilot who has shot a few down. | |
| 2 | Band of elite soldiers on horse (4) |
| SASH – S.A.S. regiment, H for horse. | |
| 3 | Undocking for the first time when playing any video game (6,6) |
| MAIDEN VOYAGE – (ANY VIDEO GAME)*. | |
| 4 | Simone grapples with Jack, a martial art expert (5) |
| NINJA – NINA Simone, civil rights activist, brilliant singer and pianist, died 2003, has J for Jack inserted. I was surprised by how long ago she passed away. | |
| 5 | Reportedly, setter invents enhancement for viewers (3,6) |
| EYE MAKEUP – eye sounds like I MAKEUP meaning ‘the setter invents’. I would have hyphenated make-up, and been wrong. | |
| 7 | First of many different odd bits of trouble she’s expecting (6-2-2) |
| MOTHER-TO-BE – M (first of many) OTHER (different) T O B E the alternate “bits” of trouble. | |
| 8 | Hollywood won’t listen, unfortunately (10) |
| TINSELTOWN – (WONT LISTEN)*. | |
| 11 | Instruction to leave hotel room? (2,3,7) |
| DO NOT DISTURB – cryptic definition, leave the room alone, not depart from the room. | |
| 13 | Breaks, going green (10) |
| ECOTOURISM – cryptic definition, not very subtle. | |
| 14 | Plane’s small thrusts to experience (10) |
| SPOKESHAVE -S (small) POKES (thrusts) HAVE (experience). My Dad, a keen DIY woodworker, had one in his amazing toolbox. | |
| 16 | Kart (e-vehicle) overturned rounding entrance to cambered circuit (9) |
| RACETRACK – KART, E-CAR all reversed with C (entrance to cambered) inserted. | |
| 21 | Home terminal initially loaded with back up data (5) |
| INPUT – IN (home) T (terminal initially) with UP reversed (“back up”) inserted. | |
| 22 | Flipping keen prima donna! (4) |
| DIVA – AVID = keen, reversed. | |
| 23 | Declined to fire whistleblower taken advantage of (4) |
| USED – REFUSED (declined) loses its REF = whistleblower. | |
Yes I too enjoyed this, even though I had to cheat to get BETAwhatsit (couldn’t get the anagrist right). No problem with EYE MAKEUP (have seen it with and without the hyphen) and thought it a really good “sounds like”. Had heard of SPOKESHAVE (from where?), also CAPE VERDE from somewhere, but struggled with ECOTOURISM , which I guessed is a relatively newfangled word ( must look up the meaning). CODs to FISHMONGER, ( though thrown off direction towards FOOTsomething at first), STUN and the well-hidden TARPAULIN.