Another fun-filled Wednesday, with some tricky parsing but nothing obscure.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Lever end off pack (some chocolate?) (7) |
| CROWBAR – CROW[D] = pack, end off, BAR of chocolate. | |
| 5 | In darkness, makes cuts in middle of speech (7) |
| ECLIPSE – [sp]EE[ch] with CLIPS = makes cuts, inside. | |
| 9 | Terce and sext for example, or a longer stretch of the day (6,5) |
| OFFICE HOURS – double definition, Church offices for prayer and time in the business office. | |
| 10 | Fitting carpet that’s oddly defective (3) |
| APT – alternate letters as above. | |
| 11 | Make a fuss in front of awful island houses (6) |
| CREATE – A[wful] inside CRETE an island. | |
| 12 | Bailiff seizes pair, one let off (8) |
| REPRIEVE – a REEVE is an old term for bailiff, insert PR I for pair, one. | |
| 14 | Amazing reductions at start of day, but not one for DIYers? (5,8) |
| TRADE DISCOUNT – (REDUCTIONS AT D[ay])* | |
| 17 | Rural rail line a fine thing at first (7-6) |
| CRACKER-BARREL – well a CRACKER is a fine thing, and a BARRE is a rail fixed to a wall e.g. used by ballet dancers. With L for line. I thought Cracker Barrel was an expensive cut of pre-packed cheese from Kraft, (and in UK it was), but apparently it’s also an American expression for a rural restaurant chain or country store, arising from the idea of local yokels chatting “around a cracker barrel”, whatever that is. See: https://www.thedailymeal.com/1333291/cracker-barrel-name-meaning-explained/ |
|
| 21 | Black cats on island left in large numbers (8) |
| BILLIONS – B[lack], LIONS (cats), insert I[sland], L[eft]. | |
| 23 | Turned a limb to ice (6) |
| GELATO -A LEG turned = GEL A, TO. Italian ice cream. | |
| 25 | I’m surprised garden barrier’s lost a little height (3) |
| AHA – [H]AHA, a haha being a ditch as a barrier in a garden or in parkland. | |
| 26 | Filthy rag is smudging party decorations (5,6) |
| FAIRY LIGHTS – (FILTHY RAG IS)*. | |
| 27 | Wanted to be free of parent? (7) |
| DESIRED – if you were DE-SIRED, you’d have a parent removed. | |
| 28 | Finally ad caused a run on revolutionary mousetrap? (7) |
| CHEDDAR – CHE (our usual revolutionary), D D (ends of ad caused) A R[un]. In my experience, which is both wide and current, dogs like cheese best and mice prefer chocolate biscuits. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Get down right inside sofa (6) |
| CROUCH – R inside COUCH. | |
| 2 | Start to thump eccentric (7) |
| OFFBEAT – OFF = start, BEAT = thump. | |
| 3 | Rhymes in reverse (9) |
| BACKTRACK – two rhyming words for the answer. | |
| 4 | Personnel supporting sport in Dortmund area (4) |
| RUHR -RU (Rugby Union), HR (human resources, more sensibly called personnel in my day. | |
| 5 | For church unity Alice originally entertains Christian Union types (10) |
| ECUMENICAL – insert C U MEN into (ALICE)*. | |
| 6 | Sort of printer that turns up in fire sale (5) |
| LASER – hidden reversed. | |
| 7 | Even out till the early hours, apostle briefly pops round (7) |
| PLATEAU – LATE (till the early hours) inside PAU[L]. | |
| 8 | Plea to have dinner in lobby (8) |
| ENTREATY – EAT inside ENTRY. | |
| 13 | Remember inconclusive direction, one in a Shakespeare play (4,2,4) |
| BEAR IN MIND – BEARIN[G] = direction, not concluded; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, often known as MND, insert I for one. I spent too long trying to think of a WS play with words of 4, 2, 4 letters. | |
| 15 | Monk peaceful to hear, taking cream (9) |
| CARMELITE – CARM sounds like CALM, (to some people), ELITE = cream. | |
| 16 | Boring way to transfer funds over, but one draws from it (8) |
| SCABBARD – all reversed (over); DRAB (boring) BACS (free bank transfer method in UK). | |
| 18 | Foolish king within almost too attentive (3,4) |
| ALL EARS – King LEAR inside ALS[O] = almost too. | |
| 19 | Drained lake, every weed regularly pulled out (7) |
| LEACHED – L[ake], EACH (every), [w]E[e]D. | |
| 20 | Cat taking advantage of medic? (6) |
| MOUSER – an MO (Medical Officer) USER. | |
| 22 | Work out with hellish new gangster away (5) |
| INFER – hellish = INFERNAL, remove N[ew] and AL [Capone]. | |
| 24 | Principal elements of strategy youth never could coordinate (4) |
| SYNC – initial letters as above. | |
This my biggest success of the week! Only one ‘look-up’ and that was CRACKER-BARREL, of which I’d never heard with this meaning . Oh and I had one wrong – couldn’t see the ice-cream in 23a and put in a made up word. ( all because I spelled LEACHED incorrectly). 5a straight in, and plain sailing after that; my favourites were CHEDDAR and MOUSER, as my ‘just-come-of-age’ kitten had this morning caught his first mouse. And boy, wasn’t he proud of it!