Solving Time: 22 minutes; about average difficulty. Some very neat clues though I thought, and no real quibbles. Apologies if the blog is a little sketchy; I’m off on an early ferry to France today and need my beauty sleep.
cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–), homophones indicated in “”
ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online
|
Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 |
aspires – when = AS + religious right = PI R + E( |
| 5 | arcadia – CAD in ARIA. Arcadia is where the god Pan lived.. also a city on the planet Gallifrey |
| 9 | transport – rolled = RAN + S + P in TORT, a civil wrong |
| 10 | Nepal – NE + PAL. It is Cockney rhyming slang: China plate = mate |
| 11 | Heath Robinson – HEATH + ROBIN + SO + N. I confess I wrote this in without parsing it properly. The US equivalent would be Rube Goldberg.. |
| 13 | heraldry – *(LYRE HARD) |
| 15 |
pistol – IST + O in PL( |
| 17 | no-side – EDISON, rev. |
| 19 | declares – E + CLARE in policeman = Det. Sgt = DS |
| 22 | meals on wheels – *(ONE MASHES WELL). A worldwide 12dn, originated in London by the WRVS during WWII |
| 25 | nitro – yellow = gold = OR + TIN, all rev. |
| 26 | paralytic – dd. |
| 27 |
nursery – accountant = ( |
| 28 |
earnest – A( |
|
Down |
|
| 1 | ante – ETNA rev. Etna is a decade volcano and very active |
| 2 | poacher – work = OP rev., + ACHER, a longer. The clever def. being “One at the game” |
| 3 | Rasta – god’s = RA’S TA, the Territorial Army volunteer force |
| 4 |
smothers – M( |
| 5 |
author – H( |
| 6 | convivial – N + VI + VI + A in pass = COL. And another.. |
| 7 | deposit – IS rev. in DEPOT |
| 8 | at long last – a dd I suppose, one jocular |
| 12 | phenomenon – PO MEN + performing = ON, containing women = HEN. Hen rather than hens can be justified, as in a hen party perhaps. |
| 14 |
lodestone – see = LO, + good chap = ST + O( |
| 16 | sea horse – visit bay, sounds like “SEE HORSE.” The enumerations should surely be (8) rather than (3,5) Seahorses are amazing creatures, truly remarkable in many ways, their sex life not the least. |
| 18 |
shatter – ( |
| 20 | rosette – entrenched = SET, in ROTE |
| 21 | snappy – doze off = NAP, in SPY |
| 23 | Euler – the French = LE in RUE rev. Clever clue indeed for a clever man, a great and prolific mathematician. |
| 24 |
Scot – C( |
I caused myself a few problems in the NW by going for pitcher at 2. Itcher makes sense, a pitcher is at the baseball game and I justified the P from after work’s over as being the part of work (OP) that’s after over (O). Well, there was enough other funny stuff going on for it to be feasible.
COD to 6d which just doesn’t look like a solvable crossword clue, especially when you try and construct something around LXVI.
Personally I’d spell HEATH ROBINSON with a hyphen when he’s used adjectivally, but I see the OED and ODO have it without, even if Chambers doesn’t.
When I was prescribed glyceryl trinitrate as a precautionary measure for my angina (before I had my bypass op), I was intrigued to learn that it was actually nitro(glycerine).
A most enjoyable puzzle. My compliments to the setter.