Times Saturday 23731

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time 16:33

Solved out of the paper for a change, while sitting in a pub over a pint of real ale and using my mobile phone as a stopwatch. I’ll have to do that more often – it’s so much more civilised.

Across

3 MA(CHINA)TES
11 COP I(lo)T – referring back to the AIRMAN from 10ac
13 A(rea),RN,HEM
15 LIBERAL DEMO,C,RAT
18 STRING ORCHESTRA (chorister’s grant)*
21 JOIN(t),UP
24 A,BUS,IN,G(ame) – IN = during
26 LEGIT – or “leg it”
27 NIGHTSPOT – “knights pot”
28 BASKET CASE – which is two containers.
29 F,LAP

Down

1 FIRST CLASS – not sure about this one, but nothing else fits. Is it a DD or a CD?
2 APPAL – “a pall”
5 HENNA – “Anne H” rev. Anne Hathaway was Shakespeare’s wife.
6 NO CAN DO – “Con” rev. and DO=party, around AN
9 VIZ,I.E.,R – VIZ and I.E. can both mean “namely”, hence the different guises.
16 BURROUGHS – “burrows” – William or Edgar Rice, I wonder.
19 NANETTE – third time I’ve seen this in as many weeks, clued in practically the same way each time. Yawn.
20 EQUITY – two meanings. Last one I got – I just went blank looking at E?U?T?
24 1M,PEL(t)

3 comments on “Times Saturday 23731”

  1. Double Definition with Reception (or more fully Reception Class) being the class for the new intake of children at a school.

    Bill

  2. Stupid, stupid, stupid ! I couldn’t get 3 ac and couldn’t even find a match for my checking letters in OneLook. The reason was I’d stupidly seen “Wife of William”= Anne and S=S, not H. My brain refused to make me realise that Senna isn’t a hair treatment.
  3. My LOI was NANETTE at 19d as I had never heard of NO NO NANETTE which was, apparently, a US musical first performed in 1925. Like I should have known that?

    There are 10 omissions from the blog:

    1a Group of MagYAR Fighters repulsed in battle (4)
    FRAY

    10a Mr Fix-it introduces traveller to member of crew … (9)
    REP AIRMAN

    12a Obliged to accomodate everyone as agreed (7)
    T ALL IED

    4d Pop (Idol: alarm)* as one of the Animals makes appearance (9)
    ARMADILLO. Not Eric Burdon, Alan Price nor Chas Chandler.

    7d Very private place discovered climbing over parts of Crete (3,6)
    TOP SECRET. That is SPOT climbing (upside-down) over E CRET.

    8d SwIfTlEt regularly spotted in this location (4)
    S I T E

    14d Circuitous mountain route won’t lead this way, believe me (8,2)
    STRAIGHT UP

    17d Former spouse is no longer the same after tiffs (9)
    EX CHANGES

    22d Horror film about headless man (5)
    P (m)AN IC

    25d Indistinct object, black, covering sky (4)
    B LOB

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