Solving time 13:05
Sorry this is a bit late – I had a busy weekend, but now I can’t sleep so here I am doing the blog at 4am on Monday morning!
Across
1 | IN W(ITH) A SHOUT – i.e. hit* inside IN WASH-OUT, foretelling the second ODI between England and New Zealand! |
9 | ER(RAT)IC – an eric is a blood-fine paid by a murderer to his victim’s family in old Irish law. |
11 | WERT,HER – eponymous hero of The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. |
12 | MARTINU – unit,ram rev. Bohuslav Martinů was a Czech composer. |
14 | DE(CREME)NT – I don’t like CREME = liqueur, and that meaning isn’t given in Chambers either, other than in the names of liqueurs such as crème de cacao or crème de menthe. |
16 | ENAC,T(MEN)T – cane rev + MEN inside TT. My online printout has the clue starting “A bout…”, but the clue only works if that should be “About..” |
21 | DEB,’UNKS – “shows up” in the sense “shows to be false”. |
24 | YARD(AG)E – ready* around AG (silver). |
25 | ATISHOO – “a tissue”, excellent &lit. homophone clue. |
26 | MAKE A KILLING – “Hounds nowadays can’t…” – seeing that fox-hunting is now illegal. |
Down
1 | INF(ERN)O – ref. Ernie Wise, the comedian. |
2 | WORS(e),HIP |
3 | TO,NB,RIDGE – a town in Kent 4 miles north of Tunbridge Wells, which confused me, as did the spelling, but the wordplay left no alternative. |
5 | HAR(D)ROE – i.e. D(inner) inside HARROW, with the W changed to E. |
6 | (h)UNT,WINE |
7 | A,SH,WEDNESDAY – first day of Lent, and ref. the football team Sheffield Wednesday. |
15 | CATERWAUL – loose homophone of “cat a wall” |
17 | ALBERT,A – Jasper is a place in Alberta, but the wordplay was easy enough that it certainly wasn’t necessary to check that out. |
19 | SAS,HIM,I – I like “us together” = HIM + I |
22 | SLEEK – capsizes = “keels over” |
The homophone at 25 doesn’t work if one is v. posh. Imagine Brian Sewell saying “tissue”!
I also liked HIM+I at 19.
I wish they would sort out the extra gaps in the on-line version; they seem to occur almost daily.
In defence of the setter on Ernie Wise, Eric Morecambe DID usually call him Ern. An example of this was Eric enquiring about his oppo’s need for a cuppa – “Tea Ern”? This requires knowledge of British popular culture but this is the Times of London.
No problem with the homophone at 25a A TISSUE (bless you) works fine round these ‘ere parts.
There are 8 “easies” not in the blog:
8a The stigma of additive found in rice (7)
SAFFRON. Derived from the reproductive parts of a species of Crocus grown in the Middle East – especially in NE Iran.
13a Flag day initially has disappointing return (5)
D ROOP. Reason for an increase in Chugging?
19a Worker in field not so quick, left out (5)
S (L) OWER
23a Be a soldier again, but not in the front line (7)
RE-SERVE
4d A big smile across the deck (5)
A BEAM
10d Singer’s disc several pounds, we are told (12)
COUNTER TENOR
18d Cheap material soluble (in water)* (7)
TINWARE
20d African native has (a growth)* needing surgery (7)
WARTHOG. I was messing about with growth = WART and how to get HOG out of “needing surgery” until I saw the anagram. Doh!