Apologies for the lateness and brevity of this post, but I have already blogged a Times and an Inquisitor today, and submitted a puzzle for publication in a charity newspaper, as well as keeping my job – just! This was a good puzzle with some unusual words, but the wordplay was generally fair.
ACROSS
1 DUCKS AND DRAKES otherwise known as skimmy stones, at least where I come from.
8 FEIGN – homophone of FAIN
9 THUNDERS – hidden in JK GalbraiTH UNDERStood
11 ELSPETH – ELS-P.E.-TH(e)
13 ELDER – (fie)ELDER
15 PETER HAIN – P(there)*AIN – Labour MP and Secretary of State for N Ireland and Wales.
21 ATHLONE – (Ethanol)*
23 SHEILAS – (lassie h)* – as in Sheila’s Wheels, the insurance company just for women – funny how you’re allowed to have products just for women, but God forbid men try to keep anything o themselves.
26 TRIPE – wordplay is T’RIPE (the ripe as said up North), well at least Up North if you live in the South of England – Yorkshire is south to me!
27 CHASE THE DRAGON – (or hash can get Ed)* – chasing the dragon, according to Google, is a way of smoking heroin, involving heating it on foil.
DOWN
1 DIFFERENTIAL – DIFFERENT-I-A-L Ah! That brings back memories of calculus lessons while studying for Higher Maths.
3 SANHEDRIN – (has dinner)*
4 NOTCH UP – TUC = cut up ~ notch up = “record”
5 DOUBLET – double T, get it?
7 EARTHWARD – (death war R)* where R is the heading of Retribution.
10 FRANKENSTEIN – FRANK-E(I)NSTEIN
16 ROCHESTER – referring to Jane Eyre’s love interest and the 2nd Earl of Rochester, who was also a satirist.
18 BEERMAT – BEER-M.A.-T – T is indicated by “slightly tipsy”?
If anyone has a good method of remembering how to spell SANHEDRIN I’d be delighted to hear it (I did manage to get it right in this puzzle, but that’s no guarantee that I will next time). Unhelpfully, the etymology – syn (together) + hedra (seat) – suggests SINHEDRAN!