Another FT, another new name for me. I really enjoyed this one – lots of excellent clues and just the right amount of difficulty.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | (PUT ONE’S HAND)* – nice anagram and a smooth-reading clue. |
| 9 | THE,TA |
| 13 | (THOSE AT)* |
| 18 | initial letters of “State Promise Usual Rubbish” – and another good surface reading. |
| 20 | SEEKING – “sea king”. I think this is right but I’m not 100% convinced. If it is right then would this count as an indirect homophone I wonder? |
| 23 | R(ic)H,ONE – the “banks” gag is a bit of an old chestnut but I liked this clue, probably because the surface reading (“Extremely rich individual with banks in Switzerland“) is so convincing. |
| 26 | AMEN,I,TIES |
| 27 | (LOVES)* |
| 29 | (A LIMITED ONE)* |
| Down | |
| 2 | (TOY THE O E)* – EYE TOOTH. Nice bit of deception here. “Canine” and “old English” both make you think of dogs. |
| 4 | D,RAG OUT |
| 6 | (TO BE LAIRD)* – TIDAL BORE. I’d never heard this phrase before but the definition (“kind of swell”) led me to TIDAL which left E,R,O and B in the anagram fodder so it was either TIDAL ROBE (hmmm) or TIDAL BORE and I went for the latter. They’re actually quite interesting. |
| 7 | BANG ON – a favourite phrase of mine in the “talk at length” sense so I was pleased to see it in a puzzle. |
| 14 | EUPHEMISM – the clue itself being an example of one. |
| 16 | (SAID)*,BLED |
| 17 | EGGSHELL – I was expecting (eggspecting – ha ha) the clue to have a question mark since it is a pun on “layers” for hens. |
| 20 | SIGN,SON |
| 22 | K.O,PECK – of which there are 100 in a ruble (rouble?). |