A typical fun crossword from Paul – an enjoyable challenge as he doesn’t allow the rules to get in the way of a good clue.
Time taken – 14mins, approximately
ACROSS
1 see 19dn
5 T(HR)O-WIN – spent too long trying to work out the wordplay, because I couldn’t help but see “time” as T
9 RADII – there are 2 of them across a circle or ring
10 ALPENHORN – (planner)* round HO
11 IVORY-TO-WE-(solve)R – another one where the wordplay takes longer to work out than it does to put in the obvious answer
14 UNDERTAKERS – geddit?
18 HIPPO-CRATES
22 FIN-G(<=FRE(sh))OOD – “nibbles” is the definition, “bit of fish” = FIN. Again, wordplay took me a while because I couldn’t see past F as “bit of fish”
27 PSALTER – (stapler)*
28 PO(<=ACE-L)T – typo corrected
DOWN
1 JERK-IN
2 SIDE-ON – (Edison)* – what do people think of “invention of” as the anagrind?
3 1-KID-YOU(NO)T(h) – nice
5 TOP SECRET – (protects E)*
6,21dn RING-PULL – for our non-cricketing fans, a pull shot is a cricket shot where the batsman “pulls” the ball from one side of the wicket to the other – a risky shot, especially if you’re as poor at the game as I am.
7 WHO(CA(ke))RES – wouldn’t be Paul without a clue like this, would it?
8 N(O)N-SE-N-SE – the only clue in the puzzle I have a problem with. Using “a number of points” to indicate seven of the eight letters appears a bit lazy to me
13 K(A1-SERB)ILL – nickname of Wilhelm II, the last emperor of Germany and Prussia
15 DER-RINGER
17 A-POLO-GIA – where GIA is the “starts to” Get Interesting Attacking”
19,1ac POETIC JUSTICE – my favourite clue in the puzzle, although some purists might frown a bit
24 FLAT RACE – another good ‘un
I liked POETIC LICENCE, though it was the last answer I got. 23 down GET UP (PUT EG
… reversed) was good too.
I forgot, in comments you can’t use this sign or it will terminate your post –
I agree re 8D — btw, today’s Times has something very similar (“Makes whole series of points after resistance”).
Yeah I don’t like that kind of thing. It seems only a relatively short step from there to being able to clue any word as “a series of letters”. The only difference is that for an n-letter word instead of 4n possibilities there would be 26n.
I guess superscripts don’t work here. The above should be read “4 to the power of n” and “26 to the power of n”
Michod, you can stick in the less than sign using the following sequence of characters < like this < (I hope!)
Can someone explain 28 across? I get the ACE-L reversed bit, but where does the PO…AT come from?
Sorry, ignore me, I’m being thick. I see my mistake.
Loonapick
explanation of 28 across should be PO(ACE-L)T
Stakes indicates POT with ACE-L reversed inside POT
19dn,1ac was my last and favourite clue. Only 2 words fitted the crossing letters for 19: poetic and aortic. Given the rhyming clue, it had to be poetic.
The phrase was POETIC JUSTICE, not POETIC LICENCE.
Testy in comment 4: Superscripts can be made – e.g. xy. The HTML to put in your comment is: x<sup>y</sup>