As previous discussed, I’m not a nature-boy, but “False Acacia” seems a tad obscure – oh well, thanks for the Botany lesson, Brummie. Otherwise quite a blood-thirsty set of clues todays with some great wordplay.
ACROSS
1 FALSE ACACIA – (a calais cafe)*
9 ON(STAG)E – to “go stag” means women not allowed
10 S-(w)ORRIER
11 CHAIN MAIL
12 BE-A-NO – i.e the opposite of “Be a ‘Yes'”
13 BODY-AR-M(O)UR – A stiff is a body; “ar” is the hesitation
14 C(LAW)-HAMMER – can be used for removing the nails it knocked it – superbly crafted clue
18 BEHIND BARS
19 E.G-A.D
21 LAPS-E
24 ETHANOL – “LO” backwards with an anagram of “the” with “an” – not such a satisfying clue
25 D(ANC)IN-G
26 PATERNALISM – (PARLIAMENTS)* – excellent and unexpected anagram
DOWN
1 FISH AND CHIP SHOP – I guess a carpenter would have a “chip shop”
2 LEA(R)N – i.e David Lean, director of “Lawrence of Arabia” etc.
3 Omitted on purpose
4 CA-SELAW – “Wales” “A/C” in reverse
5 CERE(BR)AL – “BR” is BRAIN reduced by 60%, Rye isn’t the town, it’s the cereal crop …
6 ANIMAL MAGNETISM
7 u(FO X CUB)e
15 INTERN-ET
16 BULLET-PROOF VEST – Cryptic Definition – the sort of “slugs” that come from a gun, not a garden
17 B-IPOLAR – B for Bass with (APRIL O)*
20 DO(TAG)E
23 FUN-GI
1ac I think it is a ‘FALSE ACACIA’ not ‘FALCE’
Ref 13/8 BODY ARMOUR: “rum with hesitation” gives R because the hesitation is the usual “um”. Remove “um” from “rum” to get R. “love” is AMOUR. So we get A(R)MOUR.
1D A “carpenter” is a CHIPS. The HOP comes from “bound”.
The one that I don’t follow is 11A CHAIN MAIL – how does this come from:
Union post for defence against strikes (5,4)
11A I explain this as CHAIN = UNION, MAIL = POST and chain mail is a defence against strikes by arrows.
Sorry for the bain-storm earlier – totally messed up the anagram. Thanks for the extra clarification – think you’ve got it spot-on.
And that’ll be “brain-storm”. My Legendary Attention To Detail is in full-effect today.
Really liked this puzzle, especially since I set a new PB for the solve!
Also liked the BIPOLAR clue, because my work takes me to these places – was surprised that Brummie didn’t opt for some play on mental problems though (i.e. bipolar disorder) – would have been a great anagram indicator…
6. Animal magnetism:
This wasn’t explained in the blog.
What is the wordplay?
barred property??
It’s a reference to “bar magnets”