Guardian 24,313 (Sat 16 Feb)/Paul – A bit Pete Tong

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Solving time: 10 mins, one missing (13dn), one wrong (18ac)

I love rhyming slang but was caught out today by one I didn’t know. 18ac is possibly my favourite clue so far this year.

Music: Lots of options today but I’ll go for 10dn, Air on a G String by J S Bach.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 TIME + BOMB
5 ATONIC
9 GREAT SKUA; GR + EATS + rev. of AUK – the reversal SKUA/AUKS is well-known to crossword setters.
11 [j]ARGON
12 BARNARD’S STAR; (RN + ARDS) in BASTAR[d] – I didn’t know Ards but did know Barnard’s Star, thanks to Blur’s cosmic offering Far Out, from the album Parklife. ‘Illegitimate short red dwarf’ is a marvellous image in the surface reading.
16 SWA(NU)PPING
18 KHMER ROUGE – brilliant clue (‘Pot reds’), referring to the communist party led by Pol Pot. I knew my first effort ‘Kamir Rouge’ was misspelt but carelessly forgot to go back to check it.
19 CHAT (double definition)
21 ANTICIPATION; A, + rev. of (A PIC(I)T) in NATION
24 [c]RAVEN
25 ELIZABETH; E + rev. of B[r]AZIL + (THE)* – pretty good &lit, with the question mark excusing the slight looseness in definition.
26 EX + H(O)RT
27 AG(RIM)ONY
Down
1 TO GO
2 MEET; “MEAT”
3 BET + RAY
4 M(A KING + WHO)OPE + E
6 T + RAN + SEPT
7 NIGH + T(L)IGHT
8 CONGREGATE; (GET ON + GRACE)*
10 [h]AIR ON A G-STRING
13 PECKHAM RYE – rhyming slang for ‘tie’. I guessed the reference to ‘Bow’ in East London but didn’t know this phrase.
14 BA(R(M)ITZ + V + A)H
17 B + RUCK + NER[o] – refers to Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto.
20 SO + MALI
22 ZERO (hidden)
23 WH(E)Y

4 comments on “Guardian 24,313 (Sat 16 Feb)/Paul – A bit Pete Tong”

  1. PECKHAM RYE defeated me, and, to add insult to injury, Mrs. Settee picked up the paper and got it straight away. You an really go off some people…

  4. No, but ‘Peckham’ is indeed rhyming slang for tie.

    ‘Aristotle’ is about as far away from Bow as you can get in four hours on a jet, but he’s still rhyming slang for ar*e (via bottle, of course).

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