This was most enjoyable.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 6 | NOAH NO-AH “Flood survivor” I had a real blank on this one. I expect it was just me. It ended up being the last in. I left it at N?A? but saw it immediately when I looked a while later. Nice clue. |
| 7 | COLOSTOMY CO (MOSTLY O)* |
| 11 | IAGO I-A-GO One-on-one giving I and A Naughty boy. |
| 13 | GOVERNMENT (GNOME TV ER N)* Gnome enterprises of all sorts are controlled by the legendery Lord Gnome, supremo of The Eye |
| 15 | TREMOR T(REM)OR ROT< about R.E.M The Chinese might dispute “tremor” being synonymous with “tingle”. |
| 17 | COHORT COO and HRT interwoven (“before and partly during”) I liked this and was surprised and pleased when the answer popped out using the wordplay |
| 20 | ADAM AND EVE ADA MAN D EVE Cockey slang for believe, i.e. credit |
| 23/12 | ONCE OVER ON C[ivil] E[ngineer] [l]OVER |
| 24 | COWPUNCHER COW PUNCH ER I had the check that a C is a cowboy (“He’s often mounted”) |
| 25 | BRASSIERE BR ASS IE RE Re is an alternative to Ray in the Solfa scale |
| 26 | BERK BERK[s] |
| Down | |
| 1 | IN CLOVER LOVE (“really enjoy”) inside INCR (“solvent briefly” in the money sense) |
| 2 | LABOUR (BAL[f]OUR)* We’ve seen the “F-off” technique used before, it still raises a smile. |
| 3 | CONCAVE (CAN)* inside COVE (“old bloke”) |
| 4/22 | DOGSBODY DOGS BODY |
| 5 | IMOGEN [l]IMO GEN[t] Despite using the general “Girl” as a definition, this gets the favourite clue award: Girl, fancy car, top off, bloke getting end away (6) |
| 8 | TRIUMPH PM (“Brown”) and later I (“Cyclops”) inside HURT (“sting”) all reversed (“mounted”) |
| 9 | HANGER-ON HANGER (NO)* |
| 14 | RACKED UP [c]RACKED UP On first reading the clue implied to me the “opposite” wordplay to that required. I was wondering how “Raked up” apparently meant “burst into laughter” before parsing it as shown: Burst into laughter when Conservatives’ leader goes “Accumulated points” (6,2) |
| 16/10 | MEMBERS ALLOWANCES |
| 18 | REDNECKS NECK inside REDS |
| 19 | NETWORK (WET)* inside NORK is Nork a particularly Aussie term? Well known enough in the UK now anyway. |
| 21 | DONORS CD |
| 22 | BUCKET BUCKE[d i]T This is the trickiest in the puzzle, I hope I’ve parsed it aright. It would’ve been the last in if I hadn’t suffered Noah-blindness. The answer is clearly bucket as you kick the bucket when you die, I’ve assumed the last phrase is the definition, the middle “kicked it” gives “bucked it” and the first “Di going spare” indicates removal of “di”. If so, all very clever but there is no way anyone would use such wordplay to discover the answer: Di going spare, kicked it, Di kicked it (6) |
| 24 | CHIT C HIT |
“Nork” is Oz slang for “breast.”
Same reaction to 22d. Bucket went in easy enough, but damned if I could understand why…
in 26 he seems to have used the origin of the word berk (rhyming slang: Berkshire Hunt) to clue the word berk. Hmm. clever.
Been worrying away at the last couple of clues for ages, then gave up and searched for help – found your site, brilliant! 22d had to be bucket, but I still don’t like the clue, it’s just reassuring that others feel the same.