Apologies for a very late post!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | QUOTATION MARKS: QUOTATION (estimate) + K in MARS (next door planet) |
| 11 | TOERAGS: TOE (digit) + RAGS (newspapers) |
| 12 | TRIPLEX: a kind of double definition |
| 13 | ORGAN: OR (men) + NAG (reversed) |
| 15 | DECAPODAL: A POD in DECAL (transfer) |
| 17 | MAELSTROM: anagram of MORE MALTS |
| 20 | RHEUM: first letter of Recurring Hourly Ending Up Monthly |
| 21 | RUN-OFFS: HE + A TRASH |
| 23 | STEWPOT: STEW (fix) + TOP (reversed) |
| 25 | CONCRETE: CON (tory) + CRETE |
| 27 | INVERTED COMMAS: anagram of VARIED COMMENTS |
| Down | |
| 1 | QUESTION MARK: anagram of MUSKET ON IRAQ |
| 2 | OF USE: F in OUSE (river) |
| 3 | ALL SAINTS: Cleary a girlie goup but although referring to the gospellers not sure that it could encapsulate ‘all saints’ |
| 4 | INFUSED: F (sex) in anagram of UNDIES |
| 5 | NILOTIC: pertaining to the river Nile. Nil-O + TI (half-time) + C (Charlie) |
| 6 | AIOLI: a garlic mayonnaise; every second letter of mAn Is OiL rIg |
| 7 | KNOWLEDGE: K + NOW + L + EDGE |
| 10 | EXCLAMATIONS: anagram of CAN A MOL(e) EXIST. Moles live underground so delete final ‘e’ |
| 14 | GREENHORN: GREEN + HORN(y) |
| 16 | PARLEYVOO/strong>: anagram of POLO and A VERY |
| 18 | RESPECT: PEC in REST |
| 19 | MISDEED: anagram of DID SEEM |
| 22 | FICHE: hidden in terriFIC HEroism |
Ref 10d I think the “with head cut off” refers to the e in exist rather than the e in mole. It seems more logical to me.
Ref 16d Parleyvoo. Why is this informal Frenchman? The only memory I have of that word was in a rather vulgar WW1 troop song which I think was titled “Mademoiselle from Armentieres”
Apologies if I have broken any comment courtesy rules, this is my first attempt.
12 ac: the wordplay is surely TRIPLE/X (for XXX). I don’t understand 9ac, which must be FOLLOW ON, but what’s it got to do with dog-leg? Otherwise I enjoyed this.
I was rather disappointed with 26ac. Presumably it’s “VIRGO” but I thought “ill-tempered woman” for “virago” was a bit of a stretch.
Shed: to dog is to follow, and leg refers to the ‘on’ side in cricket. (As opposed to the ‘off’.)
Diagacht: I’m not sure about C=Charlie in 5 down. I’ve offered a different explanation in the placeholder blog. What do you think?
I don’t understand the explanation for 21ac: surely it’s an anagram of FUN FOR + S (half of US)?
16d: ‘Parleyvoo’ can informally (colloquially/in slang) mean ‘speak French’, ‘the French language’ and ‘a Frenchman’.
10d: I agree with Barry that the clue makes more sense as indicating an anagram of CAN A MOLE + (E)XIST (i.e. EXIST headless).
5d: I took the final C to be short for ‘cent’ (sounds like [“radio report”] ‘sent’).
I still don’t fully grasp 4d: why ‘on the contrary’?
Quite a tricky puzzle; I have to admit I didn’t get half a dozen of these (though some of the other clues where quite straigtforward.
I’ve just looked at the placeholder blog, and Andrew’s suggestion (Comment 16) makes perfect sense of 4d’s ‘on the contrary’: i.e. not UNDIES* during F but F during UNDIES.
3 down Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in such a girlie group? No 19 for them!
Can anyone please explain the reference to No 19?
I took it to mean that Saints (which M, M, L & J are) aren’t responsible for any MISDEEDS. To answer Diagacht’s comment – they aren’t all the Saints, but they are all saints. Hmm: not one of the best clues, I thought.