An interesting challenge today with some misleading clues and a few imaginative definitions. Whilst solving I thought that in one or two places the cluing was a little liberal but with hindsight I have no particular reservations.
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Across
1 GRATIS RAT (traitor) in GIS (soldiers)
4 CRUCIATE *(RACE I CUT) – there are two cruciate ligaments in the knee
9 UPPITY UP (to raise) PITY (charity)
10 BOUNTIED BO (man) UNTIED (set free)
12 BEEFCAKE BEEF (meat) CAKE (congeal)
13 GENEVA GEN (information) EVA (girl)
15 EXEC EX (former) EC(European Community)
16 AFTERSHAVE AFTERS (pudding) HAVE
19 CODSWALLOP S (saint) in COD (fish) WALLOP (batter)
20 SONG dd
23 NICETY NICE (polite) T Y (two junctions)
25 QUAGMIRE QUA (in the capacity of) GM (carmaker) I RE (note)
27 ARMCHAIR A (article) RM (sailors) CHAIR (professor) – it surprised me a little that Chambers actually includes ‘theoretical’ in its list of definitions for ‘armchair’
28 OBOIST *(BOOT IS)
29 ELAPSING E (first exam) LAPSING (failing)
30 EXCESS homophone of X S
Down
1 GRUMBLE G (gravity) RUMBLE (discover)
2 APPREHEND dd
3 INTACT IN (batting) TACT (discretion)
5 ROOK R (Queen) O O (loves) K (king) – ‘rook’ and ‘castle’ being two names for the same piece in chess
6 CONVERSE dd
7 ABIDE ID (instinctive desire) in ABE (President) – Abe Lincoln, an old favourite of setters
8 ENDGAME – I’m not sure how to describe this one, ‘endgame’ is the final few moves in a game and if someone has won or lost then you have to end the game
11 SKIFFLE *(LIKES FF) – I would not have described ‘skiffle’ as ‘folk music’ but Chambers does
14 DECORUM E (drug) CO (company) in DRUM (tattoo)
17 ABORIGINE *(I GO IN BEAR)
18 SWATCHES C (hundred) in SWATHES (wraps) – ‘swatches’ are samples of cloth, carpets etc
19 CONCAVE CON (trick) CA (about) VE (victory) – I’m slightly less than happy with the use of ‘victory’ to provide ‘ve’ but this is probably just nit-picking
21 GHETTOS *(GHOST T[h]E)
22 EGG BOX EG (for example) GB (Britain) O X (no vote)
24 COMMA CO (commanding officer) M (married) M (maiden) A – ‘breather’ is a rather pleasing definition of ‘comma’
26 KILN hidden word reversed in ‘burN LIKe’
Thanks, Gaufrid.
27 (“Theoretical article written on sailors by professor”) was tough for me. I had written in “abstract” (meaning “theoretical” and also “ABs” with “tract” written on) but then couldn’t figure out what to do with “by professor.”
Not directly relevant to the puzzle, but I’m curious about what the setter’s pseudonym means. Is it an acronym? Perhaps “P.H.S. Sets The Hardest Puzzles OK?”
Yes, ‘armchair’ wasn’t the first thing that came to my mind either! I initially went through the various possibilities involving ‘abs’, ‘tars’ and ‘salts’ etc., but once the down answers were in there became only one possible solution.
I can’t help with the derivation of the setter’s pseudonym but your suggestion does seem to be a possibility.
Phssthpok was killed by that Jack Brennan.
I think Paul B is referring to a novel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_(novel)