This was a nice treat as I’m a big fan of Punk and was expecting to see Phi. I only managed a handful of clues in the first run through and worried that this might be a toughie, but then everything suddenly clicked and I raced through the rest in about 15 minutes, albeit with a couple of assumptions. Nevertheless, some very neat stuff here from this excellent, soon-to-be-Brazil-bound setter!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 9 | EXEMPTION – EXE,M,(POINT)* |
| 10 | AGATE – AG (silver),ATE |
| 11 | DEMOTES – D[-espotic],EMOTES |
| 13 | DINKY – D,INKY |
| 14 | POETASTER – POE,TASTER |
| 16 | LAST BUT NOT LEAST – E in LAST BUT NOT LAST (‘final contradiction’) |
| 19 | DOG EAT DOG – Nice triple use of ‘chow’ for 2 types of dog and as a verb meaning to eat |
| 21 | PETRI – T in PERI – The ‘dishy chap’ being Julius Petri, the bacteriologist who invented it |
| 24 | SNUFF IT – FUNS rev.,FIT |
| 25 | LEPER – LE[-a]PER |
| 26 | AMINO ACID – Not 100% sure on this. MINOAN relates to ancient Crete, but can’t quite see how ther ‘nameless force’ part fits in |
| Down | |
| 1 | HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE – I got this from the checking letters and thought it might be some odd cryptic definition, but then realised that it’s HE (‘man’), Y (‘last to spy’) and DIDDLE DIDDLE for dodo (i.e. ‘do’ twice!) Very clever! |
| 2 | TERMINUS – I guessed this from the checking letters, and assume that it’s TERM IN US. Unsure as to how ‘the middle of yesterday’ fits though |
| 3 | SPOTTY – S,POTTY |
| 4 | DISSIPATED – 1’S SIP in DATED |
| 6 | HAIRBALL – HAIR,BALL |
| 7 | PAST IT – PA’S TIT |
| 8 | KEEP BRITAIN TIDY – (TAKE PRIDE IN IT BY)* – A brilliant anagram, and a great surface reading |
| 15 | ENOUGH SAID – (HUGE ADONIS)* |
| 17 | BLACK ART – LACK in BART |
| 20 | GRUMPY – G,RUMPY – ..and no pumpy |
| 21 | PLUTON – P,LUTON |
| 23 | NAAN – The palindromic addition to any good curry |
26a A MINOA[n] CID – ‘minoan cid’ being a pun for Cretian police force
2d TER MINUS [yes]TER[day] with the minus being indicated by the ‘-‘
PS I meant to add that this was a most enjoyable offering from Punk with some delightful clues that had me smiling most of the way through.
My only quibble is that we have seen ‘naan’ far too often. There are a number of alternatives that would fit in ‘n_a_’.
Yes, very good puzzle, favourites SPOTTY and DRUNKEN.
I too enjoyed this puzzle and the coincidence of naan appearing so soon again struck me as well. In last weekend’s Paul it was clued as Bread to pass up and down.
2d yesTERday and the hyphen is a minus sign!!