*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone
A good variety of clues with some excellent surface readings. There were just a couple that I thought were a little questionable.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Miaow: (I am)* + ow. |
| 4 | Sackcloth: Sack + cloth. |
| 9 | Negligent: (gelignite with N replacing I)* |
| 10 | Leave: [C]leave |
| 11 | Tendentious: (doesn’t unite)*. |
| 12 | Gas: sag<. |
| 14 | Swindle: Swine around d[evi]l. |
| 16 | Dresser: Double definition, the second referring to a theatrical dresser. |
| 18 | Erasmus: (sums are)< |
| 20 | Bittern: Bitter (in the sense of arctic meaning very cold) + N. |
| 21 | Kid: Double definition. |
| 23 | Mother In Law: (woman Hitler)*. |
| 25 | Brain: Bra + in. |
| 26 | Ski resort: Skirt around Rose<. |
| 27 | Spare tyre: Double def. |
| 28 | Miler: Mil[l]er. |
| Down | |
| 1 | Minute steak: Minute + hom. of “stake”. |
| 2 | Argentina: A Tina round r gen. |
| 3 | Whine: hom. of “wine”. |
| 4 | Sheathe: heat in she. |
| 5 | Catford: Cat + ford (as in ford a river). |
| 6 | Cold sweat: (c two deals)*. |
| 7 | Orang: Orang is an abbreviation for orangutan. The rest is “0 rang” i.e. no-one rang. |
| 8 | Hue: Hom. of “Hugh”. |
| 13 | Spring water: (tiger prawns)* |
| 15 | Demimonde: Mimed< + one around d. I have my doubts about “acted unspeakably” for mimed. |
| 17 | Steel wool: Eel w in stool. |
| 19 | Satisfy: I was in some doubt as to exactly how to intepret this one, but I think it’s “Sat is F[rida]y”. |
| 20 | Beehive: double/cryptic def. |
| 22 | Drama: Dram + a. |
| 24 | I-beam: “Punk smiles” = “I beam”. |
| 25 | Bus: Bus[t]. It refers to buses being red in London, although that may not be entirely true since the demise of the Routemaster. |
Thanks for the blog, particularly 7dn. I wrote this in quickly and assumed it was weak word play at ORANG[e], ie Orange, the mobile company, cut-off. I think you are right on 19dn. I like 27ac very much In 15dn I don’t unspeakably for hinting at MIME, this is Punk after all.
Quite an easy puzzle, I thought, by Punk standards. I read 7 down and 19 down as NealH did. 23 across is an anagram going way back though I wondered if in these PC days, it might be a casualty.
I think Punk got away with 23ac by avoiding the temptation to make it &lit!
A very good fun puzzle, I thought, and not too tough…
I’m really kicking myself about 26 across for staring at S_I for ages while trying to think of holiday destinations in south east asia. If I’d known what a “dirndl” is that would have helped a lot, of course. 🙂