Apologies for the lateish and skeletal blog today; didn’t manage to get near a PC earlier, and there’s an impending blizzard in this neck of the woods, so I have to dash before I get snowed in.
Across
1 SENTENCE – double def’n
5 A,FFIR,M – (riff)<
9 RETIRING – double def’n
10 PRIES,T – A nice allusion to “What the butler saw…” I thought.
12 FULL HOUSE – those double def’ns are coming thick and fast today.
13 ETHER – hidden.
14 OVER – another dd.
16 FI(T)NE,SS – “tea, say” being the homophone for T.
19 T,RIGGER
21 CARD – take two definitions, combine and serve at room temperature.
24 NA,TAL[-e] – “detailed” as in “with the tail removed”.
25 C(ON,DUCT)OR – Somewhat ironically, I’m only familiar weith Cor = “French Horn” from the word Cor Anglais.
27 M(OMEN)T
28 SANSERIF – (fairness)*. The font name that once formed the basis for an April Fool joke in the Grauniad – rendering it as the island of San Serif.
29 NARKED – (Denmark)*-n
30 CROTCHET- a note and a form of needlework, so at least a double defn here too. Presumably triple, as I imagine that the “butt of jest” is another, more obscure meaning. [I’m exposed as a needlework neophyte, as it should be crochet. Which makes this a contents/container clue, CRO(T)CHET. Thanks Eileen]
Down
1 SCRUFF – double def’n.
2 NETT,LE[-ft]
3 EARTH – I refer the Honourable Gentleman to the clue type I gave a few 27A’s ago.
4 CONQUER – homophone of conker.
5 F(I)REE,ATE,R
7 ICE SHEET – (cheese it)*. A mundanely amusing surface reading. Very tidy.
8 MAT,TRESS – Is a mattress soft, per se? I think this is akin to last week’s “Are kittens necessarily cute” discussion.
11 BEEF – dd.
15 VIGILANTE – (leaving it)*
17 STUN,T(M)AN
18 BIG TIMER – punning double def’n.
20 ROCK – you guessed it…
21 CENT,AU,R – I enjoyed “horseman” as the definition.
22 ST,ARCH
23 PROF,IT
26 UP,SET
30ac: not a triple definition, Smiffy: the stitches are spelt ‘crochet’, so it’s straightforwardly T [the butt of jest’] in that.
Hi Smiffy
1a I didn’t see this as a dd, more a cd.
24a There is no indicator for the initial ‘N’. The clue should have started ‘North American …..’.
30a This is definitely not a dd. It is:
[jes]T (butt of jest) in CROCHET (stitches).
18d Strictly speaking, ‘Big Ben’ is the the nickname of the great bell, rather than the clock itself, so it only indicates the time when chiming the hour rather than being a ‘timer’. However, it is in common usage as a nickname for the clock or the clock tower so I won’t quibble too much.
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the corrections/clarifications. I should have been able to fathom 30A, but was rushing somewhat. Of all the things to be ignorant or dyslexic about, I’m not too embarrassed that it’s handicrafts. :>
Neither should you be embarrassed, Smiffy. I never mastered crochet, despite my grandmother’s efforts at tuition – I just learned how to spell it!
PS: Hope you’re not holed up too long!