There’s a partial “12 Days of Christmas” theme, here with 7, 26,27, 3, and 6 appearing in the grid. It seems a bit odd to have an incomplete theme like this, which makes me think I’m missing something obvious.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | S(WAN)S – got this from the wordplay as I don’t understand the definition: “Death-haunted singers”. |
| 8 | AUN(A)T,(RULE)* – AU NATUREL |
| 10 | AB<,CARDI – I was initially a bit confused by this as I took the definition to be “accompaniment to rum”, then I realised that “accompaniment” is part of the wordplay. |
| 11 | OR(DIN)AL |
| 12 | PATH in (MANY STAYED)* – TEA AND SYMPATHY. |
| 15 | R,E,PRESS |
| 17 | (THE COWL)* – LOW TECH |
| 19 | BRAHMS AND LISZT – Cockney rhyming slang for “pissed”. |
| 23 | MIN[-t],ORCA |
| 24 | DONE,GAL |
| 26 | G(OLD,R,[-s]ING)S |
| 27 | hidden reversed in “peoplE SEE Germans” |
| Down | |
| 1 | L in CAT (going up) – TALC |
| 2 | (SET)*,RANGE – ESTRANGE |
| 3 | L(AD)IES |
| 4 | INFO,R,M,A,L |
| 5 | STA[-y],AID (going up) – STADIA |
| 6 | F(R{E}N,CH,H)ENS – not entirely sure that I’ve nailed the wordplay here as I’ve taken “Navy boss” to be RN CH. Can CH be an abbreviation for “chief”? |
| 7 | (BOSS)*,TORY – SOB STORY |
| 9 | L,I[-d]LY |
| 13 | APP([-p]ARENT)LY |
| 14 | WHIT,[-r]ELIE[-s] – WHITE LIES |
| 16 | S(US)TAINS |
| 18 | WELL NIGH[-t] |
| 20 | HARE(A,R)E |
| 21 | NU(D,IS)T – “someone barely observed” is a great definition. |
| 22 | GUMS (going up) |
| 25 | E in (LEG)* – GLEE |
7a The Chambers definition for ‘swan-song’ is ‘the fabled song of a swan just before its death’.
6d ch = chief is confirmed in Chambers and Collins.
The “12 Days of Christmas” theme wasn’t incomplete at all, Neil – the first letters of the clues, read in order, spelled out all the missing items!
Actually, I think I should leap in and say I didn’t manage to get the partridge in. I got the five in the grid but just couldn’t get enough letters from the clues to do the other seven. I felt the partridge was the one to go because at the end of the song I’m heartily sick of it…