Quick one from me today as I’m hella busy. Enjoyed this, though one or two may need explaining.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | HAMLET – HAM,LET |
| 4 | HISPANIC – (CHAP IS IN)* |
| 8 | AMULET – A,MULE,T[-ethered] |
| 10 | DEPUTISE – PUT in (E,SIDE)* |
| 12 | SLEET – Hidden in baSLE ETc |
| 13 | EXPRESSES – PRESS in EXES (I think!) |
| 14 | AIRS AND GRACES – (A DARING CARESS)* |
| 17 | PAST ONE’S PRIME – PA,STONES,PRIME – Lovely clue |
| 21 | SUBARTCTIC – BUS rev + C in ARTIC |
| 23 | CARGO – CAR,GO |
| 24 | RHODESIA – “Road easier” |
| 25 | PIQUED – “Peaked” |
| 26 | ROMANIST – MAN IS in ROT |
| 27 | AGADIR – AGA,DIR[-e] |
| Down | |
| 1 | HEADSMAN – (HAS NAMED)* |
| 2 | MOUSETRAP – I get that moustraps can be cheesy, but not sure how this connects with Hamlet? |
| 3 | ELECTRA – ELECT,R,A |
| 5 | INEXPERIENCE – IN + IRE rev. in EX PENCE |
| 6 | POULENC – (COUPLE)* + N[-ew] C[-omposer] – A nice &lit, though I had to cheat on this one as I’ve never heard of him! |
| 7 | NAILS – AIL in N and S (i.e. North and South poles) |
| 8 | CHEESY – Double definition. Or maybe cryptic, I never can distinguish them properly |
| 11 | HEADS OR TAILS – Or maybe I can, this one’s definitely a cryptic defnition |
| 15 | SPIN ROUND – (SIP)*,N,ROUND |
| 16 | RECORDER – RE,C,ORDER |
| 18 | SURGEON – G (middle of niGht) in SURE ON |
| 19 | PICKING – PIC,KING |
| 20 | USURER – USER in UR |
| 22 | BLOOM – L in BOOM |
In Hamlet, the play he puts on to show he knows the truth about his father’s murder (that is ‘the thing’ wherein Hamlet traps the conscience of the king) is called The Mousetrap.
13 ac – that’s how I saw EXPRESSES too.
I wasn’t convinced by “money expert” for usurer. Just because you charge a lot of interest doesn’t make you an expert on money. Also, “newspaper staff” for press didn’t seem quite right, since press normally refers to the newspapers themselves, although I suppose you could think of it as all the people who work for newspapers.
Can’t say I agree with you on those points, NealH, esp the second one re the press (looked in Concise OED which says ‘journalists collectively’). And maybe anyone who works in any particular line of work could be just about described as ‘expert’ in that.