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Anyone else find this much more difficult this time?
I had an empty top right corner for some time, a number of clues didn’t “firm up” till I was writing this blog, and I still don’t understand 9A.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 6 | STARKERS [barac]K inside STARERS |
| 8 | BRENDA END inside BRA |
| 9 | ABSEIL I don’t understand the wordplay here. Last I put in. The first half is a clear definition – or is the whole thing a Cryptic Def.? Full clue: “Go down” gradually, with mechanical assistance? (6) |
| 10 | GROSS PAY CD |
| 11/15 | SECRETARY OF STATE (ERECT SAY FOR)* AInd: fooling around, then (TASTE)* AInd: poor Up to date clue. |
| 13 | TALC Hidden in fronTAL Chicks |
| 17 | PRUDISH P[enis], RUDISH (fairly rough), Def. “not broad” as in not broadminded |
| 19 | LEAK DD Peer as in pee-er again |
| 20 | INTERLACE [w]INTER, LACE Favourite clue: Wife’s abandoned seasonal frilly material? Mingle! (9) |
| 23 | VISCOUNT V[irgin], IS, C(O)UNT Shall I comment? Better not |
| 24 | BEHIND DD |
| 26 | ALBERT B[renda] inside ALERT |
| 27 | HELPLINE (H L PENILE)* AInd: dysfunction Nice suitable AInd for the fodder |
| Down | |
| 1 | STABLE B[oris] inside STALE Stale is “entertaining” B. Full clue: Entertaining at first, Boris past sell-by date? Sure! (6) |
| 2/25 | ARSEHOLE DD/CD |
| 3 | REALITY TV IT (sex) and [celebrit]Y inside (TRAVEL)* AInd: broadcast |
| 4 | SEX SCANDAL S[un], EX (former), C[onservatives] inside SANDAL |
| 5 | ADVANCES DD |
| 7 | SUGARY ([b]US[h])< , R[epublican] inside GAY |
| 8/22 | BOOM-BUST BOOM (Roar) BUST (Tits) |
| 12 | RAT-CATCHER T[hatcher] inside (CHARACTER)* AInd: assassination |
| 14 | GREEN BELT (BRENT EG)* AInd: relocated, around E[ast] [ewel]L |
| 16 | FALLIBLE LIB inside FALL, E |
| 18 | SNATCH A famous DD and I don’t mean lightweight landrovers |
| 21 | CANING CAN[N]ING ref George Canning PM with the shortest period in office |
9 across. Abseil: to descend a rope “go down” using a special harness that allows one to control the rate of decline “slowly”.
Thanks Nick. I think I was trying to read more into it.
So basically he has just converted a straight def. to a CD by using double-quotes to allude to a blowjob and sticking a “?” on the end.
I suppose this is something we will just have to “rub along” with?