I wasn’t sure how easy this was since I chose to solve it online after midnight, being busy late on Friday morning and not wanting to get up safely early, but there are as usual several very nice clues.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SIMON BOCCANEGRA — (co)rev. in (macabre song in)* |
| 9 | O C(TOP)OD |
| 10 | PHARAOH — “fair oh” |
| 11 | DieT ONly |
| 12 | CHIAROSCURO — co{n} around (our chairs)* |
| 13 | ROL{l} LOVERS |
| 15 | GEESE — (e(see)g)rev. |
| 16 | MEAT H |
| 18 | SHANTYMAN — shan’t (many)* |
| 20 | HARPSICHORD — hard around (Phi scor{e})* |
| 22 | G NU |
| 23 | H {b}ARRIER |
| 24 | I S(0)LATE |
| 26 | PEPPERMINT CREAM — pep (merriment cap)* — tricky definition (‘sweet’) to find, since it was obviously going to be ‘something cream’ and Bailey’s Irish Cream etc come to mind |
| Down | |
| 1 | SHOOT FROM THE HIP — 2 defs, one of them a bit fanciful but fair, since there was the question mark |
| 2 | MATINAL — ma (Latin)* |
| 3 | NAP — 2 defs, one of which I’d never heard |
| 4 | {f}OLD(TIM)ERS |
| 5 | C(APE)R |
| 6 | NEAR-SIGHTED — (He’s treading)*, although I can’t quite see how this works: near-sighted is an adjective but neither possible definition (with or without ‘having’) seems to lead to one |
| 7 | G R(A N)ULE |
| 8 | ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM — (has men mausoleum)* — this museum |
| 12 | CLOTHESLINE — CD |
| 14 | S(LAV)ON IAN |
| 17 | AIR(DR)OP |
| 19 | M(AG N)ATE — is a magnate necessarily a businessman? Chambers says that a magnate is a person of rank or wealth, or of power. Or a noble. But the COD adds ‘especially in business’, which I suppose justifies it. |
| 21 | CAR {s}OM{e} |
| 25 | p}ORC{h} |
Enjoyable puzzle, which I found a little harder than usual from Phi maybe because of the opera at 1 across which I was not familiar with. Re NEAR-SIGHTED, while I’m far from an expert on grammar, the definition starting with “having” seemed adjectival to me.
Proper checking in the diagram, sound Ximenean clues, mixed vocabulary, no in-joke nina, no theme, no with-it references for ageing rockers! What’s going on?