[New comment layout] - details here
Apologies for the tardiness of this post. It would seem that Smiffy’s holiday has gone on longer than he originally intended, or something else has prevented him from posting a blog, so here is one I prepared earlier.
I can’t say I particularly enjoyed this puzzle because there seemed to be a degree of looseness in some of the definitions and/or wordplay and I had a few question marks left at the end (particularly against 15d) as indicated below.
Across
9 COCHINEAL *(CHANCE OIL)
10 PILAF A in FLIP (toss) reversed
11 BAFFLED FAB (marvellous) reversed FLED (abandoned)
12 UPSTAIR *(AIRS PUT)
13 SKI SKI[n] (pelt nameless)
14 RIB-TICKLING RIB (bone) TICKLING (stimulating) – the second ‘funny bone’ is presumably only there to improve the surface. The clue could easily have been shortened to ‘funny bone stimulation’.
17 BAGEL BAG (capture) EL (train) – ‘el’ is more properly an elevated railroad rather than a train.
18 P T A T (time) in PA (father)
19 CARET CARE (vigilance) T (junction)
21 PERESTROIKA *(REPAIR STOKE)
23 BOW dd
25 ISRAELI IS (one’s) RA (god) ELI (priest)
27 SMOKIER *(IRKSOME)
28 ESTER [h]ESTER or EST[h]ER- esters are present in many things, not just perfume, and perfume has other ingredients besides esters, so rather a loose definition IMO.
29 ATTENUATE homophone of ‘at ten you ate’
Down
1 SCUBAS CUBA (Caribbean country) in SS (ship) – Chambers, Collins and COED do not give ‘scuba’ as a verb and only list it as a modifier in scuba diver or scuba diving.
2 SCOFFING dd
3 TITLE ROLES TITLE (championship) ROLE (position) S (second)
4 FEND F (fine) END (finale)
5 ILLUMINATI ILLUMINATI[on] (light not on)
6 SPAS SAPS (drains) reversed
7 ALKALI AL[tar] KALI (goddess)
8 AFFRIGHT FF (very loud) replaces L (left) in ALRIGHT (OK) – ‘alright’ is in Chambers but should the clue not have read ‘….. very loud – not left in OK’.
15 BIPARTISAN BI (homophone of ‘buy’, corrupt) PARTISAN (soldier)
BI (homophone of ‘by’?) PART (corrupt soldier?) IS AN (on) – the definition is presumably simply ‘both sides’ but I fail to see the wordplay though a homophone could be indicated (‘according to’ = by?) and ‘corrupt soldier’ could be PARA with a letter changed. I sincerely hope I am wrong and that someone can offer a better explanation. Full clue: “According to reporter, corrupt soldier is on both sides (10)”.
Edit: Thanks Agentzero for the correction but it now seems that the definition may be wrong. See comments #1 & 2.
16 KICK AROUND KICK (how to end addiction) A ROUND (a variety of drinks) – but a round of drinks could be five pints of bitter so no variety there.
17 BAPTISED *(BAD PET IS)
20 RUBAIYAT *(ART I BUY A) – ‘first-class’ = A
22 RARITY RIT (slowing down) in RAY (streak) – streak = ray???
24 WORMED ME in WORD (undertaking)
26 ECRU hidden in ‘cluE CRUciverbalist’
27 SETT SET (fixed) T (time)
Gaufrid,
Thanks for the blog. In 15 down, I think “bi” is a homophone of “buy”–if you buy a government official you are corrupting him. “Soldier” is then simply “partisan.”
Thanks Agentzero. I knew there had to be a simpler explanation for 15d. I had considered partisan, but didn’t see (hear) the buy/bi homophone, but that means the definition must be ‘on both sides’ which is not the meaning of ‘bipartisan’. This was why I was looking for a way of accounting for the ‘on’.
Yes, it seemed a stretch. I suppose you could justify it on the basis of “the support for the bill was bipartisan” = “the support for the bill was on both sides [of the aisle]”