A good offering from one of the less frequent FT setters. Apologies for the late posting; I had solved this last night but didn’t have a chance to fill in the explanations until now.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | DISSOLVE LOSS (defeat) reversed in DIVE (pitch) |
| 5 | LOOFAH FOOL (clown) reversed + AH (cry out in surprise) I suppose “cry out in surprise” can be a noun; I was reading it as a verb |
| 10 | PELICAN *(PLACE IN) |
| 11 | SALINES *(IL[l]NESS A) |
| 12 | LUNGE LUNG (organ) E (point) |
| 13 | STEADFAST STEAD[y] (endlessly consistent) FAST (quick) |
| 14 | AT FIRST SIGHT A + FIRSTS (degrees) in TIGHT (confining) |
| 18 | EXCHANGE RATE definition and reverse anagram; “exchange rate” could be a subsidiary indication for TEAR |
| 21 | CANTALOUP CAN’T (unable) A LOUP[e] (a magnifying glass almost) |
| 23 | SPOOR S (single) POOR (broke). The word “reversing” in this case means that the order of the two parts of the charade is reversed, rather than that any of the parts is reversed |
| 24 | ARRAIGN homophone of A REIGN (a dynasty) |
| 25 | IRIDIUM I RID (flush out) I (iodine) U (uranium) M (mass) |
| 26 | TROUGH THROUGH (completed), minus H (hard) |
| 27 | EGGSHELL EGGS (incites) HELL (misery) |
| Down | |
| 1 | DAPPLE D (dead) APPLE (fruit) |
| 2 | SPLINT N (midpoint of “bones”) in SPLIT (fracture) A nice & lit. |
| 3 | ORCHESTRA CHEST (box ) in OR (Ordinary Ranks) and RA (Royal Artillery) |
| 4 | VANISHING POINT d&cd I especially liked this one. |
| 6 | OILED BOILED (cooked) minus B (its head) |
| 7 | FANDANGO hidden in DusseldorF AND ANGOla |
| 8 | HESITATE *(THE TEA IS) |
| 9 | ASSET-STRIPPING AS (when) SETS (companies) TRIP (stumble) + N (unknown number) in PIG (greedy person) |
| 15 | SATISFIES *(IF SATES IS) |
| 16 | PENCHANT PEN compose) CHANT (music) |
| 17 | SCENARIO *(I CENSOR A) |
| 19 | BODICE BO (box office) DICE (gamble) |
| 20 | PRIMAL RIM (ring) in PAL (friend) |
| 22 | AWING WIN (triumph) in AG (silver) |