Another interesting and varied crossword from Cinephile. I liked 1,9 for the the construction, 3 down made me laugh, 8 down for its cleverness.
No time for any more preamble as I’m about to leave for a few days holiday!
Hold mouse over clue number to read clue.
| Across | ||
| 1, 9 | BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE | BET (put money on) WEE (small) NA (North American) ROC (mythical bird) KANDAHAR (Afgan city) DP (paid) reversed and LACE (put alcohol into something) |
| 10 | EMPEROR | tEMPER (mood, missing top letter) OR (gold colour) |
| 11 | STETSON | STET (leave as is, publishing terminology) ans SON (boy) – famous brand of hats |
| 12 | GLOSS | Double definition |
| 13 | CRITERIA | wRITER (scribe missing W=western) inside CIA (US spies) |
| 15 | ACTIONABLE | (TO BALANCE I)* – definition is ‘could be libellous’ |
| 16 | PLEA | PLEAsure (enjoyment, without sure=definite) |
| 18 | TEST | definition is ‘see if you can’, the Test is a river in the UK famous for its trout fishing |
| 20 | BROADSWORD | WORD (term) following (on) BROADS (waterways) |
| 22 | MOORLAND | Definition and cryptic definition – ‘land of the Moors’ |
| 24 | LABEL | start of LA BELle Dame Sans Merci, poem by Keats |
| 26 | SLEIGHT | Second L (student=learner, driver) EIGHT (rowing boat crew) |
| 27 | ASTATIC | A and STATIC (form of inrterference) – definition is ‘without determination or polarity’ |
| 28 | SECOND FIDDLE | SECOND (to support) FIDDLE (scam, racket) |
| Down | ||
| 2 | EXPLOIT | Double definition |
| 3 | WORKSHOP | Worksop is a town in Notts (Nottinghamshire), so in an inebriated fashion, Workshop would be in Nottsh |
| 4 | EARL | almost EARLy (before time) |
| 5 | AUSTRALIAN | (ALTAR IN USA)* – ‘digger’ is slang for Australian person |
| 6 | OVERT | OVER (in the course of) and T, sounds like ‘tea’ (a meal) |
| 7 | KESTREL | weaKEST RELatively – definition is ‘predator’, but where does ‘speaking’ fit in? |
| 8 | SERGEANTS MESS | ‘sergeants in a mess’ could be an anagram for ‘greatness’ in a crossword clue – definition is ‘home for NCOs’ |
| 9 | See 1 | |
| 14 | CARRINGTON | RING (round object) in CARTON (container) – former UK politician |
| 17 | ISOLATED | (TO LADIES)* |
| 19 | SHOWERS | Double definition |
| 21 | ORBITAL | ORAL (what’s said) around BIT (part) – definition ‘of the M25’, circular motorway around London |
| 23 | LOGIC | LOGIe Baird (television pioneer, unfinished) and C (number, 100 Roman numeral) |
| 25 | CALF | Cryptic definition – type of leather and immature romantic love |
*anagram
Very entertaining crossword with a wide variety of devices.
Thank you PeeDee, and I agree with your choices. 1,9 is a typical Cinephile/Araucaria long charade (with Kandahar in it, nice find).
I liked the naughtiness of WORKSHOP (3d). I think one should see “Notts town” (as a whole) for Worksop, and then put the H in both, just over halfway.
My last entry was 18ac. I knew it had to be TEST, but didn’t think of the river. Never think of fishing …
In my opinion, 11ac (STETSON) does not need the word ‘on’. To me it’s even better without.
Yes, good crossword.
Oh, and btw, PeeDee, you really like Austrailians, am I right? 🙂
Thanks PeeDee for this blog. I agree with you that the work “speaking” is redundant in 7dn.
In 20ac I think it should be WORD following BROADS not the other way round as you have it at present.
I also liked this one. I read 5d as a, er, dig at Murdoch. I think Araucaria once said he’d never take the Murdoch pound.
Many thanks PeeDee & Cinephile this was very enjoyable.
I know Worksop quite well but, sadly, I did fiddle around with STRING in 28a until the intersecting clues showed me the error of my ways.
I had to dig very deep to recall CARRINGTON but, in defence of diggers in general, there are a lot of nice guys, too, even if they can’t play cricket these days.
Thanks fopr pointing out the (repeated) spelling error Sil. I got up a 6am to write this blog in a rush before leaving for holiday, so I was a bit confused (even more confused than usual).