Gentle, enjoyable Monday puzzle from Punk, a very skilled clue-writer indeed. Found it quite easy and was esp impressed to get words that were unknown to me from the clear wordplay.
Solving time, 23 mins.
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 LIGHT ALE “lie tale”
9 HEAD-ON He a Don
10 TONSIL HOCKEY (only it chokes)* New phrase to me but easily gettable from the clear anagram. Amusing surface.
11 SULPHATE reject ‘and’ = reverse ‘plus’ hate = be repulsed by
12 ISLE hidden in Paisley
14 PARTICULAR Double definition
15 COMMODE ref: Mods and Rockers from 1960s summer beaches. Mod in Come.
17 ATTEMPT Definition: go at (towards) tempt (bait)
20 BINGO WINGS New to me, this. Dict says extra folds of skin visible when arm is raised eg when claiming full house at Bingo. Bing (Crosby) owing s = shilling = 5p (both 1/20th of £)
22 HUTU HUT U
23 ATROPINE (protein a)*
24 CICADA cad (heel) in CIA
26 POLISH Double definition
27 NORSEMAN Refers to ‘No man is an island’ (Donne) rose (rebelled) less o (nothing) in ‘no man’
DOWN
1 BIRO rib reversed over O (The Ring)
2 CHASTE definition: pure c (cocaine) haste ref ‘more haste, less speed’ pun on ‘speed’ = drug
3 GALLOPED gal loped
4 BERSERK odd-placed letters in sherry ie ser contained in berk (fool) . Definition: mad
5 CHILLI chill (cold) I (one)
6 CATHOUSE US and Canadian usage says dict, new to me but again v gettable tho it was my last answer. thou = you in case (investigation)
7 POSTMAN PAT pat = gentle hit
13 SPOLIATION spoon = kiss and cuddle containing I tail (end) reversed (= up) definition: stripping
16 MAGNOLIA g (good) no (certainly not) in Mali (country) a
18 TEST CARD (detracts)* with a v suitable anagram indicator ‘broadcast’
19 ANTENNA ten in Anna
21 DEAD WEIGHT Spoonerism of ‘Wed date’
Aaah – Thanks nms,
I had DESSERT i.e. “fool” at 4d, but couldn’t see why – now I know!
Thanks also to Punk for lots of LOLs.
Thanks for the blog, nmsindy, and Punk for a great puzzle.
Having miserably failed to spot an anagram in my Rufus blog today, may I redeem myself slightly by pointing out that in 7dn POSTMAN is an anagram of STAMP ON? 😉
Very enjoyable, thank you to Punk. A great puzzle with lots of fun – I did laugh at 10/22 and 20a. Thanks to nmsindy too.
I didn’t spot the anagram in 7 down and was thinking that man must mean stamp in some context. In fairness, there isn’t a clear-cut anagram indicator apart from “with letters”. Other than that, it was fairly straightfoward, except for spoliation which I had to puzzle over for quite some time.
Hi NealH
Re 7dn; I didn’t take the anagram indicator as being ‘with letters’: I read it as PAT with ‘STAMP ON’ letters.
Eileen,
I think that’s what I meant. However, there is nothing to indicate that the letters have to be rearranged.
Yes, I missed that anagram in POSTMAN PAT – just thought the stamp referred to the postman – amazing that ‘stamp on’ is an anagram of postman. Looking at the clue again it says “with stamp on letters”. I think this is a totally fair indication telling the solvers to use those letters (in some order).
Many thanks for the blog, nms. A fine puzzle, with some smiley moments and clever clueing. SPOLIATION was the only new word to me. I’d vaguely heard of TONSIL HOCKEY, but put in BINGO WINGS just from the enumeration (must be the company I keep).
Thanks to Punk for the fun.
Quite enjoyed this apart from not getting 13d, some lovely trademark punk/paul sauciness. Did wonder if the income bit would raise a comment but seemed fair enough to me.
Good as usual from Punk. In my primness I was only vaguely aware of the term tonsil hockey, and had never heard of bingo wings. I had only one slight misgiving: to polish (26ac) isn’t really the same thing as to clean — in fact when you polish something you often make it rather dirtier, with all that stuff you put on to make it shine.
Not quite as gentle as some Monday offerings but got there in the end. Held up on the NE corner thinking 5d was ‘stolen’ (= hot), though I couldn’t make the rest of the clue fit – doh!
‘Cathouse’ new to me also; wonder if someone might be in the doghouse if his visit to the cathouse was discovered?
There’s polishing with duroglit, yes but then there are other things tha get polished like teeth and bottoms…