Maybe it was because, unusually for me, I resorted to the Pink ‘un itself rather printing off the online version – or maybe it was because the sun was out – but, in any case, I found this a brisk and jolly solve. No serious complaints, no serious difficulties, and all in all an excellent puzzle. Thank-you, Orense.
ACROSS
1. CATHEDRAL Anagram of had claret – the allusion is to Thomas Becket‘s bloody murder in Canterbury cathedral
6. TAPER T [time] + a + PE [Physical Exercise] + r [run]
9. OWLET L(ittl)e within owt [anything, in these parts] – little is perhaps doing double duty
10. SAWHORSES Horse [sounds like hoarse, rough] within saws [hacks] – but this leaves understood [saw] rather redundant. Can anyone improve on this reading?
11. PUGNACIOUS Pug [dog] + anagram of a cousin
12. DOER Hidden in reversal of bizarRE ODour
14. GRASPED Rasp [file] within odd letters of GrEeD
15. TOMBOLA Tom [cat] + (mea)l within boa [snake]
17. BEHINDS Hind [deer] within bes(t) [optimal]
19. HOSTAGE Host [entertainer] + age [mature]
20. REEL Reversal of leer [dirty look]
22. BOTTOMLESS Double definition, of sorts (see 17ac.)
25. INAMORATA Anagram of air to a man
26. NYALA A [area] within NY [New York, city] + LA [Los Angeles, city] – where would crossword setters be without the antelope family?
27. EWERS R [river] within ewes [sheep]
28. SIDESTEPS Reversal of pets [favourites] within sides [teams]
DOWN
1. CROUP R(ancour) within coup [takeover]
2. TELEGRAPH Anagram of with great
3. ENTRAPPING (G)ent [chap] + rapping [putting words to music]
4. RESCIND Anagram of consider minus O [love]
5. LAWSUIT Cryptic definition
6. TOOL Reversal of loot [plunder]
7. PESTO Pest [irritating person] + O [nothing]
8. RESURFACE RE [Royal Engineers] + surf ace [expert in sailboarding]
13. AMUSEMENTS A + muse [inspiration] + men [people] + t(rip)s
14. GABARDINE Bard [poet] within (boxed by) gaine(d) [won]
16. ON AVERAGE On [working] + aver [say] + a + g(elignit)e
18. SLOGANS An [indefinite article] within anagram of gloss
19. HATBAND Regular letters from tHe ArTs + band [group]
21. ERASE Hidden in rendER A SErvice
23. SNAGS Nag [horse] within s(table)s
24. TOPS Cops [policeman] with t [time] replacing c(alls)
re 10A ‘Understood’ does indeed appear redundant as the clue works perfectly well without it even though it could be interpreted as saw. Maybe setter just changed his mind and forgot to delete it. I see that the clue for 14A also starts with ‘understood’ so maybe it is just a typo.
Thanks Ringo for the blog
Thanks Orense for a generally enjoyable puzzle and Ringo for the blog. Some very nice surfaces, notably 25ac.
10ac: Something has clearly gone wrong with this clue. I cannot find HACKS = SAWS in any of Chambers 1988 or 2008 or Collins 2000, and cannot accept that you can get it from hacksaw.
20ac/6dn: I was not happy with either of these clues. The comma in 20ac just about pushes us the right way, but 6dn is completely ambiguous without the checking letter T. To make matters worse, the double letter in the middle of each answer means that only one of the two checked letters is any help in deciding which word to enter. As it happens, I had the relevant checked letter before reading each of the clues, but that does not justify them.
16dn: “working” = “on” might just give us the link to solve a difficulty that many of us had with yesterday’s FT puzzle.