A fairly swift solve this week, although I’m sure I’ve struggled a little with Hypnos in the past. I liked that Hypnos managed to work some quite involved wordplay into several clues, without making life unduly difficult for the solver.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PARLOUS – [h]ARLO[t] in PUS. |
| 5 | BAGGAGE – GAG in BAGE[l]. |
| 9 | AUDITORIA – AUDITOR + A1<. |
| 10 | ROOST – S in ROOT. |
| 11 | SCHTICK – C.H. in STICK. |
| 13 | HEARTEN – RTE in (H.E. + AN). |
| 14 | FORT LAUDERDALE – (A DOLEFUL TRADER). A city in Florida, apparently known as the “Venice of America”. |
| 17 | FANCY DRESS BALL – DRESS in (FANCY (“rather like”) + BALL). |
| 21 | PANNIER – ANNIE in P.R. |
| 22 | FURLONG – I think this is just a cd., Arab being a type of horse. |
| 23 | DRINK – D + RINK. |
| 24 | AXMINSTER – A + X + MIN[i]STER. |
| 26 | RUSHDIE – Ian RUSH (former Liverpool and Wales striker) + DIE (one of several German definite articles). |
| 27 | REMATCH – R.E.M. + CHAT*. |
| Down | |
| 1 | PLAY SAFE – F in (PLEA SAY)*. |
| 2 | ROD – [he]RO D[oggedly]. |
| 3 | ON TRIAL – dd. |
| 4 | SHREK – SHR[i]EK. |
| 5 | BIATHLETE – (HIT TABLE) + [rang]E. Biathlon is a combination of shooting and skiing. |
| 6 | GARLAND – dd., and a reference to Judy Garland, of course. |
| 7 | AMONTILLADO – AMON[g] + TILL + A DO. |
| 8 | EXTENT – N in [s]EXTET. |
| 12 | HARD AS NAILS – (IAN + SAD + R) in Frans HALS. |
| 15 | UNDERTAKE – dd. Compare “overtake”. |
| 16 | OLIGARCH – (GOLD A RICH)*. |
| 18 | CLICKED – dd. |
| 19 | SURINAM – URINA[l] in [di]SM[al]. |
| 20 | SPIDER – P in (RED IS)<. |
| 20 | FEMUR – EMU in FR. |
| 20 | TOT – TOT[ter]. |
Not encountered a Hypnos for some time. This was quite a quick solve for me, too. Some nice misdirections, e.g. in 20d where ‘potter’ refers to a snooker (or billiards) player. One or two nice easy clues as well; FORT LAUDERDALE fell into place from the enumeration without having to unscramble the anagram beyond a first glance.
One very minor point about the blog – for 12d it should be (IAN +SAD + R)< in HALS – though it's pretty obvious anyway.
Thanks, Hypnos and Simon.