A very enjoyable Sunday crossword from Poins, with at least a couple of chuckles along the way. Whilst I think I’ve almost explained everything, one or two bits and pieces didn’t quite click for me, though I’m sure readers can help out.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ENDEAVOUR | Attempt an overdue repair (9) |
| (AN OVERDUE)* | ||
| 6 | LUCRE | It is tempting to accept City’s money (5) |
| City in LURE. I don’t think I’ve seen C clued by “City” before, but I can see how it works | ||
| 9 | AMASS | Collect in Yokohama’s streets (5) |
| [yokoh]AMA‘S S[treets] | ||
| 10 | WAISTCOAT | Clothing rejected as unwanted say by one in bed (9) |
| hom. of “waste” + (A in COT) | ||
| 11 | EXHILARATE | Cheer when greeting the French deserter found in river (10) |
| (HI + LA + RAT) in EXE | ||
| 12 | PEER | Hesitation by extremely polite noble (4) |
| P[olit]E + ER | ||
| 14 | SPRITES | Strep is running wild in elves (7) |
| (STREP IS)* | ||
| 15 | REPLICA | Trouble over enclosing note with salesman’s copy (7) |
| Sales REP + (C in AIL)< | ||
| 17 | DIPLOMA | What a student seeks from investigation initially into reproduction of old map (7) |
| I[nvestigation] in (OLD MAP)* | ||
| 19 | CERTAIN | A murderer smothering monarch taking time to make sure (7) |
| (E.R. + Time) in CAIN | ||
| 20 | KITE | Equipment at the rear of a plane (4) |
| KIT + [plan]E. Interesting, though I’m not sure I see how this really works. In my parsing, the ‘a’ is redundant, and ‘plane’ does double duty. I did wonder if this is an &lit, in which case it’s excellent, but my knowledge of aerospace engineering falls short | ||
| 22 | CONNECTION | Not nice to play a trick in front of Bond (10) |
| CON + (NOT NICE)* | ||
| 25 | CONSCIOUS | Aware of Conservative’s debts after constituent’s tip (9) |
| CONservative + C[onstituent] + IOUs | ||
| 26 | ABATE | Become less of a temptation by the sound of it (5) |
| hom. of “a bait” | ||
| 27 | SCOPE | Room in church housing work on Sumerian leader (5) |
| S[umerian] + (OP in C.E.) | ||
| 28 | SPARE TYRE | Extra port is evidence of overindulgence (5,4) |
| SPARE + TYRE. Tyre is a Lebanese port | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | EVADE | Cameron brought about conclusion of debate to avoid answering (5) |
| [debat]E in DAVE< | ||
| 2 | DEATHTRAP | Passing on by mouth something which is very dangerous (9) |
| DEATH + TRAP | ||
| 3 | ABSOLUTION | Almost certain to have no comeback after international’s acquittal (10) |
| ABSOLUT[e] + International + NO< | ||
| 4 | ONWARDS | Ahead is where patients are treated (7) |
| ON WARDS | ||
| 5 | ROISTER | Essentially cheerful after nonsense about island revel (7) |
| (ISland in ROT) + [che]ER[ful] | ||
| 6 | LATE | Tardy to criticise missing son (4) |
| [s]LATE | ||
| 7 | CLOSE | Cease to have cocaine before getting intimate (5) |
| Cocaine + LOSE. A tad confused here, as the definition could equally be “cease” or “intimate”, while neither of the two seem to clue LOSE particularly well | ||
| 8 | ENTERTAIN | Think about volunteers in Ireland supporting a hospital department (9) |
| E.N.T. + (T.A. in ERIN) | ||
| 13 | APPRECIATE | Be aware of increase in value (10) |
| dd. | ||
| 14 | SIDEKICKS | Arrogance shown by Schwimmer at first after an enthusiastic but short-lived interest in Friends (9) |
| SIDE + KICK + S[chwimmer]. Very good surface reading | ||
| 16 | IMAGINARY | Made up by a girl over a drink with Poins (9) |
| I (‘Poins’, the setter) + (A GIN in MARY) | ||
| 18 | AMOROUS | A suspicious Moor useless when in love (7) |
| A + MOOR* + US[e]. It took me a while spot while ‘useless’ is US[e], but I like it | ||
| 19 | CANASTA | Is unable to eat for instance before a game (7) |
| (AS in CAN‘T) + A | ||
| 21 | TANGO | Dance to beat to get fit (5) |
| TAN + GO | ||
| 23 | NIECE | New diamonds worn by earl’s relative (5) |
| Earl in (New + ICE) | ||
| 24 | ACNE | Bill oddly neglected onset of disease (4) |
| ACcount + [o]N[s]E[t] | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; hom. = sounds like
I think in 7d ‘cease to have’ = lose with the definition ‘intimate’
Thanks, Simon.
KITE – I think “the rear” as in thE is what you’re looking for.
Isn’t EVADE DAVE< + E?
CLOSE I read as "Cease to have" with Cocaine "before".
This puzzle was a lot of fun. I liked so many of the clues, especially CONNECTION, PEER, CONSCIOUS, ABATE, CANASTA & ONWARDS.
My absolute favourites were EXHILARATE, EVADE & SPARE TYRE.
It took me a while to parse 16d as I did not know the word ‘poins’ and finally realised that this is the name of today’s setter as I was writing this post.
New word for me today was ROISTER.
I parsed 7d with definition being ‘intimate’ = CLOSE. C(ocaine) + LOSE (cease to have).
For 20d, could it be KIT + (th)E = KITE = plane?
Thanks for the puzzle, Poins, and and thanks for the blog, Simon.
Sorry, I took to long to write my post and have doubled up on others’ messages.
I agree with Neil regarding EVADE = DAVE< + E
Thanks everyone, that all adds up nicely. Funny how my brain just disregarded the “to have” as simply linkage for the wordplay.