Once again, the Friday grid has been especially approachable. Thanks Flimsy for a very pleasant run, and with straightforward cluing that leaves no room for any ambiguity.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PINE NEEDLE | Long nettle leaf (4,6) |
| PINE (Long) NEEDLE (Nettle) | ||
| 7 | DAWN | Begin to appear a desperate fellow, grabbing women . . . . (4) |
| DAN (desperate fellow – from the comic character) grabbing W (women) | ||
| 9 | OGRE | . . . . thus turning into a monster (4) |
| ERGO reversed (Thus turning) | ||
| 10 | PEPPERCORN | Go with pastor, turning corner to get something spicy (10) |
| PEP (Go) P (Pastor) anagram of CORNER | ||
| 11 | MANTRA | Chant from woman who mischievously attracts men, dropping pants initially (6) |
| MANTRA[P] (dropping ‘P’ , pants initially) – A Mantrap as the name suggests is slang for a woman who is seductive and scheming. | ||
| 12 | REGULATE | Report about heads of government under control (8) |
| RELATE (Report) about GU (heads of Government Under) | ||
| 13 | GERANIUM | German I molested outside uranium plant (8) |
| Anagram of GERMAN I outside U (Uranium) | ||
| 15 | GAPE | Peer runs out of fruit (4) |
| R (runs) out of G[R]APE | ||
| 17 | DISC | Criticise Conservative record (4) |
| DIS (Criticise) C (Conservative) | ||
| 19 | NOBLEMAN | Perhaps count number – one lamb’s gone astray (8) |
| Anagram of N (number) ONE LAMB | ||
| 22 | AVIONICS | Almost intent on CSI breaking bomber’s electronic equipment (8) |
| AVI[d] (almost intent) ON CSI breaking | ||
| 23 | DEMEAN | Humble state maintained by churchman (6) |
| ME (state, Maine) in DEAN (churchman) | ||
| 25 | DISAPPROVE | Provide novel to entertain fool’s mind (10) |
| Anagram of PROVIDE around SAP (fool) | ||
| 26 | NEAT | Elegant cow (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 27 | CEDE | Allow chancellor of the exchequer to embrace Miliband? (4) |
| CE (chancellor of the exchequer) embracing ED (Miliband, politician) | ||
| 28 | ELECTORATE | Voters relate to EC reforms (10) |
| Anagram of RELATE TO EC | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | INGRATE | One unappreciative stinking rat eating sandwiches (7) |
| Hidden in “stinkING RATE Eating” | ||
| 3 | EVENT | First woman oddly nuts for riding competition (5) |
| EVE (First woman, Adam and Eve) NT (oddly NuTs) | ||
| 4 | EMPHATIC | Chimp ate snakes? For sure (8) |
| Anagram of CHIMP ATE | ||
| 5 | DEPARTMENT STORE | Leave chaps time to furnish large shop (10,5) |
| DEPART (Leave) MEN (Chaps) T( Time) STORE (furnish) | ||
| 6 | ENERGY | Green reforms finally remedy this crisis? (6) |
| Anagram of GREEN (reforms – anagrind) Y (finally remedy) | ||
| 7 | DECALOGUE | Editor upset at leaving list for the 10 commandments |
| DE (Editor upset) CALOGUE (‘at’ leaving catalogue – list) | ||
| 8 | WIRETAP | We trip up, catching a bug (7) |
| Anagram of WE TRIP around A (catching a) – Did the setter intend for TRIP to do double duty? | ||
| 14 | ANCHORAGE | City where you might find a refuge (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | OBEDIENT | Ready to agree to oxygen and a place to sleep on one hospital department (8) |
| O (Oxygen) BED (a place to sleep) I (one) ENT (hospital department) | ||
| 18 | INVOICE | Bill’s at fault, embracing love (7) |
| IN (at) VICE (Fault) embracing O (Love) – Am i missing something about the ‘s? | ||
| 20 | ADAMANT | Decided to change data surrounding soldier (7) |
| Anagram of DATA around MAN (soldier) | ||
| 21 | SIMPLE | Mean to spread lies about politician (6) |
| Anagram of LIES around MP (politician) – MEAN referring to Simple average here. | ||
| 24 | MINOR | Adolescent about to leave Mediterranean island (5) |
| CA (about to, circa) leaving MINORCA (Mediterranean island) | ||
*anagram
Many thanks Turbolegs & Flimsy
This was very enjoyable and I always appreciate Flimsy’s offerings.
More of the same, please Flimsy!
A most straightforward and enjoyable puzzle to solve.
Thanks to Flimsy, and to Turbolegs.
Re the ‘s in 18d, I think it is simply a contraction of (a/the) Bill (is).
Thanks – Flimsy for brightening up yet another dark, dismal, wet Friday – also to Turbo.
Thanks Flimsy for a straightforwardly enjoyable puzzle and Turbolegs for the blog.
19ac: I think the definition part here is “Perhaps count” as a definition by example. I read the wordplay as N + anagram of ONE LAMB, but it works either way.
22ac: Again, ON can be taken as part of the anagram or not.
8dn: I think “up” is a sufficient anagram lead, so no double duty here.
A nice relaxing work-out.
7a was presumably referring to Desperate Dan, the Dandy comic character.
Thanks to Flimsy and Turbolegs
Thanks everyone!
Hi Ernie – thanks for the tip on 7ac, have changed it.
Hi Pelham – I had written the parsing for 22ac as ON + CSI breaking but when the blog transfers over from the tool to the main post, the ‘+’ goes missing.
Thanks Flimsy, a lovely crosssword , like Bryan says , more of the same , please !My favourite was 1a or maybe 7a , in fact they were all great (except 22a which i did not get ).