A good tussle with Bradman’s serving this morning – Thanks Bradman for a good workout. I didnt find it easy going entirely and had to complete the puzzle in small bursts. I found the NW and the SE corners to be more taxing, relatively.
For a couple of clues, I got to the solution first but didnt crack the parsing (17ac, 16d).
| Across | ||
| 1 | DABBLE | Author Margaret’s not right to act casually (6) |
| DrABBLE (Margaret Drabble, English author) without R (not right) | ||
| 4 | SHOCKING | Awful wine tipped into grass (8) |
| HOCK (wine) in SING (grass, used as informing the police) | ||
| 9 | CHAIN | A home by church seen in mountain range (5) |
| A IN (home) by CH (church) | ||
| 10 | SRI LANKAN | Islander, thin and gaunt, sheltering from violent rains (3,6) |
| LANK (thin and gaunt) in anagram of RAINS | ||
| 11 | MEDICAL | Examination claimed to be corrupt (7) |
| Anagram of CLAIMED | ||
| 12 | SKIDDER | Son – deceptive type, someone on the slide (7) |
| S (Son) KIDDER (deceptive type) | ||
| 13 | NORM | Invaders with no answer – you might expect that (4) |
| NORMans (invaders) without ANS (no answer) | ||
| 14 | PRELATES | Chronicles written by quiet clergy (8) |
| RELATES (chronicles) by P (quiet) | ||
| 17 | DELEGATE | Agent given instruction to take away money from sporting event (8) |
| DELE (take away) around GATE (money from sporting event) | ||
| 19 | BRIO | Liveliness of small music group with new leader (4) |
| tRIO (small music group) with B instead of T (new leader) | ||
| 22 | TRUMPET | The last thing we’d expect to hear? (7) |
| cryptic clue, biblical reference | ||
| 24 | IRELAND | One antelope leaping over river in the country (7) |
| I (one) ELAND (antelope) around R (river) [My original and highly contrived parsing was : I (one) RED (antelope, lechwe) leaping over LAN (river, in Belarus)] | ||
| 25 | PLAY ALONG | Co-operate with pal suffering terrible agony, penning brief line (4,5) |
| Anagram of PAL (suffering – anagrind) and AGONY (terrible – anagrind) around L (brief line) | ||
| 26 | ORION | Such stars would gather round saint for prayer (5) |
| Cryptic clue – ORION around S (saint) gives ORISON, which means prayer. Thanks Geoff. | ||
| 27 | CHILDISH | Endless cold food? That’s silly (8) |
| CHILl (endless cold) DISH (food) | ||
| 28 | LAGGER | Person installing insulation may be one behind schedule (6) |
| cryptic clue – to LAG is to enclose in material that provides heat insulation. Therefore one who does such a job could be called a LAGGER. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DOCUMENT | Paper badly mounted beginning to crumple (8) |
| Anagram of MOUNTED and C (beginning to crumple) | ||
| 2 | BLADDERED | Very drunk needing help to get up into bed (9) |
| LADDER (help to get up) into BED | ||
| 3 | LUNACY | Folly having fancy decoration around international body (6) |
| LACY (fancy decoration) around UN (international body) | ||
| 5 | HAIR SPLITTING | Being pernickety when there’s a tonsorial problem? (4-9) |
| Cryptic clue | ||
| 6 | CHARIOT | Talk when drinking port in carriage (7) |
| CHAT (talk) drinking RIO (port) | ||
| 7 | INKED | Some pink edition – as all our papers must be! (5) |
| Hidden in pINK EDition | ||
| 8 | GENTRY | Good list of competitors – top people here (6) |
| G (good) ENTRY (list of competitors) | ||
| 10 | SELF RIGHTEOUS | Smug sightseer, foul when abroad (4-9) |
| Anagram of SIGHTSEER FOUL | ||
| 15 | STREAMING | Troubled emigrants moving in large numbers (9) |
| Anagram of EMIGRANTS | ||
| 16 | LONDONER | City type is no mixer, fellow in seclusion (8) |
| DON (fellow) in LONER (no mixer) | ||
| 18 | LAPLAND | Heartless lord concealing a scheme for northern region (7) |
| LD (heartless lord) containing A PLAN (a scheme) | ||
| 20 | ATOPIC | A matter for discussion associated with hypersensitivity (6) |
| A TOPIC (matter for discussion) | ||
| 21 | VERONA | City functioning within very short period (6) |
| ON (functioning ) within V (very short) ERA (period) | ||
| 23 | UMAMI | Hesitation over foreign friend’s sort of taste (5) |
| UM (hesitation) over AMI (foreign friend, french) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Turbolegs. I think 16 ac is dele = instruction (in proof reading) + gate. Very enjoyable as usual for Bradman. 21 down held me up for a while – so many ways of reading the clue!
Yes, thanks, Turbolegs. I was held up by scepticism on 2dn — probably because it’s bluittered where I live. Great fun as usual, Bradman