The Don takes over Dac’s end of the month Wednesday slot, with a relatively straightforward puzzle.
One or two synonyms seemed a little tenuous to us, but they didn’t hold up progress too much.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Thin layer across a sort of roof | |
| PALATE | PLATE (thin layer) round A – the roof of the mouth | |
| Firm in Beds town reduced by a third initially | ||
| STABLE | ||
| 8 | This person gets a less nasty disease | |
| MEASLES | ME (this person) + an anagram of A LESS – anagrind is ‘nasty’ | |
| 10 | Sleeping in corridor, man twitches | |
| DORMANT | Hidden in corriDOR MAN Twitches | |
| 11 | Gent with bruises bled terribly–something that could affect man’s facial appearance | |
| DESIGNER STUBBLE | An anagram of GENT and BRUISES BLED – anagrind is ‘terribly’ | |
| 12 | Evangelist showing power to an extent before hesitation | |
| PREACHER | P (power) + REACH (extent) + ER (hesitation) | |
| 14 | Bank record | |
| LIST | Double definition – although we’re not totally convinced about ‘list = bank’ – ‘list’ in the sense of leaning over tends to apply to ships, whereas ‘bank’ generally refers to aircraft | |
| 17 | The fellow without identity is to go to ground | |
| HIDE | HE (the fellow) round or ‘without’ ID (identity) | |
| 18 | Right-wing party’s friend concealing hot wrath endlessly | |
| PHALANGE | PAL (friend) round or ‘concealing’ H (hot) + ANGE |
|
| 21 | Disregard for others in trick tried on is a wrong | |
| INCONSIDERATION | IN CON (trick) + an anagram of TRIED ON IS A – anagrind is ‘wrong’ | |
| 23 | Discharge the thing into tube | |
| SPIT OUT | IT (the thing) in SPOUT (tube) | |
| 24 | Three or four, say, in the café? | |
| TEATIME | We puzzled over the parsing of this one (our last one in) for a while, and decided that the reference to a café is there just to refer to a meal – we were looking for something more complicated! (TEATIME in our house is three –ish). | |
| 25 | Communist at this time is in retreat—surprise | |
| WONDER | RED (communist) NOW (at this time) reversed or ‘in retreat’ | |
| 26 | Old female journalist is given approval | |
| OKAYED | O (old) + KAY (woman) + ED (journalist) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | One of the works set up manufactured ointment | |
| POMADE | OP (one of the works) reversed or ‘set up’ + MADE (manufactured) | |
| 2 | From what we hear, Yorkshire city shows the way | |
| LEADS | Sounds like (‘from what we hear’) LEEDS (Yorkshire city) | |
| 3 | Urgent message once coming from English member stuck in vehicle | |
| TELEGRAM | E (English) LEG (member) ‘stuck’ in TRAM (vehicle) | |
| 5 | Make appearance in stage act at Oxford, say | |
| TURN UP | TURN (stage act) + UP (‘at Oxford, say’) | |
| 6 | Bishop out on a walk gathering wild fruit | |
| BRAMBLING | B (bishop) + RAMBLING (out on a walk) | |
| 7 | Request to have bolt maybe inserted in gate? | |
| ENTREATY | EAT (‘bolt, maybe’) in ENTRY (gate) | |
| 9 | Visitors to coastline may understand what is being said | |
| SEE THE POINT | A play on the fact that visitors to the coastline may SEE THE POINT, or headland | |
| 10 | Removal of weapons in Amsterdam after assault | |
| DISARMAMENT | An anagram of IN AMSTERDAM – anagrind is ‘after assault’ | |
| 13 | Untie cord—if that’s tricky, cut | |
| REDUCTION | An anagram of UNTIE CORD – anagrind is ‘if that’s tricky’ | |
| 15 | Tool repurposed as a winch | |
| CHAIN SAW | An anagram of AS A WINCH – anagrind is ‘repurposed’ | |
| 16 | Tree cut, pollarded, south of river | |
| TAMARACK | ||
| 19 | Request for more chaps to abandon head and heart | |
| ENCORE | ||
| 20 | Certainly part of the action | |
| INDEED | IN (part of) + DEED (action) | |
| 22 | Island disposing of leader in a very cold manner | |
| ICILY | SICILY (island) with the first letter omitted or ‘disposing of leader’ | |
Thanks, both. Usual sound stuff from Quixote, although I agree with you that ‘list’ and ‘bank’ are not quite the same thing. Didn’t help myself by entering TAMARIND for 16dn. It is a tree, but doesn’t fit the clue, of course.
Teatime in our house is around half-six, because folk in Derbyshire call their main evening meal ‘tea’. Which confuses foreigners.
Thanks to the setter.
All seemed straight forward here till I entered ‘show up’ in 5d. ‘Dormant’ put me right there though. I agree with comments about ‘bank’ and ‘list’ but it didn’t cause me any angst.
Thx both
Another who put in SHOW UP for 5d before remembering Dunstable, and LIST was last in as I couldn’t really convince myself either.
Thanks Q and B&J
Another enjoyable puzzle from the Don, IMHO. I’d seen DORMANT very early on so wasn’t tempted by “show up” for 5dn. TAMARACK was only vaguely known but with the K checker the wordplay seemed clear enough. I didn’t think twice about bank/list, and even though I would agree that “bank” is mainly used in the aviation industry nowadays I have always assumed its origins were nautical, as in a ship leaning towards a bank. The POMADE/PALATE crossers were my last ones in.
I was another one slightly undone by the tree: I initially put tamarisk (how many trees are there starting tamar)? It didn’t help that I thought pollarded meant removing letters from the front and back, so I was looking for a word for cut which was _isk_. I wasn’t impressed with the teatime clue – a bit too vague for my liking.
Thanks for the blog.
I fairly whizzed through this – held up only briefly by the PHALANGE/TAMARACK crossers – both of which I got purely on wordplay & had to look up. Though Chambers gives PHALANGE under phalanx as a Fourierist group & under Fourierism gives a socialist or communalist group which surely should be “left wing” rather than “right wing”?