An entertaining tussle with Flimsy today, thanks to whom for setting an intuitive and approachable grid. No favorite clue here as there were several smooth surfaces. My LOI was 25ac, not because I solved it last, but because I couldnt do any better than parsing it as cryptic definition for the player part of the clue. Perhaps this could be improved upon.
FF: 9 DD: 7
| Across | ||
| 1 | CODSWALLOP | Fish’s batter is rubbish (10) |
| CODS (fish’s) WALLOP (batter) | ||
| 7 | SWOT | Drunk with women in study (4) |
| SOT (drunk) with W (women, in) | ||
| 9 | KILL | Waste talent? Not at first (4) |
| sKILL (talent, without first character) | ||
| 10 | HEADLIGHTS | Crumpet arrives – they could be turned on tonight! (10) |
| HEAD (crumpet) LIGHTS (arrives) | ||
| 11 | WIENER | Broke – we/I earn not a sausage (6) |
| Anagram of WE I EaRN (not ‘a’) | ||
| 12 | UNCHASTE | Immoral aunt – she’s perverted outside clubs (8) |
| Anagram of AUNT SHE around C | ||
| 13 | BEL CANTO | A manner of singing bass? The Spanish are able to (3,5) |
| B (bass) EL (‘the’ in spanish) CAN (able) TO | ||
| 15 | LEEK | Vegetable’s caught in flipping rake, Eleanor! (4) |
| Hidden in ‘raKE ELeanor’, reversed (flipping) | ||
| 17 | RHEA | Run and catch tailless bird (4) |
| R (Run) HEAr (catch, tailless) | ||
| 19 | NEWS REEL | How we might receive current affairs from young head of staff – with spin (8) |
| NEW (young) S (head of Staff) REEL (spin) | ||
| 22 | ASK FOR IT | Court disaster: King’s head is fat or revolting (3,3,2) |
| Anagram of K (King’s head) IS FAT OR | ||
| 23 | TWO BIT | Poor old boy’s eaten by goat (3-3) |
| OB (old boy) in TWIT (Goat, as in a stupid person) | ||
| 25 | HOLES IN ONE | Player enjoyed these aces (5,2,3) |
| cd? (A hole-in-one is called an ace). [Player refers to Gary Player, an illustrious golfer. Thanks Muffin @1 below] | ||
| 26 | SITE | Ill will leaving parking place (4) |
| SpITE (Ill will, without ‘p’ – parking) | ||
| 27 | SKID | Finally slaps child – a sign one’s lost one’s grip? (4) |
| S (finally slapS) KID (child) | ||
| 28 | TASKMASTER | Time to request team’s changed before manager finally becomes a slave driver (10) |
| T (Time) ASK (request) MASTE (anagram of team’s) R (manageR, finally) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | OXIDISE | Cross after ring has one side deformed and become rusty (7) |
| O (ring) X (cross) IDISE (anagram of I [one] SIDE) | ||
| 3 | SALON | Almost everyone fitted in son’s room (5) |
| ALl (almost everyone) in SON | ||
| 4 | ADHERENT | Sticking notice in this place by a set of books (8) |
| AD (notice) HERE (this place) NT (new testament, set of books) | ||
| 5 | LEAGUE OF NATIONS | Measure of changes in Nato’s international organisation (6,2,7) |
| LEAGUE (measure, of depth) OF NATIONS (anagram of IN NATOS) | ||
| 6 | POLICE | The force to cut up diamonds (6) |
| POL (cut – lop, up – reversed) ICE (diamonds) | ||
| 7 | SIGNALLER | Topless clean girls dancing – one should send out a warning! (9) |
| Anagram of cLEAN (topless) GIRLS | ||
| 8 | OCTETTE | This number’s set (7) |
| A set of eight (the clue itself is 8d) | ||
| 14 | COALFIELD | Where you might find miner’s indifferent about Michael Caine film (9) |
| COLD (indifferent) about ALFIE (Michael Caine film) | ||
| 16 | SWAT TEAM | Group of armed policemen hit char on motorway (4,4) |
| SWAT (hit) TEA (char) M (motorway) | ||
| 18 | HASSOCK | In church you could see this twit swallowing wine? On the contrary (7) |
| HOCK (wine) swallowing ASS (twit) | ||
| 20 | EPISTLE | Pete is excited about opening of love letter (7) |
| Anagram of PETE IS around L (opening of Love) | ||
| 21 | ARTIST | Criminal is rat, beginning to talk for Constable, perhaps (6) |
| ARTIS (anagram of IS RAT ) T (beginning to Talk) – Reference to the John Constable | ||
| 24 | OASIS | Band in studio as I speak (5) |
| Hidden in ‘studiO AS I Speak’ (Wonderwall people) | ||
*anagram
Re 25a
– “player” could be a general reference to a golfer, or a more specific reference to that great golfer, Gary Player.
Thanks, Turbolegs. I took 25ac ‘player’ to be a reference to Gary Player. What I can’t work out is why ‘crumpet’ means ‘head’. Please could someone give enlightenment? Anyway, thanks to Flimsy for a rapid session of good fun.
Thanks Muffin @1, I have incorporated your comment.
Hi Hornbeam @2 – Chambers has it as slang for head.
Cheers
Thanks Flimsy and Turbolegs
First crack at this setter … and all good.
Didn’t twig to Gary Player, so thanks muffin. Also hadn’t heard of ‘crumpet’ = HEAD … but did find it eventually.
I think OASIS featured twice this week – with Wanderer on Wednesday.
Enjoyable puzzle which, for me, was slightly spoilt by an overdose of one-letter devices.
There are no less than 6 clues in which one has to cut off the first or the last letter of a word (9ac, 11ac, 17ac, 26ac, 3d, 7d).
And the same number of clues (6) in which one has to select the first or last letter of a word. A bit odd the see “head (of)” used in two consecutive clues (19ac, 22ac), while the same applies to “finally” (27ac, 28ac).
In the end there’s nothing wrong with it but, again, for me, it took away some of the fun.
Thanks Turbolegs and Flimsy.