The usual high quality puzzle from Poins, and very enjoyable too.
10 across has me well and truly beaten, though, so your help is welcome there.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SECOND | Back in a mo (6) |
| Two definitions: to back someone up/a moment. | ||
| 4 | LAPTOP | Computer literacy primarily gets Pat new work (6) |
| L[iteracy] + PAT* + OP. | ||
| 9 | FAIR | Just as likely (4) |
| Two definitions? I’m not sure I can think of a sentence where one could interchange “fair” and “likely” though, so I could be missing something. | ||
| 10 | GREAT DANES | Fellow having energy to put on course for dogs (5,5) |
| Stumped. DAN could be the fellow, I guess. | ||
| 11 | RUMBLE | Fight for control over central Zambia (6) |
| [za]MB[ia] in RULE. | ||
| 12 | DETESTED | Couldn’t stand trial after returning newspaper boss starts to expose duplicity (8) |
| ED< + TEST + E[xpose] D[uplicity]. | ||
| 13 | HEAD START | It offers a better chance of success being the boss’s moll (4,5) |
| HEAD‘S TART. | ||
| 15 | POET | Ginsberg perhaps cut lines from verse (4) |
| POET[ry]. | ||
| 16 | SO-SO | Indifferent therefore to the truth (2-2) |
| SO + SO. Think of “isn’t that so” meaning “isn’t that the truth”. | ||
| 17 | DEVASTATE | Was economical over gallery floor (9) |
| SAVED< + TATE. | ||
| 21 | FIVE-STAR | Fictional vet is far from first-class (4-4) |
| (VET IS FAR)*. An unusual choice of anagrind perhaps, but it didn’t cause any real problems. | ||
| 22 | OXFORD | Cross on account of splitting extremely old shoe (6) |
| (X + FOR) in O[l]D. | ||
| 24 | COMPLACENT | Smug politician interrupting to cancel review (10) |
| MP in (TO CANCEL)*. | ||
| 25 | A BIT | Even parts of Bambi have it to some extent (1,3) |
| [b]A[m]B[i] + IT. | ||
| 26 | TIRADE | A string of invectives from head of institute in Deal (6) |
| I[nstitute] in TRADE. | ||
| 27 | DEARTH | Want to be right in the end (6) |
| R in DEATH. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | STATURE | David for example embodies resistance as moral greatness (7) |
| R in STATUE. | ||
| 2 | CAROB | A capital city without one b….. tree (5) |
| CA[i]RO + B. | ||
| 3 | NEGLECT | Disregard information about the French court (7) |
| GEN< + LE + CT. | ||
| 5 | ASTUTE | Wily like the earliest Native American people (6) |
| AS + T[he] + UTE. A reference to the Ute people. | ||
| 6 | TRANSPORT | Managed against the odds to board wrong troopship (9) |
| (RAN + SP) in TORT. | ||
| 7 | PREVENT | Stop by before five to get English books (7) |
| PRE + V + E + NT. | ||
| 8 | TENDER-HEARTED | Kind of dented the rear somehow (6-7) |
| (DENTED THE REAR)*. | ||
| 14 | DISTEMPER | Princess’s irritability caused by disease (9) |
| DI‘S TEMPER. | ||
| 16 | SPINOUT | Go on about current thing Button wants to avoid (7) |
| IN in SPOUT. An unfamiliar term for me, but it sounds very much like something a Formula 1 driver would prefer not to be troubled with. | ||
| 18 | APOSTLE | Maybe Peter‘s pet also strayed (7) |
| (PET ALSO)*. | ||
| 19 | TARNISH | This mountain feature is hard to spot (7) |
| TARN + IS + H. | ||
| 20 | STRAND | Put up with enclosing the end of Porthmeor beach (6) |
| [porthmeo]R in STAND. | ||
| 23 | FLAIR | Fine to embrace Liberal’s intuitive discernment (5) |
| L in FAIR. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
10A GREATS is the Oxford course, together with DAN and E
9a, “That’s a fair guess”, “That’s a likely guess”?
Indeed PPE is known as modern greats. Much to enjoy pity the memory after a week is a tad weak. Thanks Simon and Poins, enjoyed this but finished quite quickly enabling be to do the Beelzebub for a change. Don’t often get the time for that.
Surely Greats : literae humaniores is extant at Oxford ?
Well that explains it, I guess. Never went to Oxbridge myself, so not surprised I didn’t get that one. Bloody pleb that I obviously am.