Nice easy Monday in the Indy? You’ve got to be kidding.
This took quite a while to get out and I still don’t properly understand at least one of them, although I’ll probably kick myself when someone explains OZONE.
Some cracking cluing here, lovely &Lits but some of this was hard to spot, thanks Daedalus.
Across
R.U. (game) & 1 & NED (a tough, a hooligan)
[I HOPE IT ]* touring & A
Hidden (interrupted by) answer
RA (a god) & INCA (king of the Incans) & bit of T(rue) & SAND (grit) & DOGS (plagues)
0 (love) removed from F(o)RA & a crackpot LEARNT*
P(ower) in ROE (eggs)
Hidden answer
RE (about) & F (urther) E(ducation) (sixth form) & (t)REND (subject – a bit iffily) with top cancelled & A (a grade in exams). At least I think this is how this works.
[Y (why you say) MOVE TOGETHER EU]* uncommonly
ALB(anian) & ROASTS* wildly
Another &lit? N(orthern) & OR (other ranks) & A wandering from SE(a)MAN
Double def
Down
FIR (tree reversed climbing) & FRA (friar according to Chambers) & FF (following)
i being sq root of -1 and thus imaginary & a cryptic def for a useless number
Cryptic def for earache & start of E(xcite) & A & most of RACHE(l)
THE T.A. Didn’t think they were called the T.A. anymore, should this be retired?
IN (popular) & hom of CIDER
Cryptic def & [ONE PRONE SPITTLE]* flecked. Looks like a bang to rights &lit to me
A & SALT (sailor) reversed aloft
[FOR TEENS]* are disorderly
bit of F(ighting) removed from [TOF(f)S MELT]* breaking out
C(irc)A (about) & E(thics) removed from REF(e)REE
T’ (northern English THE) & REST (support) & LE (the French)
RET(urn) & P(enny) from (p)OUCH
YEAR & N(ovember)
O3 (I know should be a subscript) is OZONE, lost here can’t justify 00 = OZ & ONE
Hi
I thought ozone
Was o (o)
o (z short for zero)
1(one)
I think 22D Ozone is both “Ohs” and “one”, and O-O-O, the molecular arrangement.
This wasn’t by any means easy but I found it did repay steady concentration. The answers gradually came to light, although your parsing, flashling, is far more complete than mine. I never did parse the long answers at 7D or 12A, just writing them in. I eventually stuck on the crossing pair of 20D Retouch and 26A Charge, at which I stared for 11 long minutes before managing to finish. I did like 11A Overspill! Some very nice clues, yes, and out of the ordinary, thanks, Daedalus.
Actually I thought Z=0 but couldn’t find a source for that, but I only have online resources today and couldn’t get anything to say that. BTW Daedalus is a fifteen squared old boy made good.
Thanks Daedalus and flashling. For 19A, I had RE (about) + FE (sixth form) + R (school subject, i.e. one of the 3 Rs) + END (cancel) + A (top grade)
Strangely, this one went in quite quickly for me, except for some hold-ups in the bottom right corner, although I couldn’t quite parse a few. Couldn’t quite see what what the anagram was at 21ac.
I agree with Querulous@4 about 19ac.
It took me a while to get on Daedalus’s wavelength, but once I did I made steady progress. My LOI was OZONE accompanied by a shrug, but that takes nothing away from what I thought was an excellent puzzle. I particularly liked the clue for NORSEMEN.
Thanks all! I admit I also thought z=zero rather obscure (it’s in Chambers) but I couldn’t resist the odd-looking clue. Thanks to Flashling for untangling most of the knots.
Thanks setter et al, now I think about it I can hear in my head colonial commentators saying he’s scored a big fat zee.
I read ozone as 0’s (zeros if you say it out loud) + one. Which at least removes the z=0 conundrum! And definitely saw 19A like Querulous. Bit of a toughie for a Monday but fair. Thanks D & F.
We loved 2d.
Thanks Daedalus for an enjoyable challenge to start the week and flashling for the blog.