A pleasant vanilla crossword with a good variety of clues. Thanks, FLIMSY
| Across | ||
| 1 | PREJUDICED |
Jack involved in fixing price due to get fired finally? Unfair (10)
An anagram (fixing) of PRICE DUE with J for jack inserted, and D, the final letter of fired, added. |
| 7 | EARN |
Take home eagle that’s caught (4)
A homophone of erne |
| 9 | IFFY |
Up in the air, high? Not at first (4)
Niffy (malodorous or going off) minus its first letter. It could equally be squiffy (affected by drink) minus its first three letters, we suppose. |
| 10 | SNAILS PACE |
Crawl in Al’s disordered room (6,4)
An anagram (disordered) of IN ALS and SPACE (room) |
| 11 | CARESS |
Is concerned with son’s pet (6)
CARES plus S for son |
| 12 | ANECDOTE |
One acted out story (8)
An anagram of ONE ACTED |
| 13 | INCIDENT |
Something that happened in hospital department – police getting involved (8)
IN plus ENT (ear, nose and throat) with CID, part of the police, inserted |
| 15 | TILT |
Lean bird swallowing head of lugworm (4)
TIT with L, the first letter of lugworm, inserted |
| 17 | MESH |
Game show saves network (4)
Contained in the first two words of the clue |
| 19 | RESIDUAL |
Is rude about almost everyone remaining (8)
An anagram of IS RUDE with AL (all (everyone), minus its final letter) added |
| 22 | OPERATES |
Aida possibly set to return works (8)
OPERA (of which Aida is an example) plus TES (reversal of set) |
| 23 | ARMPIT |
One in the embrace of eccentric tramp – the source of a strong odour? (6)
An anagram (eccentric) of TRAMP with I (Roman numeral one) inserted. |
| 25 | PRETENDING |
Priest getting top from emporium, leaning and putting it on (10)
PR for priest, plus E, the first letter (top) of emporium, plus TENDING (leaning, inclining) |
| 26 | TEAR |
Bolt starts to train excessively after race (4)
The first letters (starts to) of train, excessively, after and race. |
| 27 | GRID |
Gut initially empty – you’re trying to fill it (4)
G, the first letter (initially) of gut, plus RID (empty, eradicate) |
| 28 | HESITATION |
Delay – the man and I getting stuck in Waterloo, perhaps (10)
HE (the man) plus STATION (Waterloo is one) with I inserted |
| Down | ||
| 2 | REFRAIN |
Tune from the Queen squeezing foot in shower (7)
ER (HM the Q) with F for foot inserted, inserted into RAIN (shower) |
| 3 | JOYCE |
Novelist’s happiness with church (5)
JOY (happiness) plus CE for Church of England |
| 4 | DISASTER |
Be disappearing in bed – is plant a failure? (8)
D (bed without be) plus IS plus ASTER |
| 5 | CHARACTERISTICS |
Ways odd fellow is a jerk? Stealing primarily (15)
CHARACTER (odd fellow) plus IS plus TIC (jerk or spasm) plus S, the first letter of stealing |
| 6 | DULCET |
Sweet, large bit of cake – tucking into a piece for two (6)
L for large and C, the first letter of cake, inserted into DUET |
| 7 | EXPEDITED |
Went out to purchase spread regularly promoted (9)
EXITED with P, E and D, the even-numbered letters of spread, inserted. |
| 8 | RECITAL |
Musical performance: record it all? Not quite (7)
REC as an abbreviation for RECORD on a device. plus IT plus AL (all minus its final letter) |
| 14 | INHERITED |
Home he tried renovating, obtained from previous generations (9)
IN (home, as in I’m home) plus an anagram (renovating) of HE TRIED |
| 16 | ESCARGO |
It’s in a shell: is Parisian eating contents? (8)
EST (is in French) with CARGO (contents or payload) inserted |
| 18 | EMPEROR |
Perhaps Nero’s anger beginning to depart in front of soldiers (7)
EMPER (temper, minus its first letter (beginning to depart)) plus OR, an acronym for other ranks, soldiers |
| 20 | AGITATO |
A goat, it’s running wild (7)
An anagram (running) of a, goat and it. Agitato is a musical direction meaning wild or with agitation. |
| 21 | STENCH |
Small fish’s smell (6)
S for small plus TENCH, a freshwater fish |
| 24 | MOTET |
Brought up in state to memorise anthem (5)
Contained in the fourth, fifth and sixth words of the clue, reversed (brought up) |
Thanks Flimsy and D&L
A pleasant enough puzzle with good and unambiguous clues throughout. No real holdups, although I didn’t properly parse EXPEDITED.
Had used ‘whiffy’ rather than either niffy or squiffy at 9A.
Finished in the NE corner with EXPEDITE, ERNE and SNAIL’S PACE the last few in.
9A could also be (CL) iffy
Cliff is in the several dictionaries that I checked.
My comment was autocorrected.
Cliffy is in the several dictionaries that I checked.
Thanks to D&L and Flimsy.
Or STiffy?
Add your own flavour to 9ac.
Hamish
We have to admit that that was our preferred choice!