Straightforward definitions but some of the constructions were tricky to parse. Thank you Poins.
| Across | ||
| 1 | OVERSEE |
Disregard poetry in Old English (7)
VERSE (poetry) in OE (Old English) |
| 5 | BLOCKS |
Heads to restrict the use of tests at last (6)
BLOCK (restrict the use of) and testS (last letter of) |
| 9 | DISCOVER |
Find out when heads of international schools convene in town (8)
International Schools Convene (heads, first letters of) inside DOVER (town) |
| 10 | UGANDA |
A country‘s united by the dissemination of biased information? Not half (6)
U (united) with propaGANDA (hte dissemination of biased information) missing half |
| 12 | OFF THE RECORD |
Fantastic offer Hector ultimately declined is not to be made public (3,3,6)
anagram (fantastic) of OFFER HECTOR and declineD (ultimately, last letter) |
| 15 | HORRENDOUS |
Extremely unpleasant hordes run wild around Ohio (10)
anagram (wild) of HORDES RUN containing O (Ohio) |
| 17 | ACT |
Agreement not starting to produce an effect (3)
pACT (agreement) not starting |
| 19 | ERA |
Time fuse eventually found by soldiers (3)
fusE (eventually, last letter of) with RA (Royal Artillery, soldiers) – I also thought of ETA (estimated time of arrival) and TA (Territorial Army) |
| 20 | BLUE-PENCIL |
Smutty writer about to face the Italian censor (4-6)
BLUE (smutty) PEN (writer) C (circa, about) with (to face) IL (the, Italian) |
| 22 | DISINTEGRATE |
Titian’s greed stupidly causing break up (12) anagram (stupidly) of TITIAN’S GREED |
| 26 | AMORAL |
Monk in retreat accepting gold is unconcerned with right or wrong (6)
LAMA (monk) reversed (in retreat) contains (accepting) OR (gold) |
| 27 | UNCLOTHE |
Foreign article includes material showing what exotic dancers do (8)
UNE (article, foreign) contains CLOTH (material) |
| 28 | ENDURE |
Bear is close to river (6)
END (close) to URE (Yorkshire river) |
| 29 | POSTERN |
Gate money essentially to go with Bill (7)
moNey (essentially, middle letter of) following (to go with) POSTER (bill) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | ODDS |
Additional seconds making a significant difference (4)
ODD (additional) and S (seconds) |
| 2 | EASE |
Drugs said to relax (4)
sounds like (said) Es (ecstacy, drugs) |
| 3 | SCOT FREE |
Defectors renouncing Germany released without suffering punishment (4,4)
dEFECTORS* anagram=released missing D (Deutschland, Germany) |
| 4 | ELECT |
Choose today to abandon girl at court (5)
adELE (girl) missing AD (today) then CT (court) |
| 6 | LOGGER |
Record about to be overturned by German lumberjack (6)
LOG (record) and RE (regarding) reversed (overturned) following (by) G (German) |
| 7 | CONSONANCE |
Girl working to replace caveat at the end of agreement (10)
CONStANCE (girl) with ON (working) replacing caveaT (end letter of) |
| 8 | STANDSTILL |
Stop when lad with new stilts takes a tumble (10)
anagram (takes a tumble) of LAD with N (new) STILTS |
| 11 | REFUSE |
Rubbish produced by Whistler? Source of inspiration’s first to go (6)
REF (whistler) and mUSE (source of inspiration) missing first letter |
| 13 | THREADBARE |
Poor bear heard trapper’s leader moving around (10)
anagram (moving around) of BEAR HEARD and Trapper (leading letter of) |
| 14 | BROADSWORD |
American woman died after quarrel with son over a weapon (10)
BROAD (American woman) then D (died) following ROW (quarrel) with S (son) in front (before) |
| 16 | DOLMEN |
Miles overwhelmed by sorrow in front of knight’s tomb (6)
M (miles) inside (overwhelmed by) DOLE (sorrow) before (in front of) N (knight, chess) |
| 18 | PEP TALKS |
Guardiola communicates confidence boosters (3,5) PEP Guardiola and TALKS (communicates) |
| 21 | UNFAIR |
Dishonest fellow ejected from amusement park (6)
fUNFAIR (amusement park) missing F (fellow) |
| 23 | RUN UP |
Hastily mend top of net after game at university (3,2)
Net (top letter of) following RU (Rugby Union, ,game) and UP (at university) |
| 24 | STYE |
Swelling with pride ultimately after last one’s left (4) pridE (ultimate letter of) follows (after) STaY (last) missing A (one) |
| 25 | KEEN |
Sharp practice finally admitted by Livingstone (4)
practicE (final letter of) inside (admitted by) KEN Livingstone |
definitions are underlined
How does OVERSEE = “disregard”? “overlook” can mean “disregard”.
I looked up oversee in Chambers, it can mean the same as overlook in the sense of ‘disregard’.
Thanks PeeDee, but unless a reliable source can be cited I regard this clue as an oversight. Still struggling with the rest of the puzzzzzle!
OED has it too but lists it as chiefly Scottish and obsolete.
6. trans. To fail to notice, overlook; to disregard, pass over, ignore, neglect. Chiefly Sc. Obs.
I take it you meant to enter OVERSEE, not “overlook” – 6.trans. To fail to notice, oversee; ?
Click, sorry, I am rather tired after having grandchildren here, it must be “oversee, 6. trans. To fail to notice, overlook; to disregard, pass over, ignore neglect.” Thanks again PeeDee.
English is becoming meaningless
English is becoming meaningless, yes, I know I have said it before, but you will not accept it!
Gaufrid has now upped the captcha to the dizzy height of ? x eight = 32, after not accepting my comment that English is becoming meaningless.
Does he never sleep, bless his heart
Oh dear, apologies everybody. The system last night would not accept my comment, but drinking my tea this morning I realised what might have happened. Horrors. Oh well, I stand by what I said. This is the first time I have complained about a clue. Usually it is I who try to find reasons to justify an answer when others are doing the complaining.
Thank you Poins and PeeDee,
The clues were very well presented, lovely smooth surfaces, but I had to parse the two with names, ADELE and CONSTANCE, after entering the answers. I particularly liked ACT, OFF THE RECORD, POSTERN and UNFAIR.