eXternal starts off a grey and cold morning…
Many thanks to Gaufrid for the blog of yesterday’s Everyman, was rather relieved to see my internet back up this morning.
There seemed a lot of the cases of W(ord)S type clues in this – but a mostly straightforward solve which always helps 🙂
Across
1 Two fellows after fruit hard to resist (5,3)
FIGHT OFF
FIG (fruit) & H(ard) & TO & 2* F(ellow)
5 Very brief yen to stop affair (6)
FLYING
Y(en)Â stopping FLING
10 Son isn’t paragon of virtue (5)
SAINT
S(on) & AIN’T
11 Comfortably settled, three bridge players yield to contract (9)
ENSCONCED
East, North & South & a contracted CONCED(e)
12 Imagined gnarled vine’s old (9)
ENVISAGED
VINES* gnarled & AGED
13 Pronounced part of body is unwanted (5)
WASTE
Sounds like waist
14 Somewhat drunk, no trouble to relax (6)
UNKNOT
15 Extremely pitiful stranger is drudge (7)
PLODDER
Extremes of P(itifu)L & ODDER
18 French entertainer’s mimic that is replacing another, initially (7)
PIERROT
I.E. replacing A(nother) in PARROT (mimic)
20 Feel free to label start of eighties as second childhood (6)
DOTAGE
DO TAG ( feel free to label) & start of E(ighties)
22 Petite Spaniard’s the female on-trend (5)
ELFIN
EL (the spanish) & F(emale) & IN (trendy)
24 Six Creole cooks for hotel, perhaps (9)
EXCELSIOR
[SIX CREOLE]* cooked
25 Hard working cadet died in action (9)
DEDICATED
[CADET DIED]* in action
26 Work in Greek island secured by one youth (5)
ILIAD
I(sland) in 1 LAD
27 In the case of drought, grain is most parched (6)
DRYEST
In the case of D(rough)T, Â RYE (i)S
28 Teams requested to stock kit (small) (8)
BRIGADES
BADE (requested) stocking RIG (kit) & S(mall)
Down
1 Join fleet on bearing to the north (6)
FASTEN
FAST (fleet) & E(ast – a bearing)Â & N(orth)
2 Care given preparing beef (9)
GRIEVANCE
[CARE GIVEN]* prepared
3 Splashed custard on suit in tragedy (5,10)
TITUS ANDRONICUS
[CUSTARD ON SUIT]* splashed. Not entirely convinced the surface would qualify as tragedy though.
4 The creeps pinching European goods (7)
FREIGHT
FRIGHT (the creeps) pinching E(uropean)
6 Watch orator, perhaps, that’s rich (4,4,7)
LOOK WHOS TALKING
Think this is just a cryptic def & def
7 People using coins and notes endlessly (5)
INCAS
IN CAS(h) without its end
8 With GPS primarily nowadays, cop tracks devices (8)
GADGETRY
G(ps) & A.D. (nowadays) & GET (to cop) & R(ailwa)Y
9 American fool with bottom above head gets exhausted (4,2)
USED UP
US (american) & DUPE with the E at the end moved to the top
16 Passed to acquire Cockney’s item, about one grand (9)
DIGNIFIED
[FING (cockney’s THING) reversed & 1] in DIED (passed)
17 Jolly dad worried with spaniel scratching two areas (8)
SPLENDID
Two * A (indef article) removed from [D(a)D SP(a)NIEL]* scratched
19 Announcements of town events so regularly ignored (6)
TWEETS
Every other letter of ToWn EvEnTs So
20 Maybe cup final referee (7)
DECIDER
Double def
21 Orders of barrows with hundred-fold increase (6)
GRADES
My last one in by some way, but it’s GRAVES (barrows) with the V(5) multiplied by 100 to get D(500)
23 Voguish tips from family to nurse tot (5)
FADDY
Tips of F(amil)Y nursing ADD (tot(al))
Thanks flashling & eXternal. I guessed what was going on in 21d early on, as I’ve seen similar clues recently, but needed all the crossing letters to get the answer.
I wasn’t sure about splendid = jolly, but I see Chambers gives “splendid, very agreeable (inf[ormal])” as a definitions of “jolly”.
Exactly as flashling, LOI was GRADES by a margin. Decent puzzle for a Monday, mostly straightforward but not quite a breeze.
1D I parsed as FAST + <NE (bearing to the north).
4D Typo with FRIGHT(s). {Fixed thanks}
Thanks to eXternal and flashling.
I’ll be first to say that I couldn’t get GRADES at all, so DNF. All the rest went in smoothly – a perfect Monday puzzle in the ‘old’ style.
Well done eXternal and thanks to the reconnected flashling for the blog.
Only completed the SE corner with wordfinder help and then couldn’t parse GRADES, and a real groan when I did parse ILIAD – I guessed ‘Greek’ had to be separated from ‘island’ but didn’t think of it as part of the definition.
Some great clues, including ENSCONCED, ENVISAGED and SPLENDID, but my CoD is the aforesaid ILIAD.
Thanks, eXternal and flashling.
Couldn’t see 21dn at all. Guessed TRADES as something one does from a barrow.