Thanks to Wanderer, for a Friday challenge that was relatively easy compared to earlier offerings from him.
Seems like there is a mini-theme around our friendly K9s.
FF: 9 DD: 7
| Across | ||
| 8 | COURSE | Where horses race and hunt with dogs? (6) |
| double def | ||
| 9 | ABRASION | Wearing a form of support around one’s leg (8) |
| A BRA (form of support) SI (one’s = IS, around = reversed) ON (leg, cricket terminology) | ||
| 10 | SKIM | Small novel, quickly read (4) |
| S (small) KIM (novel, kipling) | ||
| 11 | LUKEWARMLY | NT doctor treated Mary extremely well, in a rather cool manner (10) |
| LUKE (New Testament, doctor) [ MARY WL ( extremely WelL)]* | ||
| 12 | SPOT | Dog mess (4) |
| double def | ||
| 13 | CHANCERIES | Courts risk, meeting bruisers regularly (10) |
| CHANCE (risk) RIES (bRuIsErS, regularly) | ||
| 17, 18, 19 | GONE TO THE DOGS | Ruined thong, with edges too ragged (4,2,3,4) |
| THONG EDGES TOO* | ||
| 21 | T-BONE STEAK | Cut of meat set to bake round about noon (1-4,5) |
| SET TO BAKE* around N (noon) | ||
| 23 | CHOW | Dog food (4) |
| doubel def (the chow-chow dog is also known as chow) | ||
| 24 | ARRHYTHMIA | Irregular beats feature in this song without a regular repeated pattern (10) |
| ARIA (song) outside (without) RHYTHM (regular repeated pattern) | ||
| 28 | RILL | Fish not born in brook (4) |
| bRILL (fish, without ‘B’-born) | ||
| 29 | NEUTRINO | Turn-on that is arranged for one without any charge (8) |
| TURN ON IE* (that is) | ||
| 30 | ENTIRE | Whole number? It needs rounding a bit (6) |
| Hidden , reversed in “..numbER IT NEeds…” | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | COCKAPOO | Parrot initially playing for time when cross (8) |
| COCKAtOO (parrot, with ‘P – Playing initally, replacing T – time) – cross between a cocker spaniel and a poodle | ||
| 2 | PROMETHEAN | Love setter caught by angry panther being daringly innovative (10) |
| [O (love) ME (setter)] in PANTHER* | ||
| 3 | REPLICATES | Copies answers about pet? (10) |
| REPLIES (answers) around CAT (pet) | ||
| 4, 14, 27 | BARK AT THE MOON | Protest in vain, as might setter upset to see Io make an appearance? (4,2,3,4) |
| cryptic clue; setter here is to mean dog (which would bark) and Io refers to a moon of jupiter. Excellent clue this (referring possibly one of the toughest setters on the FT) | ||
| 5 | BROW | Body part with only 80% tan (4) |
| 80% of BROWn (tan) | ||
| 6 | TSAR | Second to enter pitch, a person in authority (4) |
| S (second) in TAR (pitch) | ||
| 7 | See 22 | |
| 14 | See 4 | |
| 15 | CHECKMATES | Makes move to win friends in Prague, say? (10) |
| sounds lke CZECH MATES (friends in prague) | ||
| 16 | REDECORATE | Freshly paint with colour mostly ranked below green (10) |
| RED (colour) ECO (green) RATEd (ranked, mostly) | ||
| 20 | GROWLERS | Dogs perhaps left in custody of gardeners? (8) |
| L (left) in GROWERS (gardeners) | ||
| 22 , 7 | BORDER COLLIE | Dancing bolero, cried about lost sheepdog (6,6) |
| BOLERO CRIED* about L (lost) | ||
| 25 | HATE | Dislike a little pooch, a terrier that could be pet (4) |
| hidden in “…poocH A TErrier…”, + cryptic def : something could be a pet hate. | ||
| 26 | TAIL | Part of a dog track (4) |
| double def | ||
| 27 | See 4 | |
*anagram
Yes, not too difficult but I missed ARRHYTHMIA which was annoying. I enjoyed the dog theme, even learning a new name for what I’ve always known as a ‘spoodle’. The ‘Io’ clue – upper case ‘i’ looked exactly like a lower case ‘l’ in my print out – was the highlight for me.
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Got off to a quick start with T-BONE STEAK and no real holdups until I finished up in the NE corner with COCKAPOO (new term) and SPOT. NEUTRINO was the other word that I had not seen before.
Didn’t realise quite how many dogs there were lurking in the clues until doing my final parsing run through.