I found today’s challenge from Bradman on the tougher end of his offerings. Thanks Don, for a relatively strenuous workout.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | REPAST | Make a meal of school subject, getting tense (6) |
| RE (school subject) PAST (tense) | ||
| 4 | PARTISAN | Biased worker going after power (8) |
| ARTISAN (worker) after P (power) | ||
| 9 | STALL | Stop everybody on the street (5) |
| ALL (everybody) after ST (street) | ||
| 10 | METALWORK | First person to converse about line making comeback in a particular craft (9) |
| ME (first person) [ TALK (converse) containing WOR (line = ROW, reversed) ] | ||
| 11 | ICECAPS | Area cold, one to the west, showing frozen extremities (7) |
| reverse (going west) of [ SPACE (area) C (cold) I (one) ] | ||
| 12 | ELYTRON | See extremity of aircraft with man on wing (7) |
| ELY (see) T (extremity of aircrafT) RON (man) – totally new word for me. chambers has it has “a beetle’s forewing modified to form a case for the hindwing” | ||
| 13 | SEEN | Observed only part of play in auditorium (4) |
| sounds like SCENE (part of play) | ||
| 14 | BEAT DOWN | In business, hassle and shine to a great degree? (4,4) |
| double def | ||
| 17 | TRANSACT | After proper preparation can start to perform (8) |
| CAN START* | ||
| 19 | TRIO | Three in inadequate attempt against ten (4) |
| TRy (attempt, inadequate) IO (10, ten) | ||
| 22 | RUBBISH | Bunk that may go into a skip (7) |
| cryptic clue; a skip is a container into which refuse might go | ||
| 24 | TERRIER | Dog to go off course – there’s row about that (7) |
| ERR (go off course) in TIER (row) | ||
| 25 | CHEVALIER | French gentleman crashing a vehicle by river (9) |
| [A VEHICLE]* R (river) | ||
| 26 | POSED | Sitting pretty? (5) |
| cryptic | ||
| 27 | ENTREATY | Request to take food into vestibule? (8) |
| EAT (take food) in ENTRY (vestibule) | ||
| 28 | LESSEE | One dealing with a letter wanting money periodically (6) |
| cryptic | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | RUSTIEST | Most neglected sites being restored – there’s excitement about that (8) |
| SITES* in RUT (excitement, an annual period of sexual activity in deer and other animals – new meaning for me) | ||
| 2 | PLACEMENT | Climbing mountain with stick in work for business agency? (9) |
| PLA (mountain = ALP, reversed) CEMENT (stick) | ||
| 3 | SYLVAN | Length of timber, as you might say, put on vehicle in wood? (6) |
| SYL (sounds like SILL – length of timber) VAN (vehicle) | ||
| 5 | AUTHENTICATOR | English cant – it jars in writer who is supposed to guarantee quality (13) |
| [E (english) CANT IT]* in AUTHOR (writer) | ||
| 6 | TALLY HO | Cry in country from fellow coming in hot, disturbed (5-2) |
| ALLY (fellow) in HOT* | ||
| 7 | SCOUR | Search part of this courtyard (5) |
| hidden in “..thiS COURtyard” | ||
| 8 | NUKING | International organisation upset over ruler bombing (6) |
| Reverse of UN (international organization) KING (ruler) | ||
| 10 | MESSERSCHMITT | New terms chemists used in German company (13) |
| TERMS CHEMISTS* | ||
| 15 | NARCISSUS | Youth not blossoming into manhood (9) |
| cyrptic clue | ||
| 16 | PORRIDGE | Stir food that’s hot? (8) |
| cryptic clue .. wondering if this qualifies as a double def or not | ||
| 18 | AGITATE | Upset produced by a fool, female troublemaker (7) |
| A GIT (fool) ATE (female troublemaker, greek goddess of mischief) | ||
| 20 | CRECHE | Children housed by Indians in special facility for tots (6) |
| CH (children) in CREE (indians) | ||
| 21 | TRIPLE | At end of journey the French drink (no small amount!) (6) |
| TRIP (journey) LE (the, french) | ||
| 23 | BREST | Article removed from chest in port (5) |
| BREaST (chest, without A – article) | ||
*anagram
I agree with your intro, Turbolegs. Struggled a bit but finished having enjoyed the challenge. Elytron was also new to me. When I first read the clue, the word that sprang to mind for ‘on wing’ was aileron, so I accidentally got the correct man – didn’t parse of course. As always, my first thought for ‘See’ was ELY, but it didn’t seem plausible until I had the E and Y.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
This was pretty tough, caused in some parts by some ambiguous definitions – ‘craft’, ‘work for business agency’, ‘length of timber’, German company’ and ‘port’ along with an unusual number of cryptic definitions from this setter. Not meaning this in a negative way, just that it took a little longer to work them out and, in fact, generally found the cryptic definitions quite good.
Had PORRIDGE as a double definition, for what it’s worth.
There were some excellent clues as well, including METALWORK (for it’s misdirection), ICECAPS (clever construction), BEAT DOWN (my last one in), PLACEMENT (clever definition) and NARCISSUS (best of the cd’s). I didn’t particularly like SYLVAN or POSED.
A nice work out by the Don which stretched into the weekend.