Lor! Oh so good. Thank you and please come back more often.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BETRAYAL | Choice fish almost completely selling out (8) |
| BET (choice) RAY (fish) ALL (completely, almost all the letters of) | ||
| 5 | POTAGE | Soup for one on counter (6) |
| 8, 9 | SEA OF TROUBLES | Main reason for distress? (3,2,8) |
| cryptic definition – the main is the ocean | ||
| 10 | ESCALOPE | Avoid eating left-over cut of meat (8) |
| ESCAPE (avoid) contains (eating) L (left) O (over) | ||
| 11 | AFGHAN | Good and hot, wrapped in a warmer blanket (6) |
| G (good) and H (hot) in A FAN (warmer). I would say a fan is something that cools, not something that warms. Can anyone explain this? | ||
| 12 | ITEM | Of opposite meaning, one thing or a couple (4) |
| found inside (of) opposITE Meaning – double definition | ||
| 14 | CLOSE RANKS | Collecting waste, odd people join forces (5,5) |
| CRANKS (odd people) contain (collect) LOSE (waste) | ||
| 17 | FATHER TIME | Overweight, unfit, I’m there to get an hourglass figure (6,4) |
| FAT (overweight) then anagram (unfit) of I’M THERE | ||
| 20 | HEIR | Next in line on radio broadcast (4) |
| sounds like (as heard on the radio) “air” (broadcast) | ||
| 23 | FLARES | Very light as, ultimately, 70s fashion (6) |
| FLARE (Very Light, a WWI flare) then aS (ultimately, last letter). I still cringe with embarrassment at the memory. | ||
| 24 | BALLPARK | Approximate deposit on social event (8) |
| PARK (deposit) on BALL (social event) | ||
| 25, 26 | GENERATION GAP | Space age communication difficulty (10,3) |
| cryptically a GENERATION GAP could be the space between ages | ||
| 27 | POSSUM | Returned gift. Problem? Dead (6) |
| SOP (gift) reversed (returned) then SUM (problem, in arithmetic) – playing possum is to feign death | ||
| 28 | DOOLALLY | Potty – toilet – turned into toy (8) |
| LOO (toilet) reversed (turned) inside DALLY (toy, as a verb) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BAS RELIEF | A sculpture as an instruction to take in faith (3,6) |
| AS R (recipe, an instruction to take, medicine) in BELIEF (faith) | ||
| 2 | TRANCHE | Dream about hotel block (7) |
| TRANCE (dream) contains (about) H (hotel) | ||
| 3 | APOLLO | Greek god of love – following a vote (6) |
| O (love, zero in tennis) following A POLL (vote) | ||
| 4 | AUTOPILOT | George in paradise, almost opening a parcel (9) |
| UTOPIa (paradise, almost) inside (opening) A LOT (parcel) – nickname for the autopilot in an aircraft | ||
| 5 | PLUMAGE | Mature fruit’s first down (7) |
| AGE (mature) following (with…first) PLUM (fruit) | ||
| 6 | TELEGRAPH | What about stage talk after time signal? (9) |
| EH (what) containing (about) LAG (stage) RAP (talk) all following T (time) | ||
| 7 | GOSHAWK | Crumbs ward off troublesome bird (7) |
| GOSH (crumbs) then AWKward (troublesome) missing WARD | ||
| 13 | MAHARANIS | Airman has upset Indian royalty (9) |
| anagram (upset) of AIRMAN HAS | ||
| 15 | SIMPATICO | I’m a cop – it’s not right to be friendly (9) |
| anagram (not right) of I’M A COP IT’S | ||
| 16 | STRIKE PAY | Ready for action (6,3) |
| cryptic definition – ready is cash | ||
| 18 | ALLEGRO | Following everyone, I will cross river quickly (7) |
| EGO (I) contains (will cross) R (river) following ALL (everyone) | ||
| 19 | ROSTRUM | Stand up or play guitar (7) |
| OR reversed (up) then STRUM (play guitar) | ||
| 21 | EVANGEL | Raised on one area of church gospel (7) |
| LEG (on, side in cricket) NAVE (one area of church) all reversed (raised) | ||
| 22 | CLONAL | Sexless, having no call for excitement (6) |
| anagram (for excitement) of NO CALL – of a clone, having been reproduced without sex | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
A mixed bag for me but lots of great clues so no complaints overall. 5a is a reversal of EG+ATOP (for one + on) with ‘counter’ indicating reversal. To me, a fan heater isn’t referred to as a fan so 11a was one of the clues I didn’t care for. 1d seems to give the inclusion the wrong way around. A few other clues seemed a bit iffy but ok. Thanks to Loroso and PeeDee.
I totally agree with PeeDee’s prologue
Thanks to him and Loroso
Hovis – thank you for clarifying 5ac. I was clearly ovethinking it!
BTW, how does 1dn give the inclusion the wrong way round? “as in instruction to take” in “faith” seems pretty explicit to me
PeeDee@3. You’re quite right. I was stupidly using ‘take’ twice, so reading as ASR to take in BELIEF. Head slap time.
What crypticsue said @2 – unsurprisingly.
All good. I really liked GENERATION GAP. I read the wordplay not as the space between ages but as the space equivalent of Generation X, etc.
FOI was shoulder, instead of ESCALOPE. I had cold-shoulder for avoid, then cut (eat) the cold (left-over) to give the cut of meat. Perfectly happy with, till it turned out to be wrong.
Thanks Loroso, PeeDee
I agree. All good. Perhaps not the consistency of today’s Indy, but great clues compensated for this solver.
many thanks.
Thanks Loroso & PeeDee.
In 11 across I think that a fan is much like a radiator: it warms or cools depending on the context.
Thanks to Loroso and PeeDee. Did not get to this one until late in the day. DOOLALLY and CLONAL were new to me so I had trouble with the SE corner and I needed help parsing POTAGE and GOSHAWK. Still, very enjoyable.
Very late in the day and really just lurking, but I would dare to propose that a person who warms to, say, a singer might be termed a “warmer” and hence a fan?
Thanks Loroso and PeeDee
This took quite some time and spilled over into the second day for me. Had slight queries on the FAN part of 11a (but eventually thought of it in the context of a ‘fan heater’ and could justify it but still think that it is a bit tenuous) and POSSUM as a direct definition for ‘Dead’ – sure to ‘play possum’ is to ‘play dead’ but it doesn’t make them synonyms surely (but then it just maybe cryptic licence that allows it !!!)
Apart from that, I enjoyed it very much because it stretched the thinking matter to the limit numerous times. Couldn’t end up parsing POTAGE and hadn’t heard of DOOLALLY. Also cringed at the memories of some of those FLARES from way back then !!!
That DOOLALLY was my next to last in and CLONAL (which I hadn’t seen in an adjectival sense) was the last in.