Played with a straight bat, a safe pair of hands and no tampering. Thank you Bradman.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CLERIHEW | Minister of religion caught out, having cut verse (8) |
| CLERIc (minister of religion) missing (out) C (caught) then HEW (cut) – a type of short biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. An example clerihew of his:
Although Don Bradman |
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| 6 | DIRECT | Engineer is terrible when brought before court (6) |
| DIRE (terrible) in front of (when brought before) CT (court) – definition read as a verb | ||
| 9 | CONCUR | Agree as one opposing scoundrel (6) |
| CON (one opposing) and CUR (scoundrel) | ||
| 10 | ATROPINE | A protein is extractable from this poison (8) |
| anagram (is extractable from this) A PROTEIN | ||
| 11 | BEAM | Maybe a man will carry this light (4) |
| found inside (will carry this) mayBE A Man | ||
| 12 | EISENSTEIN | Film-maker starts to seem excited, enthralled by genius (10) |
| starting letters of Seem Excited inside (enthralled by) EINSTEIN (a genius) – Sergei Eisenstein, director of many landmark black-and-white films such as Battleship Potemkin and Ivan the Terrible | ||
| 14 | ALTER EGO | Eager lot moved by close friend (5,3) |
| anagram (moved) of EAGER LOT | ||
| 16 | AVID | Keen OT king, first to emerge (4) |
| dAVID (OT king) missing first letter (to emerge, come out) | ||
| 18 | ASTI | Drink making one agitated mostly (4) |
| ASTIr (agitated, mostly) – “making one” is to be read ans an instruction to the solver, “doing this will make that” | ||
| 19 | REFUSING | Stopping in the race, but joining again? (8) |
| RE-FUSING (joining again) | ||
| 21 | FINGER BOWL | One provides water for diner – awful binger that’s tucked into chicken? (6,4) |
| anagram (awful) of BINGER inside (tucked into) FOWL (a chicken perhaps) | ||
| 22 | CHAP | Fellow in place of worship, English learner getting put off (4) |
| CHAPel (place of worship) missing (getting off) E (English) and L (learner) | ||
| 24 | RUTHLESS | Girl not so unmerciful (8) |
| RUTH (girl) then LESS (not so) | ||
| 26 | THINGS | Stuff offered by fine grammar school (6) |
| THIN (fine) GS (grammar school) | ||
| 27 | DESPOT | Backward-looking newspaper boss, see, is an autocrat (6) |
| ED (editor, newspaper boss) reversed (backward looking) then SPOT (see) | ||
| 28 | NOSINESS | One boy about to go to the head for snooping (8) |
| I (one) SON (boy) reversed (about) then (to go to) NESS (head) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | LEONE | Like one with pride leaving home to make money in Africa (5) |
| LEONinE (like a lion, one with a pride) missing IN (home) – the currency of Sierra Leone | ||
| 3 | RACE MEETING | Ace regiment in special display for sporting event (4,7) |
| anagram (in special display) of ACE REGIMENT | ||
| 4 | HARDENED | Put outside haunt moved quickly, no longer a softie (8) |
| DEN (haunt) inside (with…put outside) HARED (moved quickly).
I’m digressing here but I’m not a big fan of back-to-front inclusion indicators. I understand this is common practice and I’m not suggesting they shouldn’t ever be used (that is for Bradman to decide) but to my ear they stretch the English language close to breaking point. For example a phrase such as “put outside house bag” sounds to me like a tourist having his first go at speaking English to a taxi driver. Perhaps there is a more natural usage that I have overlooked. |
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| 5 | WHAT’S YOUR POISON | Why ration soup so absurdly? A question in the pub (5,4,6) |
| anagram (absurdly) of WHY RATION SOUP SO | ||
| 6 | DARING | Bold lad finally coming with a token of love (6) |
| laD (final letter of) then (coming with) A and RING (token of love) | ||
| 7 | RIP | Final message – one delivered in acceptable accent? (3) |
| I (one, Roman numeral) inside (delivered in) RP (received pronunciation, “acceptable” accent) – Rest In Peace | ||
| 8 | CONDITION | Prisoner, silly idiot getting on noon train (9) |
| CON (prisoner) than anagram (silly) of IDIOT on N (noon) – definition read as a verb again | ||
| 13 | TRANSACTION | A constraint wrecked deal (11) |
| anagram (wrecked) of A CONSTRAINT | ||
| 15 | LASSITUDE | Troubling us with details leads to lethargy (9) |
| anagram (troubling) of US with DETAILS | ||
| 17 | AFFLATUS | A fine American, inwardly depressed, gets divine inspiration (8) |
| A F (fine) FLAT US (American) contains (inwardly) FLAT (depressed) – a new word for me | ||
| 20 | ARDENT | Passionate daughter trapped in a fissure (6) |
| D (daughter) inside (trapped in) A RENT (fissure) | ||
| 23 | ANGUS | Scot showing some Caledonian gusto (5) |
| found inside (some of) caledoniAN GUSto – a Scottish man’s name | ||
| 25 | HIP | Fashionable joint (3) |
| double definition | ||
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.
Thanks PeeDee and Bradman.
Needed parsing for AVID.17d is new, was toying with LOW..also had THINGY at 26a..why I don’t know.
I see your point on 4d and I often feel stupid not getting it, but Bradman is not the only one who uses this device.
That said, this was mostly fun. Thanks, again
I will digress here..Sanskrit is a language in which number, gender, case get integrated into both verbs and nouns that enables ordering of words irrelevant…produces great poetry…my teacher told me…
Thanks to Bradman and PeeDee. I’m late to getting to this puzzle (which I enjoyed) because of travel (I’m now in California). I got REFUSING as joining again but didn’t catch “stopping in the race.”I somehow managed o dredge up AFFLATUS so that I could then spot FINGER BOWL, my LOI.
Thanks Bradman and PeeDee
Was on holidays and couldn’t get to this one until back home so late to the party with it and the Julius one that followed.
Found it one of his more gentle puzzles with only AFFLATUS as a new term. Had to drag up CLERIHEW from the depths and liked your example of it – am sure that he would have ‘screamed and fought like a madman’ even more with the recent antics of the Australian XI in South Africa !! 🙁
Finished with Sergei EISENSTEIN whom I didn’t know either and HARDENED which was the last one in.