Light excercise from Falcon today, with one rogue clue…
Straightforward enough; I actually solved every Down clue first go, a personal record. But 2 Down did give me pause for the reasons shown, unless I’m missing something. Otherwise, a brisk workout. Thanks to Falcon.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CRACKS UP | Drink after expert has a breakdown (6,2) |
| SUP (drink) after CRACK (expert). | ||
| 6 | SPREAD | Type of betting odds to study (6) |
| S[tarting] P[rice] (‘odds’) + READ (to ‘study’ at university). | ||
| 9 | ALPACA | Animal from mountain area, tailless cat (6) |
| ALP (mountain area) + CAt without its ‘tail’. | ||
| 10 | APPETITE | Favourite Italian devoured by primate with relish (8) |
| PET (favourite) + IT[alian] both in APE (‘primate’). | ||
| 11 | GRIT | Strength of character shown in Educating Rita (4) |
| Inclusion in ‘educatinG RITa’. | ||
| 12 | BEHINDHAND | Responsible for factory worker being late (10) |
| BEHIND (‘resposible for’) + HAND (‘factory worker’). | ||
| 14 | UP IN ARMS | Outraged at university, current members (2,2,4) |
| UP (‘at university’) + IN (‘current’) + ARMS (‘members’). | ||
| 16 | AWAY | A street apart (4) |
| A + WAY (‘street’). | ||
| 18 | TRIO | Group of singers heading for teeming Brazilian city (4) |
| 1st letter of Teeming + RIO (‘Brazilian city’). | ||
| 19 | NAUSEATE | Name a custom, at Eton originally, in disgust (8) |
| N[ame] + A + USE (‘custom’) + AT + E[ton]. | ||
| 21 | THEATRICAL | Melodramatic article on a hearing involving clubs (10) |
| THE (‘article’) + A + TRIAL (‘hearing’) surrounding C[lubs]. | ||
| 22 | KITE | Strip first of engines in aircraft (4) |
| KIT (sports ‘strip’) + 1st letter of Engines. | ||
| 24 | DETONATE | Set off from aforementioned college in time (8) |
| ETON (collge mentioned before in 19a) included in DATE (‘time’). Not seen quite this structure before, but fair enough. | ||
| 26 | TROUGH | Difficult locking in right channel (6) |
| R[ight] in TOUGH. | ||
| 27 | STINGY | Mean swindle by unknown character (6) |
| STING (‘swindle’) + Y (mathematical variable, ‘unknown character’). | ||
| 28 | MINISTRY | Short skirts test the clergy! (8) |
| MINIS (‘short skirts’) + TRY (‘test’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | RULER | Measure length between Parisian street and river (5) |
| L[ength] between RUE (‘Paris street’) and R[iver], except that it isn’t: that would give RUELR, which isn’t a word. Moreover, I don’t think a ruler is a measure, is it? Nor does Chambers give ‘ruler’ as a verb except if you hit someone with it. H’mm. | ||
| 3 | CHATTANOOGA | Talk to an eccentric, bringing up a grand old city in Tennessee (11) |
| CHAT (‘talk’) + anagram (‘eccentric’) of TO AN; then A + G[rand] + O[ld], all reversed. | ||
| 4 | SCABBARD | Foil may be kept in this British pub stuffing fish? (8) |
| B[ritish] BAR (‘pub’) in SCAD (a’fish’). | ||
| 5 | PEACHES AND CREAM | Dessert: exceptionally good thing Danes cooked best? (7,3,5) |
| PEACH (an ‘exceptionally good thing’) + anagram (‘cooked’) of DANES then CREAM (‘best’). | ||
| 6 | SUPINE | Lying down: touch of unease in back (6) |
| 1st letter of ‘Unease’ in SPINE (‘back’). | ||
| 7 | RAT | Deserter, sailor, capsized (3) |
| TAR (‘sailor’) reversed. | ||
| 8 | ATTENDANT | Steward, at end of event, remarkably tanned (9) |
| AT + last letter of ‘evenT’ + anagram (‘remarkably’) of TANNED. | ||
| 13 | HEAVEN KNOWS | Knave won – he’s excited, truly (6,5) |
| Anagram (‘excited’) od KNAVE WON HES. | ||
| 15 | PARCHMENT | Something old to write on exercises clever people inside (9) |
| ARCH MEN (‘clever people’) in PT (‘excercises’). | ||
| 17 | BULLETIN | High-speed train in news report (8) |
| BULLET (HST in e.g. Japan) + IN. | ||
| 20 | TREATY | Source of pleasure? Fawlty finally in agreement! (6) |
| TREAT (‘source of pleasure’) + last letter of ‘fawltY’). | ||
| 23 | TIGER | Row about good dynamic person (5) |
| G[ood] in TIER (‘row’). | ||
| 25 | OWN | Have feathers daughter plucked (3) |
| dOWN (‘feathers’) without D[aughter] | ||
*anagram
Have no issue with RULER for ‘measure’. One of the meanings of ‘measure’ as a noun is a device that measures. Although I think ‘in’ would be better than ‘between’, I still think it just about works. Parisian street and river gives RUER and between means somewhere inside this.
In 9a, ‘mountain area’ is ALP + A.
Thanks to Falcon and Grant.
Same comments as Hovis @1 re RULER, both the meaning of the word (a ‘tape measure’ for example is one type of RULER), and the placement of the L, though I agree that using ‘between’ rather than ‘in’ does make it a bit iffy.
The wordplay is clear, but BEHINDHAND isn’t a common word and it held me up for a bit as did KITE for ‘aircraft’.
Can’t think why, but I’ve now got a certain tune in my head that won’t go away.
Thanks to Falcon and Grant.
Thanks Falcon and Grant
About normal for this setter for me. Agree with the @1 and @2 with regard to RULER. Didn’t find the downclues as easy as you obviously did – the long one was quite near the end of the solve – got stuck thinking ICE CREAM initially and after reigning to it being something AND CREAM, still took an age to settle on PEACHES.
Liked SPREAD and CRACKS UP.
Finished with SCABBARD (just couldn’t imagine storing a foil in one !) and BEHINDHAND (with its tricky wordplay definitions) as my last couple in.
Thanks to Falcon and Grant B. Enjoyable. I was doubtful about the parsing of RULER and had trouble with KITE owing to both the aircraft connection and the kit=strip. BEHINDHAND and HEAVEN KNOWS were my LOI.
Thanks Falcon and GB
Like bruce @ 3, SCABBARD also intrigued me, as not only can I not see a foil being stored in one, it’salso a type of fish.
Thanks both.
HEAVEN KNOWS could mean truly, as above, or “nobody knows”.
What a useless piece of information!!