An unusual challenge from BRADMAN this Friday , largely due to the wide spectrum of difficulty levels of the clues as well as an inordinate number of double definitions. Thanks BRADMAN !!
FF: 8 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | BOLERO | Show disapproval about unhappy king missing a dance (6) |
| BOO (show disapproval) around LEaR (unhappy king, without ‘A’) | ||
| 4 | CHORUSED | Sang in service in musical combination (8) |
| double def | ||
| 9 | CUTTER | Hairdresser’s craft? (6) |
| double def | ||
| 10 | PUNCTUAL | Timely joke against a cult being silly (8) |
| PUN (joke) [A CULT]* | ||
| 11 | FALLOW | News of river after drought – or land maybe (6) |
| FAL (river) LOW (~drought) | ||
| 12 | CLARENCE | Holy lady pleasant but rejecting one man (8) |
| CLARE (holy lady, of assisi) NiCE (pleasant, without ‘I’ – rejecting one) | ||
| 13 | MAY | One leading country for a month (3) |
| double def, theresa | ||
| 14 | RENOIR | Artist redesigned interior – it is outstanding (6) |
| iNtERIOR* (without letters of ‘IT’) | ||
| 17 | CAMP OUT | Live outside and fish by river (4,3) |
| POUT (fish) by CAM (river) | ||
| 21 | REUBEN | Tribe about to go to university on a high in Scotland (6) |
| RE (about) U (unversity) BEN (a high in scotland) | ||
| 25 | WAX | Stuff in the ear to get bigger? (3) |
| double def | ||
| 26 | OPEN PLAN | Like offices available for business with inadequate gear (4-4) |
| OPEN (available for business) PLANt (gear, inadequate) | ||
| 27 | FREEZE | Stop being liberated with enthusiasm half lost (6) |
| FREE (liberated) ZEst / ZEal (enthusiasm, without half) | ||
| 28 | FUGITIVE | Superior soldier taking time, among number fleeing (8) |
| [U (superior) GI (soldier) T (time) ] in FIVE (number) | ||
| 29 | REGALE | About to have good beer as treat (6) |
| RE (about) G (good) ALE (beer) | ||
| 30 | ECTODERM | It could make comet red, disintegrating outer layer? (8) |
| COMET RED* | ||
| 31 | STREET | Thoroughfare in Somerset town (6) |
| double def | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BACKFIRE | Support offered with passion to have adverse effect (8) |
| BACK (support) FIRE (passion) | ||
| 2 | LET ALONE | Female coming out ignored much less (3,5) |
| LEfT ALONE (ignored, without ‘F’- female) | ||
| 3 | RHETORIC | Turning hot and cold, rioter displaying verbal skill (8) |
| [H (hot) C (cold) RIOTER]* | ||
| 5 | HOURLY | What’s seen as godly about biblical city as time goes by? (6) |
| HOLY (what’s seen as godly) around UR (biblical city) | ||
| 6 | RECORD | Make a video of great sporting achievement? (6) |
| double def | ||
| 7 | SQUINT | Oblique look from one with four siblings in 31 (6) |
| QUIN (one with four siblings, part of quintuplets) in ST (street, answer to 31a) | ||
| 8 | DOLMEN | Monument to construct, having fifty workers (6) |
| DO (construct) L (fifty) MEN (workers) | ||
| 12 | CASPIAN | Sea creating awful panic when flooding in (7) |
| PANIC* containing AS (when) | ||
| 15 | RAJ | Form of rule to grate after evolution (3) |
| reverse of JAR (grate) – wouldn’t the clue read better with ‘revolution’ rather than ‘evolution’? | ||
| 16 | CUR | Copper accompanying Rex, a dog (3) |
| CU (copper) R (rex) | ||
| 18 | TEARIEST | A setter, I go wrong, looking most unhappy (8) |
| A SETTER I* | ||
| 19 | ABNEGATE | Refuse in bag eaten – disgusting! (8) |
| BAG EATEN* | ||
| 20 | INTEREST | Engrossment in big match involving top woman (8) |
| IN TEST (big match) containing ER (top woman) | ||
| 22 | TOFFEE | Superior gent getting energy repeatedly from something sweet (6) |
| TOFF (superior gent) EE (Energy, repeatedly) | ||
| 23 | WEIGHT | Bit of worry with number that’s shown on the scales (6) |
| W (bit of Worry) EIGHT (number) | ||
| 24 | SPITED | After hiss editor is upset (6) |
| SPIT (hiss) ED (editor) | ||
| 25 | WAIVER | Brandisher of white handkerchief maybe said “Surrender!” (6) |
| sounds like WAVER (someone who could potentially wave a white cloth as a sign of offering truce or surrender) | ||
*anagram
And a pangram to boot. Superb, Don. And thanks Turbolegs
I agree with your intro – particularly the NW cornerrI parsed 4a with “sang” as the definition and USE (service) in CHORD (musical combination). Thanks Turbolegs and Bradman.
I thought ‘enthusiasm’ in 27 was ZEal, but it makes no difference.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. I struggled a lot here during the day and eventually filled the grid, but I had to guess at several items without parsing them, especially OPEN PLAN and SPITED.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Tough one here … taking three sessions to nut it out. Agree with John@2’s parsing of CHORUSED, although I was unable to parse it myself. Also had ‘zeal’ as the enthusiasm in 27a, but ‘zest’ does work equally as well.
Didn’t spot the pangram – probably too beggared from just getting the grid filled !!
Strangely enough for a non-Brit, STREET was my first entry – and only know of this Somerset village from crosswords. Finished in the NW corner with the clever FALLOW (my favourite clue), RENOIR (a nice subtraction anagram) and the tricky LET ALONE (another that I failed to parse).