A solid fun-filled experience attempting REDSHANK today, thanks to whom for dishing a delectable challenge with some wicked clues.
FF: 10 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | BONHOMIE | Book about one in residence offering warmth (8) |
| B (book) ON (about) [ I (one) in HOME (residence) ] | ||
| 6 | MIRAGE | Refraction principally in shimmering image (6) |
| &lit; R (Refraction, principally) in IMAGE* | ||
| 8 | SCORER | He writes in bars, twenty four ultimately (6) |
| SCORE (twenty) R (fouR, ultimately) | ||
| 9 | EMBATTLE | Fortify English doctor and former PM briefly (8) |
| E (english) MB (doctor) ATTLEe (former pm, without last letter) | ||
| 10 | BRAE | Bank of Scotland to slow down, sacking 1,000 (4) |
| BRAkE (slow down, without K – 1000, kilo) – brae is scottish for bank, nice surface | ||
| 11 | NATTERJACK | Perhaps Mr Toad has chat with sailor (10) |
| NATTER (chat) JACK (sailor) | ||
| 13 | FALSETTO | Loud singer group enlisted as top vocalist? (8) |
| F (loud) [ALTO (singer) containing SET (group) ] | ||
| 15 | IBEX | Ten pursuing central Tibet’s agile climber (4) |
| IBE (tIBEt, central letters) X (ten) | ||
| 17 | EPEE | Use it to fence some sheep escaping from behind (4) |
| hidden, reversed in “..shEEP Escaping..” | ||
| 18 | ANNOTATE | Put gloss on old gallery fronted by woman (8) |
| ANN (woman) O (old) TATE (gallery) | ||
| 20 | SIXTH SENSE | She is sent crazy by boring clairvoyant’s gift (5,5) |
| SHE IS SENT* containing X (by, multiplication reference) | ||
| 21 | EASY | Some slice a symmetrical piece of cake (4) |
| hidden in “..slicE A SYmmetrical..” | ||
| 23 | LIFE BELT | Lithium iron slug’s hollow ring in port (4,4) |
| LI (lithium) FE (iron) BELT (slug) | ||
| 24 | VALOUR | Game old ladies knocked back bottle (6) |
| RU (game) O (old) LAV (ladies, lavatory) , all reversed | ||
| 25 | KNIGHT | Consider returning to admit good man on board (6) |
| THINK (consider) reversed, containing G (good) | ||
| 26 | CELIBATE | Chaste yet potentially excitable, given kiss (8) |
| subtraction anagram; [X (kiss) + CELIBATE]* would yield EXCITABLE | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | OSCAR | Mapmakers about right: it’s after Nevada (5) |
| OS (mapmakers) CA (about) R (right) – nato phonetic alphabet for o, which is after n – nevada | ||
| 3 | HORNET’S NEST | Frank keeps radical traps in case this is stirred up? (7,4) |
| HONEST (frank) containing [ R (radical) NETS (traps) ] | ||
| 4 | MARINATE | Steep train breaks down in West (8) |
| TRAIN* in MAE (west) | ||
| 5 | ELECTROMAGNETIC | Choose eg romantic novel that’s attractive (15) |
| ELECT (choose) [EG ROMANTIC]* | ||
| 6 | MOBBED | Surrounded doctor bandaging round bottom (6) |
| [MB (doctor) around O (round)] BED (bottom) | ||
| 7 | GOLDCREST | It flies German historic family insignia (9) |
| G (german) OLD (historic) CREST (family insignia) | ||
| 12 | JOIN THE CLUB | Task involves cryptic clue with hint? It’s the same for me (4,3,4) |
| JOB (task) containing [CLUE HINT]* | ||
| 14 | AMPHIBIAN | A politician, Irish, gutted cold- blooded animal (9) |
| A MP (politician) HIBernIAN (irish, without central characters) | ||
| 16 | INTERVAL | Space travel abandoned after popular start (8) |
| IN (popular) [TRAVEL]* | ||
| 19 | ASCENT | Climb a trail (6) |
| A SCENT (trail) | ||
| 22 | STUNT | Exploit what bonsai growers do (5) |
| double def | ||
*anagram
Regarding 2 down – Isn’t November the word for N in the NATO phonetic alphabet ?
Never heard of NATTERJACK but the clue and crossers said it must be.
Seemed like a bit of underarm bowling in places with good effect.VALOUR was pretty tasty.
Thanks Redshank
A good crossword but don’t like this type of grid with 6-letter answers MIRAGE, KNIGHT having only 2 crossers with similar issues concerning LIFE BELT, EMBATTLE. However, I did complete without any cheats so no real complaints. I have the same issue with 2d as Stuartr @1.
Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs.
Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs. I enjoyed this puzzle though I struggled with NATTERJACK and GOLDCREST (both new to me though parsable) and had to look up OS as Ordinance Survey for OSCAR.
Like Stuart@1 I was puzzled by Nevada in the clue at 1d. I can’t find it as representing N in any phonetic alphabet, and the standard abbreviation for Nevada is Nev. Never mind. the setters intention seemed clear. Otherwise a neat and enjoyable puzzle. JOIN THE CLUB my favourite. Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs.
Top notch by Redshank. COD 10a for brilliant surface.
Thanks Turbolegs and
Redshank. High quality puzzle as always, from Redshank.
Didn’t get LIFE BELT* and KNIGHT**.
Top favs
JOIN THE CLUB
VALOUR
SIXTH SENSE
CELIBATE
* messing with Life Vest
** obsessed with ST for good man
Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
Like iluppu@7, I’d gone down the LIFEVEST path even though not being able to resolve ‘belt’=VEST 🙁
Enjoyed the rest of the puzzle a lot after starting it in the wee small hours when I couldn’t sleep. Thought that the &lit at 6a was very good and enjoyed the surfaces of 10a, 15a and 7d.
Finished down the bottom with the clever VALOUR and my downfall with LIFEBELT.