A fun puzzle from BRADMAN, with 8d and 28a holding me up from a speedy solve, having come across the solution for neither of the two. Google helped confirm the parse for 27a. Thanks BRADMAN!
FF: 9 DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | BADGER | Pester evil European, man not wanted (6) |
| BAD (evil) GERman (european, without MAN) | ||
| 4 | KNIGHTLY | Heroic every evening following king (8) |
| NIGHTLY (every evening) after K (king) | ||
| 9 | GAMER | Player in school having bit of hesitation (5) |
| GAM (school, of whales) ER (bit of hesitation) | ||
| 10 | DISHONOUR | Duke is taking time, admitting no shame (9) |
| D (duke) IS [ HOUR (time) containing NO ] | ||
| 11 | ANNULUS | Ring American, set aside at first (7) |
| ANNUL (set aside) US (american) | ||
| 12 | ANGELIC | A new well-bred young lady in charge, very kind (7) |
| A N (new) GEL (well bred young lady) IC (in charge) | ||
| 13 | LOTS | Many conspiracies to remove leader (4) |
| pLOTS (conspiracies, without leader i.e. first letter) | ||
| 14 | PREGNANT | Expecting to be ruling alongside president (8) |
| P (president) REGNANT( ruling) | ||
| 17 | SOLSTICE | Time of year to get sun on street and evidence of freezing (8) |
| SOL (sun) ST (street) ICE (evidence of freezing) | ||
| 19 | HAIR | Covering item of furniture when bit of cloth’s gone (4) |
| cHAIR (item of furniture, without C – bit of Cloth) | ||
| 22 | RISOTTO | Food to stir, mixed with egg in (7) |
| TO STIR* containing O (egg, 0) | ||
| 24 | LAMBENT | Light unit with an orange tinge carried by officer (7) |
| AMBEr (orange, tinge) in LNT (officer, liutenant) | ||
| 25 | TEMPORARY | Portray me looking unconventional, casual (9) |
| PORTRAY ME* | ||
| 26 | NOVEL | Christmas centred around very short work of fiction (5) |
| NOEL (christmas) around V (very) | ||
| 27 | HACKNEYS | Carriages with horses for conveying French soldier (8) |
| HACKS (horses) containing NEY (french soldier, michel ney) | ||
| 28 | MERSEY | Gosh – see Irish jumping into that river! (6) |
| MY (gosh) containing ERSE (irish) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BEGGARLY | Meagre bishop, ancient, going empty inside (8) |
| B (bishop) [ EARLY (ancient) containing GG (GoinG, without inner characters) ] | ||
| 2 | DOMINATES | Man does it differently and prevails (9) |
| MAN DOES IT* | ||
| 3 | ENROLS | Registers unfortunate layperson deprived of pay absurdly (6) |
| LaypERSON* (without the letters of PAY) | ||
| 5 | NOSTALGICALLY | I’ll say clan got animated, looking back to past with fondness (13) |
| I’LL SAY CLAN GOT* | ||
| 6 | GEORGIA | Country girl (7) |
| double def | ||
| 7 | TROLL | Monster responsible for number of casualties crossing river (5) |
| TOLL (number of casualties) around R (river) | ||
| 8 | YORICK | One getting about in city – one known in a play (6) |
| [I (one) C (about) ] in YORK (city) – character in hamlet | ||
| 10 | DISCRETIONARY | Indicate “sorry” when going wrong? It’s as one decides (13) |
| INDICATE SORRY* | ||
| 15 | TEA LEAVES | Thieves disappear in a set dispersing (3,6) |
| LEAVE (disappear) in [A SET]* | ||
| 16 | BRUTALLY | Dry friend showing cruel aspect (8) |
| BRUT (dry) ALLY (friend) | ||
| 18 | LET DOWN | Disappointment making one lower (3-4) |
| cryptic def / double def? | ||
| 20 | WRETCH | Wife with cat, someone evoking pity? (6) |
| W (wife) RETCH (cat) | ||
| 21 | AMENDE | Punishment changed, cut short (6) |
| AMENDEd (changed, cut short) | ||
| 23 | SUMAC | Tot Bill found in wood (5) |
| SUM (tot) AC (bill) | ||
*anagram
Pretty sure 24a is LAMBERT, AMBER in LT, a light unit.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. A good workout. I too started with Lambent but chose LAMBERT (the obvious parsing) after a Google search. I also looked up AMENDE to be sure and correctly guessed that TEA LEAVES was slang for thieves. The “see” in 28ac threw me off so that MERSEY was my LOI. I enjoyed 8d with its invocation of that well known line: “Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest …”
Thanks to both. I agree totally with Hovis@1. A Lambert is a unit of light and amber has an orange tinge. Sorry this is late but I only got round to it about 2 this morning my time.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
One at the easier end of this setter’s difficulty spectrum which I was able to complete in four short stints in a busy day back from holiday. Only a couple of ‘newish’ words in AMENDE and LAMBERT, but both very gettable from the word play.
Thought that the clue for YORICK was excellent with its very clever definition from the famous quote.
Finished in the SW corner with HACKNEYS (which I made harder going of than should have) and WRETCH (taking a while to see the slang word for being sick).