The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hello everyone. A few trickier bits here. Filbert can be cunning with his indications, such as “groom with fine teeth” for “comb”, so we solvers have to be alert to grouping (as well as the more usual splitting) words together in ways not obvious from the surface. As enjoyable as ever – thanks Filbert!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Papal candidate elected on paper by majority of total (8) |
| CARDINAL — IN (elected) on CARD (paper) by the majority of ALl (total) | |
| 6a | Fill out promissory note without reflecting (6) |
| BILLOW — BILL (promissory note) + W/O (without) backwards (reflecting) | |
| 9a | Groom with fine teeth initially averse to fighting (6) |
| COMBAT — COMB (groom with fine teeth) + the first letters of (initially) Averse To | |
| 10a | White male American trainee learning how to use guns? (8) |
| MUSCADET — M (male) + US (American) + CADET (trainee learning how to use guns?) | |
| 11a | Scheme of random selection to succeed Papa (4) |
| PLOT — LOT (random selection) after (to succeed) P (Papa) | |
| 12a | For replacement, is antipope unsuitable? (10) |
| INAPPOSITE — An anagram of (for replacement) IS ANTIPOPE | |
| 14a | Trifle’s quality resonating with us cooks (12) |
| NUGATORINESS — RESONATING with US is anagrammed (cooks) | |
| 17a | King in utopia recalled unforgiving mountainous country (4,8) |
| LAKE DISTRICT — K (king) in IDEAL (utopia) reversed (recalled) + STRICT (unforgiving) | |
| 20a | Divorcing princess, gnome pockets £50 (10) |
| DISALLYING — DI (princess) + SAYING (gnome) takes in (pockets) L L (£50) | |
| 22a | First Lady Republican at all times (4) |
| EVER — EVE (first lady) + R (Republican) | |
| 23a | Terrier was shown something brown to drink (8) |
| AIREDALE — AIRED (was shown) + ALE (something brown to drink) | |
| 25a | Henry is forgotten by people before long (2,1,3) |
| IN A BIT — H (henry) isn’t included in (is forgotten by) IN[h]ABIT (people) | |
| 26a | Canary egg brought into school (6) |
| SNITCH — NIT (egg) brought into SCH (school) | |
| 27a | Steel OK to fashion new frame (8) |
| SKELETON — STEEL OK rearranging (to fashion) + N (new) | |
| Down | |
| 2d | Sun god’s head surrounded by halo every so often (6) |
| APOLLO — POLL (head) surrounded by alternate letters of (… every so often) hAlO | |
| 3d | Dave’s outside bar before woman who’s not appeared yet (9) |
| DEBUTANTE — DavE’s outside letters + BUT (bar) + ANTE (before) | |
| 4d | Getting hitched, said Hugh finally – bad follow-up to Four Weddings? (7,4) |
| NOTTING HILL — KNOTTING (getting hitched) homophone (said) + the last letter of (… finally) HugH + ILL (bad) | |
| 5d | Lecture successful business student enters at the end (7) |
| LAMBAST — MBA (successful business student – that is, one who has graduated) goes inside (enters) LAST (at the end) | |
| 6d | Scratching both sides, curse wide vehicle (3) |
| BUS — Removing outer letters (scratching both sides), aBUSe (curse) | |
| 7d | Many love young man’s trousers (5) |
| LOADS — O (love), which LAD’S (young man’s) takes inside (trousers) | |
| 8d | Obvious question, tax too much? (8) |
| OVERTASK — OVERT (obvious) + ASK (question) | |
| 13d | Estate Golf outside home, fair extra cost to motorist? (7,4) |
| PARKING FINE — PARK (estate) and G (golf) outside IN (home) + FINE (fair) | |
| 15d | Church going up, built right inside school (5,4) |
| NOTRE DAME — Reversed (going up), MADE (built)and R (right) inside ETON (school) | |
| 16d | A VIP organised celebrity team building (8) |
| PAVILION — A VIP anagrammed (organised) + LION (celebrity) | |
| 18d | Twitcher stumbles across corncrake in the Borders (7) |
| TRICEPS — TRIPS (stumbles) around (across) the edge letters of (… in the borders) CorncrakE | |
| 19d | Sheep boxed by boomer in Oz (6) |
| MERINO — The answer is contained in (boxed by) booMER IN Oz | |
| 21d | Rep theatre in London, years earlier (5) |
| AGENT — NT (National Theatre: theatre in London) with AGE (years) earlier | |
| 24d | Dust to clean with wife away (3) |
| ASH — [w]ASH (to clean) with W (wife) absent (away) | |
COTD: IN A BIT
Other faves: COMBAT, LAKE DISTRICT, NOTTING HILL and PARKING FINE.
Great puzzle. Great blog.
Thanks Filbert and Kitty.
Thanks both. An enjoyable struggle, with NOTTING HILL my favourite, and NUGATORINESS getting my vote to leave the building, as it doesn’t appear in my dictionary and looked slightly better with my alternative order of vowels. I will take some persuading that the promissory note in BILLOW can be a bill – there’s certainly a degree of difference between prom notes and bills of exchange.
TFO @ 3 NUGATORINESS is in the Chambers app
When is lot random — not when That’s your lot in life Lalena. Disallying is a bit hmm as well. Good puzzle though, ta both.
PS Where’s the edit time got to …?
@4 I took this to be along the lines of ‘drawing lots’
Ta TFO, mind is at ease now …