A solid challenge from SOLOMON!
FF: 9 DD:9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CHARCOALS |
Holding carbon, a scholar prepared sketches (9)
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C ( carbon ) in [ A SCHOLAR ]* |
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| 6 | SEEDS |
Top players understand both sides of darts (5)
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SEE ( understand ) DS ( DartS, end letters ) |
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| 9 | NOMADIC |
Travelling from Northern Europe, heads of murderous armies usurp Rome’s capital (7)
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NOrDIC ( from northern europe, with MA, starting letters of "..Murderous Armies.." replacing R { Rome, starting letter }) |
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| 10 | ANGRIER |
Increasingly irritated as a result of broken earring (7)
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[ EARRING ]* |
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| 11 | OBI |
Belt out Billy Idol’s number ones (3)
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starting letters of "..Out Billy Idol.." |
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| 12 | THREATENING |
Frightening article worn by rector put away (11)
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THING ( article ) around [ R ( rector ) EATEN ( put away ) ] |
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| 13 | ADEQUATE |
Lads stripped before match to get fit (8)
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AD ( lADs, without end characters ) EQUATE ( match ) |
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| 15 | STANDS |
Attitudes concerning women getting ejected from golf course? (6)
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ST ANDrewS ( famous golf course in scotland, without letters of RE ( concerning ) W ( women ) ) |
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| 18 | TENNIS |
Wimbledon champion returning with the wrong end of racket — he’s good at this! (6)
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reverse of SINNEr ( wimbledon champion, with R being replaced by T, wrong end of RackeT ) |
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| 20 | WINDMILL |
Turn, turn… I’m turning left twice (8)
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WIND ( turn ) MI ( reverse of IM ) LL ( left, twice ) |
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| 23 | SUGGESTIONS |
Ousting the leaders of elitist splinter group spreading false insinuations (11)
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[ OUSTING ESGS ( starting letters of "..Elistist Splinter Group Spreading.." ) |
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| 25 | ORC |
Brutish monster with clubs going after soldiers (3)
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OR ( soldiers ) C ( clubs ) |
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| 26 | UTENSIL |
In audition, you listen out for instrument (7)
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U ( sounds like you ) [ LISTEN ]* |
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| 27 | ORIGAMI |
Paperwork — Solomon’s first social security payment — is on the counter (7)
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need help parsing this; besti could come up with is : reverse of I'M ( solomon is ) A ( first ) GIRO ( social security payment ) |
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| 28 | HOTEL |
Bangladesh’s eastern border as designated by NATO (5)
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cryptic def; eastern border of bangladesH is H. nato alphabet for H is Hotel. i am not sure what to mark as the def though. |
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| 29 | SISYPHEAN |
Hip essay about the ending of Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’? (9)
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[ HIP ESSAY ]* N ( dylaN, last letter ) ; neat surface |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CONSONANT |
Letter from prisoner carried by boy soldier (9)
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CON ( prisoner ) SON ( boy ) ANT ( soldier ) |
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| 2 | ARMOIRE |
A third character in wardrobe, and second one on wardrobe (7)
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A R ( waRdrobe, 3rd character ) MO ( second ) I ( one ) RE ( on ) |
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| 3 | CADET |
One in Police Academy film carrying around diamonds (5)
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CA ( around ) D ( diamonds ) ET ( film ) |
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| 4 | ACCURATE |
A clergyman served egg eats 100?! That’s right (8)
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[ A CURATE ( clergyman served egg ) ] containing C ( 100, roman numerals ) |
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| 5 | SHAMAN |
Spiritual healer and phoney bloke sharing money (6)
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SHAM ( phoney ) MAN ( bloke ), wit M-money, being common between the two |
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| 6 | SEGMENTED |
In parts of the home counties, good husbands tend new leaves (9)
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SE ( home counties ) G ( good ) MEN ( husbands ) TEnD ( without N – new ) |
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| 7 | ELISION |
Omission of badly-written lines crowding the contents of biog (7)
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[ LINES ]* around IO ( bIOg, contents of ) |
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| 8 | SPROG |
One captivated by kids’ programme? (5)
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&lit; hidden in "..kidS PROGramme" |
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| 14 | UNIVERSAL |
Comprehensive article in Le Figaro on Ravel is rewritten (9)
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UN ( article in le figaro, implying french ) [ RAVEL IS ]* |
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| 16 | SELECTION |
Pick league’s top 2 within division (9)
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LE ( LEague, top 2 letters ) in SECTION ( division ) |
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| 17 | VIGOROUS |
Spirited Russian, with 5-0 crushing, goes ahead of American (8)
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[ VO ( 5-0, roman numerals ) containing IGOR ( russian ) ] US ( american ) |
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| 19 | NEGLECT |
Abandon maniac electing to spurn institute (7)
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[ ELECTiNG ( without I – institution ) ]* |
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| 21 | IRON AGE |
One performing in Madness when heavy metal became popular? (4,3)
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I ( one ) [ ON ( performing ) in RAGE ( madness ) ] |
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| 22 | STALLS |
Seats located among numerous tall sunflowers (6)
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hidden in "..numerouS TALL Sunflowers" |
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| 23 | SOUTH |
Cry out, moving up and down? (5)
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SHOUT ( cry ) with OUT moving up |
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| 24 | SKIMP |
Save money by investing millions in waste management facility (5)
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M ( millions ) in SKIP ( waste management facility ) |
Quite a few bits here beyond the aging ginf wit, to wit: altering Nordic in 9ac; subtracting from St Andrews in 15ac; hotel via NATO alphabet in 28ac, and shifting “out” up in shout in 23d. Not my brightest shot today, but enjoyed it ntl, cheers Solomon the wise and Turbolegs the swift.
I found this difficult with many clues that were easier to solve than parse, particularly the complex charades.
Liked OBI, WINDMILL, and ADEQUATE
Thanks Solomon, Turbolegs and Orc
Tricky, but got there in the end. Good to see the blog explain a couple of mysteries.
Loved nomadic, tennis, Sisyphean, Iron Age.
27a. I’m sure you are right turbolegs. Uk social security payments used to be made via girobank cheques
I hope you are not right about GIRO meaning social security payment. Not only is it something many non-Brits will not get, but it is too broad: akin to cluing “mouse” to mean “ANIMAL”
Somehow knew the term giro to be like the dole here. Probably picked it up from somewhere on Brit telly, The Bill, or Minder maybe. Or East Enders might be more likely, but it wasn’t on our watch list.
Cryptic crosswords I think originated in the UK and the FT is a UK newspaper. I think it’s ok that it uses UK references. Oh, and I didn’t get giro either until I saw the blog. It’s not supposed to be simple or even fair.