A fitting end to the work week from SOLOMON!
FF: 8 DD: 8
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MIDDLE |
London-Leeds road led windingly about close to Watford’s centre (6)
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{ MI ( london-leeds road, M1 ) [ LED ]* } containing D ( watforD, last letter ) |
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| 4 | FULL STOP |
Period of dreadful flu left Paddy getting a heart bypass (4,4)
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[ FLU ]* L ( left ) STrOP ( paddy, with a heart bypass i.e. omitting its middle letter ) ; didnt know paddy's meaning as temper nor the same for strop but guessed that this had to be it |
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| 10 | PENINSULA |
Writer with skull, oddly, going around in a cape (9)
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PEN ( writer ) [ SUL ( SkUlL, odd letters of ) in { IN A } ] |
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| 11 | STRIP |
Uncover stone with letters inscribed on it? (5)
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ST ( stone ) RIP ( letters inscribed on stone ) ; neat surface |
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| 12 | DRESSES |
Clothes, unwrapped, are removed from sideboards (7)
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DRESSErS ( sideboards, without R – aRe, unwrapped i.e. without end letters ) |
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| 13 | MERMAID |
Me and the Royal Marines help woman who’s legless (7)
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ME RM ( royal marines ) AID ( help ) |
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| 14 | SUSHI |
Japanese delicacy American and his second son brought west (5)
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US ( american ) HIS , with the second S ( son ) moving to the front |
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| 15 | CASSEROLE |
Pot’s cover hiding the last piece of Dover sole getting cooked (9)
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CASE ( cover ) containing [ R ( doveR, last letter ) SOLE ]* |
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| 18 | CARPENTER |
Fish sign up for chippy (9)
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CARP ( fish ) ENTER ( sign up ) |
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| 20 | SODOM |
Well, millions take too much within this depraved city (5)
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[ SO ( well ) M ( millions ) ] containing OD ( overdose, take too much ) |
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| 22 | EN MASSE |
Solomon’s astride small horse after short dash together (2,5)
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EN ( short dash ) [ ME ( solomon ) containing ASS ( small horse ) ] |
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| 25 | MARXISM |
Spoil vote on ballot with one small mark indicating the rejection of capitalism? (7)
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MAR ( spoil ) X ( vote ) I ( one ) S ( small ) M ( mark ) |
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| 27 | ANVIL |
Location of industrial strikes within Catalan village (5)
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hidden in "..catalAN VILlage" ; clever clue |
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| 28 | BULLDOZER |
Someone asleep on bunk who’s intimidating? (9)
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BULL ( bunk ) DOZER ( someone asleep ) |
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| 29 | YULETIDE |
Why you — via Whatsapp — let one daughter finally lodge for Christmas? (8)
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YU ( common short text for Why You in messaging apps ) LET I ( one ) D ( daughter ) E ( lodgE, finally ) |
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| 30 | BREECH |
Bottom of tree split by the end of spear (6)
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R ( speaR, end letter ) in BEECH ( tree ) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MOPED |
The start of my newspaper column was really sad (5)
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M ( My, first letter ) OP ED ( newspaper column ) |
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| 2 | DONKEYS |
Idiots get into Oxbridge thus? (7)
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cryptic def; read as DON KEYS ( ~ get into oxbridge thus ) |
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| 3 | LANDSLIDE |
Not hard to add line within left-hand side’s comprehensive margin (9)
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L ( line ) in [ L ( left ) hAND ( not hard i.e. without H ) } in SIDE ] |
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| 5 | UNARM |
Remove weapons from the Security Council? (5)
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cryptic def; the security council is an UN ARM |
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| 6 | LASER |
One making light of sea battling between two opposing sides (5)
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[ SEA ]* in LR ( opposing sids, Left Right ) |
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| 7 | TORNADO |
High winds ripped a door’s bottom half off (7)
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TORN ( ripped ) A DOor ( bottom half off ) |
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| 8 | PIPE DREAM |
On 500 pieces of paper, Magritte’s subject is an unreal vision (4,5)
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PIPE ( magritte's subject, referring to rene magritte 1929 belgian surrealist painter's treachery of images ) D ( 500, roman numerals ) REAM ( pieces of paper ) ; i had to google to get the first half of the parse |
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| 9 | PUSSYCAT |
The arbiter of what’s new excitedly puts, say, ‘Coldplay’s number one’ (8)
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[ PUTS SAY C ( Coldplay, first letter ) ]* ; referring to a woody allen movie which, as with with the previous clue, i enlightened myself with google |
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| 14 | SECRETARY |
Office worker concealed a sob, having started late (9)
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SECRET ( concealed ) A cRY ( sob, starting late i.e. without first letter ) |
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| 16 | SCRAMBLE |
Start to struggle and clamber frantically? (8)
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S ( Struggle, first letter ) [ CLAMBER [* ; &lit |
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| 17 | EASY RIDER |
Peter Fonda produced this straightforward list of requirements (4,5)
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EASY ( straightforward ) RIDER ( list of requirements ) |
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| 19 | REMOVAL |
Extraction of broken molar vet left unfinished (7)
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[ MOLAR VEt ( unfinished i.e. without last letter ) ]* |
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| 21 | DRIZZLE |
Rain disturbed idler catching some Zs (7)
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[ IDLER ]* containing ZZ |
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| 23 | SPLAT |
Sound made by piano left perched outside (5)
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P ( piano ) [ L ( left ) in SAT ( perched ) ] |
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| 24 | EBBED |
Be up and down, then ultimately yield, diminished (5)
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EB BE ( up and down of BE ) D ( yielD, finally ) |
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| 26 | MARCH |
Squeeze, making a comeback, on the top of hit parade (5)
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reverse of CRAM ( squeeze ) on H ( Hit, first letter ) |
I had such much fun with this and had ticks liberally scattered across the page.
The reference to Kojak (9), the definition for ANVIL, the cute MERMAID, DONKEYS, STRIP, DRIZZLE, SCRAMBLE, MOPED and PIPE DREAM (saw a great show once in Helsinki where the pipes features prominently).
A lovely, light-hearted romp to seal the weak.
Thanks to Solomon and Turbolegs
Oops, seal the week is what I meant.