In more than one instance, today’s entry from Peto tested my ability to spell out the parsing in a comprehensible fashion . . .
. . . with a number of words and expressions that were unfamiliar to me. I would rate this puzzle as rather tough for a Tuesday, and certainly the sort of thing that I would have found very challenging back when I was a beginner. I think everything was fairly and conventionally clued, though, so hats off to Peto.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WORDPLAY |
Dramatic performance with line about daughter’s witty repartee (8)
|
| ROW (line) reversed (about) + D (daughter) + PLAY (dramatic performance) | ||
| 5 | HARD UP |
Difficult at university when short of money (4,2)
|
| HARD (difficult) + UP (at university) | ||
| 9 | ALL CLEAR |
Permission to proceed with the only thing against Cuba having a king (3,5)
|
| I think this parses as: ALL (the only thing, as in “all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth”) + C (Cuba) + LEAR (a king) | ||
| 10 | PLIANT |
Easily influenced by books on Italian originally living in mountain retreat (6)
|
| {First letter of (originally) I[TALIAN] inside (living in) ALP (mountain) reversed (retreat)} + NT (books) | ||
| 11 | LATITUDE |
Freedom from restraint by lake having sex with American guy? Not at first (8)
|
| L (lake) + AT IT (having sex) + [D]UDE (American guy) minus first letter (not at first) | ||
| 12 | ESCORT |
Key soldiers trained primarily to provide an armed guard (6)
|
| ESC ([computer] key) + OR (soldiers) + first letter of (primarily) T[RAINED] | ||
| 14 | A TALL ORDER |
Hesitation after a bit, admitting return of speaking part is an unreasonable demand (1,4,5)
|
| {A + TAD (bit) around (admitting) homophone of (speaking) ROLE (part = “ROLL”) reversed (return of)} + ER (hesitation) | ||
| 18 | AMATEURISH |
Done in an inept way as Mennonite sect without regret takes volunteers back (10)
|
| AMISH (Mennonite sect) around (without) {[RUE (regret) + TA (volunteers)] all reversed (back)} | ||
| 22 | ENDURE |
Bear is close by river (6)
|
| END (close) + URE (river) | ||
| 23 | THOROUGH |
Utter an expression of surprise over occupying ditch (8)
|
| OH (an expression of surprise) reversed (over) inside (occupying) TROUGH (ditch) | ||
| 24 | ARARAT |
Where Noah ended up with a pair of rodents one tailless (6)
|
| A + {RA[T] + RAT} (pair of rodents) the first one minus last letter (one tailless) | ||
| 25 | BRASSIES |
Money that’s skimmed principally from golf clubs in the past (8)
|
| BRASS (money) + I.E. (that’s) + first letter of (principally) S[KIMMED] | ||
| 26 | TAPETI |
Monkey entering race against one kind of rabbit (6)
|
| {APE (monkey) inside (entering) TT (race, i.e., Tourist Trophy)} + I (one) | ||
| 27 | SYNOPSIS |
General view of northern goddess on extremely soggy island (8)
|
| Outside letters of (extremely) S[OGG]Y + N (northern) + OPS ([Roman] goddess [of abundance, prosperity, and agriculture, not listed in Chambers?]) + IS. (island) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | WEAKLY |
Key law used in an ineffective manner (6)
|
| Anagram of (used) KEY LAW | ||
| 2 | RELATE |
Tell of powerless church dignitary (6)
|
| [P]RELATE (church dignitary) minus (-less) P (power) | ||
| 3 | POLITE |
Refined oil confounded private pinches (6)
|
| PTE (private) around (pinches) anagram of (confounded) OIL | ||
| 4 | A HAND’S TURN |
Small amount of work to make commercials featuring Chinese fashion (1,5,4)
|
| ADS (commercials) around (featuring) HAN (Chinese) + TURN (fashion, as on a lathe) | ||
| 6 | ALLUSION |
Oblique mention of everything melting fellow ignored (8)
|
| ALL (everything) + [F]USION (melting) minus (ignored) F (fellow) | ||
| 7 | DIAMONDS |
Spoke about catching Rockers’ rival protecting new suit (8)
|
| SAID (spoke) inverted (about) around (catching) {MOD (Rockers’ rival) around (protecting) N (new)} | ||
| 8 | POTATORY |
Kitty seen with a Conservative given to drinking (8)
|
| POT (kitty) + A + TORY (Conservative) | ||
| 13 | FLASH HARRY |
Short news announcement to worry ostentatiously showy chap (5,5)
|
| FLASH (short news announcement) + HARRY (worry), according to Wikipedia “a fictional character from the St. Trinian’s series of films” | ||
| 15 | NAME PART |
Rising to criticise keeping oddly meek painting of Henry V for instance (4,4)
|
| {PAN (to criticise) inverted (rising) around (keeping) alternate letters of (oddly) M[E]E[K]} + ART (painting), referring to the title-role of a play | ||
| 16 | SAND WASP |
A couple from Spain going around with DNA lifted, for example, from a digging insect (4,4)
|
| First two letters of (a couple from) SP[AIN] around (going around) {[W (with) + DNA] inverted (lifted) + AS (for example)} | ||
| 17 | RECREANT |
Soldiers repeatedly describing cold social worker as cowardly (8)
|
| {RE + RE} (soldiers, repeatedly) around (describing) C (cold) + ANT (social worker) | ||
| 19 | PRESTO |
Prince is in Paris to find love quickly (6)
|
| PR. (prince) + EST (is, in Paris, i.e., in French) + O (love) | ||
| 20 | QUOITS |
Oxford’s opener stops, gives up, throwing game (6)
|
| First letter of (opener [of]) O[XFORD] inside (stops) QUITS (gives up) | ||
| 21 | THESIS |
Believer in God largely accepting society as a subject for discussion (6)
|
| THEIS[T] (believer in God) minus last letter (largely) around (accepting) S (society) |