Quite a few helpful anagrams to get things going here, and not too many difficulties after that. Thanks to Brummie for the puzzle.
| Across | ||||||||
| 8 | OVERHAUL | Halve our shuttle service (8) (HALVE OUR)* |
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| 9 | ANNEX | Appropriate names acquired by a partner in the past (5) Two N[ame]s in A EX (partner in the past) |
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| 10 | EDGE | Having no end to continental shelf is an advantage (4) LEDGE (shelf) less [continenta]L |
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| 11 | HEAT SHIELD | Side with health arrangement for capsule protection? (4,6) (SIDE HEALTH)* – a heat shield protects a space capsule during re-entry |
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| 12 | INFIRM | Accepted company is failing (6) IN (accepted) + FIRM |
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| 14 | APTITUDE | Bent aide put off protecting territorial head (8) T[erritorial] in (AIDE PUT)* |
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| 16 | WEATHER | Get through Don’s confiscated article (7) THE (definite article) in WEAR (don, as clothes) |
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| 18 | UNKEMPT | Dishevelled, drunk, empty? Dry out! (7) drUNK EMPTy less the outer DRY |
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| 21 | HAIRGRIP | Musical stagehand’s lock retainer (8) HAIR (musical) + GRIP (stagehand, a title often seen in film credits) |
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| 23 | OUTAGE | Power failure abroad goes on a long time (6) OUT (abroad) + AGE (a long time) |
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| 24 | SCHEMATIST | Diagram maker matches its bends (10) (MATCHES ITS)* |
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| 26 | SILK | Lawyer – southern kind (4) S + ILK – ilk doesn’t “really” mean kind: it’s a Scots word meaning “same”, but it’s pretty much a lost cause to insist on this |
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| 27 | RIVEN | Forced to dispose of top cut (5) DRIVEN (forced) less its first letter. Some might think this would only work for a down clue, but “top” can mean something that comes first, so I think it’s ok |
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| 28 | HAIRLESS | Husband: stuffy, with nothing up top (8) H[usband] + AIRLESS |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | EVIDENCE | King’s is turned by informer (8) To Turn King’s EVIDENCE is to testify as an accomplice or informer |
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| 2,5 | FREE PASS | With which to get into a house, say on the house? (4,4) Not sure, but I think this is just an extended definition, playing on two different uses of “house” |
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| 3 | FATHOM | Sound at heart if at home (6) Hidden in iF AT HOMe (in fact the central letters, hence “at heart”) |
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| 4 | FLEABAG | Scruffy type’s flab spread with age (7) (FLAB AGE)* |
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| 6 | INDICTMENT | Medic in ground with TNT charge (10) (MEDIC IN TNT)* |
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| 7 | EXILED | Food shop with cross on top of entrance, elevated and barred (6) Reverse of DELI + X (cross) + E[ntrance] |
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| 13 | INTERWEAVE | Engrave ‘swell’ over end of the combine? (10) INTER (to bury, en-grave) + [th]E in WAVE (swell) |
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| 15 | TIN EAR | What can cause a failure to appreciate music? An organ can at first (3,3) TIN (can) + EAR (organ) |
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| 19 | PUGILISM | Is lip/gum hurt by this activity? (8) (IS LIP GUM)* &lit |
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| 20 | UPRIGHT | Piano makes you elated – just (7) UP (elated) + JUST (right) |
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| 22 | ACCORD | Agreement to link air conditioning with cable (6) AC + CORD |
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| 23 | OBTAIN | Get boat moving with current (6) BOAT* + IN (current, as an adjective) |
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| 25 | AIN’T | To collapse after fellow’s gone is not common (4) FAINT less F – AIN’T is an informal of “common” version of “is not” |
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| 26 | SILD | Fish is brought up by line at depth (4) Reverse of IS + L + D |
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Standard stuff from Brummie. Ticks for INTERWEAVE, WEATHER and FATHOM
Shrug for FREE PASS
Cheers A&B
I found this tough going, but on reading your blog, I cant really see why this should have been.
Thanks Andrew and Brummie
Thanks Brummie and Andrew.
FREE PASS
I was thinking if there was more to the clue like our blogger.
Arrived at the same conclusion: It’s an extended def/a cryptic CAD.
EVIDENCE
Didn’t know the usage. Had to Google.
Liked the clue.
I didn’t understand EVIDENCE, and still don’t. SILD was my unknown — my goodness, aren’t there a lot of fishes?
Enjoyable and the right difficulty level for this little black duck.
What Dave @2 said.
FREE PASS I read as a semi-cryptic double definitiony
1. permission to enter c.f. Dracula “Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!”
2. Liberty to take freely
Needed to check what King’s Evidence meant and the NW was a bit of a word salad for me but it didn’t seem to stall me in the end.
I agree with Dave E @2: looking back, I’m unsure why this felt such a slog while I was working my way through it.
UNKEMPT and FATHOM were satisfying; I also liked HAIRLESS and the pleasingly succinct SILK.
Thanks Andrew and Brummie
Geoff Down Under @4 to turn King’s evidence is to give evidence for the prosecution when you have been one of the defendants in a trial.
You get a reduced sentence, but you can often be the result of a revenge attack by your former accomplices
I failed to solve 3d and 11ac (apart from guessing the word SHIELD) and I could not parse 26d – because I incorrectly entered SOLE!
1d is one of those types of clue/answers that takes me a bit longer than is necessary because for all my life until a few years ago, it was always a matter of turning Queen‘s evidence. I think that the only time I ever heard the phrase being used was in TV shows.
Geoff@4 – yes, many types of fish! Almost as many as car brand names 😉