A fun SOLOMON offering this Friday.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MIKE |
Name that one might drop? (4)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 3 | CONGENITAL |
Inbred Italian with stunted body parts (10)
|
| CON ( with, spanish ) GENITALs ( body parts, stunted i.e. without last letter ) | ||
| 10 | DRAKE |
Rapper the face of December’s Playboy (5)
|
| D ( December, first letter ) RAKE ( playboy ) | ||
| 11 | ELBOW ROOM |
Make enough space by moving 14 Across below, having removed bed (5,4)
|
| [ BELOW bORedOM ( 14 across, witthout letters of BED ) ]* ; | ||
| 12 | MAKE HASTE |
Quickly cook hake with steam (4,5)
|
| [ HAKE STEAM ]* | ||
| 13 | OCEAN |
Loads of water from broken canoe (5)
|
| [ CANOE ]* | ||
| 14 | BOREDOM |
Tedium arising when old wine is drunk by retired group (7)
|
| [ O ( old ) RED ( wine ) ] in reverse of MOB ( group ) | ||
| 16 | IRKSOME |
Irritating leader leaves Scottish church with a few following (7)
|
| kIRK ( scottish church, without its first letter ) SOME ( few ) | ||
| 18 | HADRIAN |
Managing Director of Walls ate raspberry ice-cream after nachos for starters (7)
|
| HAD ( ate ) RIAN ( starting letters of “..Raspberry Ice-cream After Nachos..” ); figured the answer out but didnt know the significance until i googled it. Wiki | ||
| 20 | HOPEFUL |
Promising Spring, at first — England’s freezing by the middle of July (7)
|
| HOP ( spring ) EF ( first letters of “..England’s Freezing..” ) UL ( jULy, middle of ) | ||
| 22 | VIGIL |
Watch one of the Thunderbirds run away (5)
|
| VIrGIL ( one of the thunderbirds, without R – run ) | ||
| 24 | TOODLE-PIP |
Goodbye to one initially led astray by Dickensian character (6-3)
|
| TO O ( One, initially ) [ LED ]* PIP ( dickensian character ) | ||
| 27 | OVEREXERT |
Strain of old, exhausted explorer going through plain (9)
|
| [ EX ( old ) ER ( ExploreR, exhausted i.e. without inner letters ) ] in OVERT ( plain ) | ||
| 28 | CHINA |
Cups and saucers in a box nearby (5)
|
| CHIN ( box ) A | ||
| 29 | REMASTERED |
Band with Rough Trade cleared sample getting reproduced (10)
|
| REM ( band ) [ TRADE SE ( SamplE, cleared i.e. without inner letters ) ]* | ||
| 30 | OGRE |
One with a bad temper in back-to-front undergown (4)
|
| hidden, reversed in “..undERGOwn” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MADAM |
Female or male? The first one (5)
|
| M ( male ) ADAM ( first male ) | ||
| 2 | KNACKERED |
Worn-out, bent journalist drinks last half of beer (9)
|
| [ KNACK ( bent ) ED ( journalist ) ] containing ER ( beER, half of ) | ||
| 4 | OVERS |
Lots of deliveries made by ramblers starting late (5)
|
| rOVERS ( ramblers, without first letter ) | ||
| 5 | GIBBERISH |
Soldier scattered rubbish after scrubbing uniform filled with earth and garbage (9)
|
| GI ( soldier ) { [ RuBBISH ( without U – uniform ) ]* containing E ( earth ) } | ||
| 6 | NEW YORK |
City and Newcastle’s front three turning Roy Keane’s head (3,4)
|
| NEW ( NEWcastle, first three letters of ) YOR ( reverse of ROY ) K ( Keane, first letter ) | ||
| 7 | THOSE |
The articles? Tragedian’s cap and stockings (5)
|
| T ( Tragedian, first letter ) HOSE ( stockings ) | ||
| 8 | LEMON PEEL |
Last bits of balm (clove oil) tipped on ex- PM’s waxy skin (5,4)
|
| [ reverse of MEL ( last letters of “..balM ( clovE oiL ) ) ] ON PEEL ( ex-pm, robert peel of the uk ) | ||
| 9 | METHOD |
Organisation satisfied with building equipment (6)
|
| MET ( satisfied ) HOD ( building equipment ) | ||
| 14 | BEHAVIOUR |
Conduct the opening of Handel’s Messiah without soprano after Beethoven’s 1st and 8th (9)
|
| BE ( BeethovEn, 1st and 8th letters of ) H ( Handel, first letter ) sAVIOUR ( messiah, without S – soprano ) | ||
| 15 | MONOTREME |
Odd animal — male duck? No, shaved emu — in tree (9)
|
| M ( male ) O ( duck ) NO [ M ( eMu, shaved i.e. without end characters ) in TREE ] ; wiki | ||
| 17 | OFFSPRING |
The result of absent coil? (9)
|
| cryptic def; referring to the contraceptive device | ||
| 19 | ILLNESS |
Sell sailor’s cap in bad condition (7)
|
| [ SELL S ( Sailor, first letter ) IN ]* | ||
| 21 | PALACE |
Home housing the highest class? (6)
|
| &lit; PLACE ( home ) containing A ( highest class ) | ||
| 23 | GLEAM |
Flash Gordon’s lead male is bad (5)
|
| G ( Gordon, first letter ) [ MALE ]* | ||
| 25 | OUTRE |
Unusual characters within scout regiment (5)
|
| hidden in “..scOUT REgiment “ | ||
| 26 | PEACE |
Quiet musical composition on the radio (5)
|
| sounds like PIECE ( musical composition ) |
Thanks Solomon for a very enjoyable crossword with my favourites being IRKSOME, REMASTERED (great surface), BEHAVIOUR, and HADRIAN, the latter for the creative definition. (I highly recommend hiking the Hadrian’s Wall path.) I failed to parse CONGENITAL and CHINA. I was a bit surprised to see ‘bad’ as the anagram indicator in both ILLNESS and GLEAM. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog. (BTW, in your parsing of CONGENITAL I think you meant ‘Italian’ , not ‘Spanish’.)
OFFSPRING
It’s a cryptic def as the blog says (the whole clue).
Also, there’s some WP:
absent=OFF
coil=SPRING