A witty masterclass from one of my favorite setters – thanks REDSHANK for a delectable offering this Friday morning.
This is one of those puzzles where the solving experience was much like peeling an onion. Seemingly obscure and esoteric at first, the solutions to such clues gradually revealed themselves as layers of other clues were peeled back. Learnt a thing or two as well, and did have to use Google to confirm the parsing for a couple of clues.
FF:10 DD:9
| Across | ||
| 1 | SEABIRD | Diver maybe raised rocks protecting bar mouth (7) |
| RAISED* containing B (Bar, mouth – first character) | ||
| 5 | PEACOCK | Butterfly gives a firm nip on the outside (7) |
| [ A CO (firm) ] inside PECK (nip) | ||
| 9 | TRAIL | Labour needs a victor to follow (5) |
| TRavAIL (labour, without A V [victor] ) | ||
| 10 | CONSTABLE | Beat copper wire frames on street (9) |
| CABLE (wire) containing [ON ST (street)] – clever if somewhat brief misdirection, from “..copper wire..” | ||
| 11 | PROTOZOIC | New zoo to cut reduced cost of tiny animals (9) |
| [ZOO TO]* in PRICe (cost, reduced) | ||
| 12 | PITCH | Sort of pine, soft pine (5) |
| P (soft) ITCH (pine) | ||
| 13 | WINDOW DRESSING | Means to view plaster facade (6-8) |
| WINDOW (means to view) DRESSING (plaster) | ||
| 18 | ORNITHOLOGISTS | Hobbies interest them, or Ulster ministers wasting energy (14) |
| OR NI (ulster) THeOLOGISTS (ministers, wasting energy i.e. without E) – refering to the hobby bird. I thought this was a clever clue too. | ||
| 20 | INCUR | Run into ragged urchin husband neglected (5) |
| URChIN* (without H – husband) | ||
| 22 | VICE VERSA | Poor service in London museum? On the contrary (4,5) |
| SERVICE* in VA (london museum, Victor & Albert museum) | ||
| 24 | TALKING TO | Carpeting’s total shambles without ruler (7-2) |
| TOTAL* outside KING (ruler) | ||
| 25 | TULSA | Start to tour America, taking in large city (5) |
| [ T (start to Tour) USA (america) ] taking in L (large) | ||
| 26 | CONGEAL | Set to screen golf for clubs (7) |
| CONcEAL (screen, wiith G – golf replacing C – clubs) | ||
| 27 | SELVAGE | Train leaves around midnight for border (7) |
| LEAVES* around G (mid-niGht) – new word for me but getable from the clue. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SIT-UPS | Small Russian leader’s pointless climbing exercises (3-3) |
| [ S (small) PUTIn’S (russian leader’s, pointless – without N for north) ], all reversed (climbing) | ||
| 2 | AMAZONIAN | Big merchant, Scottish chap, forest dweller (9) |
| AMAZON (big merchant) IAN (scottish chap) | ||
| 3 | IGLOO | Bunch of schoolgirls erect house up north (5) |
| hidden, reversed in “…schOOLGIrls…” – nice clue !! | ||
| 4 | DOCTOR WHO | It could be worth chopping the same business TV series (6,3) |
| WORTH* in [ DO (same) CO (business) ] | ||
| 5 | PANIC | Latin-American suppresses his terror (5) |
| hisPANIC (latin-american, without ‘HIS’) | ||
| 6 | ANTIPASTI | A lot of chianti, pastis, olives and tapas perhaps (9) |
| hidden in “…chiANTI PASTIs…” | ||
| 7 | ORBIT | Circle late notice Republican sent in (5) |
| OBIT (late notice, obituary) containing R (republican) | ||
| 8 | KNEE HIGH | Stoned after joint not far from the ground (4-4) |
| HIGH (stoned) after KNEE (joint) | ||
| 14 | DETERMINE | Discourage writer’s resolve (9) |
| DETER (discourage) MINE (writer’s, referring to setter) | ||
| 15 | ROOT CROPS | Batsman whips Swedes, say (4,5) |
| ROOT (batsman, joe root) CROPS (whips) – swede here refers to the rubataga, a cross between cabbage and turnip | ||
| 16 | INTER ALIA | Work at airline, among other things (5,4) |
| [AT AIRLINE]* | ||
| 17 | HOLISTIC | Like approach taken by hospital with treatment of colitis? (8) |
| H (hospital) + COLITIS* – semi &lit? | ||
| 19 | GARAGE | A big end and gear repaired here (6) |
| [ A G (biG, end) GEAR ]* – semi &lit? | ||
| 21 | COLON | Panama City officer working his final passage (5) |
| double def; COL (officer, colonel) ON (working) | ||
| 22 | VIGIL | Old poet loses rare watch (5) |
| VIrGIL (old poet, without ‘R’ – rare) | ||
| 23 | VITAL | Group of relatives circulate key (5) |
| hidden, reversed in “…reLATIVes…” | ||
*anagram
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