Relatively undemanding stuff from Armonie today. Very Tuesday FT-ish.
Some nice surfaces, but a couple of duplications detracted from what was otherwise a soundly-clued Tuesday offering.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TRESPASSER | Very unfashionable French redhead is an intruder (10) |
| TRÈS PASSÉ (Fr., ‘very unfashionable’) + R (‘head’ of ‘Red’). | ||
| 7 | HERE | Diplomat about to get present (4) |
| H[is] E[xcellency], or indeed Hers, + RE (‘about’, concerning). | ||
| 9 | SCUM | Undesirables charge to take drug (4) |
| SUM (‘charge’) contains C[ocaine]. | ||
| 10 | SALAD CREAM | Dressing a boy in Sunday best (5,5) |
| A LAD in S[unday] + CREAM (‘best’). | ||
| 11 | EVENTS | Engineer initially provides exhaust and fixtures (6) |
| E[ngineer] + VENTS (‘provides exhaust’). | ||
| 12 | ECSTATIC | Delighted the European Commission’s unchanging (8) |
| E[uropean] C[ommission] + STATIC (‘unchanging’). | ||
| 13 | ARCHAISM | Charisma sadly is a thing of the past (8) |
| Nice anagram (‘sadly’) of CHARISMA. | ||
| 15 | TEST | Prove tenor is French (4) |
| T[enor] + EST (Fr. for ‘is’). | ||
| 17 | RAIL | Rook upset wader (4) |
| LIAR, reversed. Chambers gives the noun ‘rook’ as a card-sharp. New to me, & only confirmed after both crossers. | ||
| 19 | DOLDRUMS | Penny’s crumbling spirits leading to melancholy (8) |
| D (former ‘penny’) + OLD (‘crumbling’) + RUMS (‘spirits’). | ||
| 22 | NIGHT OWL | Late sleeper puts own light off (5,3) |
| Anagram (‘off’) of OWN LIGHT. | ||
| 23 | WHILST | Libyan leader enters game at the same time (6) |
| L (‘leader’ of ‘Libyan’) in WHIST. | ||
| 25 | STAND ASIDE | The way an attorney’s team give way (5,5) |
| ST[reet] (‘way’) + AN + D[istrict] A[ttorney] + SIDE (‘team’). | ||
| 26 | IBIS | Irish leader twice gets the bird (4) |
| I (‘leader’, again, of ‘Ireland’) + BIS (‘twice’). | ||
| 27 | MARS | Spoils of war (4) |
| Double definition, Mars being the personification of War. I s’pose. | ||
| 28 | SETTLEMENT | Paying for reconciliation (10) |
| Double def. again. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | RECOVER | About a hundred remaining pull through (7) |
| RE (‘about’, concerning, again) + C (‘a hundred’) + OVER (‘remaining’). | ||
| 3 | SIMON | Apostle married in Israel (5) |
| M[arried] in SION (biblical ‘Israel’). | ||
| 4 | ASSASSIN | One kills when crack troops go astray (8) |
| AS + SAS (‘crack troops’) + SIN (‘go astray’). | ||
| 5 | SILVER MEDALLIST | Vile dreams still unsettled runner-up (6,9) |
| Anagram (‘unsettled’) of VILE DREAMS STILL. | ||
| 6 | RADISH | Soldier gets bowl of salad (6) |
| R[oyal] A[rtilleryman, ‘soldier’] + DISH (‘bowl’). | ||
| 7 | HEREAFTER | Man gets support packing in drug from now on (9) |
| HE (‘man’) + RAFTER (‘support’) contain E[cstasy] (‘drug’). | ||
| 8 | READIES | Cultivated a desire for cash (7) |
| Anagram (‘cultivated’, nice,) of A DESIRE. | ||
| 14 | HOLD HANDS | Husband gets experienced performers to show affection (4,5) |
| H[usband] + OLD HANDS (‘experienced performers’). | ||
| 16 | FLYWHEEL | Take off with list for engine part (8) |
| FLY (‘take off’) + W[ith] + HEEL (‘list’). | ||
| 18 | ARIETTA | Irate at badly-written song (7) |
| Anagram (‘badly-wrtten’, another nice indicator) of IRATE AT. My CoD, for surface & new but gettable word. | ||
| 20 | MISSION | Girl one takes on an assignment (7) |
| MISS (‘girl’) + I (‘one’) + ON. | ||
| 21 | MORALS | Heartless humans showing integrity (6) |
| ‘MORtALS’. | ||
| 24 | IDIOM | Some said I omitted it, in a manner of speaking (5) |
| Inclusion in ‘saID I OMitted’. | ||
*anagram
For 17 across I took RAIL to be ‘R’ (rook) plus ‘AIL’ (upset)
Thanks Grant. I thought 9ac must be SCUM but didn’t understand why. C for ‘cocaine’ seems a bit Mephistoish but H for heroine is common enough so why not I suppose. I don’t understand SUM for ‘charge’ though.
PS I had 17ac like passerby.
Thanks Armonie and Grant
A typical puzzle from this setter – not too hard but enough to prevent it being just a write-in solve. Had parsed RAIL the same as Grant but acknowledge that the alternative is better – especially with his penchant for using single letters as a part of his word play.
Also paused over SUM being equivalent to ‘charge’ – understand that it can mean an amount of money which is what one can be charged … but can that be stretched to be a synonym of charge itself ? Whatever, it was the correct answer and I got it … so that’s all that matters, I guess !!
MORALS and WHILST were my last couple in … and were two of my favourites.