A brisk challenge from a familiar setter on Fridays. Thanks Bradman.
FF: 8 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | COMMENDS | Firm with a thousand improves to get praises (8) |
| CO (firm) M (thousand) MENDS (improves) | ||
| 5 | UPWIND | Facing a blast at university, wanting victory against head of department (6) |
| UP (university) WIN (victory) D (head of Department) | ||
| 10 | LACQUER | Queen in delicate fabric right for coat (7) |
| [ QU (queen) in LACE (delicate fabric) ] R (right) | ||
| 11 | REPAPER | Decorate again, one way or the other (7) |
| cryptic clue; palindrome | ||
| 12 | MAIZE | Grass one found in Hampton Court feature (5) |
| I (one) in MAZE (hampton court feature) | ||
| 13 | ANDANTINO | Movement – see nanna do it awkwardly (9) |
| NANNA DO IT* | ||
| 14 | MAN OF AFFAIRS | Fellow in business who cheats on his wife? (3,2,7) |
| cryptic clue (not sure if this counts as a double def or not) | ||
| 18 | HEART-TO-HEART | Conversation of two people getting pumped up? (5-2-5) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 21 | INSOMNIAC | One taken in by awful conman is suffering from sleep deficit (9) |
| I (one) in CONMAN IS* | ||
| 23 | AGAVE | Time to protect a very small plant (5) |
| AGE (time) protecting [A V (very) ] | ||
| 24 | LINE-OUT | Row not allowed as feature of ball game (4-3) |
| LINE (row) OUT (not allowed) | ||
| 25 | OCELOTS | Cool set, unconventional cats (7) |
| COOL SET* | ||
| 26 | DRESSY | Untidy doctor not male to be elegant (6) |
| the word play only works if interpreted as “untidy doctor = DR.MESSY” and then M for male is removed. if parsed linearly, then the clue lacks a positional indicator for DR. | ||
| 27 | CLATTERY | Express grief, drinking coffee – cups and saucers may be so noisy (8) |
| LATTE (coffee) in CRY (express grief) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | COLUMN | Architectural construction is a newspaper feature (6) |
| double def | ||
| 2 | MUCK IN | Scottish island home? Share accommodation maybe (4,2) |
| MUCK (scottish island) IN (home) | ||
| 3 | EXUBERANT | Former cab-firm worker is full of joy (9) |
| EX (former) UBER (cab-firm) ANT (worker) | ||
| 4 | DERMATOLOGISTS | Medical specialists glamorised tots improperly (14) |
| GLAMORISED TOTS* | ||
| 6 | POP IN | Briefly visit work that’s in fix (3,2) |
| OP (work) in PIN (fix) | ||
| 7 | IMPLICIT | Straightforwardness that avoids extremes is taken for granted (8) |
| sIMPLICITy (straightforwardness, without extreme letters) | ||
| 8 | DORMOUSE | Rodent in boarding school room overlooking river (8) |
| DORM (boarding school room) OUSE (river) | ||
| 9 | GRADUATE SCHOOL | Alas, huge doctor troubles institution with students destined to be doctors? (8,6) |
| ALAS HUGE DOCTOR* | ||
| 15 | FIRMAMENT | Adamant conclusion to prayer beginning to touch the heavens above (9) |
| FIRM (adamant) AMEN (conclusion to prayer) T (beginning to Touch) | ||
| 16 | THRILLED | Excited husband being embraced chirped (8) |
| H (husband) in TRILLED (chirped) | ||
| 17 | LAUSANNE | Road goes round country, coming to north European city (8) |
| LANE (road) around [ USA (country) N (north) ] | ||
| 19 | SALOME | Dancer has oomph – behold this person! (6) |
| SA (oomph) LO (behold) ME (this person) – didnt know this one. Thanks Geoff for the help. | ||
| 20 | JERSEY | Jumper – the one that jumped over the moon maybe? (6) |
| crptic clue; referring to the jersey cow; from the nursery rhyme “hey diddle diddle”.. containing the line “..the cow jumped over the moon”. | ||
| 22 | MOORS | Iberian invaders in desolate areas (5) |
| double def | ||
*anagram
Thought 20d was a very neat clue.
AGAVE is not a small plant. Confused me at first but ok if you take the V as ‘very small’ and take ‘plant’ as the definition. I also liked JERSEY.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Nice medium level of difficulty puzzle from the Don with the new learning being ‘Hampton Court’ and it’s garden, including the maze and secret tunnel.
Liked JERSEY – but liked GRADUATE SCHOOL better, probably because he misdirected me with the sort of doctor.
DORMOUSE (even though I’ve seen this wordplay for it a couple of times) and ANDANTINO were the last couple in.