No walk in the park for me today, with a solid challenge from BRADMAN occupying the better part of my Friday morning. Thanks BRADMAN, for a good workout.
I believe 20d could do with some help.
FF: 9 DD : 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | MIRAGES | Maiden is full of anger, things being not what they seem to be (7) |
| M (maiden) IS containing RAGE (anger) | ||
| 5 | CAMASS | Plant donkey found by East Anglian river (6) |
| CAM (east anglian river) ASS (donkey) | ||
| 8 | GINGER NUT | Biscuit with rotten egg in – nasty turn ensues (6,3) |
| EGG IN* TURN* | ||
| 9 | URIAH | Old soldier in sixties show suitable for kids making comeback (5) |
| HAIR (sixties show) U (suitable for kids) – all reversed; referring to uriah the hittite | ||
| 11 | ODEON | Work of poet being performed in cinema? (5) |
| ODE (work of poet) ON (being performed) | ||
| 12 | COLLEGIAL | Scottish island, say – one with a learner in an academic setting (9) |
| COLL (scottish island) EG (say) I (one) A L (learner) | ||
| 13 | IN SECRET | Enticers manoeuvring without anybody seeing (2,6) |
| ENTICERS* | ||
| 15, 3 | GRETNA GREEN | Unruly gang re-enter border village (6,5) |
| GANG RE-ENTER* | ||
| 17 | SKIVVY | Servant of broadcaster appearing around 4 to 5 (6) |
| SKY (broadcaster) around [ IV (4) V (5) ] | ||
| 19 | CHAPATTI | Fellow going to room cut bread (8) |
| CHAP (fellow) ATTIc (room, cut) | ||
| 22 | ATTENTION | What a lecturer wants to be paid? (9) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 23 | SLEEP | Strips, having returned for rest (5) |
| PEELS (strips) reversed | ||
| 24 | ENNUI | Boredom with EU in Britain finally resolved? (5) |
| EU IN N* (britaiN, finally) | ||
| 25 | SPIDERMAN | Cartoon character on the web? (9) |
| (not so) cryptic def | ||
| 26 | TECHIE | He may get involved with IT etc with no end of excitement (6) |
| semi &lit; HE IT EtC* (with no T – end of excitemenT) | ||
| 27 | GALILEE | High wind besetting one lake gone finally – this one? (7) |
| [GALE (high wind) containing { I (one) L (lake) } ] E (gonE, finally) – could have marked “..this one” as definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MAGNOLIA STATE | Friend full of nostalgia surprisingly for Mississippi (8,5) |
| MATE (friend) containing NOSTALGIA* | ||
| 2 | RANGERS | Ref initially enrages football team (7) |
| R (Ref, initially) ANGERS (enrages) | ||
| 3 | See 15 | |
| 4 | SANICLES | Nice lass arranged plants (8) |
| NICE LASS* | ||
| 5 | CUTELY | Cross put above cathedral city in an attractive way (6) |
| CUT (cross) ELY (cathedral city) | ||
| 6 | MOUSETRAP | A super tom around? Maybe this isn’t needed then! (9) |
| A SUPER TOM* – i liked this clue. | ||
| 7 | SKI LIFT | Endless expertise shown with two newspapers presenting winter sports feature (3,4) |
| SKILl (expertise, endless) I FT (independent, financial times, two newspapers) | ||
| 10 | HALF A SIXPENCE | 3D show of yesteryear? (4,1,8) |
| double def | ||
| 14 | CAVENDISH | Scientist in den with container for absorbing nitrogen (9) |
| [CAVE (den) DISH (container)] containing N (nitrogen) | ||
| 16 | CHANGING | Conservative wanting capital punishment is coming to different view (8) |
| C (conservative) HANGING (capital punishment) | ||
| 18 | INTENSE | Trendy present maybe making one passionate (7) |
| IN (trendy) TENSE (present, maybe) | ||
| 20 | THERMAL | Hot air from the group believing everything – almost everything (7) |
| THE RM (group believing everything?) ALl (everything, almost) | ||
| 21 | TISSUE | Load of lies in paper (6) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 23 | SWELL | Groovy dude (5) |
| cryptic def | ||
*anagram
I think 20d is referring to the expression “tell it to the marines“
Two Dons in one day and this being Bradman watching the previous day’s cricket seemed apt as Steve Smith almost single-handedly took on England.I did like “Half a sixpence”
Thanks Don and TL
I think 21D, 23D are double definitions, not cryptic defs
In 7d the newspaper is actually just the i, originally a sister paper to the Independent.
Three Dons in one day – he does the Friday DT cryptic every week
Thanks to him for the challenge and Turbolegs for the blog.
My second battle with The Don today. I ended up with the vowels in the wrong order for the unknown SANICLES, couldn’t parse THERMAL and had only come across URIAH in the ‘Heep’ context before. 25a might have been a ‘(not so) cryptic def’ but I still managed to get it wrong, entering ‘Charlotte’ as my first in until the crossers showed me the error of my ways.
I liked (and even remember the original film) HALF A SIXPENCE.
Thanks to Bradman and to Turbolegs
l thought this Don effort easier than his other one in the Graun today. LOI SKI LIFT.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Found this pretty tough going as well … but found it a very enjoyable challenge. Didn’t know the marine saying, so that was entered on trust. Other unknowns included the Scottish island, the plant at 4d (which I had the first couple of vowels transposed as well until the final run through) and the show at 10d (nice clue).
Finished in the SE corner with CHAPATTI, GALILEE (tricky definition) and SWELL (clever double definition) as the last few in.