A typical BRADMAN offering this Friday, with a couple of new words that extended the solve time.
FF: 8 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | MELISSA | Female is entertained by stupid males (7) |
| IS in MALES* | ||
| 5 | SPRUCE | Well-dressed Christmas feature? (6) |
| double def | ||
| 8 | TITILLATE | I work in gallery providing thrill (9) |
| [I TILL (work) ] in TATE (gallery) | ||
| 9 | PANEL | Interviewers help an election to some extent (5) |
| hidden in “..helP AN ELection..” | ||
| 11 | MAINE | Home in West? It’s where some Americans live (5) |
| IN (home) in MAE (west) | ||
| 12 | ADDICTION | A way of speaking said to be a habit (9) |
| sounds like A DICTION (way of speaking) | ||
| 13 | REMOTEST | About to take second exam, becoming most uncommunicative (8) |
| RE (about) MO (second) TEST (exam) | ||
| 15 | PAWNEE | Man with Early English as language (6) |
| PAWN (man, chess) EE (Early English) | ||
| 17 | HADRON | Something tiny king wore on the outside (6) |
| [HAD ON (wore)] around R (king) | ||
| 19 | FACE UP TO | Prepare to put up with nasty cup of tea (4,2,2) |
| CUP OF TEA* | ||
| 22 | SECESSION | Withdrawal from church in the course of meeting (9) |
| CE (church) in SESSION (course of meeting) | ||
| 23 | CHEAP | Vulgar sound being heard (5) |
| sounds like CHEEP (sound) | ||
| 24 | SPAIN | Country bridge across island (5) |
| SPAN (bridge) across I (island) | ||
| 25 | NEBULISER | Something that sprays blue rinse around (9) |
| BLUE RINSE* | ||
| 26 | LESSOR | Letter coming from minor men (6) |
| LESS (minor) OR (men) | ||
| 27 | LACTEAL | With hot drink to be imbibed call for splash of milk (7) |
| TEA (hot drink) in CALL* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | METAMORPHOSES | Ma’s temper, oh so bad! Big changes needed (13) |
| MA’S TEMPER OH SO* | ||
| 2 | LITHIUM | Element glowing with noise, electric current being limited (7) |
| LIT (glowing) [ HUM (noise) around I (current) ] | ||
| 3 | SALVE | Greeting – something on the lips? (5) |
| double def | ||
| 4 | ANAPAEST | Foot given a rest on rickety seat (8) |
| A NAP (rest) [SEAT]*; apparently a foot of two short syllables followed by a long syllable | ||
| 5 | SPEEDY | Fast river rising – see to contain it (6) |
| EED (river = DEE, reversed) in SPY (see) | ||
| 6 | REPACKAGE | Material on a container outside end of dock to be put into new carton? (9) |
| REP (material, used in curtains) A [ CAGE (container) around K (end of docK) ] | ||
| 7 | CONSIGN | Hand over prisoner when given gesture? (7) |
| CON (prisoner) SIGN (gesture) | ||
| 10 | LANCE CORPORAL | Soldier exceptionally clean and – gosh! – quietly spoken (5,8) |
| CLEAN* COR (gosh) P (quietly) ORAL (spoken) | ||
| 14 | THOUSANDS | Numbers you once found sitting on beach (9) |
| THOU (you, old english) SANDS (beach) | ||
| 16 | CANNIBAL | Dangerous tribesperson makes writer dive into water (8) |
| NIB (writer) in CANAL (water) | ||
| 18 | DECLARE | Voice of awful Conservative leader (7) |
| [C (Conservative) LEADER] * | ||
| 20 | PRESSIE | Gift that is trampled on by crowd (7) |
| PRESS (crowd) IE (that is) | ||
| 21 | PINNER | Person half cut outside pub somewhere in London (6) |
| PERson (half of) around INN (pub) | ||
| 23 | COLIC | Army officer in charge is a pain (5) |
| COL (army office) IC (in charge) | ||
*anagram
4d and 21d both new to me, but got them both from the word play and checked them on Google.
I put in an unparsed DICTATE for 18d. Now I see why.
4d also new to me.
Wasn’t keen on the wording for 27a where “for splash” seems to indicate the anagram. A minor quibble at best.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs.
I remembered ANAPAEST, only to fail to see the DECLARE anagram for which I also put ‘dictate’. Grrr!
I liked HADRON and PAWNEE, the latter being one of the Piper aircraft (a crop duster) named after Native American tribes.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs
thanks Don and T!
I too went through this rather quickly until the SW corner stymied me — the DECLARE isn’t that hard to work out but… well… I didn’t. I loved HADRON — indeed something tiny (but if if CERN has its way won’t they find even tinier quarks or strings or… perhaps all the way down it’s just stuff vibrating…).
Speaking of PAWNEE, I learnt to fly on a Cherokee.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. Two thirds of this went in readily and the rest resisted much more. 4d was new and HADRON a vague recollection. I particularly liked MAINE (some time since MAE appeared and I’d forgotten about her) and THOUSANDS.
I knew all the words today – hem, hem – so had a pretty straightforward solve.
Very slight niggle about the 2 ‘up’s in 19 which I thought a little inelegant but, hey, picky picky.
Good puzzle, thanks to both.
Missed Pawnee. Kept thinking Shawnee, a tribe I did recall from watching too many westerns and couldn’t get that idea out of my head. So I was on the correct track – sort of.
Otherwise all came together until Hadron which also stumped me. I asked for help from my son who saw it immediately.
Thanks to all
An enjoyable solve with no real problems. We did wonder if ‘in London’ was a correct description for PINNER, but googling turned up the information that it’s within the ceremonial county of Greater London, so we let it pass.
Favourites were HADRON and LITHIUM.
Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.
Thanks Bradman. Favorite was THOUSANDS, stumped by HADRON and PRESSIE though both should have been seen by the clear parsing. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Finished in around half the time as normal helped along by remembering ANAPAEST and HADRON. Found that the word play for all clues were clearly outlined, so that even if the definitions were unknown tgere was still a way in.
PINNER was one of them for me and the second last in. DECLARE was last after originally writing in that unparseable DICTATE and not being totally convinced, checking with a word finder to see what was then an obvious anagram.
Thanks to both. I enjoyed this but had a wee problem when I put TURKEY in 5a. 7d set me straight. As a retired Chemistry teacher I am embarrassed to mention my last in was HADRON. A real brain fade there.