Struggled with this for a while, but got there in the end. Several nice clues in here, and nothing too difficult, although I had to guess 13dn and at some of the wordplay.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 9 | PENINSULA | (lines up an)* – took me a while, as I hadn’t heard of “bill” in this sense before. |
| 10 | CREDO | Originally thought this was C,RE,DO with two uses of “about” and was slightly annoyed – kicked myself when I saw it was C,REDO |
| 11 | TWIN,E | Nice misleading surface. |
| 12 | AUBERGINE | AUBERGE around IN |
| 13 | SCUTTLE | double def – I assume the “basket” half refers to coal scuttles. |
| 17,19,20 | STAGE MAN,AGING | put this down as an &lit, as “getting on”=AGING seems needed for the definition as well. STAGE=”coach” and MAN=”member of group”, I suppose. |
| 21 | LINCTUS | Cough medicine if I recall correctly, sounds like “linked us”, us=Guardian |
| 22 | S,HATTER | |
| 24 | LASSITUDE | “2’s order reversed” gives SITU IN (deals)*. Clever. |
| 26 | TRIAD | TAD around RI, but I don’t know where the latter comes from, unless it’s a bit of scRIpture, which seems unlikely |
| 28 | STINT | double def. |
| 28 | TURNTABLE | (battle)* around URN |
| Down | ||
| 1,24 | SPOT,LESS | |
| 2 | IN SITU | (unit is)* |
| 3 | INSENTIENT | not sure about the wordplay. My best guess – “Sentiment engulfs male so” ~= Sentiment engulfs male IN SENTIENT, i.e. M engulfed IN SENTIENT gives “sentiment” |
| 4 | CURARE | AR in CURE |
| 5 | BARBICAN | BAR and BAN, around, presumably, IC = “in charge” |
| 7 | BERIBERI | BRIBER around E=drug, I=one |
| 8,27 | COMEDIES | COME=happen, DIE=to go, S[hakespeare] |
| 13 | SISAL | I in rev(LASS). A fibre used to make rope. |
| 15 | STALACTITE | cryptic def. I suppose, but I got it only from checking letters. |
| 16 | NIGER | rev(REGI[o]N) |
| 19 | MOSQUITO | low=MOO around S[outh], QUIT=part |
| 23 | TRILBY | I LB in TRY |
Comments are closed.