Today brings a pleasant solve with some nice surfaces from Flimsy.
On quite a few of these, I was misdirected to one end of the clue as the definition before realizing that, no, I had it backwards.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TYPEFACE |
Kind fellow by a church font (8)
|
| TYPE (kind) + F (fellow) + A + CE (church) | ||
| 5 | AFFORD |
Bear a loud American president (6)
|
| A + F (loud, in music) + FORD (American president, i.e., Gerald R. Ford) | ||
| 9 | FLAGRANT |
Tirade after Jack’s naked (8)
|
| FLAG (jack) + RANT (tirade) | ||
| 10 | RATTLE |
Instrument upset conductor (6)
|
| Triple definition, including a reference to Simon Rattle | ||
| 12 | EVERY |
All leave early on a regular basis (5)
|
| Alternating letters of (on a regular basis) [L]E[A]V[E] E[A]R[L]Y | ||
| 13 | AVERMENTS |
Servant upset about this writer’s declarations (9)
|
| Anagram of (upset) SERVANT around (about) ME (this writer) | ||
| 14 | BEATEN |
Scoffed after bachelor’s defeated (6)
|
| B (bachelor) + EATEN (scoffed) | ||
| 16 | PENGUIN |
Writer with weapon bagging one bird (7)
|
| PEN (writer) + GUN (weapon) around (bagging) I (one) | ||
| 19 | ON THE GO |
In shopfront he got busy (2,3,2)
|
| Hidden in [SHOPFR]ONT HE GO[T] | ||
| 21 | INSECT |
Nicest bats for cricket? (6)
|
| Anagram of (bats) NICEST | ||
| 23 | BUCHAREST |
Butchers moved outside centre of Singapore City (9)
|
| Anagram of (moved) BUTCHERS around (outside) centre of [SING]A[PORE] | ||
| 25 | SPRAT |
Quarrel about river fish (5)
|
| SPAT (quarrel) around (about) R (river) | ||
| 26 | ELATED |
Story turned editor wild with excitement (6)
|
| TALE (story) reversed (turned) + ED (editor) | ||
| 27 | INDICATE |
Show I acted in is broadcast (8)
|
| Anagram of (is broadcast) I ACTED IN | ||
| 28 | SAMOSA |
Polynesian country concealing business’s last turnover (6)
|
| SAMOA (Polynesian country) around (concealing) last letter of [BUSINES]S | ||
| 29 | FEELINGS |
Passion from two Europeans in romantic entanglements (8)
|
| E + E (two Europeans) inside (in) FLINGS (romantic entanglements) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TOFFEE |
Golf supporter swallowing rotten sweet (6)
|
| TEE (golf supporter) around (swallowing) OFF (rotten) | ||
| 2 | PLACEMENT |
Mountain climbing on secure location (9)
|
| ALP (mountain) reversed (climbing) + CEMENT (secure) | ||
| 3 | FORAY |
Sally in favour of 24 hours without daughter (5)
|
| FOR (in favour of) + [D]AY (24 hours, without “d” [daughter]) | ||
| 4 | CONTAIN |
Control prisoner with whip one’s grabbed (7)
|
| CON (prisoner) + I (one) inside (is grabbed [by]) TAN (whip) | ||
| 6 | FRAGMENTS |
Female with cloth intended to leave adult small pieces (9)
|
| F (female) + RAG (cloth) + ME[A]NT (intended, missing [to leave] “a” [adult]) + S (small) | ||
| 7 | OFTEN |
Frequently working to keep this newspaper profitable, ultimately (5)
|
| ON (working) around (to keep) FT (this newspaper) + E (last letter of [“ultimately”] [PROFITABL]E) | ||
| 8 | DRESSING |
Bandage doctor put on writer lacking length (8)
|
| DR (doctor) + [L]ESSING (writer, i.e., Doris Lessing, minus [lacking] “l” [length]) | ||
| 11 | PEEP |
Look both ways (4)
|
| “Both ways” signaling a palindrome | ||
| 15 | TEENAGERS |
Youths eat greens irregularly (9)
|
| Anagram of (irregularly) EAT GREENS | ||
| 17 | UNCERTAIN |
Nicer aunt shot up in the air (9)
|
| Anagram of (shot) NICER AUNT | ||
| 18 | COBBLERS |
They might make platforms rot (8)
|
| Double (and slightly cryptic) definition | ||
| 20 | OPEN |
Frank’s leg restricting exercises (4)
|
| ON (leg) around (restricting) PE (exercises) | ||
| 21 | INTENSE |
Sounds like where campers could be passionate (7)
|
| Homophone of (sounds like) IN TENTS (where campers could be) | ||
| 22 | STRESS |
Anxiety as American’s cut hair (6)
|
| [A]S (minus [cut] “A” [American]) + TRESS (hair) | ||
| 24 | CHASM |
Has PM lost power after Conservative rift? (5)
|
| C (Conservative) + HAS + [P]M (minus [lost] “p” [power]) | ||
| 25 | SPILL |
Papa poorly after onset of stomach upset (5)
|
| S (first letter of [“onset of”] S[TOMACH]) + P (Papa, in NATO phonetic alphabet) + ILL (poorly) |
Well that was easy. I was finished almost before I’d started. But it was most enjoyable, with no sticky moments. I’d never thought of a samosa as a turnover, but I guess it is. And I didn’t know “aver” had a noun form. My dictionary says it hails from the US. My only head-scratch: I looked through my dictionary’s 26 definitions of “leg” but didn’t find “on”.
Thanks Flimsy & Cineraria.
Geoff@1: The leg side is the on side in cricket. That is about as deep as my understanding of the sport goes.
Aha! Thank you, Cineraria.
Done over a coffee and cereal.
A first for me
Thanks all!
13A was new to me.
I didn’t understand 18D until I came here. Hey , Geoff, did you know that “cobblers” means “rubbish”? I don’t think that I have heard that here in Australia.
Yes, Peter, I’ve often heard it, admittedly quite often in British television shows. I seem to recall it in Fawlty Towers, as one example.
It’s often “a load of old cobblers”.
‘Cobblers’ is rhyming slang – cobbler’s awls. And thanks Flimsy, and Cineraria for an excellent blog.
I try not to overexplain, (except for identifying full names, which I personally sometimes find difficult to research), but it is hard to guess who might be familiar with what, and I assume we can follow up any remaining obscurities in the comments.
Thanks for the blog, neat and concise clues here. I did like the platforms bit in COBBLERS .
Geoff@6 it was mainly popularised by Steptoe and Son from 1962 . The old man Albert would respond to the dreams of his son Harold with the phrase you mentioned.
My cricket knowledge is solely from crosswords, Azed is a cricket fan. Why do we have LEG stump, square LEG , long LEG, short LEG but mid ON , long ON , ON drive etc ?
We had to check AVERMENTS in the dictionary and took a while to get 1ac as we thought it might be an actual font name that was wanted. Otherwise it was all pretty straightforward and enjoyable.
Thanks, Flimsy and Cineraria.
Roz @ 10
I suspect it may be because the LEG positions are parallel to or behind batters, while ON positions are in front of them.
Macmorris @ 8, I was going to ask what “awls” rhymes with, but I’ve found it. No need to lower the tone of this blog. 😉
A font is not a typeface.
Now Geoff, I forgive you a lack of knowledge of some of the more obscure English cultural references, but leg / on cricket terminology? Surely no excuse for an Aussie not knowing?