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A return from the DON for a Friday puzzle.
FF: 8 : DD: 8
I found the puzzle mostly easy going but was stumped by a couple of clues that I have called out in the blog.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WATCH CHAIN |
Albert maybe to keep an eye on four poles (5,5)
|
| WATCH ( keep an eye on ) CHAIN ( four poles, unit of measurement ) – another clue that i needed to look up on google | ||
| 6 | SWAB |
Plymouth sailor, say, could be cleaner (4)
|
| SW ( plymouth, say ) AB ( sailor ) | ||
| 9 | EXORBITANT |
No longer on course, worker is too high (10)
|
| EX ( no longer ) ORBIT ( course ) ANT ( worker ) | ||
| 10 | KIND |
Considerate type (4)
|
| double def | ||
| 12 | CROSS-COUNTRY |
Angry nation on account of race (5-7)
|
| CROSS ( angry ) COUNTRY ( nation ) | ||
| 15 | EDUCATION |
Cautioned about what school offers (9)
|
| [ CAUTIONED ]* | ||
| 17 | KYOTO |
Tokyo, transformed Japanese city (5)
|
| [ TOKYO ]* | ||
| 18 | TILTH |
Ground until Thursday’s sealed off (5)
|
| hidden in “..unTIL THursday..”; didnt know the word but easy enough to get | ||
| 19 | POSTNATAL |
After delivery mail turned brown (not quite all) (9)
|
| POST ( mail ) NAT ( reverse of TAN – brown ) ALl ( not quite i.e. without last letter ) | ||
| 20 | CENTRE SPREAD |
What could be recent deal for racegoers to look at in magazine feature (6,6)
|
| [ RECENT ]* SPREAD ( deal for racegoers to look at, betting ) | ||
| 24 | DRIP |
Doctor has minimal money as ineffectual person (4)
|
| DR ( doctor ) IP ( read as 1p, a pence, minimal money ) | ||
| 25 | DISAPPOINT |
Daughter is given a quiet tip, being let down (10)
|
| D ( daughter ) IS A P ( quiet ) POINT ( tip ) | ||
| 26 | SOHO |
Thus house with no use in part of London (4)
|
| SO ( thus ) HOuse ( no use ) | ||
| 27 | RECTANGLES |
Figures ruined, we hear, by folk invading Britain (10)
|
| RECT ( sounds like WRECKED – ruined ) ANGLES ( folk invading britain ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | WHEY |
Something watery heard in street? (4)
|
| sounds like WAY ( street ) | ||
| 2 | TROW |
Trust lost ultimately with quarrel (4)
|
| T ( losT, last letter ) ROW ( quarrel ) | ||
| 3 | HABERDASHERS |
Traders, including chemist, quick movers (12)
|
| HABER ( chemist, fritz haber ) DASHERS ( quick movers ) – had to get internet help to solve this | ||
| 4 | HATES |
Detests hospital — a trial mostly (5)
|
| H ( hospital ) A TESt ( trial, mostly ) | ||
| 5 | INNOCENTS |
We are not to blame pub with zero coins (9)
|
| INN ( pub ) O ( zero ) CENTS ( coins ) | ||
| 7 | WAISTCOATS |
Attic was so designed for garments (10)
|
| [ ATTIC WAS SO ]* | ||
| 8 | BUDDY HOLLY |
Singer to purchase Christmas decoration over two days (5,5)
|
| [ BUY ( purchase ) HOLLY ( christmas decoration ) ] containing DD ( two days ) | ||
| 11 | QUAKING ASPEN |
As ruler and as writer, a wooden American type (7,5)
|
| QUA ( as ) KING ( ruler ) AS PEN ( writer ) | ||
| 13 | PESTICIDES |
Diet spec is dodgy — dangerous chemicals (10)
|
| [ DIET SPEC IS ]* | ||
| 14 | OUTLANDISH |
Eccentric lout transformed — a new attractive person (10)
|
| [ LOUT ]* A N ( new ) DISH ( attractive person ) | ||
| 16 | IMPASSIVE |
I am quiet fool and I have to be expressionless (9)
|
| IM ( i am ) P ( quiet ) ASS ( fool ) IVE ( i have ) | ||
| 21 | REACT |
Create endless upset making reply (5)
|
| [ CREATe ( endless ) ]* | ||
| 22 | SILL |
Daft, letting bottom slide off mass of rock (4)
|
| SILLy ( daft, without ending letter ) | ||
| 23 | ETAS |
Greek characters once rested upside down (4)
|
| reverse of SATE ( archaic word for past tense of sit ) |
Morning!
I think in 20ac it’s maybe SP (starting price) + READ. Also 1d is WHEY not WIER (typo?)
Goodnight!
Thanks Andi@1. Have fixed 1d.
Regards,
TL
For CROSS-COUNTRY isn’t the def just “race”?
For the !rish HWEY doesn’t sound like WAY.
Same parsing as Andi M @1 on 20ac
ETAS seems bizarre – it is not really a word, and it is based on the reversal of an archaic word. I also had to search the internet in the same places as Turbolegs, plus TITLH (another archaic word) which was new to me too.
That aside, I felt the puzzle was fairly run of the mill, with no clues standing out as favourites.
Thanks Bradman and thank Turbolegs
Quite a few unknowns, just within legal limits. 🙂
New to me: Albert watch chains, TILTH, QUAKING ASPEN, TROW (archaic, apparently), Fritz Haber, and the archaic “sate”.
Overall quite enjoyable with an abundance of smiles. Thanks Bradman & Turbolegs.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Martyn @ 4 I don’t think TILTH is archaic, it turns up regularly in the preparation instructions on the back of seed packets.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs.
23dn: Of course ETAS is a word, just as PESTICIDES is. If a Greek word or sentence contains more than one occurrence of the letter eta, it may be said to contain the relevant number of etas.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and fairly flew through until getting a bit stuck with Quaking Aspen and Etas. I thought the latter was barely reasonable.
Tilth is a word commonly used by farmers and gardeners.
No particular favourites, but thank you for explaining Haber and Centre Spread.
Thanks all – I obviously need to do more gardening and farming. I still think ETAS is bizarre, but all that matters is it was an enjoyable crossword.
Thanks again, Bradman
Thanks Bradman. I found this on the easier end of the Bradman spectrum but no less enjoyable. My top picks were EXORBITANT, EDUCATION (good anagram), DRIP, OUTLANDISH (I like having three potential anagram indicators in one clue), and IMPASSIVE (nice surface). Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
A pleasant and fairly quick solve. We weren’t familiar with the particular term QUAKING ASPEN but it was obvious from the clear wordplay, and one of us being a chemist (retd) HABERDASHERS was no problem. We particularly liked OUTLANDISH and IMPASSIVE.
Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.
Thanks for the blog, good set of neat clues.
The Greek letter ETA also stands for the ETA particle, a neutral meson. ETAS are created in large numbers in particle accelerators.
Very pleasant solve.
Weel also works for 1D, but not as well as whey.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs.