A pleasant offering this week, very much at the easier end of the scale, we felt. 8dn (pastern) was the only real stumbling block, mainly because we struggled to get ‘postern’ out of our heads for some reason. We will be away in France as of Monday, so will be absent from your screens for a week!
ACROSS
1. DIVA GATE
5. M (AD C) AP
9. AB (ALONE) S
10. S (HARP) S
11. LE DON
12. INTERPOSE (no respite)*
14. DAS H<
16. EI (SE) NSTEIN
18. SILVERS IDE
19. B LOC<
22. MANGANESE anagram of ‘manages’ plus NE (north-east)
23. OL< DEN
25. HO O RAY
26. STACCATO (Toccatas)*
27. WAR MER
28. G (RAN D) AME
DOWN
1. DRAW LED
2. V (I) AN D
3. G ROUND
4. THE BIG ISSUE def. plus charade
6. APHORIST (art shop)*
7. CORPOREAL (Poor Clare)*
8. P ASTERN
13. TR(y) END SETTER
15. SPLENDOUR (old prunes)*
17. SE (PARA) T E
18. SOMEHOW anagram of ‘Home so’ plus w for wife
20. CON NOTE
21. TOUCAN anagram of ‘out’ then ‘can’
24. D RAMA
Took me a long time to understand PASTERN too. Two minor points, I think in THE BIG ISSUE, the second part is a charade, of the three words, as it happens, and LED ON is built up from LE DON.
Nmsindy will be returning next week to his former Quixote blogging spot for the week of Handel’s absence which I hope goes well.
Thanks for the corrections NMS, I’ve amended the blog accordingly. Enjoy Sunday’s puzzle!
Hi Handel no longer have the paper so can’t check what it should be but for 6d anag of art shop seems to be missing an i.
“Fancy art shop in which there’s one witty person” was the clue so it’s i = one in that anagram of ‘art shop’.