No particular problems today apart from 27ac where I cannot make up my mind as to the correct interpretation of the clue. There are a couple of possibilities, or maybe even something else that I have overlooked.
Across
1 GIMCRACK GIM (homophone of gym, exercises) CRACK (expert)
6 TIMING TI (note) IN (favourite) in MG (sports car)
9 CARROT d&cd – ‘car rot’
10 UP IN ARMS U (posh) *(PR MAN IS)
11 YETI ET (film) in Y1 (first year)
12 TAKE IT EASY E (Spain) in A KIT (an outfit) E[nthuse] in *(STAY)
14 ENKINDLE N (northern) KIND (type) in [m]ELE[e]
16 OPUS [m]OPUS (listless figure rejecting start of major)
18 AREA A (American) ERA (period) reversed
19 AIRFIELD *(FLIER) in AID (support)
21 BADEN-BADEN *(A BEND) *(A BEND) – ‘resort’ needs to be read as ‘re-sort’
22 TALL TALL[y] (score for the most part)
24 MISSOURI MISS (girl) O (old) URI (bender) – Uri Geller, noted for his spoon bending
26 ESCAPE SC (namely) in E (English) APE (primate)
27 TEMPLE dd – a ‘temple’ is a feature of the head (capital) and an area in London (another capital). My initial thought was that the ‘centre of interest’ was referring to the part of London that has the Bank of England and other financial institutions but on reflection Temple is the area that is predominantly occupied by the legal profession so perhaps the ‘centre of interest’ is simply referring to the brain, which is housed behind the temple. Alternatively, the ‘centre of interest’ could refer to the Biblical tale of the money-lenders in the Temple whose tables were overturned by Jesus. a building or place thought of as the centre of an activity or interest (Chambers) Edit: Thanks smiffy for pointing out that I should have checked Chambers when originally trying to parse this clue.
28 HERALDRY cd
Down
2 IMAGE MAG (publication) in IE (that is)
3 CERTIFICATE *(I RECITE FACT)
4 APTITUDE T[heology] in *(IDEA PUT)
5 KNUCKLE SANDWICH cd – ‘duke’ = fist
6 TRIVIA TRI[m] (largely neat) VIA (street in Rome)
7 MOA MOA[n] (cut beef)
8 NUMBSKULL M (money) in NUB (point) SKULL (homophone of scull, row) Edit: Thanks to Eileen for pointing out my omission
13 EGOTISTICAL *(LOGIC I STATE)
15 NARRATIVE A R[ule]R in NATIVE (son)
17 GRANDEUR GRANDE[e] (elevated figure) UR (old city)
20 OBTUSE dd
23 LEPER LE (French article) PER (an)
25 SOP SO (it follows) P (parking)
Thanks for the blog, Gaufrid.
I can’t see any further than you re 27ac, I’m afraid.
In 8dn: ‘row’ = ‘scull’, hence ‘reported’.
Thanks Eileen
I will correct the entry for 8dn (I was still mulling over 27ac whilst typing the post and forgot about the homophone).
Hi again, Gaufrid,
I meant to say that I don’t think there is any biblical reference in 27ac: the people whom Jesus drove out of the Temple were not money-lenders but money-changers, who charged a high exchange, rather than interest rate!
I still haven’t any further ideas, though.
Hi Gaufrid,
Seems that, after months of traffic in the opposite direction, I finally get to turn the lexicographic tables on you! According to my new Chambers IPhone app, their final definiton of “temple” is: “a building or place thought of as the centre of an activity or interest”.
(Incidentally, I interpreted the “capital” element as being anatomical rather than metropolitan.)
In the clue of the day stakes, 19A just about shades it for me.
Hi smiffy, thanks for that.
My desktop electronic version of Chambers 11th Ed. also has that definition. The problem was that I didn’t think to look up ‘temple’ in it, silly me!
Some excellent clues in thus, eg CARROT, KNUCKLE SANDWICH, AIRFIELD, HERALDRY.
Thanks to Gaufrid for his comprehensive blog and others for comments. Smiffy is quite right in his reading of 27a – I was drawing on the
metaphorical definition in Chambers rather than the more hackneyed meaning of site of worship.