After the surprise of Phi on a Tuesday, order is restored to crossword universe today. As ever with Dac this was mostly easy, completely fair and a pleasure to solve. I don’t understand the definition at 13 though.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 5 | (SLADE EP)* – PLEASED. |
| 9 | SING,(OPERA)* |
| 10 | [-s]ARNIE[-s] |
| 15 | initial letters of “Some Chefs Adeptly Make”,PI – not sure why PI is “very good”. It’s a short form of “pious” though – maybe that’s it? |
| 24 | hidden in “modERN STyle” |
| 25 | PA,ILL,(SEAS)* – PAILLASSE was new to me so I guessed this (not difficult given the easy wordplay). It’s a straw-filled mattress apparently. |
| 26 | MITH (“myth”),RA’S – another guess. I’d heard of the Egyptian god but not the Persian one. |
| 27 | GIDDY-UP – very simple but I thought this was a great clue. |
| Down | |
| 2 | FUND,A MENTAL UNIT |
| 4 | YE,OMAN,RY |
| 6 | E(LAST I)CITY |
| 7 | (MASS OILY UNCTION)* – SANCTIMONIOUSLY |
| 8 | IE in (CID TEST)* – DIETETICS |
| 13 | (ALBERT KEN I)* – ANKLE BITER. Haven’t a clue why the definition is “Victoria’s kid”. Anyone? |
| 16 | PART(Y)ING |
| 19 | PT in ADOS – very subtle wording made this quite tricky for me. |
ankle biter is an Aussie term for a child. Azed has used it in the past, along with other oz-isms like spine basher.
I agree with PI=pious=very good.
I’m familiar with ANKLE-BITER and never considered it an Australian term so it was the Victoria bit that completely threw me. In fact, although Chambers indicates it’s Australian slang, Oxford seems to think it’s North American!
Yes, you’re right about pi = pious, bit of a two-letter crossword staple, I’d thought. You’re lucky you never tried to sleep on a PAILLASSE. I’d thought it was spelt PALLIASSE but checked in dict and both are given, with different pronunciations. The wordplay led unequivocally to the former.