While this seems to be a perfectly ordinary set of fine cryptic clues, for some reason I felt as though I were reaching into the depths of my solver’s bag of tricks to complete this puzzle from Peto, concluding with a couple of iffy parsings at 9A and 16D.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BASELESS |
Worthless son accepting stories I dismissed as unfounded (8)
|
| {BASE (worthless) + S (son)} around (accepting) L[I]ES (stories) minus (dismissed) I | ||
| 5 | STACKS |
Rick suffering primarily from piles (6)
|
| STACK (rick) + first letter of (primarily) S[UFFERING] | ||
| 9 | OVERCOME |
Draw near on account of earlier defeat (8)
|
| I think this parses as: OVER (on account of) + COME (draw near), with “earlier” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 10 | PAELLA |
Gangster bound to return with a Spanish dish (6)
|
| AL [Capone] (gangster) + LEAP (bound) all reversed (to return) | ||
| 11 | TALL TALE |
Unlikely story of tasteless articles featuring students and beer! (4,4)
|
| {TAT (tasteless articles) around (featuring) L+ L (students)} + ALE (beer) | ||
| 12 | BEHIND |
Bottom discovers what’s involved in difficult situation (6)
|
| EH (what) inside ([is] involved in) BIND (difficult situation) | ||
| 14 | SCRIPTURES |
Kind of soldiers to ignore argument against crossing river of biblical texts (10)
|
| {[CON]SCRIPTS (kind of soldiers) minus (to ignore) CON (argument against)} around (crossing) URE (river) | ||
| 18 | LACERATION |
Spike getting adequate amount of rent (10)
|
| LACE (spike) + RATION (adequate amount) | ||
| 22 | ROOSTS |
Rummages around small sleeping places (6)
|
| ROOTS (rummages) around S (small) | ||
| 23 | ALEATORY |
Dependent on chance drink with a Conservative (8)
|
| ALE (drink) + A + TORY (Conservative) | ||
| 24 | HANG-UP |
Chinese dog sent back with a psychological problem (4-2)
|
| HAN (Chinese) + PUG (dog) reversed (sent back) | ||
| 25 | EGYPTIAN |
Cleopatra perhaps unsettling tiny page (8)
|
| Anagram of (unsettling) TINY PAGE | ||
| 26 | WESSEX |
Home of Ethelred’s wife it includes Tewkesbury essentially (6)
|
| {W (wife) + SEX (it)} around (includes) middle letters of (essentially) [TEWK]ES[BURY] | ||
| 27 | START OUT |
Begin with brilliant solicitor (5,3)
|
| STAR (brilliant) + TOUT (solicitor) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BLOTTO |
Following disgrace Athos regularly gets drunk (6)
|
| BLOT (disgrace) + alternate letters of (regularly) [A]T[H]O[S] | ||
| 2 | STEELY |
Hard to be secretive over support (6)
|
| SLY (secretive) around (over) TEE (support) | ||
| 3 | LOCATE |
Find Joyce oddly failing to interrupt recently (6)
|
| Even letters of (oddly failing) [J]O[Y]C[E] inside (to interrupt) LATE (recently) | ||
| 4 | SIMPLICITY |
Easiness of heartless spy holding captive without question (10)
|
| Outside letters of (heartless) S[P]Y around (holding captive) IMPLICIT (without question) | ||
| 6 | TRAVESTY |
Distorted representation of very arty set cavorting outside (8)
|
| Anagram of (cavorting) {ARTY SET} around (outside) V (very) | ||
| 7 | COLLIERY |
Lines in support of dog being mine (8)
|
| COLLIE (dog) + RY ([railway] lines) | ||
| 8 | SLAPDASH |
Careless hit-and-run (8)
|
| SLAP (hit) + DASH (run) | ||
| 13 | PILOT LIGHT |
Electric indicator showing jockey weighing relatively little (5,5)
|
| PILOT (jockey) + LIGHT (weighing relatively little) | ||
| 15 | CLERIHEW |
Her wiles endlessly intriguing after Cowley’s earliest satirical verse (8)
|
| First letter of (earliest [of]) C[OWLEY] + anagram of (intriguing) {HER + WILE[S] minus last letter (endlessly)} | ||
| 16 | ACCOUNTS |
Written reports of profit sharing at the outset (8)
|
| I think this parses as: ACCOUNT (profit) + first letter of (at the outset) S[HARING] | ||
| 17 | PROTRUDE |
Stick out for the original blue (8)
|
| PRO (for) + first letter of (original [of]) T[HE] + RUDE (blue) | ||
| 19 | PAMPER |
Priest describing more than enough left out to spoil (6)
|
| PR. (priest) around (describing) AMP[L]E (more than enough) minus (out) L (left) | ||
| 20 | BONITO |
Irish singer embracing Italian swimmer (6)
|
| BONO (Irish singer) around (embracing) IT. (Italian) | ||
| 21 | CYGNET |
Extremely costly bit of gear to catch young bird (6)
|
| Outside letters of (extremely) C[OSTL]Y + first letter of (bit of) G[EAR] + NET (catch) |
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