I found this quite tricky after 4 or 5 clues and couldn’t make any impact at all. Maybe that’s what happens when you try to solve a puzzle at 6.20am. Anyway, once I’d woken up the rest fell into place. Another very entertaining effort from Tees and perfect for a Monday.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | (MAD SORT)* – “mad” or “out” could have been the anagram indicator here but you can’t do much with (SORT OUT)* so “out” it is then. |
| 9 | A,QUIVER – my first thought was QUIVERY but, not surprisingly, I couldn’t make it work. |
| 12 | hidden in “thE LITErati” |
| 13 | JE in E,CT – not 100% sure that this is correct. I’m justifying it the basis that Louis is a French name and I in French is JE. |
| 15 | SWORD-KNOT – have only just worked this out and I think it’s rather clever. “My latest” is S (last letter of Tees) + WORD KNOT for anagram. I hope that’s right… |
| 17 | ABLER,I in DIE – luckily I’d come across this word before. The wordplay is not too tricky though so I don’t think it would be too hard to get, especially with some checking letters. |
| 23 | HEARS in REAL |
| 27 | (TEA USER)* |
| 28 | D,IS,SENT |
| Down | |
| 1 | SC(r)ABBLE |
| 2 | A,BUS,I’VE |
| 4 | ERG in MANSE,R |
| 8 | S in DECENT |
| 16 | (HAVE ORDER)* – I liked the definition here and the clue reads very nicely too. |
| 18 | AB,LATES(t) – I wasn’t completely sure about the definition for this one but the wordplay is quite straightforward. |
| 20 | SEAT in ROE |
| 21 | SOLVENT – nice double definition and nice surface reading. |
| 23 | hidden in “futuRE EVEnts – having “past and “future” in the clue is a great touch I think. |
| 24 | IE in ARS – ARS being the Latin word for “art”, as in Ars Poetica. |
Yes, some of this was very clever and inventive – I did not understand SWORD KNOT till now – I think you’re right . Re EJECT where I flirted with EVERT at first, it’s JE (for Louis I) in E (European) CT (court), I think. Easier puzzle than average.
You were both right with the E(JE)+CT parsing.