A satisfying and well-worked crossword although there are a couple I’m looking for further explanation on. Very unusually for me I spotted a nina in the unchecked letters on the middle column and middle row.
The middle row gives s i x x i s and the middle columns gives s e v e n s. The answers running alongside these middle rows and columns are the four six letter answers and the four seven letter answers. Maybe there’s more I haven’t worked out?
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | NUMB – NU(M)B | |
| 10 | UNDER THE COUNTER – (THEN RUDE)* + COUNTER | |
| 11 | OBSESSIVE – (BOSSES)* + IVE | |
| 12 | EGAD – ? Not 100% on this. Has AGE <= for recalled period and D for Damn but I’m not sure really | |
| 19 | CURETTE – CUR(E) + (B)ETTE(R), took me a while to come up with this explanation but I’m happy with this one now | |
| 20 | GOBI – I BOG <= | |
| 24 | TAKE IT ON THE CHIN | |
| 26 | WELL – My = WELL as an exclamation, also WELL is a source | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | NEUROSES – NEU, I assume, is new in German + ROSES | |
| 2 | MIDAS – IM <= SAD<=, great defintion | |
| 4 | TICKETS – T(H)ICKETS, last one I got, not quite sure why now I look at it | |
| 5 | NOUVEAUX RICHES – (VAIN EXCUSE HOUR)* | |
| 8 | CROSS EXAMINING – CROSS + AXE <= + MINING | |
| 9 | RHEIMS – R(HE)IMS | |
| 14 | AIR POCKET – CD I’ve seen something very similar to this recently but I can’t remember where | |
| 18 | SET DOWN – Double definition | |
| 19 | CANUTE – C(AN)UTE | |
| 22 | OCHRE – An instant to solve (given letters), longer to explain. It’s CHORE with the O moved to the top | |
| 23 | OTTO – OTT + O, Otto gets around, he was 23D in the Guardian yesterday | |
SIXes and SEVENS was a nice touch. Yes, NEU is new in German, can’t recall seeing it used in a cryptic before.
EGAD Could be wrong but in old books when damn would not be printed (a long time ago!) it used just say D—
19A: I thought Canute actually existed, in which case how is he an allegorical monarch? The story about him and the tides is more apocryphal than allegorical.
26A: this slowed me down, since I confidently entered MINE, which is I think possible (“Mine host”).
Still can’t see why 12A is EGAD, if indeed it is, and 17A is I think TRIALS but can’t really justify it.
17A is Greats. A homophone for grates and a term for Classics at Oxford (more or less)
MINE does seem plausible, I had letters by the time I looked at 26A so didn’t happen to go down that path.
Nmsindy’s explanation for D = damn is correct, making 12Ac an & lit.: AGE (rev.) + D.
I thought the sixes and sevens next to the words of that length was a nice touch, and only wish I’d spotted it myself…
Gilbert and Sullivan fans will recall that Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore would ‘never use a big bad D’ (What, never? No, never), although in Act 2 he does let one slip, with the chorus murmuring ‘Did you hear him? He said damme’ antiphonally.
Canute is an allegorical monarch because he is a monarch whose story (however apocryphal) is used allegorically.