It’s the first day of the Lord’s Test, so I was glad this puzzle from Alberich didn’t delay me beyond the start of Test Match Special. A quick-ish solve but a very enjoyable one, filled with novel conceits and complicated mechanisms. Thank-you, Alberich.
ACROSS
1. PTARMIGAN PT [Physical Training, exercise] + arm [prepare] + I [one] + reversal of nag [worry]
6. SCREE Scree(n) [show]
9. UPRIGHT Up [at university] + right [true] – Joanna is Cockney rhyming slang for piano [upright]
10. BROWSER Anagram of so (compute)r (use)r web
11. DENEB E [east] within reversal of bend [turn]
12. AGREEABLE Anagram of a lager bee(r)
14. VIM Initial letters of Various Industrial Manufacturers
15. COEFFICIENT Co [company] + efficient [productive]
17. CLASS ACTION Class [pupils] + action [behaviour]
19. PLY Play [sport] minus (xenophobi)a
20. LUBRICATE (K)ubric(k) [film director] within late [recent]
22. ERODE E(nemy) + R [resistance] + ode [lines, poem]
24. SOMEHOW Anagram of home within sow [broadcast]
26. ASSUAGE Ass [fool] + uage [sounds like wage, pay]
27. SENOR S(ucceed) + regular letters from bEaN tOuRs
28. OVERSLEEP Over [concerning] + L(abour) within seep [leak]
DOWN
1. POUND P [parking] + found [regained] minus f [fine]
2. ACRONYM A + crony [close friend] + M [spymaster, as in the James Bond books]
3. MEGABUCKS A within Meg [woman] + bucks [resists]
4. GUTTA-PERCHA Sounds like gutter percher [one who perches in the gutter…]
5. NAB Hidden in reasoNABle
6. SCONE S [special] + cone [ice-cream]
7. RISIBLE R [right] + (v)isible [obvious]
8. EARNESTLY Earn [make money] + anagram of style
13. REFRIGERATE Ref [referee, judge] + g(ang) + era [long time] within rite [ceremony]
14. VOCALISTS V [see??] + anagram of solti cas(t)
16. CONSENSUS Con [against] + sensus [sounds like census, population count]
18. ALBUMEN L(aw’s) + b [black] within A [are] + U [university] + men [fellows]
19. PROFANE Prof [professor, academic] + A [American] + NE [North and East, opponents in bridge]
21. ICHOR Choir [singers] with I [one] ‘promoted’
23. EYE UP (Bell)e + ye [you] + up [excited]
25. WOO Woo(d) [could be deal]
Re 14d
V is an abbreviation of vide (Latin for see)
Thanks to Ringo & Alberich
I was out for most of the day yesterday and was surprised to see no comments on this fine puzzle when I came in in the late evening.
No particular favourites – I enjoyed it all. Many thanks to Alberich and to Ringo for the blog.