Once again this was very enjoyable stuff from Kairos, who seems to be becoming a bit of a Sunday regular. Some very tight clueing here with one or two laughs along the way and a new word (20A) to add to the mental dictionary. All good!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PETIT FOUR – (FIT TROUPE)* |
| 6 | WHOOP – WHO + OP |
| 9 | SCALPEL – P(ower) in SCALE (measure) + L (inductance) |
| 10 | BONFIRE – B[-eethoven] + ON FIRE |
| 11 | OCHRE – CH (Switzerland) in ORE |
| 12 | DANCEHALL – Charles DANCE + Jerry HALL! |
| 13 | SUPERHERO – (PEER HOURS)* |
| 15 | LYING – YIN in LG |
| 16 | RESET – RESENT less N(ew) |
| 18 | ODD MAN OUT – (AMOUNT)* |
| 20 | ALEPH NULL ALEPH (Hebrew) + NULL (invalid) |
| 23 | TEENS – TEE (support) + N(orth) and S(outh), i.e. partners |
| 25 | TIMPANI – PAN in TI and MI (notes) |
| 26 | PRIMATE – Cryptic def. |
| 27 | CARVE – V (versus, i.e. opposing) in CARE |
| 28 | NONCE WORD – NON-C(of)E WORD |
| Down | |
| 1 | PESTO – Hidden in graPESTOnes |
| 2 | TEA SHOP – ASH in POET rev. |
| 3 | TOP-SECRRET – TOP + SECRET[-e] |
| 4 | OILED – [-s]OILED |
| 5 | ROBIN HOOD – ROBIN (bird) + HOOD (American community) |
| 6 | WINCE – C[-ork] in WINE |
| 7 | ORIGAMI – O(ld) + RIGA (city) + MI (state) |
| 8 | PREFLIGHT – REF in PLIGHT |
| 13 | SARCASTIC – RC (church) + ASTI (wine) in SAC (bag) |
| 14 | ELOCUTION – (COOL TUNE I)* |
| 15 | LEASTWISE – LEAST WISE |
| 17 | STEAMER – STEAMIER less 1 |
| 19 | OREGANO – (A NO GOER)* |
| 21 | HEAVE – Double def. |
| 22 | LUPIN – L(ondon) U(nderground) + PIN (code) |
| 24 | STEAD – Odd letters of SeTtEr + DA rev. |
I thought this was tricky for a Sunday, and I had to trust the wordplay for a few at the end. There weren’t many clues in which the definition was a giveaway.
STEAD=function didn’t automatically spring to mind, but a post-solve look at some online dictionaries supports it, i.e. the function or position properly or customarily occupied or served by another (“Can you go in my stead?”).
My last two were the ALEPH NULL/HEAVE crossers. ALEPH is the Hebrew letter A, not “a Hebrew”. I didn’t see the clue for HEAVE as a DD because I didn’t see how heave=express. I had it as a cryptic definition – when an object is being lifted “heave” is often said to give the lifter/s some encouragement.
I saw PRIMATE as a DD rather than a CD. Man is a primate in the order of mammals, and a metropolitan is a primate in the Eastern Orthodox churches.
I found the NE corner trickiest, though looking at the completed grid I can’t really see why. ALEPH-NULL was new to me, too – thanks, Andy @1 for elucidating the parsing.
Some nice little twists here and there, e.g. ‘church’ indicating RC rather than the usual CE or CH in 13dn, and ‘kitchen equipment’ being the definition in 25ac, not the PAN element of the answer.
Thanks, Kairos and Ali
Many thanks to Ali for the review and to those who left comments. Andy @1 is correct in his parsing of Aleph Null and Primate.
Express was used in the context of to let or force out as in to heave a sigh of relief or, indeed, to heave as in to vomit!