As if this week’s IoS crossword wasn’t enough of a challenge, this seemed to be quite a tough week from Beelzebub too.
In fact I’ve made it all the way to blogging day without a completed grid in front of me. Let’s fire up the Chambers app, then, and see if we can fill the remaining blanks as we go along.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SLOT – L in SOT. |
| 6 | SCALAE – SC + ALAE. |
| 10 | BREECHLESS – REECH in BLESS. |
| 11 | EMPURPLE – (PLUMPER + E)*. |
| 13 | EN AMI – MANE< I. |
| 14 | HECTARE – ETC* in HARE. |
| 16 | RIOTER – [pat]RIOT + ER. |
| 17 | ESPARTO GRASS – R in (POSTER + SAGA’S)*. |
| 19 | SCIUROPTERUS – (OUR PICTURE’S)* + S. |
| 22 | FARANG – RAN in FAG. This one doesn’t seem to be in the version of Chambers I have here, but The Internet confirms it to be a real word. |
| 24 | STAGERY – GEAR* in STY. |
| 25 | ROUPY – U[llapool] in ROPY. |
| 26 | TALK SHOW – (L in SKAT<) + HOW. |
| 27 | MULTIPLIER – (TIP in MULL) + I.E. + R. |
| 28 | AWEIGH – AWE + [h]IGH. |
| 29 | DREY – DRE[am]Y. |
| Down | |
| 1 | SNEEZE – SNEE + ZE[al]. I thought “cold blast” was a nice dfinition here. |
| 2 | LEMNISCATE – (LAMENTS ICE)*. The locus of the foot of the perpendicular from the centre of a conic upon the tangent. Of course. |
| 3 | TRUMEAU – (M in TRUE) + Au. |
| 4 | EERIER – I in (E + ER + ER). |
| 5 | REPHOTOGRAPH – REP + HOT + O + G + RAP + H[uff]. |
| 6 | SCLEROPHYLLY – CLOSER* + homophone of “filly”. |
| 7 | ALLTO – ALL TO[ld]. |
| 8 | LEGATARY – LEG + (A in (A + TRY)). |
| 9 | ESME – [troubl]ES ME[n]. I can’t say I’ve ever come across any chaps with this name, but that was not a huge obstacle here. |
| 12 | PRESUPPOSE – PRES + UP + POSE. |
| 15 | SPIRACLE – RAC in SPILE. |
| 18 | REPOSED – (POS + E) in RED. |
| 20 | TURKIC – RUT< + KIC[k]. |
| 21 | SKYWAY – KY in SWAY. |
| 23 | AGUTI – A + (I + TUG)<. |
| 24 | SAMA – AM in SA. |
Found this a walk in the park compared to the IOS crossword. Finished it fairly early on Sunday evening and I only had trouble parsing 15dn until I looked to see if there was a word “spile”.