A themed puzzle today involving golf clubs, all of which were familiar to me from previous crosswords. In fact I have a vague recollection of another puzzle that used the same theme. I thought some of the clues were very easy, particularly for a Cinephile, but there was just enough degree of difficulty in a few others to make the puzzle enjoyable (if not as much as some of the other offerings from the good Rev).
Across
1 GOOD CONDUCT GOO (sticky stuff) D (deuterium) CONDUCT (lead)
7 MOP O (nothing) in MP (politician)
9 LATHE hidden in ‘radicaL AT HEart’
10 BETTER NOT ET (space traveller) TERN (bird) in BOT (fly)
11 CHUCKLING dd – the first definition is not in the dictionaries but if a duckling is a little duck then a chuckling could be a little chuck
12 WEDGE W (west) EDGE (side)
13 UNSTICK *(CUT SKIN)
15 TELL dd – William Tell, archer
18 GOSH GO (become) SH (quiet)
20 BREWERY R (right) EWER (container) in BY
24 ARROW d&cd – school, ‘arrow on the ‘ill 🙂
24 FRANCISCO *(CIRCS OF AN)
26 HAVERINGS HAVERING (London borough) S (south)
27 WOODS d&cd
28 EAR dd
29 STREET SONGS RE (sapper) in STETSON (hat) GS (goods) – a poem written by Edith Sitwell during WW2
Down
1 GOLF CLUB cd
2 OUTBURST *(BUT) in OUR (FT) ST (way)
3 CLEEK C (cold) LEEK (vegetable)
4 NIBLICK NIB (pen) LICK (put to tongue) – ‘putting pen to tongue’ would surely give ‘licknib’
5 UPTIGHT UP (on a high) TIGHT (tipsy)
6 THE TWELVE dd – Twelve Tables, the earliest code of Roman law
7 MONODY N (pole) in MOODY (temperamental)
8 PUTTER dd
14 IRONWORKS IRON (GC) WORKS (is OK)
16 TEASPOON TEA (meal) SPOON (GC)
17 SYNOPSIS SIS (relative) PONY’S (of horse) reversed
19 HAFFNER A FF (very loud) N (note) in HER (female)
20 BRASSIE BRASS (money) IE (that is)
21 MASHIE MAS (parents) HIE (run)
22 DRIVER dd
25 COWES C (Conservative) OWES (in the red)
Thanks, Gaufrid.
I think 4dn works if you take ‘tongue’ as a verb.
Re 26ac: HAVERING = ‘vacillation’: I can just hear my Scottish husband exclaiming, ‘Havers!’ [Nonsense!’]. I’ve heard that so many times that I’m particularly interested in this word. My [rather old] SOED has only ‘Scottish and Northern dialect: to talk foolishly, to talk nonsense’, while Collins has ‘dither’ as the second definition, after ‘babble’.
My own theory is that we English confuse this word with ‘waver’ [plus perhaps even ‘hover’], which Chambers gives as the second definition, after ‘talk nonsense’, having accepted it through usage.
I’m not meaning to be contentious – just interested in the way language develops!