Clock stopped at 12:20 for a puzzle where the wordplay was very accurate, and the required knowledge fell comfortably within my compass - some religious studies, a bit of classics, the usual sport, and no pesky plant life.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | AVAILABLE - [EL(i.e in Majorca, "the"), BALI, AVA]all rev. |
| 6 | SABLE - B{achelor} in SALE, part of Greater Manchester, and known to me almost entirely for its rugby team. Normally just a synonym for "black", although the fur of the animal from which the name comes is actually dark brown; but Collins certainly supports the more general "gloomy" or "dark". |
| 9 | ALMONER - M{illions} in ALONE, R{epublican}. |
| 10 | EPHESUS - HE'S inside [EP, US]. Ionian Greek city found in what is now mainland Turkey, and home to the Temple of Artemis. |
| 11 | HADES - sucH A DEScent. |
| 12 | SUN LOUNGE ="SON" LOUNGE. |
| 13 | DELTA - D{esirabl}E, LTA (the Lawn Tennis Association, who run the game in the UK) gives the wide river mouth. |
| 14 | FALSE DAWN - (DALES)* in FAWN(="crawl"). |
| 17 | SPOKEN FOR - S{ons}; [KEN(="know"), F{emale}] in POOR. |
| 18 | TAMAR - TAMAR{in} loses the IN to give the river between Devon and Cornwall. The tamarin (monkey) is easily confused with the tamarind (tree), as I think I've proved in past puzzles. |
| 19 | MELODRAMA - MELOD{y}, RAM, A{nimals}. As the setter no doubt intended, I am now earwormed by "House of the Rising Sun". |
| 22 | RETCH - {w}RETCH minus the W{ife}. |
| 24 | ANTIOCH - (IT)rev. in AN O{ld} CH{urch}. |
| 25 | GLAMOUR - G{rand}, (Dorothy) Lamour. You don't see the Road to... films much these days, but she still sprang to mind pretty quickly. |
| 26 | KORAN - K.O.(a punchy finish, indeed); not so sure about "ran=featured", though. Possibly as in "the Sunday newspaper ran the story about the cabinet minister"? Or even "ginger hair ran in the family"? Unless I'm missing a more obvious one... |
| 27 | RE-EMERGED - [G{allons} in MERE(=lake)] in REED(=cane strip). |
| Down | |
| 1 | AWASH - AWA{C}S minus the C{aught}, plus H{amas}. AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) are those early-warning / command aircraft with the giant radars on top. |
| 2 | ARMADILLO - I(current in scientific notation) in (MALLARD)*, 0. Protected by its armour, I'm thinking, rather than having any special ecological status. |
| 3 | LANDSCAPE - i.e. LANDS CAPE. |
| 4 | BIRDS OF A FEATHER - (EATFISHBREADFOR)*. |
| 5 | ETERNAL TRIANGLE - (LINGERALTERNATE)*. |
| 6 | SCHMO - from the Yiddish, and as in "Joe Schmo", Mr Average. Reverse alternate letters in fOrMcHeCkS. On its previous appearances, some have detected offensiveness in the word, though you really have to go back through its family line via"schmuck" to get that, I think; certainly crossword editors don't seem to think it unsuitable for a family puzzle. |
| 7 | BASIN - B.A.s, IN, as cricketers would be when batting (or even baseball players, though that doesn't chime as well with the surface). |
| 8 | EASTERNER - (Lawrence) STERNE in EAR. |
| 13 | DISEMBARK - (BIRDMAKES)*. |
| 15 | EXTIRPATE - EX(=former partner), T(junction), [P{arking} in IRATE]. From the Latin meaning "to utterly uproot": war-mongers in the classical world were always threatening to extirpate their enemies. |
| 16 | ARMSTRONG - ARM(weapon), STRONG(powerful), and between them, the first man to set foot on the Moon. |
| 20 | LATER - L{otus-e}ATER drops the O{ld} T{estament} books and USE(=enjoy). The original lotus-eaters first appear in the Odyssey; unsurprisingly, Odysseus has to work hard to persuade his crew to return to wandering the Mediterranean instead of living a life of drug-fuelled indolence. |
| 21 | DROWN - R{iver} in DOWN. |
| 23 | HEROD - 0 in HERD gives the man responsible for the Massacre of the Innocents. |