A gentle puzzle this week which I suspect may have left some of the old hands wondering what to do with the rest of their Sunday morning, but which equally will have been encouraging for newer solvers.
Very little to report, really. The reading desk and the palm were both unknown to me, but in both cases the wordplay was most generous. The detailed parsing of 3d, 11d and 16d was a bit tricky (at least to me), although I would wager that many solvers would have just biffed these without pausing to conduct the detailed analysis that it behoves the blogger to perform.
So, with thanks to Jeff, let's dive into the detail...
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(--): omitted letters indicated by {-}
Very little to report, really. The reading desk and the palm were both unknown to me, but in both cases the wordplay was most generous. The detailed parsing of 3d, 11d and 16d was a bit tricky (at least to me), although I would wager that many solvers would have just biffed these without pausing to conduct the detailed analysis that it behoves the blogger to perform.
So, with thanks to Jeff, let's dive into the detail...
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(--): omitted letters indicated by {-}
| Across | |
| 1 | Batter fish first then start to steam rhubarb (10) |
| CODSWALLOP - COD (fish) comes 'first', then S (start to Stream) then WALLOP (batter) | |
| 6 | Drink from a small can, briefly (4) |
| ASTI - A + S[mall] + TI{n} (can, briefly) | |
| 9 | Ugly ball he smashed gets show of amusement (5,5) |
| BELLY LAUGH - *(UGLY BALL HE) with "smashed" indicating the anagram | |
| 10 | Not in favour of major road skirting edges of Newport (4) |
| ANTI - A1 (major road) goes around (skirting) NT (edges of N{ewpor}T) | |
| 12 | Allow prince to be very nasty indeed (6) |
| LETHAL - LET (allow) + HAL (prince - as in Henry Vth known as "madcap Prince Hal") | |
| 13 | Privateplace for film? (2,6) |
| IN CAMERA - DD | |
| 15 | Prepare to go round part of theatre (5,6) |
| DRESS CIRCLE - DRESS (prepare) + CIRCLE (to go round) | |
| 18 | Portable food didn’t have drink for Spooner (6,5) |
| PACKED LUNCH - The Reverend may have complained that his lunchbox LACKED PUNCH | |
| 21 | Grannie follows deer — trying, at first, to be still (8) |
| STAGNANT - NAN (grannie) 'follows' STAG (deer) + T (first letter - at first - of Trying) | |
| 22 | Source of wine for artist in restaurant (6) |
| CARAFE - RA (artist) 'in' CAFE (restaurant) | |
| 24 | A doctor’s old reading desk (4) |
| AMBO - A MB (a doctor) + O (old), giving us a word meaning "an early Christian raised reading desk or pulpit". Had not come across this before, but the word play was very generous. | |
| 25 | Made a meal of deliveries and declared (10) |
| OVERSTATED - OVER (deliveries - cricket reference to a set of six balls bowled) + STATED (declared) | |
| 26 | Flat race is short (4) |
| EVEN - EVEN{t} (race is short) | |
| 27 | Make a bloomer in return for a sweet and spicy snack (10) |
| BRANDYSNAP - BRAND (make - as in "what make of car is that?") + PANSY reversed (bloomer in return). This item is generally rendered as two separate words (or occasionally hyphenated, it would seem) - not that it makes much difference... | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Hastily mendan old paving stone (6) |
| COBBLE - DD | |
| 2 | Remove obstruction in river (6) |
| DELETE - LET (obstruction - as in "without let or hinderance") 'in' DEE (river) | |
| 3 | Approach Polish guys outside a southern capital? (4,3,5) |
| WAYS AND MEANS - WAY (approach) + SAND (polish) + MEN going around A (guys outside a) + S (southern), with the whole lot meaning 'capital' in the sense of 'resources' | |
| 4 | Perhaps metal from church roof in the van (4) |
| LEAD - The reference to the traditional lead on the church roof gives us a mildly cryptic steer towards the homographic answer | |
| 5 | Setting up keyboard instrument with one pipe (10) |
| ORGANISING - ORGAN (keyboard instrument) + I (one) + SING (pipe) | |
| 7 | I order you to serve porridge, for example (8) |
| SENTENCE - Gentle cryptic based on "porridge" being slang for a prison sentence | |
| 8 | Made it twice possibly? (8) |
| IMITATED - *(MADE IT IT) - with 'twice' telling us to double the IT content - and "possibly" indicating the anagram. And I think it's an & Lit (or maybe a semi & Lit - I'll leave that to the maestros to determine!) | |
| 11 | Around end of dinner, food served includes an unhealthy-looking cake (6,6) |
| DANISH PASTRY - DISH with AN inserted (food served includes an) + PASTY (unhealthy looking) with an R buried inside (around end of dinneR) | |
| 14 | Good batting at all times by George! (4,1,5) |
| WELL I NEVER - WELL (good) + IN (batting) + EVER (at all times) | |
| 16 | Rat initially attracted by rubbish put outside (8) |
| APOSTATE - A (initially Attracted) + TAT (rubbish) with POSE (put) going around it (outside) | |
| 17 | Grope forboard game (8) |
| SCRABBLE - DD | |
| 19 | Sailor climbing brown palm (6) |
| RATTAN - TAR reversed (sailor climbing) + TAN (brown) giving the type of climbing palm widely used for making furniture. Apparently. New to me, but again our setter was most magnanimous with the wordplay. | |
| 20 | Finally strippers finish burlesque (4-2) |
| SEND-UP - Last letter (finally) of stripperS + END UP (finish) | |
| 23 | Look happy when dull work is nearly done (4) |
| GRIN - GRIN{D} (dull work - 'nearly') | |