An easy stroll this Tuesday from Gurney. Plenty of anagrams all over the place meant a quick solve despite which the experience was quite pleasant and appealing. Apologies for the late post as I had (and am having) a long day at work. I hope readers here have more discerning comments than I do, given my paucity of time.
FF: 8 DD: 6
| Across | ||
| 1 | PERSIANS |
Greeks’ opponents according to Welsh lady and son (8)
PER (according to) SIAN (Welsh lady) S (son) |
| 6 | MILIEU |
Note position – classy environment (6)
MI (note) LIE (position) U (classy) |
| 9 | TROIKA |
Group from east in Nagasaki or Tokyo (6)
Hidden reverse in “..nagasAKI OR Tokyo”. |
| 10 | CANBERRA |
Is able to book artist after hesitation in capital (8)
CAN (is able) B (book) [ RA (artist) after ER (hesitation) ] |
| 11 | CHAT |
Talk about Derby maybe (4)
C (about) HAT (Derby maybe) |
| 12 | CARTOONIST |
One drawing finding traction so troublesome? (10)
Anagram of TRACTION SO |
| 14 | NOVELIST |
Writer’s term for London I’ve lost unfortunately (8)
Anagram of |
| 16 | TEAR |
Drink before start of race – be quick (4)
TEA (drink) R (start of Race) |
| 18 | STYE |
Extremely short, the old complaint (4)
ST (extremely ShorT) YE (the, in old english) |
| 19 | CONGRESS |
Legislature against initially granting remissions easily, says spokesman (8)
CON (against) GRESS (initial characters of “..Granting Remissions Easily, Says Spokesman”). |
| 21 | DEMAGOGUES |
Agitators half of them impatient cutting charges (10)
[ EM (half of thEM) AGOG (impatient) ] cutting DUES (charges) |
| 22 | TICK |
Instant credit (4)
Double def |
| 24 | DESPOTIC |
On return, mentioned holding operations typical of tyrant (8)
CITED (mentioned) holding OPS (operations), all reversed |
| 26 | DEALER |
Beer stocked by the German trader (6)
ALE (beer) in DER (‘the’ in German) |
| 27 | ADMIRE |
Have high regard for management about to replace unspecified number (6)
ADMIN [ management, with RE (about to) replacing N (unspecified number) ] |
| 28 | LADYLIKE |
Be fond of fellow variable at first becoming refined? (8)
[LIKE (be fond of)] following [ LAD (fellow) Y (variable) – ‘at first’ to indicate, this comes before LIKE ] |
| Down | ||
| 2 | EARTH |
Sweetheart (honey) conceals where we live (5)
Hidden in “sweethEART (Honey)..” |
| 3 | SAINT HELENA |
At first Napoleon, alien, hates being redeployed here? (5,6)
Anagram of N (first Napolean) ALIEN HATES – Napolean was sent here after surrendering to the British. |
| 4 | ANARCHIC |
Article (leading) I see describing chaos (8)
AN (article) ARCH (leading) I C (sounds like see, I took describing to be the homophone indicator here). [See Mike@1]. |
| 5 | SECURITY COUNCIL |
New version of iconic clue (rusty) needed for New York based body (8,7)
Anagram of ICONIC CLUE RUSTY |
| 6 | MONROE |
Some rising belle or no mean US actress? (6)
Hidden, reversed in “..bellE OR NO Mean..”. |
| 7 | LEE |
Regularly visited Liege for shelter (3)
Regular letters of LiEgE |
| 8 | ETRUSCANS |
Nurses’ act upset old Italians (9)
Anagram of NURSES ACT |
| 13 | NATURE TRAIL |
Countryside path, rural, neat, it’s redeveloped (6,5)
Anagram of RURAL NEAT IT |
| 15 | ON THE MEND |
Cricket side, that group, stop getting better (2,3,4)
Charade of ON (cricket side) THEM (that group) END (stop) |
| 17 | ONE SIDED |
Grossly unequal? Indeed so, sadly! (3-5)
Anagram of INDEED SO |
| 20 | GOETHE |
Attempt to cover alien, explosive, German writer (6)
GO (attempt) ET (alien) HE (explosive, abbreviation for High Explosives) – not sure why ‘cover’ is in the clue. |
| 23 | CHECK |
Verify pronouncement of European national (5)
Sounds like Czech (European) |
| 25 | PHI |
Positive welcome for letter from abroad (3)
P (positive) HI (welcome) |
Many thanks, Gurney and Turbolegs.
14ac: I think ‘term’ means ‘end’ here, so N + (I’ve lost)*.
4dn: Chambers gives ‘see’ for the third letter, C. I think the definition is ‘describing chaos’.
Thanks Mike@1. You are right of course. Was hoping I hadnt made any errors in the speedy write-up but alas … 🙂
Cheers
TL
Term for last letter caused a minor swear word storm. Congrats on that Gurney. Generally a smooth solve and satisfying. Thanks both.
Thanks Gurney and Turbolegs
Pretty straightforward apart from the quirky use of term as the end letter indicator with NOVELIST – and all done over a bowl of soup on a cold autumn day down here in Melbourne. Naturally CANBERRA was the first in ! 🙂
Finished up with DEMAGOGUES which I had to look up to check.
Thought that the SAINT HELENA clue was clever. As it turned out I’d only just done the Guardian Easter Puzzle by Maskerade in which this island featured with quite a few others.
Many thanks, Turbolegs, for the blog, and to all for their comments.