Sunday 10 February 2013

No 2725, Sunday 10 Feb 13


ACROSS
1   Crayons may have been put in this place, since moving (6,4) PENCIL CASE*
6   Fish from shop, a haddock (4) OPAH [T]
9   Write in detail about king in exile (10) EXPATRIATE {EXPAT{R}IATE}
10 Sensitive over a London landmark (4) EROS<=
12 Bird dog heading off (5) EAGLE bEAGLE
14 Outcome of bitter suffering around pole? (9) FROSTBITE {FRO{S}TBITE*} &lit
15 What conscripts had to do, subject to check (8,7) NATIONAL SERVICE {NATIONAL}{SERVICE}
17 Unspecified number in bundle - bargains, possibly, from a charity event (5-3-3,4) BRING-AND-BUY-SALE {BRING-AND-BU{Y}-SALE*}
18 There's little weight on girl, daughter declared (9) ANNOUNCED {ANN}{OUNCE}{D}
20 Come into section of garden terrace (5) ENTER [T]
22 Wheel hub and what sounds like jack (4) NAVE (~knave)
23 Unwisely retreated, I said again (10) REITERATED*
25 First to recommend Cambridgeshire city bank (4) RELY {R}{ELY}
26 One ought to know a lot about houses (10) ASTROLOGER [CD]

 DOWN
1 See 19
2 Snatch forty winks in break, after saying goodbye to son (3) NAP sNAP
3 Eventually qualified for a marathon? (2,3,4,3) IN THE LONG RUN [DD]
4 Tribe's leader one English newspaper featured in series (9) CHIEFTAIN {CH{I}{E}{FT}AIN}
5 Argument from group against (3-2) SET-TO {SET}-{TO}
7 Actor's role, one I strongly criticise in court (11) PARTICIPANT {PART}{1}{C{I}{PAN}T}
8 Males relaxing inside now in a Surrey town (9) HASLEMERE {H{MALES*}ERE}
11 Morsel, pretty poor for a seabird (6,6) STORMY PETREL*
13 Clotho given spread - a horror story (6,5) GOTHIC NOVEL*
15 Airborne, flying around noon - it requires little thought (2-7) NO-BRAINER {NO-BRAI{N}ER*}
16 Bottom pinched by admirer, Observer employee? (9) SUBEDITOR {SU{BED}ITOR}
19,1 Conservative speeches I prepared for bishop, say (10) CHESSPIECE {C}{SPEECHES+I}*
21 One may be saddled with a supplementary clause (5) RIDER [DD]
24 Some bust a gut to get a ticket (3) TAG [T]


15 comments:

  1. 16 Bottom pinched by admirer, Observer employee? (9) SUBEDITOR {SU{BED}ITOR}

    I have worked as SUBEDITOR as an employee first of the Indian Express and later of The Hindu.

    I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can give us the numbers at least ;-)

      Delete
    2. As an observer, I can say that CV was lucky to be at IE and TH and not at the other paper...

      Delete
    3. Time to get to the bottom of this

      Delete
  2. Many long, interesting solutions today.

    11D - Former defence minister George Fernandes, with the late PM Indira as his bete noire, was known as the STORMY PETREL of Indian politics during his railway strike days before the Emergency in the mid 1970s. Later on, during the Emergency and later, the mantle fell on the indomitable Subramanian Swamy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Todays' special is by Doppelganger

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chandrasekar, one of our short lived former PM's, was also one in the list. He was supposed to be one of the "Young Turks".

    Nice one today, but quite a few inevitably England specific making it a little difficult for us or at least make us google around a bit.

    Looking forward to the specila today, but may be forced to join in late. Let me see how much I am left with.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Opah Winfey's picture was nice

    ReplyDelete
  6. 19/1 D - CHESS PIECE - Is it one word or two. If one, is it proper to split it into two clues?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A very good question.

      Chessman is one word. Why the Queen doesn't complain of gender bias, I don't know.

      But, for me, CHESS PIECE is two words. So the enu must be 5,5.

      Still the clue can be as it is (with 5,5 as the enu), except that you put CHESS in one slot and PIECE in the other. That's a done thing in crosswords.

      Deepak, CHESS PIECE is not found in the Chambers dictionary on my machine. Is it included in the paper edition that you have?

      Delete
    2. However, in the reputable Collins Eng Dict (or 'reputed' as Richard would want it to be), CHESSPIECE is one word.

      See

      http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/chesspiece

      I would still go for two words.

      Delete
    3. No CHESSPIECE in Chambers, however CHESSBOARD AND CHESSMAN are there. But then why is the Queen also classified as a CHESSMAN??

      Delete
  7. Chesspiece, is one word, IMO. Except when it is made of porcelain and breaks when falling off the board. Then it is two or more pieces.

    ReplyDelete

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