Tough one today with a lot of obscure references. Some annotations are not clear to me.
ACROSS
1 - VIPs sent back prize money (3,5) - {TOP<-} BRASS
5 - Slang for a variety of zircon (6) - JARGON [DD]
9 - Girl, pretty small type (5) - {P}EARL ? Anno not clear
10 - Preoccupation of old boy before meeting (9) - {OB}{SESSION}
12 - Film director affected one acting (7) - {CAMP}{I}{ON}
13 - Seriousness shown by boy hugging adult (7) - E{A}RNEST
14 - Chess ending overwhelmed friend (9,4) - SMOTHERED MATE [CD]
17 - Train – direct, say (6,7) - ORIENT EXPRESS [CD]
21 - Spanish boy in queer comic (7) - ENRIQUE*
22 - Short girl on a keyboard instrument (7) - CELEST(-e){A}
24 - Body of water, in a desert, he polluted (3,3,3) - THE RED SEA*
25 - Place to meet briefly with sun goddess (5) - VENU(-e){S}
26 - Artificial, some flowers at zoo (6) - ERSATZ [T]
27 - Fish – vet catching tons (8) - S{T}URGEON A vet is not necessarily a surgeon
DOWN
1 - Predictable? In part, yes?(8) - TYPECAST Anno not clear
2 - Song prize split by son (5) - P{S}ALM
3 - Courtier and a girl he aroused (7) - RALEIGH *
4 - Crack on sale by river vexes some upper-class young ladies (6,7) - SLOANE* {R}{ANGERS} New term for me had to Google search this
6 - A small country in an ancient kingdom (7) - {A}{S}SYRIA
7 - Piece about one girl about to become a legendary paramour (9) - {GU{I}N}{EVE}{RE}
8 - Joe perhaps, quite an age(6) - NINETY [CD] Google searched this
11 - Drug dealer, one not hanging about? (5,8) - SPEED MERCHANT [DD]
15 - Sold roués bubbly without a distinctive smell (9) - ODOURLESS *
16 - Hit man, for instance, on cheek, at home (8) - {AS}{SASS}{IN}
18 - In pursuance of an investigation (7) - {IN}{QUEST}
19 - Bother a tennis star after end of championship (7) - {P}{A}{LAVER}
20 - Heart and clubs put down,reportedly (6) - {C}{ENTRE(~enter)}
23 - One-way ticket left out for char (5) - SING(-l)E
9ac was among the last to fall for me. It's a two-def clue, one meaning being 'Girl' and the other, an old type small in size.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't find anything connecting PEARL and small type in a Google search?
ReplyDelete17 - Train – direct, say (6,7) - ORIENT EXPRESS [CD]
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how you classify this: Direct is to EXPRESS also, and Train is also ORIENT or roughly get trained ~ ORIENTED/ ORIENTATED. I think the sign '~'indicates this as an inexact translation.
I don't know whether by CD you meant this?
Re PEARL: It seems you have not yet acquired the C dict. that is most useful for crosswords.
ReplyDelete1 - Predictable? In part, yes?(8) - TYPECAST
ReplyDeleteI think this is a CD. In part means in a role, as in case of A K Hangal, if you've watched old Hindi movies always played an Old man!
To be punctilious, 17ac is a charade: ORIENT (direct, v.), EXPRESS (say, v.), 'train' being the def.
ReplyDeleteAgatha Christie's novel, 'Murder on the Orient Express' is a classic.
The fun of solving crosswords is to later analyse it threadbare, so being 'punctilious', is not at all being that! It is a learning for all.
ReplyDelete