ACROSS
1 - Old book about how healthy blood's regenerated (9,4) - DOTHEBOYS HALL* Definition? Is there a book by this name?
9 - With honour, girl gets a goblet (7) - CHALICE {CH}{ALICE}
10 - A big noise is the troop leader, barbarian, reformed red (7) - THUNDER {T}{HUN}{DER*}
11 - A learned unknown trained by Macedonian hero (9) - ALEXANDER {A+LEARNED+X}*
12 - Passive and indolent miner trapped within (5) - INERT [T]
13 - The hardest thing in the body (6) - ENAMEL [CD]
14 - Get together and treat bishop with measles (8) - ASSEMBLE {B+MEASLES}*
17 - Congenial, akin to Lincoln having taken a drop of liquor (8) - LIKEABLE {LIKE}{AB{L}E}
19 - Strong jute fabric, non-white, is getting weaker … (6) - EBBING wEBBING
23 - … but silk fabric is right in a cloak (5) - CRAPE {C{R}APE}
25 - Vain, aloof rambling is useless (2,2,5) - OF NO AVAIL*
26 - More clamorous (7) - NOISIER [E]
27 - Clutching returned visa, girl is devious (7) - EVASIVE {EV{ASIV<-}E}
28 - 1000 little ones, they are part of a family (13) - GRANDCHILDREN {GRAND}{CHILDREN)
DOWN
1 - Stop batting, say? (7) - DECLARE [DD]
2 - Maruti maybe, or Maybach? (9) - TRADEMARK [CD]
3 - Leave the country without a trace of grief for Dubai, say (7) - EMIRATE EMIgRATE
4 - Exaggerate about the same in brief (6) - OVERDO {OVER}{DO}
5 - Posed with girl (English) to mock (8) - SATIRISE {SAT}{IRIS}{E}
6 - One, born suave, turns rude (7) - ABUSIVE {I+B+SUAVE}*
7 - Large advantage derived from projection (5) - LEDGE {L}{EDGE}
8 - Posh, better-designed lab item (7) - BURETTE {U+BETTER}*
16 - Deep colour, not of aristocratic origin? (5-3) - BLOOD-RED [DD]
17 - Swindle in U.S. city, one caught using few words (7) - LACONIC {LA}{CON}{I}{C}
18 - Country to which a master carries cooked rice (7) - AMERICA {A}{M{ERIC*}A}
22 - The men she struggles to entangle! (6) - ENMESH*
24 - Imitating and losing time in recording (5) - APING tAPING
I thought the fabric was spelt CREPE, but I find that 'crape' too is there.
ReplyDeleteOne lives and learns. Never too late to learn!
Dotheboy's Hall is the name of the school in Charles Dickens' "Nicholas Nickleby"
ReplyDeleteProbably "Old book about" is the definition?
ReplyDeleteThere is no apostrophe in there.
ReplyDeleteAnd you have to split the school name as DO THE BOYS to find out what the management is up to!
Several excellent clues today - declare, abusive particularly.
ReplyDeleteLike others I'm stumped by the 1A def too.
CV@8.46-
ReplyDeleteI was also struggling with crepe,but finally filled in crape due to crossings.Yes,it is never too late to learn.
CV, 900, you are naughty !
ReplyDeleteEnamel reminded me of the mugs and other dishes we used to have a long time back.
Inert brought back memories of the quote given under Episode Four: The Greasy Pole at
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yes,_Minister
I too got crape by crossings but thank heavers it was not detailed.
Clue from today's FT :
ReplyDeleteDog bites Frenchman – the language! (5)
Ditto the crape comments (it looks really ugly - probably because its largely crap) and I only knew Dotheboys Hall from the original novel (nice anagram though)
ReplyDeleteTook longer today, but my mind wasn't in gear. And I got interrupted mid way by an epic phone call from my daughter.
My gut reaction is that it is quite unfair of Sanakalak (of all TH setters!) to start the crossword by filling in an obscure term (1a)
ReplyDelete@CV,
ReplyDeleteThe apostrophe was a mistake, thanks
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ReplyDeleteThe apostrophe was catastrophic !
ReplyDeleteBRIGADIER, wEBBING, ENAMEL and ALEXANDER reminded of the forces, while BURETTE, ENAMEL and INERT reminded of my days with science labs. We were allowed to individually prepare O2 in the lab in our fifth class (as against a teacher preparing gases earlier) and it was a new thrill, wholly forgetting that we had been individually preparing other gases earlier (mainly CO2, and a mixture of H2, N2 etc including a dash of CH4)
I think Sankalak threw in 1A just because folks like me have been saying his clues are straighforward! For me this had to be pure guesswork from the crossings, validated on the net.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally on 2D: are these trademarks or more appropriately brand names?
Got stuck with obscure 1A, after putting in MIGRATE
ReplyDeletefor 3D! 'Mirate' sounds like Dubai too!
Agree that 1 Across is not good.
ReplyDeleteTrademark: I guess that Maruti and Maybach are registered trademarks as well.
Sankalak
What the Dickens! CH for Companion of Honour,
ReplyDeletetoo British today!
Is country =america acceptable? Esp since it could refer to the whole continent or just the warped world view of a few US Americans.
ReplyDeleteA somewhat disappointing sankalak grid Imho
Bhala,
ReplyDeleteMARUTI & MAYBACH are Trademarks and can be checked on their respective websites.
CRAPE/CREPE was an eye opener to me as well