Next week my learned colleague Olivia will be doing the honours again while I move house, so none of my nonsense!
Across | |
1 | Man from another planet intercepted by copper (6) |
MARCUS - An easy one for Verlaine, perhaps? CU goes inside MARS. | |
5 | Worthless plane makers suffering setback — evidence of metal fatigue? (8) |
GIMCRACK - Our usual Russian MIG is reversed, followed by a CRACK. | |
9 | Time of revolution finishing — grand for short time (8) |
GERMINAL - TERMINAL has its T replaced by a G. | |
10 | Phone city in Alabama (6) |
MOBILE - Double definition. Different pronunciations. | |
11 | Hard world where things can get very hot (6) |
HEARTH - H(ard), EARTH. | |
12 | Threat to health, minute one found in time (8) |
LISTERIA - LIST = minute, as in minute of a meeting; ERA has I inserted. | |
14 | Unease of party politician with nothing certain (12) |
DISCOMPOSURE - DISCO = party, MP = politician, O SURE = nothing certain. | |
17 | One rogue's run off — “brainy” operator? (12) |
NEUROSURGEON - (ONE ROGUES RUN)*. | |
20 | Lifelong publishing employee made fast progress (8) |
CAREERED - CAREER = lifelong, as in 'career ambition'; ED in publishing. | |
22 | Youngster, said by Australian to be a chip off the old block? (6) |
SHIVER - I'm not big on Oz speak, but my Australian seafaring uncle used to call me "The Shaver" when I was eight or nine, so I guess this is an Oz pronunciation of SHIVER as 'SHYVER' for shaver, and shiver is a synonym for a sliver or shard. | |
23 | Month seeing end of winter has sheep getting grass (6) |
MARRAM - MAR(ch), RAM = sheep. Marram grass is that coarse stuff which grows on sand dunes. | |
25 | Cooking two fish to cover starter for dinner (8) |
CODDLING - COD and LING have D(inner) inserted. | |
26 | Alarming changes on the border (8) |
MARGINAL - (ALARMING)*. | |
27 | Revolutionary period involved in no end of vile execution by drowning (6) |
NOYADE - DAY reversed inside NO (vil)E = no end of vile. From French noyer to drown, notably execution by said method as practised in the "Reign of Terror" at Nantes in 1793-4. |
Down | |
2 | Mountain features exist, appearing above ascending group (6) |
ARETES - ARE = exist, TES = SET reversed. | |
3 | Friendship of dear America going awry (11) |
CAMARADERIE - (DEAR AMERICA)*. | |
4 | Oddly saying academic work offers reconciliation of ideas? (9) |
SYNTHESIS - S a Y i N g > SYN, THESIS = academic work. | |
5 | Miss one constellation as astronomer with primitive telescope (7) |
GALILEO - Miss = GAL, I = one, LEO constellation. | |
6 | Notes a particular male going the wrong way (5) |
MEMOS - SOME M reversed. | |
7 | Difficulty chipping end off stone (3) |
RUB - RUB(Y). As in "aye, there's the rub" spoken by Hamlet. | |
8 | Underground workers using dogs to catch snooper finally (8) |
COLLIERS - COLLIES dogs catch an R from end of snooper. | |
13 | Industrial German city — it upset colleague, by its very nature (11) |
ESSENTIALLY - ESSEN on the Ruhr, IT reversed, ALLY = colleague. | |
15 | Journalists meeting knotty situation to the north kept going (7,2) |
PRESSED ON - PRESS = journalists, NODE = knotty situation, reversed. | |
16 | Type of information encountered — notice a brief acknowledgement (8) |
METADATA - MET = encountered, AD = notice, A, TA = brief thanks. | |
18 | A bitter uprising separating two sides on the left? (7) |
RADICAL - R and L = two sides, insert A and ACID reversed. R (A DICA) L. | |
19 | Was monarch no good to be restricted? (6) |
REINED - REIGNED loses its G = no good. | |
21 | Dish on Japanese menu? Head of restaurant has the final word (5) |
RAMEN - r(estaurant), AMEN = final word.A Japanese dish with noodles in a broth. | |
24 | Charity event in tabloid? (3) |
RAG - Double definition. |
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