Everything went in more or less as it should with 1A being the FOI, although I think the LOI was 22A as I was expecting the whole clue to be involved until the last minute when I decided that 'personal' wasn't pulling its weight. COD? Good question. Nothing stands out for difficulty so this is really a pretty arbitrary decision. I'll go with 12A with no great conviction. It is simply the clue whose surface reads most naturally to me.
Last time out we all had a most enjoyable discussion about avatars. The conversation was still going strong at the end of the day but as I said earlier there is not much point in picking up on comments then as everybody has moved on or gone to bed. So I'll just say here thank you very much to
Are there any more loose ends here? I would love to know the mysterious origin of
Definitions are underlined as usual and everything else is explained just as I see it in the plainest language I can manage.
Across | |
1 | Expenditure revealed by non-professional (6) |
OUTLAY - OUT (revealed) + LAY (non-professional). | |
4 | Association of actors depart during emergency externally (6) |
EQUITY - QUIT 'during' EmergencY 'externally. | |
8 | Father's outside toilet, a levelled area (5) |
FLOOR - FR (father) 'outside' LOO (toilet). | |
9 | Knife European left on part of loaf (7) |
SCALPEL - SCALP (part of loaf, as in head) + EL (European Left). | |
10 | Pretend leather (3) |
KID - double definition. | |
11 | Italian sculptor to give to charity fifty pound ring (9) |
DONATELLO - DONATE (give to charity) + L (Roman numeral for fifty) + L (pound) + O (ring). | |
12 | Grandma set to retire somewhere in NW France (6) |
NANTES - NAN (grandma) + TES (SET 'to retire'). | |
13 | Key informant is free (6) |
GRATIS - G (key) + RAT (informant) + IS. | |
16 | Companion, a pilot, chewed a sausage (9) |
CHIPOLATA - CH (Companion of Honour) + IPOLAT |
|
18 | Heard local sound of sheep (3) |
BAA - sounds like ('heard') BAR (local). | |
19 | Insect on soft cheese for a short time (7) |
BRIEFLY - BRIE (soft cheese) + FLY (insect). | |
20 | Coach tour arranged around Turkey's capital (5) |
TUTOR - anagram of TOUR ('arranged') around T (Turkey's capital). | |
22 | Personal vessel among smarter yachts (6) |
ARTERY - hidden word: 'among' smARTER Yachts. As far as I can see, PERSONAL doesn't do anything here except fill out the surface a bit. I suppose it diverts the attention for a fraction of a second from the answer but I feel it does that unreasonably as it is not integral to the structure of the clue. | |
23 | Alcoholic drink's trademark unknown (6) |
BRANDY - BRAND (trademark) + Y (algebraic unknown). |
Down | |
1 | Old pair of females absent (3) |
OFF - O (old) + FF (pair of females). | |
2 | Daughter, with rodent moving around, walked on (7) |
TRODDEN - anagram ('moving around') of D (daughter) + RODENT. | |
3 | Shorten overly remote war film (1,6,3,3) |
A BRIDGE TOO FAR - A BRIDGE put closer together gives ABRIDGE (shorten) + TOO FAR (overly remote). | |
5 | Fifteen minutes to gain control over military officer (13) |
QUARTERMASTER - QUARTER (fifteen minutes) + MASTER (to gain control over). | |
6 | Troublemaker the Spanish urge forward (5) |
IMPEL - IMP (troublemaker) + EL (Spanish definite article). | |
7 | Fearful, Stefan regularly avoided Oriental waters (6,3) |
YELLOW SEA - YELLOW (fearful) + SEA (StEfAn 'regularly avoided). | |
9 | Star guest primarily vocalised (4) |
SUNG - SUN (star) + G (Guest 'primarily'). | |
10 | Family company in GB meeting artist, a slithery creature (4,5) |
KING COBRA - KIN (family) + CO (company) 'in' GB + RA (Royal Academician, artist). | |
14 | Asian and Greek character cutting through metal (7) |
TIBETAN - BETA (Greek character) 'cutting through' TIN (metal). | |
15 | Cautious passage around river (4) |
WARY - WAY (passage) 'around' R (river). | |
17 | Private documents one returned to Charlie (5) |
IDIOT - ID (private documents) + I (one) + OT (TO 'returned'). | |
21 | Some light, flat-bodied fish (3) |
RAY - double definition. |
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