Straightforward puzzle with just one possible obscurity for non-train-spotters.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | LIGATURE. Two meanings: musical slur or tie; combined letters such as æ and fl. In this case, the latter. |
| 5 | SCAR,A,B. |
| 10 | THE BEGGARS OPERA. Anagram: sheer garbage top. John Gay, 1728. |
| 11 | ENTROPY. ENTRY, including O{ld}, P{iano}. Short story by Thomas Pynchon, 1960. |
| 12 | Omitted. Nothing to do with motor scooters. |
| 13 | FELL FLAT. A word for ‘apartment’ after a word for ‘hill’. |
| 15 | SACRA. Delete the ‘mento’ from the capital of California. |
| 18 | W.I.RED. Literal: ‘set up for broadcast’, which is quite a clever distraction. A magazine for geeks. |
| 20 | MASS,AGED. |
| 23 | FASHION. SH (for quiet) and I,0 in FAN. |
| 25 | SPONSOR. SPOOR (track) including N (northern) and S{ky}. |
| 26 | CHARLOTTE CORDAY. Anagram: Old character to; plus Y. She wot done in Marat in his barf. |
| 27 | DI,LATE. |
| 28 | MARYLAND. This would be RYAN around L (for ‘lake’) all inside MAD. |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | LUTHER. Replace the A in LATHER with a U. |
| 2 | GREAT BEAR. Hear: grate bare. |
| 3 | TREFOIL. TOIL including REF. My downfall in a French oral exam once. Didn’t know the word trefle. It was in a passage from Proust. |
| 4 | RUGBY. G (for ‘good’) inside RUBY. That is, there’s a stone walling it. |
| 6 | CROESUS. CROSS with E&U inserted at different points. The famously rich King of Lydia. |
| 7 | REEVE. Delete the L and 1 from RELIEVE. If you see ‘old official’, it’s most likely this geezer. |
| 8 | BRAD,SHAW. A shaw is an archaic forest. “ORIGIN, Old English sceaga, of Germanic origin; related to shag”. George Bradshaw, the eponymous publisher of railway timetables. |
| 9 | PRIVATES. Two defs; one rude. |
| 14 | LAMINATE. Reverse ET and ANIMAL. |
| 16 | CLEPSYDRA. An anagram. A water-clock. |
| 17 | TWO-FACED. Two defs again, the second of which is ‘devious’. |
| 19 | DRIBLET. Reverse BIRD and add LET{hal}. The answer fittingly includes the letters D,B & E, in that order. |
| 21 | Omitted. A case of self-reference? |
| 22 | BRAYED. RAY is in BED. |
| 24 | STALL. Two defs again. |
| 25 | SHE,BA. She who arrives in Handel’s Solomon. |
