Garry Gillard > crosswords > solutions > 27185
ACROSS
1 Utter speech hoping to sell skill with notes (8,5) ABSOLUTE PITCH
9 Dishonest part of family in Genoa (5) LYING - incl.
10 Fruit containing date’s pith, covered with colour regulator? (9) MEL,AT,ON,IN - AT inside MELON + IN - where IN means 'covered with'
11 Busy with letters about 500 serving staff (10) AT,TEN,D,ANTS
12 Plug hoIe’s rims accept variable pressure (4) H(Y,P)E
14 Coercion getting church to replace queen and noblewoman (7) DUCHESS - not 'duress'
16 One with ocular singularity has operations on endless rotation (7) CYCL,OPS
17 Maybe harvest more than in rocky spot (7) OUT,CROP
19 Knocking out West Bromwich, playing in diamond formation (7) RHOMBIC - (bromwich)* - having lost W
20 Italian official returned for one binge with ill effects (4) DOGE - DO (binge with ill effects?) + EG (for one, for example) rev.
21 Help as Brie deteriorates, being this? (10) PERISHABLE (help as brie)*
24 Pink people addicted to driving? (9) CAR,NATION
25 What offers support for female opera star’s first half? (5) BRA,VA(mp) - and the whole is an attempt as an &lit - referring to someone shouting 'Brava!' to a (female) opera star; 'vamp' as a (film) 'star' would refer to an actress such as Theda Bara (seen here in Cleopatra >)
26 Radical in uncontrolled movement keeping apart two Conservatives at odds (13) CONTRADICTORY
DOWN
1 Rallying cry as mate almost lets next person deal? (3,5,2,4) ALL HANDS ON DECK
2 Go around clubs banned from turning tricks (5) SKIRT (triks)* - without the C(lubs)
3 Fruit began going bad in truck (10) LO,GANBE,RRY - (began)* inside LORRY
4 Perhaps queen’s consorts and host in drinking tribute lowering glasses finally (7) TOMCATS
5 Statesman-like, still keeping Oscar fired up (7) POLITIC
6 2 sounding like twice that (4) TUTU - homophone for 2 2 - where the '2' is 2 down: 'SKIRT'
7 Love curry’? This food store also has eggs (9) HONEY,COMB - the honeycomb in a bee's hive is a food store which also hatches eggs (I suppose - what do I know? Do I look like an apiarist?)
8 High official confidence in time to stop UN hardliner (14) UNDERSECRETARY
13 Yield malevolent creature nabbed by agents over suffering at high levels (10) ACROPHOBIC
15 Unconditional truce’s ending between kitty and corgi, in disarray (9) CAT,E,GORIC - (corgi)*
18 Film director with no good cut is top in Rank (7) PREMI(ng)ER - Otto, directed The Man with the Golden Arm, eg
19 Prevailed, though apparently snubbed again, or overlooked (7) REIGN(or)ED
22 Evidently vote against party (5) BE,A,NO
23 Wife wears cool light brown (4) FA(W)N
KEY
to abbreviations/terms/symbols which may have been used
(raga man)* = anagram of 'anagram'
cd = cryptic definition
dd = double definition
incl. = inclusive (hidden word)
def. = definition (synonym, literal)
rev. = reversed
anagind = anagram indicator
homophind = homophone indicator
surface - the apparent meaning of the clue, disguising what's really going on
&lit. - a clue in which the whole clue is the 'definition'
COD = clue of the day (imo); FOI, LOI, first/last one written in
Garry Gillard | New: 2 November, 2018 | Now: 2 November, 2018