Financial Times / 12707 by Armonie
Posted by C G Rishikesh on March 4th, 2008
Not a difficult puzzle. Some familiar clues (14ac, 19ac, 21dn) provide the starters. First I finished the lower half; in the top half, the left quadrant was the last to be completed.
Across
1 HEDGEROW - H (edger)ow - Not one with green fingers, I came to know of ‘edger’ only today. ‘How’ is given gratis; we don’t realise this until later.
5 FIDDLE - Fi(DD)le - I was initially thinking of ‘diddle’.
12 ERODE - (-h)er ode - There is a town in Tamil Nadu whose name we spell this way.
13 IMPLEMENT - Imp(-a)lement
16 MISSION - (-O)mission
23 ADORATION - Ad oration - Bill at other times could give AC (from account, a/c).
25 OLIVE - O live (’live’ as in ‘live wire’)
27 CRACKERS - two definitions
29 REPRISAL - Re(pr. is)al - concrete (’real’) as in ‘concrete evidence’.
Down
1 HAMLET - Two definitions - ‘Play’ is a verb in surface reading but as definition for required word, it is a noun.
2 DOCTORATE - Doc (dwarf) to rate (deserve)
3 ELATE - (-R)elate - ‘associate’ as a verb gives ‘relate’ - I would prefer “… when Romeo is gone”.
4 OPINION - O pinion - ’shackle’ is a welcome change from the usual ‘wing’.
8 EVENTING - E venting (’giving voice’)
17 ITCHINESS - It(chin)ess*
18 ASSASSIN - As (when) SAS (crack troops) -sin (go astray) - SAS: Special Air Service. Nice to see two fools left alone.
20 LAID - rev. of ‘dial’, v. ‘to ring or call someone’.