Independent Cryptic #11742

2024-05-29

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Across

1a

Help son to cut curly hair with regret (8)

Generating...

I haven't cracked this one yet — but Fifteensquared have:

AID (help) + S (abbreviation for son) inserted into (cutting) AFRO (short for Afro-Caribbean curly hair).

6a

Nothing unprofessional about beauty treatment (6)

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9a

Boat race hosts uncovered sordid hierarchy (13)

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10a

Disorganised leave today without packing (6)

Generating...

I haven't cracked this one yet — but Fifteensquared have:

SCAT (slang for go away = leave) + T [oda] Y without the inner letters (packing). Scatty = absent-minded = disorganised.

12a

Everyone returned after peak time one flat fare (8)

Generating...

I haven't cracked this one yet — but Fifteensquared have:

ALL (everyone) reversed (returned), after TOR (hill = peak) + T (abbreviation for time) + I (one). Spanish food (fare): the word can mean either unleavened bread or a potato omelette, but both could be described as flat.

13a

Equip elderly fellow to fight the final battle (10)

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15a

Cut fuel used by American hospital (4)

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16a

Impressive set Prince offered regularly (4)

Generating...

I haven't cracked this one yet — but Fifteensquared have:

Alternate letters (. . . offered regularly) from [s] E [t] P [r] I [n] C [e].

18a

A little half-pint hero undaunted on central stage (10)

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21a

Place in Spain has new agents after so long (8)

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22a

250000 pages is unrealistically ambitious (6)

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23a

India's sun poem misrepresented as lacking heat (13)

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25a

On top of it all a mushroom (6)

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26a

Ship's access to fresh water you'd say level with strand (8)

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Down

2d

Spooner's thrown a long way a record (7)

Generating...

I haven't cracked this one yet — but Fifteensquared have:

Spoonerism of CAST FAR (thrown a long way). There seem to have been a few records (recorded songs) called Fast Car , but I’m going for the 1988 one by Tracy Chapman. I think that’s what Filbert intended, rather than the latest attempt on the world land speed record.

3d

A pound for white top (3)

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4d

Proud lover kept up by Fanny Cradock (5)

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5d

Unused baseball glove holds dictionary open (7)

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6d

Cologne newspaper probes Germany's neighbour (9)

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7d

Nice girl so upset with graze finally gets pretty round plaster (11)

Generating...

I haven't cracked this one yet — but Fifteensquared have:

Anagram (upset) of NICE GIRL SO + final letter of [graz] E . A decorative circular feature made of plaster in the centre of a ceiling.

8d

Abolish America's donut flatly (7)

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11d

Which name encompasses that female 80s right-winger? (11)

Generating...

I haven't cracked this one yet — but Fifteensquared have:

THAT (which) + CITE (name, as a verb = identify), around (encompassing) HER (that female). A follower of the policies of Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Prime Minister in the 1980s.

14d

A bishop's rotten apple is unfinished Cox (9)

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17d

Strip taking pulse without reason (7)

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19d

Tesla showed its weird van (7)

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20d

Never really cross Mick's content living with no fixed abode (7)

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22d

Daughter annoyed seeing lake disappear without water (5)

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24d

Number of clean sheets taking up most of line (3)

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