Independent Prize Crossword 8375 Saturday August 17Th 2013

[filbertfox11]

27 a. Deliberately collided with fences in wild glee in a mini? (10), ???E?E?G?D

23 d. Minutes or even secondsfrom autocrat returning. (4). ?C??

22 a. Service taking off? Mostly underdone in the end (3-3). A?R-?R?

8 d. Sign greeting husband - provide the bloody thing the wrong way up! (10). ??E???L?P?

12 a. Bachelor confronts matter of chance wasted (6). ???T??

[cupid04]

8d] hieroglyph

[filbertfox11]

Thanks cupid04.

[filbertfox11]

12 a is now ???T?O

[maurice]

27a barelegged (anag. glee Inside barged)

[cupid04]

12a] blotto?

[filbertfox11]

Thanks Maurice, I'm sure that is right.

Thanks cupid04 but I can't see why.

[filbertfox11]

I can now see that blotto is right. B for bachelor. Lotto is a game of chance. According to Chambers Blotto and Wasted both mean extremely drunk. Thank you.

[maurice]

23d is ACTA (minutes in the sense of record of proceedings) = every second letter of AUTOCRAT read backwards!!!

[maurice]

...and I think 22 might be AIR-DRY: "dry" is given in Bradfords as a synonym for "servive" (tho' I can't think why) and I suppose something air-dried might be underdone --- not sure, though. No other word fits 3-3 if your letters are correct, as far as I can see.

[maurice]

(sorry, I meant "service" of course)

[filbertfox11]

Thanks for ACTA maurice. I was just looking at Chambers when your answer came through and was coming t the same conclusion.

Thanks for your comprehensive thoughts but I think i've just found the answer to 22 across. AIR-ARM (Fleet Air Arm a SERVICE of the Royal Navy concerned with aircraft). My reasoning is that "mostly underdone" is RARE with the E discarded and that "end" is AIM. So RAR in AIM is AI RAR M = AIR-ARM. I'm pretty certain that this is right. Thanks for your help.