Sunday Express Skeleton Sunday April 8Th 2018

[Frustrate]

Help please!!! 9d "Hole in reddish pink material" 9 letters ????????l
28a "plant consisting of two leaves" 9 letters f???h????
11a "foreign lady Ian described" 6 letters ?I??a? Hope someone can help with these

[dannyk13]

Corporeal
Dill
Lybian

[JJ109]

28 The clue is incorrect confirmed by SE that is the clue for 27 which gives the answer DILL for 27
28 the answer is FAITHLESS

[dannyk13]

Sorry - Libyan

[JJ109]

11a Libyan

[dannyk13]

jj is correct.
9d,Corporeal
11a.Libyan
27a.Dill
28.Faithless
Sorry for any confusion.

[fiction-factory]

Can someone parse Libyan for me please?. Is it L BY in IAN?

[fiction-factory]

Sorry I meant L followed by BY in IAN

[dannyk13]

FF, L(lady) + i by an (Ian described)

[fiction-factory]

Yes, thanks for confirming my parse. It just doesn't quite seem to fit together properly to me

[dannyk13]

Sorry FF your parse is wrong. It is i by(next to) an

[JJ109]

FF I think you have misunderstood. It fits perfectly
Ian"s spelling is the letter I followed by the letters a+n. This can be described as I "by" an

[fiction-factory]

Sorted, thanks, I think it's not very good though

[dannyk13]

Just a typical Skeleton clue.

[fiction-factory]

I was using incorrectlyusing the word 'described' twice initially- once (incorrectly ) for BY IAN (the lady described by Ian/ the lady Ian described) and once in the sense of tracing or traversing the outline of something (as in Maths when we were told to describe a circle).
I can now see the Ian = the letter I by the letters AN but it seems very contrived. But I'm just someone who dips in rather than a full time cruciverbalist so maybe I haven't seen enough of these setter's devices.
And of course as it was the Faithless setter there was always the risk they'd put the wrong clue again!

[Jruss61]

re sunday express skeleton - this grid has always had very tenuous & dodgy clues to answers, often not making sense. 28 ac plant consisting of two leaves is definitely f-i-h-e-s, and only 2 words fit - faithless and frightens, and neither makes sense. I can see why JJ109 and DannyK13 think it actually refers to 27ac Dill, but that is wrong - 27ac is dolt - Fool (dolt) a trainee (L for learner) has a point (dot) about

[Mamyalynne]

They eventually altered the clues

27 Becoming 'Plant with two leaves' Di L L

[Mamyalynne]

28a. This false deviant is disbelieving.(9) Faithless