Crossword Solutions


Initially missing, he got into tour: not so much the start of two Cooks as the reverse of something like a metaphor for what follows (3,6'1,5,6)
TOM HURLES'S MATCH REPORT
M, H are the initial letters of "missing, he"; put them into "tour" and you have TOMHUR; "not so much" is LESS; the starts of Matt Cook and Chris Cook give MATCHR; a trope is "something like a metaphor"; reverse it to get EPORT.

1. Knight (without much) loses his religion with Monstrous Gentleman, taking ecstasy to loud music in stately home (10)
LANHYDROCK
Lancelot is the knight; remove "much" (=lot) and "religion" (=ce, Church of England) to get LAN; Mister Hyde is the "monstrous gentleman"; take away E for ecstasy leaving HYD; ROCK is loud music.

2. Time out. I right great wrong: First referral shows evidence of a rash decision maker (4, 7)
HAIR TRIGGER
"Time" is T; take that letter out of "I right great"; "wrong" means anagram (HAIRTRIGGE); the first letter in "referral" is R.

3. Important and good man once aggravated the works of calamitous troupe (8, 4)
KEYSTONE COPS
KEY means "important"; ST (saint) is a "good man"; "aggravated" means to take an anagram of once (ONEC); a musical work is an opus or op., hence "works" is OPS.

4. Drunkards about! Talk loudly - they don't hang on (13)
BUTTERFINGERS
"Drunkards" are BINGERS; "talk" is UTTER; "loudly" is forte (or F); so put BINGERS about UTTERF.

5. "Disaster for recipe! Mother's shacked up in Newcastle with unknown company, right?" "Sure." (3, 4, 5)
TOO MANY COOKS
"Mother" is MA; "Newcastle" is TOON (as in Toon Army); MA "shacked up in" TOON gives TOOMAN; Y is an "unknown" in algebra; "company" is CO; "right" is OK; "sure" is (I assume) S.

6. Batsman's out of his crease and out of ideas (7)
STUMPED
Double meaning.

7. For result extrapolation, do them with wiles scrambled have zero value to begin with? (9-5, 6)
DUCKWORTH-LEWIS METHOD
"Scrambled" means an anagram of "do them" with "wiles" (LEWISMETHOD); "begin with" "zero" (DUCK) and "value" (WORTH).

8. Spooner's playing rugby willingly: "Curse this precipitation!" (7, 4)
FUCKING RAIN
The Reverend "Spooner" liked to swap the starting letters of words; "playing rugby" involves RUCKING and "willingly" is FAIN.




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