1 across: Handy president hit on initial deficit, chiefly (5-5)
RC had deciphered this one early on in the piece simply from the cross clues, but we did not venture to write it in lest we be left with eggs on our faces given our lack of explanation. Sure, hit = ram, on initial = o, deficit = short which gives hit on initial deficit = ramos hort, but why does handy president = ramos horta (what’s with the handy more than anything) and why does chiefly = a?
18 down: Number on arctic sledge (8)
We had correctly surmised that on arctic sledge = narcotic, but then why does number = narcotic? Or is it number on arctic = narcotic and sledge = narcotic? What?
3 down: Thus drinking during break, one left wine cocktail (9, 5)
The best we could cup up with is break = gap to provide the justification for the happy direct clue, cocktail = singapore sling. Other than that, we had nothing for why thus drinking during break = singapore sling.
The singapore sling is the famed cocktail from (I think) the Raffles Bar in Singapore
One left wine = reisling
Thus = so
During break = in gap
re 18 down; this is classic DA wordgames. It’s clear that “sledge ” is the cue indicator for an anagram of “on arctic”.So why is narcotic a number? After some ruminations the old penny dropped .What does a narcotic do? It numbs the senses – hence number.
re 3 down: this is a goodie- and I think it goes like this: “thus” = “so”. “Drinking” in the sense of consuming “during break” = “in gap” gives sINGAPo
then “one ” left wine = “riesling” minus “i” gives “resling” and so finally “singapore sling”
re 1 across: this one didn’t quite gel for me . Maybe the “handy” = close at hand referring to East Timor’s proximity to Australia. and “deficit chiefly” could be “shortfall” the “chiefly” indicating most of the letters in that word
Deficit = shortage
deficit, chiefly = shorta