Sunday Telegraph General 786

[08012006]

A16 Beetle with a lengthy narrow body (9) ??????O?N
21 Archaic word meaning clothing or robing (7)
24 Variety of apple brought from Normandy (7)
25 Act of casting off skin (7) E?D????
26 Gadget used as a diversion for business administrators (9,3) is the (3) "TOY"
D7 Flaunting a superficial knowledgeableness (6-6)
?L?P?R -(6)
10 Phantom on stage from glass reflecting actor on an understage (7,5 ) P?P?E?S ?H???
17 Home for some young birds, eg sparrows (4-3)
18 Insanely irresponsible (7)
20 Unconstrained by practicalities (4-3)
22 Animal related to the civet (5)

[ianmunt]

longicorn
vesting
ribston
ecdysis
executive toy
clever clever
peppers ghost
nest box
idiotic
bluesky
genet

[sarumite]

16a Longicorn
21a Vesting
24a Ribston
25a Ecdysis
26a Executive Toy
7d Clever-clever
10d Peppers Ghost
17d Nest Box
18d Idiotic
20d Blue-Sky
22d Genet

[valawil]

I have 10d which is PEPPERS GHOST, but am struggling with the rest of them myself!

[08012006]

Many thanks - in admiration. I might just have got Executive toy but not the others

[jenniferd]

I am probably going to be shot down in flames but I would like to make a couple of comments. I realise that subscribers to this site are very happy to give answers to questions and now and again I ask and answer myself.
The point I would like to make here is that the questioner asked 11 out of the 28 available in the crossword.
This strikes me as a rather large amount and that the questioner was not showing a lot of initiative in looking for the answer themselves. Most of these answers can be found online if the questioner searched.
I apologise in advance for getting up some peoples noses and this is the first time I have felt obliged to comment.

[Desperate D]

jenniferd. Yes it was a lot, but I was stuck on six of them myself, despite searching Google without success, particularly "ecdysis" and "longicorn" Sometimes you simply cannot get going.

[gardenknowin]

Agree with jenniferd, think it was a bit much...in half an hour I found 5 of these in either google or one-look reverse dictionay (excellent help site!) - couldn't get "clever-clever" though, but then Chambers word-wizard came up trumps.

[Aquagility]

By all means ask as many questions as you like - once you have exhausted your own researches.

[pollythecat]

Totally agree with JenniferD and others. I was shocked when I saw this post. Surely asking one or two to get you out of a bind can usually lead to others being more obvious once you have some letters to play with. I have always found Google, Chambers Word Wizard, and One Across usually help me get most of the ones that seem at first a tad obscure.

Asking so many in one post not only spoils it for other who only want help with the odd one but also defeats the object of doing a crossword!

[TydFan]

Have to agree too. I don't come and look on this site until I have exhausted all other possibilities and it would be very easy for all of us to just go through once to get what we knew then list the ones you don't. The answers are out there and half the challenge is knowing where to look or what to google to find them.

Just for the record I came looking for the beetle and flaunting suoerficial knowledge. All the rest I had found in the last 40 mins.

[dwil]

Totally agree with the last 6 speakers.