Fifteensquared

Well, this will be appearing on Sloggers and Betters day, so we’re looking forward to putting faces to pseudonyms. Did this relatively quickly, apart from 1 down, which we didn’t figure out until writing the blog.

ACROSS

5. STA(MME)R ‘Mme’ is the standard abbreviation of ‘Madame’. The ‘bumping into’ had us stumped for a while, as it suggested a charade rather than an insertion to us.

7. PRO(S)PER

10. A DO R.N.

11. APPOINTED (piano dept)*

12. MEAL TICKET cryptic definition

14. BU(R)N

16. CABINETWORK cryptic definition

19. A RUN

20. REACQUAINT (antique car)*

22. IN S(P)ECTOR

25. AGA MA

26. MUR< RAIN

27. CLEMENT dd

DOWN

1. TAC OM A< This had us stumped for days, as we desperately tried to make ‘Dakota’ fit and even made up the word ‘Lamota’ (‘a tom’ reversed inside LA). We obviously don’t know our American cities well enough.

2. ORCA as in ‘Majorca’ and ‘Menorca’

3. A POP L ECT I C

4. HOP I

5. S.M. ARMY

6. MANI(TOB<)A

8. POT LUCK Spoonerism of ‘lot Puck’

9. ROD E.N.T.

13. CON TEST A N.T.

15. P(OPUs)LACE

16. COURSER sounds like ‘coarser’

17. BARIUM (Umbria)*

18. STRAIT (artist)*

21. I(MAGE)S ‘mage’ is a possible singular for the better known plural ‘magi’

23. ETAS<

24. R.A.C. K