Is it my imagination or do we not see Shed as often as we used to? He’s usually ranked at the harder end of the Guardian scale of difficulty but I never seem to struggle with his puzzles like I do with some of the other harder setters – maybe I’m just tuned in to his wavelength. There was a lot of good stuff in this, as there is in all of Shed’s puzzles.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | P,LIGHT |
| 5 | EG,G,S,LICE – “swamped” deceived me for a while as I thought it was indicating a container clue. |
| 10 | N in AGORA – an agora in ancient Greece was a public space used for markets. |
| 11 | (DIM BUT EROTIC)* – the fodder screamed “anagram” to me. The phrase is Latin for an “incidental remark” but is also used in law. |
| 13 | CHAD – a reference to the “hanging chad” scandal in the 2000 US Presidential election. |
| 14 | (e)RE(A)CTION – ever so slightly saucy. |
| 17 | ST,URGE,ON – I’m sure I’ve seen this before, on more than one occasion. |
| 20 | HUBBLE-BUBBLE – a reference to opening lines of “Macbeth” and Edwin Hubble of telescope fame. |
| 24 | I DO LATER |
| 25 | B,RAN WEll – a reference to the lesser known member of the Bronte family. |
| 26 | DIES,EL – I didn’t know that “EL” meant an elevated railway but I had D?E?E? and with a fairly straightforward definition it’s not too tricky. |
| Down | |
| 3 | (WRONG DUPE)* – nice &lit clue. |
| 4 | TALL,IS – a reference to Thomas Tallis. |
| 5 | (EAR REEL PUNTER IN)* – another clue whose surface shouts “Anagram!” but this is a pretty tough one to get. |
| 6 | RD in (IGUANA)* – nice to see this word defined as something other than “we” or “us” in this particular newspaper. |
| 7 | GI in COL< – some may frown at LOC for Passover (pass over) but with an easy definition and some help from checking letters it’s not a hard word to get so I think it’s fair enough. |
| 8 | CORN,U(C)OPIA – nice idea but I’m not sure that the surface really holds. |
| 15 | W in ELBA in ERAT(O)< – again, the surface reading doesn’t do much for me. |
| 21 | BLAIN – “blaine”. I guessed this as I’d never heard of, or had, this particular ailment. A reference to David Blaine. |
| 22 | GENE – another guess, although I had heard heard of Bishop Gene Robinson. |