It’s more the Indy’s kind of thing, but I’ve started looking for a themed message, especially in these puzzles with unchecked squares around the perimeter. From the top left I came up with BASES ARE DED (promising, recalls some online flash-in-the-pan a few years back) RDKDST… Oh well, forget that, then. Some good clues, a couple of duds, and I see we’re nearly up to 24,000 – anything special in the pipeline, I wonder?
ACROSS:
2. MAG(NET)IC. Good simple clue.
9. VA(PO U)R. The Po was a favourite crossword river long before Tinkywinky was a twinkle in Mummytubby’s eye. And the Var’s a department in France.
11. I N A C-CUR ATE. In a fiendish ambiguity, the stammer can be used in two ways: d-dog could give c-cur, as here, or d-cur.
12. (Paun)CHY PRE(late). Nice image.
14. UNOPENED. UP ONE END*. Def=’in bud’. I found this one of the toughest.
15. OW(N)ING. Def=having – good clue.
20. SCHEDULE. Shed yule. I liked this homophone. It does assume you say shed, not sked, but I think most of us are familiar with both. I can never remember which one I use anyway – one’s American, but which?
26. SKE(TCH)ER. Reeks< around ‘tch’. I almost put STENCHES, but couldn’t make the wordplay work. But I don’t like the clue that much – ‘tch’ seems a cop-out, and ‘coming from’ is redundant.
DOWN:
1. BALLYHOO. OH BOY ALL*.
2. ANTE. Sounds like AUNTIE (6dn) in American. Hmm – they sound alike for quite a high proportion of Brits too.
8. CLAQUE. The last one to fall into place. I wasn’t quite sure what a claque is, but I seem to remember it as the kind of political term of abuse that could fit this – a group of stooges and lackeys.
13. PO(NT)E F(R)ACT. Nice construction, but the surface is a bit limp.
16. N(EUR)OSES. RUE<inNOSES. Is a neurosis an illness? I suppose it must be.
18. T(A LENT)ED.
21. CAVER(N). Very weak. Easy to get a plausible surface when you do it like this, but where’s the clue’s internal tension?
24. HI CK. KC, I’m guessing, is what QCs were – and will be – under a male monarch.
Americanisms: so… I had a friend in high-school who said shedyule, and we thought he was awfully affected. And I try to avoid referring to my aunts (other than as Evelyne or Felice) since I can never remember how it’s supposed to be pronounced anymore.
Phew!
Thanks for this FifteenSquared.
I sweated over this crossword for a good while having picked up an ancient international edition of the Guardian in a Language School foyer in Strasbourg.
What was 24A if you can remember. It’s all I’ve got left!
Cheers,
Rob
No idea off the top of my head, but if you tell me the clue I hope I’ll remember!
24ac is HAND, double definition by the look of it.
Why no answers to 22ac, 18d, 22d and 23 ac?
Please put me out of my misery!