The trouble with blogging a monthly crossword comes if you don’t write your blog after solving.
It’s a month since I solved this, I’ve dug out the paper and it looks like random letters entered.
Still, as far as I remember the crossword was tricky to start with but surprisingly easy once I got goingt so perhaps the blog will be the same. Easy is probably overstating it as it was still tricky to get used to the fact that the subsidiary indications and definitions could refer either to the unaltered version or the entry but I never felt that I’d ground to a halt. Good fun, touched with genius perhaps, but I wouldn’t want all crosswords to be like this!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | ESTROVERSION – (QU)ESTION about ROVERS (Roy’s team) |
| 12 | GENNI – a spinning Jenny, “good” defines the pre-change part ENNI is part of “SPINNER” reversed |
| 13 | IONDER – I + ON + DER |
| 14 | GRADES – an unaltered answer but one I found hard. Michael Grade and Lew Grade are the broadcasting relations |
| 15 | URITE OUT – homophone for WRY + TOUT |
| 17 | GECHILL – Let’s write that JEKYLL to get started with the doctor. I don’t remember this being contentious but now that I look back I can’t see where the E comes from. Gardener starts = G + CHILL? Maybe I’ve forgotten something that explained it |
| 19 | SHAUN – Homophone for SHORN but shouldn’t the “sounds like” be at the other end of the clue? |
| 23 | UILIER – WILIER = WYLYE + R. As seems to be a typical experience I was sure that the river Wylye was horribly obscure and I’d never ever heard of it but once I’d seen it I came across a reference to it somewhere else within days. |
| 26 | LUANDA – RWANDA with the L to R indicated by changing sides |
| 28 | PESARO – not the most obvious of towns |
| 30 | ANODE – Dobson’s “I intended an ode” New to me as well |
| 23 | LASTUAR – LAST WAR = L + A STUAR(T) |
| 34 | MAGIOR (MAJOR) – M(A GI)O + R. A clue that worked very well with the rules and had a readable surface (but perhaps this was partly because it was free of translations!) |
| 36 | GUEST – G(O) WEST for die |
| 38 | INTERMEDIARI – “monkey puzzle log” = ME DIARY as Araucaria = monkey puzzle. So to cover it with earth is to “INTER ME DIARY”. |
| Down | |
| 2 | STORIE – (TIER SO)* |
| 6 | ENGULF – FLUG(N)E(L) |
| 9 | ONE-TUO (NEO)* + (OUT)* |
| 10 | GIUGULAR – JUGULAR = JUG + W(L)AR |
| 18 | HINDUISE – HIND + WISE (like owl) |
| 14 | RESILED – R + EXILED |
| 29 | OBGET – OB + GET (OBJET D’ART) |
| 31 | ASCHE – AS + CHE. I had to look up ASKE but this one seems to fit the bill |
| 19 | UICCA – Can’t help but smile with U(I)CCA – WICCA. |
I didn’t understand 17A either — here’s what the annotated solution has to say:
Gechill (G/j)E/(CH/k)(I/y)LL (Dr Jekyll and Gertrude Jekyll).
My understanding is that this means GE[t] (“starts to get”) + CHILL. In this case, what’s Gardener doing? Unless there’s a Gardener that refers to Gertrude (who?)