I thought I’d got the schedule wrong when I came to post this and saw the top Independent post from Neil for a Phi! Closer examination revealed a different crossword completely so business as usual. [Change to 8 down, thanks to nmsindy for pointing it out]
Mostly smooth going today but I can’t explain 23ac.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ACQUIRED TASTE – AC + QUIRE + D + TASTE. QUIRE for leaves rather than wordplay was cleverly misleading | |
| 11 | CLEANERS – LEANER in CS | |
| 12 | ESTHER – Hidden word in “Chronicl(es the r)elevant” | |
| 14 | AUCTIONEER – Cryptic definition | |
| 18 | CRETACEOUS – (A COURSE ETC)* | |
| 23 | PINCE-NEZ – Well it’s ?I?C?-N?Z and they’re lookers … PIN could relate to the legs part … that’s as far as I go with this one though! | |
| 25 | TEMPERA – TEMPER + A. Classic crossword word for me. | |
| 26 | TOMPION – (MOTION)* around P | |
| 27 | RETROSPECTIVE – (PROTECT + REVISE)* | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | AGGREGATE – A G(GREG)ATE | |
| 2 | QUEENS – Men refers to chess pieces which explains the apparent gender paradox | |
| 5 | TALK SHOW – (WHAT FOLKS)* without F | |
| 6 | SWISH – S + WISH | |
| 7 | ENTERPRISE ZONE – ENTER + PRISE + Z + ONE | |
| 8 | ELECTRIC GUITAR (not CUTTER!) – Cryptic definition, I’d never come across this term before but with letters it wasn’t too hard to spot. Much better, should have thought about that for longer. Not the first time I’ve been fooled by axe for guitar | |
| 15 | TOURISTIC – (IT IS CUT OR)* Not a word I’ve ever found myself using | |
| 20 | SCAMPI – IS <= around CAMP | |
Re: 23 ac.
pince-nez are supportless – i.e. “no legs!”; the use of arms would have been a touch fetishistic for the surface.
8 Down – That was my first entry, but try again, it’s something else.