Guardian 24,123 (Sat 7 Jul)/Shed – Cea mulpa

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Solving time: 10 mins, one mistake (14ac)

I liked this, lots of inventive wordplay without being too complex or convoluted like some Guardian crosswords.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 C + INN(A)BAR – luckily I knew this word (though not its meaning), as I’m not sure I’d have got it from the clever wordplay. Apparently cinnabar is a sulphide of mercury, yielding the pigment vermilion.
5 PROZAC; OZ in rev. of CARP
9 WORKS(H)OP – Worksop’s main claim to fame seems to be that it is the home of Oxo.
11 EX(A MINE)E
12 C(ACHE)T
14 COSA NOSTRA; rev. of AR(T)SON + A SOC – the Mafia (‘our thing’ in Italian). Bizarrely I wrote ‘nosa costra’.
18 SE(MINA)RIAL
22 R(ECO + R)D – Eco is Umberto.
23 NA(MESA)KE[d]
24 N + AI(A)DS – as well as being a river nymph (and an acronym for a nerve agent detector), ‘naiad’ can mean ‘the larva of the dragonfly’.
25 A + GR + A(PH)IA – loss of the ability to write.
27 CO(C(KEY)E)D
Down
1 COW(P)ER – I think this is is William Cowper.
2 NO(R)WAY
3 A(BSE)IL
6 RENT-A-MOB; (NEAR TOMB)* – this, together with 14ac, made me wonder if there was a Mafia theme to this crossword, but I don’t think so.
7 ZOOPHYTE; (PYTHO[n])* in ZOE
8 CLAP TRAP
13 CARAVA[n] + G(GI)O – Caravaggio’s (brief) biography is well worth a read.
16 SMACKING (double definition)
17 INFRA DIG; (IF DARING)*
19 REMARK; rev. of KRAMER – this was my last entry and I spent a good while looking for alternatives, not knowing the film Kramer vs Kramer, which won the ‘Best Picture’ Oscar in 1979.
20 SAS + HAY
21 DEMAND; rev. of D + NAMED

2 comments on “Guardian 24,123 (Sat 7 Jul)/Shed – Cea mulpa”

  2. It’s certainly most commonly prescribed as an anti-depressant, but I think it has some sedative effects as well, so I’m not sure ‘sedative’ is incorrect – perhaps a medic reading this could clarify? Maybe the setter felt (probably correctly) that ‘anti-depressant’ would be too much of a giveaway.

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