Probably the easiest Mass puzzle I’ve solved (and definitely the easiest I’ve blogged). There were some really good clues in this but, again, I don’t think much of the cryptic definitions and I really don’t see how 3D can be justified.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | hidden in “acrOSS Aegean” – there are two apparently; one in Greece and another in Tasmania. I didn’t know about either of them but OSSA sounded convincing as a mountain so in it went. |
| 8 | RE,D,”current” |
| 10 | L in (ACCUSED)* – CUL-DE-SAC. Excellent clue: good anagram and a nice surface. |
| 13 | MET,ALL,I,C – misleading surface reading and “irony” might catch some people out as a definition. |
| 15 | (LANE IN VERMONT)* – for a long word, ENVIRONMENTAL leapt out at me surprisingly quickly. |
| 18 | ANACONDA – barely cryptic, I thought. |
| 24 | (I PRINTED)* |
| 25 | PORT in (CINEMA)* |
| 26 | CREE(p) |
| Down | |
| 1 | CUT in (ONCE HES)* – I didn’t think I knew this word, until I got CUT=”share”, at which point ESCUTCHEON sprang to mind immediately. “Bearer of arms” is a punning definition as an escutcheon is a “shield decorated with a coat of arms”. |
| 3 | PRISONER – if this is just a cryptic definition then it’s not a very good one because being a prisoner doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with being convicted of anything. You could be a remand prisoner, or just be held by someone against your will. |
| 4 | RI in JUST |
| 14 | LAD in IL,(DIVES)* – nice clue. The surface reading would have worked better without “the” but then the clue wouldn’t have worked cryptically. |
| 16 | V,A in ACTION – filled this in without understanding why V=”see”. It’s in the dictionary as an abbreviation for “vide”, which is Latin for “see, refer to”. Must remember that. |
| 17 | QU,I in E,TIES |
| 19 | N,E,GATE – on my first reading of this clue I thought that “entry” was going to be definition. |
| 21 | R in TENCH |
| 23 | M in ACE |
This blog pretty much represents my feeling too. Easy(ish see below), terrible cryptic defs., otherwise very good cluing.
I failed to get 22ac though I have now just seen that it is RAGTAG, once again I have been misled by guy = rag (tease).