There’s always lots of fun to be had with a puzzle by Punk (or Paul) and this was no exception.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | POCKET,LL,(AIR)* in BIDS – excellent clue and a toughie to unravel, especially as you have to separate “two lengths in pool” to get the definition. |
| 10 | GAL,LB,LADDER – LADDER is “run” in the sense of laddering a pair of tights. |
| 11 | END in EASTER – I thought of EASTER for “festival” almost straight away but END for “target” took a while, oddly enough. “Bow man” is a nice definition, especially with “target” in the clue. For non-Londoners, Bow is in the east end. |
| 17 | I,PART in BITE – I thought “punch champ” to indicate “[something] in BITE” was very good. |
| 18 | ENTER[-it is] |
| 20 | MORON – sounds like “more on”. |
| 22 | QUAD in SCARS |
| 25/2 | AN INSPECTOR CALLS – which “loosely” sounds like, wait for it, “Ann in spectacles”. |
| 27 | THIS LITTLE PIGGY – for those who haven’t solved the puzzle, here’s the clue: “Trader, agoraphobic, beefeater, vegetarian or diuretic addict”. Only Punk/Paul could come up with a clue like that. That said, I wonder if anyone actually managed to solve it from the clue alone, rather than with help from checking letters. I certainly couldn’t make any sense of it until I had P?G?Y for the final word, after which it was obvious what the answer was. |
| Down | |
| 1 | P,LATE,AU – “expensive thing” must be gold as it’s chemical symbol is Au. |
| 5 | BERT,IN in LIE – excellent &lit. |
| 6 | [-p]IRATE |
| 8 | S,CRAPPY |
| 14 | (IMPURE SIN)* – SUPERMINI. Nicely misleading surface reading. |
| 15 | PR,IS,SIEST[-a] – another really good clue with very appropriate surface reading. “Short break for the PM” for SIEST[-a] is especially good. |
| 21 | NASA,L – “people with spatial awareness” for NASA might be viewed as a bit naughty by some, and very clever by others. |
27ac was one of the first clues I read, it mystified me. Read it to my wife (not a crossworder) and she got it in about two mins.