One of the easier puzzles from this usually tough compiler. I filled in a surprising number of answers using definitions and/or checking letters so it was the only when I came to write this blog that I fully understood all of the wordplay.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | WA,H in (DC GOT)* |
| 6 | L(UCA<)N,A – I don’t think I’ve seen the “guts returning” trick done before. Nice idea though, and, in this clue at least, perfectly fair. |
| 9 | LAND in (TO RAVEL ID N)* – TORVILL AND DEAN. I got this from the enumeration and surface reading so I’ve just managed to unravel the wordplay. |
| 10 | S,CURVY – another one where I filled in the answer from the definition and let the wordplay pass me by. Looking at it now, it’s actually quite clever: “Character with bends” is S, and “with bends” is CURVY. Very neat. |
| 12 | ICEBOUND – an Axel is a jump in ice-skating. |
| 14 | READY TO EAT – I liked this one too: take the “extreme” letters from “…RipE? AnD YeT OverripE ApricoT” |
| 19 | THIN[k] – the first answer I unthinkingly filled in was TRIM but it didn’t look convincing. |
| 22 | DRIVEL – DR EVIL with the E and I switched round. |
| 23 | (TRIAL YOUTHS RAN)* – NATURAL HISTORY. |
| 26 | IDLE< in [d]YING – quite a tough one to parse. |
| Down | |
| 3 | (ORGANIC TV)* – CAVORTING. |
| 5 | (TAIL NO TAIL)* in GRAVY – one of the more unconvincing surface readings in the puzzle but cryptically sound and not too tricky. |
| 7 | HEM in CO |
| 8 | IN ON<,(NAVVIES) – I liked IN ON for “privy” (as in, to be privy to or in on a secret). |
| 11 | CONTI,NUANCE – I seem to remember that Tom Conti played the sleazy Greek waiter in Shirley Valentine. I did spend a bit of time wondering how I could fit Pauline or Collins into a word. |
| 15 | TWIT in OUTED – another tricky one to sort out, especially the definition: “had on smartly”. |
| 18 | L in GO,DIKE |
| 21 | LATTE[r] |