After a really tough puzzle by Tees last week, I was relieved to find this one was a little easier. I even had some time to read the paper (although most of the news was so depressing it made me wish the puzzle had been harder).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Wapiti: “A pit” inside WI. I had to check this, because I didn’t know the word and wapoti was also possible. Apparently, it’s a type of North American antelope. |
| 11 | Later on: Hidden word reading backwards. Although I got this fairly quickly, it took me a while to understand it. “Circulating” as a way of indicating something reversing always throws me because I assume it means “going around”. |
| 12 | Pipped at the post: Very clever cryptic defintion clued by “officer on duty” (an officer being someone with pips). |
| 13 | Tatou: Hidden word. Another zoological answer I’d never header of. The tatou is Priodontes gigas, the giant armadillo. |
| 23 | Cowbell. (Simon) Cowell around “b”. Although I’ve never watched the X Factor, it’s difficult to avoid entirely hearing about Mr Cowell. |
| 25 | Eighteen: Cryptically clued as “the majority” (i.e. age at which majority status is attained) Also, (get in here)* minus r. |
| 26 | Cheesy: Reference to types of cheeses which also happen to be counties. |
| Down | |
| 3 | Turned up the heat: Cryptic definition based on the use of that expression to mean put pressure on someone. |
| 5 | To let: Nice to see the old schoolboy trick of putting “i” inside “to let” getting an outing in crosswords. |
| 6 | Butternut scotch: This threw me for a while. It was clued by “vegetable spread put on loaf” + drink and it looked like butter (= vegetable spread) on top of “loaf” (= nut). But, of course, butter is not a vegetable spread. It’s actually “butternut” that’s the vegetable and spread=squash. |
| 10 | Slammer: Double def using “critic” and “stir” (prison). I’ve never actually heard of a critic being called a slammer, so I assume the first one was more of a cryptic def. |
| 16 | Severely: “Seve” (golfer = Severiano Ballestores) + “really” losing “a”. |
| 20 | Cloche: This was the only one I wasn’t really sure about. It’s clued as a “church across the water” offering protection from the elements. Protection from the elements refers to the horticultural cloche and I assume “across the water” refers to the Channel i.e. France. However, cloche in French means bell, not church. |
| 22 | Tilde: Clued as “foreign accent” (i.e. an accent character) and “d” (drawn) in “tile” (Scrabble piece). |
20 down. The water is ‘loch’ with ‘ce’ for church across it.
BUTTERNUT SQAUSH was new to me, though I’d worked it out from the wordplay which I read as butter = spread, nut = loaf (head), squash = drink. CLOCHE – I read as Conrad Cork – I took the definition referred to its meaning as a hat.
I too found it an easy puzzle and wonder if something date-specific will appear on Wednesday from which Dac has been moved this week.
12A (PIPPED AT THE POST)
NealH says that this is a cryptic definition. Isn’t it a double definition (“Officer on duty is”: an officer is pipped and is on duty and so at the post, and “finally ousted from position”: beaten at the last minute)?
I’d say it’s a double definition with one of the definitions being cryptic.