I’d read four or five clues before I realised that something odd was going on and at first I thought the wrong grid had been printed. Then I spotted that there was no Across or Down, just “Clues”. And it was only when I’d completed the grid that I saw the Nina: the unchecked letters in the top row and along the bottom (starting from the 25 square) spell out ADVENT CALENDAR. I’m guessing it wasn’t possible to create a workable grid that had 25 entries as that would have replicated an advent calendar exactly – one clue per door.
| Clues | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PA (going up),PARENT |
| 3 | V,ASSA[-i]L |
| 4 | TAR,CO,RUE (going up) – cleverly constructed clue. |
| 6 | [-b]EER (going up) in TUN |
| 7 | PRO in APACH[-e] – took me a while to pick out “style” as the definition. |
| 9 | [-ab]USED UP? – this must be right but I’m still not sure how it works: “Handled badly after first two departed exhausted”. “Handled badly” could be ABUSED but where does UP come from? |
| 11 | SEAM,(STONE)*,R – SEA MONSTER. |
| 13 | (OIL CAPITAL)* – APOLITICAL. I’m still wondering what “supply” is doing in the clue, other than making the surface a bit better? |
| 15 | U in TROPE |
| 16 | (REPARTEE)* – PEAR TREE. |
| 18 | ALL AT SEA – got this from the definition (“confused”) and crossing letters as the rest of the clue – “regarding of Eternal Father, strong to save” – meant nothing to me. A bit of Googling though and it became clear. Eternal Father… is often known as the Royal Navy Hymn. |
| 19 | hidden in “farMER IN Otago” – I thought this might be a hidden answer as soon as I saw the clue but it was sometime later before I worked out where exactly it was hidden. |
| 21 | I ERR in SA – “it” is S[ex] A[ppeal]. |
| 22(a) | I in V,RILE – one of two 22s in the puzzle so I had wait for a couple of checking letters before I could fill this in. |
| 22(d) | V,I in I,SON – and here’s the other. |
| 23 | (CIGARS TIRE)* – GERIATRICS. Quite an easy anagram to spot. |
| 24(a) | ET,IS< – ET must be the favourite film of all crossword compilers. |
| 24(d) | SE[-me]ED |
| 26 | E in (MOTORED)* – ODOMETER. |
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