I found this quite an easy puzzle – solving time 15 mins but there’s one I do not understand.
Notes on some clues below, including that one.
Happy to explain others if asked and to have that one explained to me.
* = anagram
ACROSS
11 MAYORESS “Female dignitary, woman about to get into muddle (8)” This is the one I don’t get. From crossing letters, it has to be right, with definition probably ‘female dignitary’. The ‘muddle’ may be the ‘mess’ but I do not see how the rest works.
16 IGUANA Bringing forward the ‘i’ in Guiana.
26 DELE (gate) Tricky, my last to go in.
DOWN
1 The S(CHILL)ING test. Got it from the wordplay, verifying after.
6 BALD R (king) I (one) C (about)
15 DEC (December = this month) ORATES (a store)*
NMS : the woman is Roya
I looked her up. Bit obscure for just ‘woman’ isn’t it?
I had looked in Chambers for Roya (which fit the structure of the clue) and also Googled but without success.
Yep — rarer than I thought. I was happily remembering one Roya who worked at The Institute of Physics with myself and Richard Palmer (Merlin) — 30 years ago, but come to think of it, Roya was unique!
You could imagine a Merlin at the Institute of Physics, could you not – disgruntled colleagues all around muttering, “If that show-off defies ONE more Law …”