4/14 provided the theme for this enjoyable puzzle, which I found a bit tougher than usual for this setter. What’s a bit strange though is that I count 13 men’s names in the grid: LUKE, JOHN, EDDIE, NICHOLAS, BASIL, ANDREW, JAMES, GEORGE, DAVID, PAUL, PETER, LAWRENCE and MARK. Which makes me wonder if I’ve got one of them wrong…? [Edit: as eimi points out below, Eddie is not a thematic answer as the other twelve are all saints]
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 6 | NUBI,A – I think this is NUBI = “newbie”. |
| 10 | END,GAME – this took me much longer than it should have because I read “moves finally” as indicating S. |
| 11 | (SEDUCER)* – RECUSED, “to reject or challenge (a judge or juror) as disqualified to act, esp. because of interest or bias.” (from Dictionary.com) |
| 13 | COLL,IE – this would have filled in very quickly but I had to check that COLL was indeed an island in the Hebrides. |
| 16 | E in (ALGEBRA)*,Y – AGREEABLY. |
| 20 | PARA,(A COIN)* – I started to fill in PARANOIC and then realised that left an A unaccounted for so had to check the dictionary for PARANOIAC. |
| 26 | HES in A DIVE |
| 30 | hidden in “balancED DIEt” – I really like the hidden indicator here: “nearly at the end of…”. Cryptically fair and perfect for the surface reading. |
| 32 | alternate letter in “cOnGeR eEl” |
| Down | |
| 1 | DEED POLL – nice cryptic def which takes a small liberty with “recalled” (should really be “renamed”) but to good effect. |
| 2 | (A KID BRUCE)* – RUDBECKIA was new to me so had to wait until all the checking letters were in before sorting this out. |
| 4/14 | TWELVE GOOD MEN AND TRUE – the theme of the puzzle and reference to trial by jury, hence “in a box, in most cases”. |
| 6 | (LIN[-e],CHAOS)* – NICHOLAS. This took me far too long to unravel and was the last answer I filled. |
| 8 | ANDREW – I think this must be right but there’s a bit in the clue I don’t get: “in novel way”, which must be the indicator for AN W as D,RE is accounted for by “Duke,Queen”. |
| 17 | hidden in “battaLION IS IN Germany” – I thought this was very well done. |
| 18 | WREN in LACE – a reference to DH LAWRENCE, who wrote “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”. The definition gives the game away a bit too much I think as even people who don’t read classic novels will surely get the gamekeeper reference. |
| 19 | (LIE GIVEN)* – INVEIGLE. |
| 27 | U in PAL – apparently U is the Burmese equivalent of Mr. |
I think Virgilius intended that the good men might be saints, whereas Eddie is just an ordinary man.
Thanks for the 13 men explanation. St Lawrence should of course be the patron saint of xwd solvers (martyred on a gridiron).
St Eddie should be the patron saint of Jack Russells. Fans of the TV show “Frasier” will know what I mean; everyone else can assume it was a very witty comment and laugh along anyway.
This was another excellent themed puzzle from Virgilius. I got the Saints idea all right and it was Easter Saturday. ANDREW is D R in ANEW, I think. A fairly quick solve, too.
I failed to spot the Saints theme as well, even though I did pick up fairly early that quite a few were biblical. But very enjoyable, around average solving time for Virgilius for me.