Another superb puzzle from Bannsider with some very original and rigourous clueing. Very tough too, but always a pleasure to solve.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | (PRAYER THAT)* – ART THERAPY. Great clue with an excellent surface reading and a hard-to-spot definition: “drawing to a salutary end”. |
| 10 | SIBYL – a woman who was thought to be an oracle or prophetess by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Also sounds like “Sybil”, the wife of Basil Fawlty. |
| 11 | DJ,EL(LAB)AH – tough clue, which I got from the definition and crossing letters and then worked backwards. “Fit” is HALE and a DJ is of course a Dinner Jacket. |
| 12 | DOG COLLAR – brilliantly deceptive clue, with some lifting and separating needed on “Shadow Minister’s band” to get the definition. |
| 13 | NOT SO? – not sure about this one. I can’t think of anything else that would fit N?T?O and “like a pork pie” could work as a definition for NOT SO if we assume that “pork pie” here is Cockney rhyming slang for “lie”. |
| 15 | A(FIC[-t]ION)ADO |
| 16 | LO(BEGAN)*RRY – LOGANBERRY. One of the easier clues in a tough puzzle; I think this was the first answer I filled in. |
| 20 | I KNOW – sounds like “aye no” |
| 21 | A,MEN,HOTE[P for L] – tough word, reasonably easy clue to unravel: exactly as it should be. That said, I had to look at the clue more than a few times before I got this. |
| 23 | GAIT,S(K)ELL – another corker of a clue. “Style in constitutional” for GAIT is excellent, especially given the context of the surface reading. |
| 24 | A,CHES[-s] – another very well disguised definition: “does long”. |
| 25 | OCHE – which is where a darts player would stand, the “bull” (or bullseye) being one of the targets on a dartboard. |
| 26 | CAPE DOCTOR – a wind that blows on the South African coast in the summer. |
| Down | |
| 1 | AS,SAD – I think “down, no less” must mean “AS SAD” (as someone else,say). |
| 2 | TO BE GOING ON WITH – that’s “boarder” in the sense of getting on a plane or boat or whatever. |
| 3 | HILT,NO (going up) |
| 4 | RADCLIFFE CAMERA – the marathon runner is Paula and the RADCLIFFE CAMERA is a (round) building in Oxford which I think now forms part of the reading rooms for the Bodleian Library. |
| 5 | PIER,REC,(LONELIER)* – PIERRE CORNEILLE. I’d heard of him but annoyingly couldn’t remember his first name until I got the crossing P from 1a. |
| 7 | TAB,I,THAT(WITCH)IT – “sorcerer” and “Potter” are intended to lead you up a particular garden path but the Potter here is Beatrix not Harry. TABITHA TWITCHIT appears in The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, amongst others. |
| 8 | (HE ONLY GOT)* – ETHNOLOGY. |
| 9 | B(L)AN,CO – an easy clue for a sportsman who is not exactly a household name; not in this country at least as Serge BLANCO played rugby union for France. |
| 14 | TALK,(GOT IN)* – “rocket” is a Brit colloquialism meaning to give someone a reprimand or TALKING TO. |
| 17 | NO(W)ISE – I found this very tough and it was one of the last couple of answers to go in. I considered both NEWEST and NEWISH but was never really convinced by either of them. I should have just trusted the simple wordplay and I might have got it a lot quicker. “Never once” is the definition as it’s an archaic word for “not at all”. |
| 19 | C(HEAP)O – cleverly done, especially the use of “clothing” to indicate containment and “lavish” (as in “to lavish praise upon”). |
This seems to bear no relation to the puzzle available online… Is this normal?
Do you mean the puzzle online today? My post is about last Saturday’s prize puzzle so it wouldn’t currently be online.
Oh yes. Beg your pardon!
This was very difficult with some unfamiliar words – but Eimi has clearly signalled this is fair game esp at the weekend. Some cracking clues – my favourites being ART THERAPY, OCHE and TO BE GOING ON WITH but many others besides.
A lovely puzzle and nice touch by Bannsider having 20A “I know” which was Sybil Fawlty’s telephone catchphrase…
I spent less time on last week’s Listener than I did solving about 3 clues of this puzzle. Really very hard indeed, even when you know the answers!
NOT SO I read as an equivalent to ‘lie'(falsehood) i.e “it’s not so” with ‘pork pie’ as rhyming slang – main definition ‘less’
The “I know” and Sybil Fawlty thing was a complete coincidence!
Otherwise apologies to those less than au fait with Oxford landmarks, Beatrix Potter, Arab customs, 17th century French drama, French rugby and Egytpian pharaohs – quite a list!
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