Busy busy today, so apologies for the late (and quick) blog. I found this fairly tough in places but, as ever, some lovely clues from Dac, with some nicely misleading surfaces.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | THE X FACTOR – T[-alent],HE,X,(FOR ACT)* | |
| 6 | SPAS – Hidden in timeSP Ast | |
| 10 | IN TRAIN – IN,TRAIN | |
| 11 | PAT RICE – PA,TRICE | |
| 12 | CONJUROR – CON,JUROR | |
| 15 | MENAGE A TROIS – (AGNES,TOM,I,ARE)* | |
| 18 | ALIMENTATION – A LIME + T in NATION | |
| 21 | ALEXIS – ALE,SIX rev. – I needed to check this one online. ‘Six’ for ‘several’ threw me for me for some reason | |
| 24 | CREMONA – C[-harts],REM.ON,A | |
| 25 | ADORING – A,DO,RING | |
| 26 | NUDE – Hiddden reversal in seemED UNcomfortable | |
| 27 | CONFUSEDLY – (FENS CLOUDY)* | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TWITCH – TWIT,CH | |
| 2 | EXTENT – EX,TENT | |
| 3 | FEATURES EDITOR – (TRIED TO FREE A US)* – ‘Criminal’ is a nice anagrind here | |
| 4 | CONSONANTS – SON in CON ANTS | |
| 5 | OPPO – (POP)*,O | |
| 7 | PAIGNTON – G (end of spring) in PAINT,ON | |
| 8 | SWEETEST – S,WEE,TEST | |
| 14 | BETTER HALF – TT in BEER,HALF – ‘Dutch’ is a good misleading defnition | |
| 16 | JAMAICAN – JAM,AI,CAN(ada) | |
| 19 | MONIED – (IN DOME)* – Another sly definition here (‘rolling’) | |
| 23 | PAXO – PAX,O – Had to cheat with this one I’ll admit. Nothing wrong with the clue at all, but I couldn’t quite make the connection with Jeremy Paxman! | |
PAXO
This is what Jeremy Paxman is known as. Not sure in what circles, but I’ve often heard it.
As usual very good, although I wasn’t really sure about six = several in 21ac.
2 down; what has tent to do with wine?
Hi mick
From Chambers under ‘tent’ – “a deep-red Spanish wine”.