Tougher than usual for Dac I thought, but the fact that I had to solve this whilst standing up on a bus and trying not to fall into people probably didn’t help my concentration. Lovely clueing as always from the D-Man though.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PITSAW – IT’S in PAW – ‘Hand-held’ as a container indicator won’t please the purists I’m sure, but I’ve got no issues with it |
| 4 | FREAK OUT – FREAK,OUT |
| 10 | THACKERAY – T,HACK,(YEAR)* |
| 11 | PAEON – Odd letters of PlAcEs + ON |
| 12 | LEBANON – BAN in LEON |
| 14 | LLANERO – ALL rev.,NERO |
| 15 | CORRESPONDENCE – Double def. Needed most of the checking letters before this one went in |
| 17 | BALMORAL CASTLE – MORAL CAST in BALLE[-t] – Balmoral Castle being a royal enclosure! |
| 21 | ECTOPIC – E.C,TOPIC |
| 22 | SECEDER – (DECREES)* |
| 23 | DOCLE – E,CLOD rev. |
| 24 | FORTUNATE – TUNA in FORT,E (‘close to shore’) |
| 26 | FIENDISH – 1,END in FISH |
| 27 | ATHENS – [-f]AT HENS |
| Down | |
| 1 | POT BLACK – L in TOP rev.,BACK – For the uninitiated, Pot Black was a TV snooker show, the junior version of which gave many of today’s stars their, erm, big break |
| 2 | TEA – &lit, hidden in remoTE Assam |
| 3 | ASKANCE – ASK,[-d]ANCE |
| 5 | ROYAL ENCLOSURE – (COURSE,REALLY,NO)* |
| 6 | APPEAESE – PEAS in APE |
| 7 | OVEREXCITED – OVER,EX,CITED |
| 8 | TANNOY – ANN in TOY |
| 13 | BARBASTELLE – (BALL ARE BEST)* – A new word for me. It’s a bat with a ‘tache basically |
| 16 | PEERLESS – “Pierless” |
| 18 | MOPHEAD – MO + HE in PAD |
| 19 | ACCOUNT – A,C,COUNT |
| 19 | GELDOF – (FLO[-g]GED)* |
| 25 | AXE – “‘acks” |
Yes, excellent puzzle – FIENDISH was, well, fiendish. Typo in 23 across which should be DOLCE – I was thinking of a dessert for quite a while.
This was excellent. So far, yet another brilliant week from the Indy. Hard puzzles which are a challenge and pleasure to complete. The only problem is that it’s taking me so long to do the Indy that I’ve very little left for the others!
Very kind, Richard. And nice to see something a little more upbeat from our blogger for today’s puzzle.
Definitely not a good day for me. Couldn’t finish this crossword – the top right and bottom left corners, particularly ‘paeon’ – due in part to Dac’s excellent misdirection. And to add insult to injury the intermediate sudoku defeated me as well.