A puzzle packed full of elegant, concise clues today. On the easier side definitely, but still very enjoyable.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BELLA – (Alexander Graham) BELL,A |
| 4 | REMARKING – RE: MARKING |
| 9 | CONTRIVED – (VERDICT ON)* |
| 10 | FATSO – Initial letters of For Anyone That Seems Overweight – Lovely clue |
| 11 | SCANDAL – SCAN + LAD rev. |
| 12 | OSCENE – O(ld) B(oy),SCENE |
| 13 | ALFRED THE GREAT – (LARGE FATHER TED)* |
| 16 | BURNT OFFERINGS – Ref: 13 and his cakes |
| 20 | ASTORIA – Not quite sure on this one. I’m assuming the definition is ‘West End Theatre once’, but can’t get the wordplay |
| 21 | REMATCH – R.E.M,AT,CH |
| 23 | CIRCA – IR in CC,A |
| 24 | IGUANODON – GUANO,DON on I |
| 25 | ADDRESSEE – (DARES)*,SEE |
| 26 | AT SEA – Not sure on this one either. I’m guessing it’s something without VI, but can’t see it. |
| Down | |
| 1 | BACK-SEAT – BACKS,EAT |
| 2 | LINDA – Brilliantly hidden in cowgirL IN DAllas, Linda Gray having played Sue Ellen Ewing in the TV series |
| 3 | ABRIDGE – (BRIGADE)* |
| 4 | REVOLUTIONARIES – R,EVOLUTION,ARIES |
| 5 | MADE ONE’S FORTUNE – (SEAMEN UNDERFOOT)* |
| 6 | REFUSER – REF,USER |
| 7 | IN THE MAIN – Ref. 26A |
| 8 | GROVEL – GROVE,L |
| 14 | FLUSTERED – S (start of song) in FLUTE,RED |
| 15 | ASTHESIA – THE in ASIA |
| 17 | NARRATE – RAT in [-s]NARE |
| 18 | RUMANIA – RU as in Rugby Union |
| 19 | GARCIA – A1,CRAG rev. |
| 22 | TO-DOS – Hidden in naTO DOSsier |
Hi Ali
20a STO[p] (end briefly) in ARIA (song)
26a [v]ESTA (match losing five) reversed A (one)
25a The anagram fodder is DREADS not DARES
Isn’t 15d ASTHENIA? THE N in ASIA or am I misremembering?
15d i think it is asthenia too. just posting for the first time as started doing the crossword about 18 months ago and now finishing sort of 1 in 3.i liked fatso.
hoped for a nice puzzle to do on train to south of france on bank holiday 25th may, so was rather disappointed to see tees. did about 10 clues but each one was like pulling teeth.
Yep, sorry for the typo in 15D, which was actually the last answer I wrote in. Cheers for the pointers on the clues I missed as well.
pennes – welcome aboard. Bank Holiday puzzles are generally always on the tricky side, but stick with it. As a general rule of thumb, Wednesdays (usually Dac) and Fridays (usually Phi) are the easiest days of the week and you can usually guarantee a harder puzzle on a Thursday, but if you refer to the blogs here after any puzzle you struggle with, you’ll only get better with time. My solving skills have improved immeasurably since I started coming here!
Have a look, pennes, too at the Independent on Sunday crossword by Quixote which is generally the easiest and most accessible and enjoyable too of course.
A quite excellent puzzle from Dac. But he’s always excellent, so this is nothing special. The only thing I didn’t like, and it’s a purely personal thing and is impossible to justify, is the reference to a rock performer as if we all know who he is. I have never heard of Garcia (Sergio? Gabriel G Marquez? Obviously not), although I have heard of The Grateful Dead. Perhaps I should get out more. OK I do just about know that it’s Gerry, actually, but only with Google acting as a nudge.
I suppose REM appears quite often in the Indy, so that’s more familiar.
He certainly isn’t mainstream but he has acheived a kind of cult status which means that he is at least famous enough to be commemorated with an ice-cream flavour. I’m talking about Jerry Garcia and not Dac by the way. Although maybe one day Dacadamia might become as popular as Cherry Garcia, which is apparently Ben & Jerry’s most popluar flavour, and so you could argue Jerry he ought to be as famous as Dame Nellie Melba for this reason at least.