As almost always with Virgilius, a beautiful production with an original and enjoyable theme. I think it’s simply 13dn, with 19dn, 5dn and 2dn appearing in the grid, and many of the answers (4ac, 9ac, 12ac, 21ac, 25ac, 26ac, 7dn, 15dn, 22dn) fitting this theme.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | P AIR |
| 4 | RAW RECRUIT — cru in (a writer)* |
| 9 | R(1 PROA R)ING |
| 10 | MACE — 2 defs |
| 11 | CHAR — 2 defs |
| 12 | STIRRERS — James Bond liked his martinis (I think) shaken not stirred |
| 14 | rePORT EDitor, rev. |
| 16 | GA (S) LIGHT |
| 17 | shocKING LEARner |
| 20 | AS SETS |
| 21 | RE(A {soldie}R)WARD |
| 22 | EURO — (o rue)rev. |
| 24 | PLOT — 2 defs |
| 25 | REIN T ERRED |
| 26 | REAR RANGED |
| 27 | RUSH — 2 defs |
| Down | |
| 2 | ARITHMETIC — I in (time chart)* |
| 3 | RARER — I think this is saying that a steak that is less well done is rarer, and rare is the opposite of usual |
| 4 | bREAD SUPposedly |
| 5 | WRITING — “righting” |
| 6 | ENGIRDS — (rig)rev. in ends |
| 7 | REMARRIES — (a merrier s{eaman})* |
| 8 | INCH — 2 defs |
| 13 | THE THREE RS — but I’m a bit lost here: where do the spelling mistakes come in? (“Basic education, with a couple of spelling mistakes”) |
| 15 | REGRETTER — Miss Otis Regrets and Je ne regrette rien (this at least shows Edith Piaf singing, but this one sounds better) |
| 18 | ETRURIA — (Eur art I)*, although I may be wrong here, since I can’t really see why the first pieces of European gives Eur (as opposed to Eu or Euro etc) |
| 19 | READING — (garden I)* |
| 20 | AUDI TED |
| 22 | {t}ERROR |
| 23 | FLEE — “flea” |
Great puzzle, the spelling mistakes are that 2 don’t start with R.
Re 13: It refers to the fact that it’s riting and rithmetic that make up two of the three rs.
Re 18: I assume you can see that the first (three) pieces of European are EUR. The question is whether it is justified.
Colin — I must have been editing the blog at the exact time you posted: yes, I am unconvinced that it’s justified.
Thanks to you and nmsindy for making the obvious explanation of 13dn.
…especially, John, as Eur. is an abbreviation of European found in most desk dictionaries.
Very enjoyable although I didn’t spot the theme.
I wasn’t sure about 15D – Chambers does not have it and I thought it might be REGRETTED or REGRETFUL.
I was also trying to incorporate SMERSH into 12A !
Nice puzzle. Liked the unusually well-concealed hidden KING LEAR in “Tragedy shocking learner to some extent”. It took me ages to work out!
The star clue for me was 12A – brilliant (it took me ages to spot it, however). I found this a bit harder than most of Virgilius’s, but perhaps it would have been easier if I hadn’t missed the theme. Nonetheless, it was a delight to solve.