*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
Quite tough in places, with one or two that I’m not sure about. It’s often worth checking for a theme or Nina with Virgilius, but I’ve drawn a blank there.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | GREATS – GR + EATS. |
| 8 | SWEET PEA – (WE in STEEP*) + A. |
| 9 | EN CROUTE – EN ROUTE “consuming” C[ake]. |
| 10 | THEISM – THE + IS + M. |
| 11 | REST – dd. |
| 12 | COLORATURA – (CAROL AT OUR)*. “Embellished vocal passages including runs, trills, etc”, apparently. |
| 14, 15 | BORDER STATES – I must be missing something in the wordplay, unless this is a dd? |
| 18 | ORIGINALLY – ORALLY “swallowing” 1 GIN. |
| 20 | KNOB – K + NOB. |
| 22 | HAWSER – (SAW HER)*. |
| 24 | CAMBODIA – (AM BOD) “caught by” CIA. |
| 26 | IDOLECT – (DO + ELICIT)*. |
| 27 | ENTAIL – [ailm]ENT AIL[ment] |
| Down | |
| 1 | ORANGE – dd. |
| 2 | NARRATOR – ARRAN< + TO R. |
| 3 | ESAU – [th]E SAU[sages]. |
| 4 | VENT – N in VET. It seems that N is used for “knight” in chess. |
| 5 | ATTEST – T in A TEST. |
| 6 | DESSERTS – STRESSED<. |
| 8 | SHEILA – cd. “Maid of Perth” is quite cleverly misleading here. |
| 12 | CLEAN – E “imprisoned by” CLAN. |
| 13 | RETRY – RE TRY. |
| 14 | BARNARDO – (RAN BOARD)*. |
| 16 | TAKE-OUTS – cd, I think. |
| 17 | ELICIT – [f]ELICIT[y]. |
| 19 | GO SLOW – GO’S LOW. |
| 21 | OLIVIA – [b]OLIVIA. |
| 23 | RHEA – dd. Rhea is a moon of Saturn, and also a flightless South American bird. |
| 25 | MEEK – M + EEK. |
Look around the border of the grid. There are various US states overlapping in different directions.
…sorry, hence 14/15.
Just brilliant, yet again, from Virgilius.
Look around the perimeter for BORDER STATES
Nice puzzle.
I didn’t get Rhea. Seems to me more a word suitable for a weekend barred puzzle, particularly with the limited checking here. (Hopefully this is not regarded as sour grapes).
Hmm, I thought rhea was fairly common knowledge as a South American flightless bird, certainly for me it stands alongside ostrich and emu as three flightless land birds. Its meaning as a satellite is perhaps less commonly known outside of astronomy.
I got the border states idea, but didn’t realize the letters could overlap. So I was convinced EV/AD on the top row and WA/KS on the bottom row must be pairs of state abbreviations (works in the second case with Washington/Kansas but not the first).