Yet another example of why Virgilius really is the undisputed master of the themed daily. In puzzles such as this, you’ll often find that there are one or two obscure words in the down answers to allow for the thematic across entries (in this case, hidden fish). Not here though, it all fits together quite, ahem, BRILLiantly. Oh, and the clueing’s rather good too, though when is it ever not?!
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | DEFIBRILLATION – Cryptic def. | |
| 9 | CRAYONED – (ANY DECOR)* | |
| 10 | CRUDDY – C + RUDDY | |
| 11 | REELED – REEL + ED(ition) | |
| 14 | HIDDEN CATCHES – Double def. – Our theme. I got it after only 3 across entries, yet it took me most of the rest of the solve to get the CATCHES part of this answer! | |
| 18 | BOGART – (GARBO)* + T | |
| 21 | SPIKELET – (PETS LIKE)* | |
| 23 | CLINGY – Hidden in cyCLING Yes | |
| 24 | HOLDABLE – L + DAB in HOLE | |
| 25 | SHAKESPEAREANS – (KANSAS ARE + SHEEP)* Ref. Charles and Mary Lamb, the bro and sis combo who wrote essays on WS | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | RETRENCH – RE: TRENCH | |
| 2 | LILY POND – LILY (girl) + POND (mere) | |
| 3 | FRINGE – RING in FE | |
| 4 | GLAD – GLAD(ioli) | |
| 5 | BACCARAT – CAB rev. + CAR + AT | |
| 6 | MINUTE – Double def. | |
| 7 | ON EDGE – Think this is just a variation on ‘the edge is on’, i.e. there’s a chance, but a bit unsure | |
| 12 | TACKS – “Tax” | |
| 15 | ENTRY FEE – Cryptic def. | |
| 16 | HEEHAWED – HEED about H and AWE | |
| 19 | SPELLING – Ref. WRITING, the middle of the 3 Rs! | |
| 20 | OWLISH – (L WHO IS)* | |
| 22 | I’LL SAY – ILL + SAY | |
| 24 | HOPI – HOP + I (India in the phonetic alphabet) | |
Comments are closed.