This was surprisingly easy for a Prize Puzzle, especially as I was half-expecting a Christmas special, and Phi can produce some tough nuts when he wants to. But that’s not to say it wasn’t enjoyable as indeed are most puzzles by Phi.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | POSH P[ost] O[ffice] SH (Shhh! Silent) Rather an easy clue for a Prize puzzle 1 Across and would’ve been an instant write-in in another place but I was so surprised to get it so fast |
| 3 | OBSCURED O.B.s (Old Boys) CURED (put right) |
| 10 | THE GREEK CALENDS (SKETCHED GENERAL)* AInd: in action. Definition: Never. One of those lovely cases where the wordplay and crossing letters lead inexorably to an answer that I have never heard of, and find an interesting history to the phrase: From the paragraph about the Greek Calends at this wiki: The calends was a feature of the Latin calendar, absent from the Greek calendar. Accordingly, to postpone something ad Kalendas Graecas (“to the Greek calends”) meant postponing it forever. |
| 11 | ANECDOTAL AN (article) (LOCATED)* AInd: mistakenly |
| 12 | UNIT Hidden in mUNITions |
| 13 | CLOBBER DD in two ways! Belt and Socks and Clobber can all mean clothing and also hitting My favourite clue: Belt and socks etc.(7) |
| 15 | IDENTS DENT (hollow) inside IS |
| 17 | WELLES WELLIES – I |
| 19 | TOPKNOT Definition + a CD that I liked: … display, securing scout a badge? |
| 20 | SLOT S[ubstantial] LOT (amount) This is a SLOT in the sense of a position on (e.g.) an entertainment bill |
| 21 | AGRONOMIC M.O. (Modus Operandi – way of working) reversed inside (ORGANIC)* AInd: ground |
| 24 | PEREGRINE PICKLE PEREGRINE (bird) PICKLE (trouble) An archetypal picaresque novel by Tobias Smollett Second last to go in though I had Peregrine in place for some time. In the end the crossing letters and a vague memory led to Pickle but I could not have placed it as Smollett. |
| 25 | ROSE-PINK Spoonerised “Pose Rink” |
| 26 | USES [f]USES |
| Down | |
| 1 | PITTANCE PITT (ex-PM – take your choice of which) ACE (very good) around N[ew] Excellent satirical def: minimum wage? |
| 2 | SIEVE (EVE IS)< |
| 4 | BACILLI BA (graduate) C[ollege] ILL (ailing) I (one) |
| 5 | COLOURED PENCIL (COUNCILLOR DEEP)* AInd: struggling. It is astonishing the art that can be produced with coloured pencils. Please see the exhibitions at the UK Coloured Pencil Society website |
| 6 | RIN TIN TIN R[uns], IN, TIN TIN (boy reporter) It’s that dog again |
| 7 | DUSK D[arkness] USK (river) |
| 8 | CREDIBILITY GAP R[ecipe], EDIBILITY (food quality), G[ood] all inside CAP (top place) One of those where I only worked out the wordplay when writing the blog |
| 9 | MENTOR MEN (soldiers) TO R[etreat] Last one I put in. Fooled by “Retreat at the outset” delivering just R, thinking there was some reversal in the wordplay |
| 14 | OVERLORDS OVER (finished) LORDS (cricket ground) |
| 16 | E-TICKETS STEE[p] (mostly expensive) backwards around TICK (Credit) |
| 18 | SHAVIAN [aristophane]S [rehas]H AVIAN (of the birds) Good surface reading here |
| 19 | TORIES [his]TORIES |
| 22 | MIKES MI[n]KES These whales |
| 23 | SPUR SPUR[t] Jabber as in something that jabs |
Let me, as a seasonal treat, just give you a Nina alert. Not a massive Nina, but one that is only really true if you don’t spot it.
Merry Christmas
Phi
Off topic, but the Indy site has an old Quixote puzzle(880) for today. A nice one too.
That would be veni vidi vici in a symmetrical arrangement in three of the rows without across clues.
I suppose that the solver who spots it can say it to Phi, rather than the other way around as he suggests.
I’m not sure how anyone found that Nina – or would even spot that there was one!?
1-0 to Phi.
Because this was on the easy side for a prize puzzle I looked very, very hard for a Nina. I mean, imagine the embarrassment of blogging the puzzle and not spotting the Nina. I even subjected it to an intense scrute with my specially developed laser-guided Nina detector and it found no trace.
I think I’ll let the patent lapse on that one.