As usual, Armonie’s clues are impeccably written: clean and concise, with smooth surface readings. I found myself wishing, though, for a surprise or two. A few too many of these seemed to be often-clued words, with breakdowns we have seen before, e.g., AD + MIRE, S + TENCH, C + ARIES.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | STENCH S (Saturday) TENCH (fish) |
| 4 | FETCHING F (fine) ETCHING (art) |
| 10 | PRETENDER dd (PRE-TENDER would be “before the bid”) |
| 11 | AROMA hidden in FigARO MArcellina |
| 12 | LEAD dd. “lead” = “life” in, e.g., the phrase “to lead one’s life” |
| 13 | DISTILLERY STILLER (more clam) in DIY (housework) |
| 15 | ENTHUSE *(THEN) + USE (employ) |
| 16 | CASING CA (accountant) SING (spill the beans) |
| 19 | CYGNET homophone of SIGNET (a small seal) |
| 21 | WOODCUT WOOD (golf club) CUT (snubbed) |
| 23 | BOAT RACING BOA (snake) TRACING (hunting) Best of the puzzle, I think |
| 25 | HARM R (rare) in HAM (poor player) |
| 27 | CLIMB C (caught) LIMB (arm or leg) |
| 28 | TERRORISE ERROR (misdeed) in *(SITE) |
| 29 | SUSPENSE US (American ) P (power) in SENSE (reason) |
| 30 | FLEECE FLEE (leave) CE (church) |
| Down | |
| 1 | SUPPLIER I (interest) in SUPPLER (more flexible) |
| 2 | ELEGANTLY *(TANGLE) in ELY (see) |
| 3 | CHEW C (Charlie) HEW (cut) |
| 5 | ERRATIC RAT (vermin) in ERIC (boy) |
| 6 | CHARLESTON CHARLES (prince) + NOT reversed |
| 7 | IN ONE dd |
| 8 | GLADYS G (good) LADY’S (woman’s) |
| 9 | ADMIRE AD (poster) MIRE (slough) |
| 14 | VULNERABLE *(A BULL NEVER) |
| 17 | NECTARINE *(AREN’T NICE) |
| 18 | STAMPEDE TAMPED (crammed) in SE (corner of the compass) |
| 20 | TACITUS *(CATSUIT) |
| 21 | WINTRY WIN (land) TRY (tax) |
| 22 | ABACUS A (American) + AC (bill) in BUS (coach) |
| 24 | ARIES [c]ARIES |
| 26 | COWL C[onfine] + OWL (raptor) |
Thanks, Agentzero.
I agree entirely with your preamble – nothing to object to but no great ‘ahas’, either.
I did quite like GLADYS – and a nice little touch was that STAMPEDE ran down into the SE corner of the puzzle.
Thank you, Agentzero
I’d go along with all your comments too. I also liked GLADYS and the other two clues where so much is expressed in only 2 or 3 words: 12ac and 3dn.
I didn’t see the obvious parsing for 7dn as stated in your blog. After
much head-scratching I thought it must be at=in, and the first attempt=a=one!