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An unusually easy outing this week, finished in something like 15 minutes, which is about as quick as we get.
ACROSS
6. BLOODSTONE (old bones)* around ‘to’
9. R AID
10. PA ELLA
11. TO P MARKS sounds like ‘Marx’
12. A C COM (PLISH) MENT the bit in brackets being P(a)L and an anagram of ‘his’
14. MODES T
15. A B SORB<
18. DISINCLINATION (in cl idiot ann is)*
20. BER I BER I ‘ber’ ends a number of months
21. F LA(BB)Y
23. IN CH
24. LIGHTHOUSE (hotel I gush)*
DOWN
1. ELBA<
2. TOLL ROAD a delightful cryptic definition
3. REAP THE BENEFIT (beef tea in Perth)*
4. cAR CAN Explode
5. TICKETY-BOO ‘tick’ then, ‘yet’ anagramised, then ‘boo’
7. SHARP AS A NEEDLE dd
8. O B TAIN(t)
13. COMEDIENNE (do nice men e)*
16. OSTRACOD ‘roast’ anagramised, then ‘cod’. A new word for us.
17. FL(Y)ING
19. S(M.I.T.)HY
22. BUSH dd
Thanks for the blog, Handel. I found this quite tricky. Like you, I esp liked TOLL ROAD, also TOP MARKS, ABLE, LIGHTHOUSE.
30 minutes for me.Liked 5d