Lorraine: Good morning to you all,
no problems this week, I found I got through this weeks rather quickly. Lots of anagrams which I particularly like.
Favourites for me were: 1ac(easy) 13ac, 17ac, 20ac, 25ac(easy) and 2dn(easy) and 10dn. Last in was 6ac and it was not me who got it, it was Nick (doh) – I just could not see it!
Big thank you to Everyman for yet another fine puzzle.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Insect attracting bird and fish (9) | ||
| COCKROACH | COCK+ROACH | ||
| 6. | Shrewd copper’s note (4) | ||
| CUTE | CU(copper)+TE(note) shrewd=astute=cute |
||
| 8. | Who inspired poetry from Fuller at Oxford? (5) | ||
| ERATO | hidden: FullER AT Oxford | ||
| 9. | Worker after strong cloth, one with stripes (8) | ||
| SERGEANT | SERGE+ANT | ||
| 11. | Society types? (9) | ||
| TAHITIANS | cd: tahiti is part of Society Islands | ||
| 12. | Some spinach on a small piece of tortilla (5) | ||
| NACHO | hidden: spiNACH On | ||
| 13. | She, girly with frock on, crushed an insect in Alice Through the Looking-Glass (7-5-3) | ||
| ROCKING-HORSE-FLY | (SHE GIRLY FROCK ON)* | ||
| 17. | What can it mean? (7,8) | ||
| ITALIAN VERMOUTH | it=Italian Vermouth, as in ‘gin and it’ | ||
| 18. | Look initially at child lock (5) | ||
| LATCH | L(ook)+AT+CH | ||
| 20. | A uniform colour (5,4) | ||
| OLIVE DRAB | cd: see this colour-> HERE | ||
| 23. | Short foreign side greeted with respect (8) | ||
| CURTSIED | CURT+(SIDE*) | ||
| 24. | Leading Greek character (5) | ||
| ALPHA | cd | ||
| 25. | Dog food (4) | ||
| CHOW | dd | ||
| 26. | Encouraged US readers abroad (9) | ||
| REASSURED | (US READERS)* | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Held fiercest criminal in Derbyshire town (12) | ||
| CHESTERFIELD | (HELD FIERCEST)* | ||
| 2. | A short talk about a church after church dance (3-3-3) | ||
| CHA-CHA-CHA | (A+CHA(t) around A+CH) all after CH very confusing to parse |
||
| 3. | Rubbish round very large hen house (5) | ||
| ROOST | ROT around OS(outsize) | ||
| 4. | Confused sailors often are (2,3) | ||
| AT SEA | cd | ||
| 5. | Such a prediction may involve one’s own house (9) | ||
| HOROSCOPE | cd: horoscope (or a prediction from) is a map of the heavens; the 12 parts of the map are called ‘houses’ which are best known as the signs of the zodiac | ||
| 6. | Silk dress in mag Hon. Sec. ordered (9) | ||
| CHEONGSAM | (MAG HON SEC)* | ||
| 7. | Medicine to take endlessly (5) | ||
| TONIC | TO NIC(k) | ||
| 10. | Obey top management or be ignored (2,2,3,5) | ||
| GO BY THE BOARD | cd | ||
| 14. | Girl’s eating hot and extremely toothsome western dish (5,4) | ||
| IRISH STEW | H in IRIS’S+T(oothsom)E+W | ||
| 15. | Boatman, out of work, receives one in Greece (9) | ||
| GONDOLIER | I in ON DOLE(out of work) all in GR(greece) | ||
| 16. | Mineral in favourite parlour’s fizzy (9) | ||
| FLUORSPAR | (PARLOUR’S)* | ||
| 19. | Feel better (5) | ||
| TOUCH | cdd | ||
| 21. | Home help raised in Asian country (5) | ||
| INDIA | IN+(AID<) | ||
| 22. | Archaeologist, knight, brought in ornate vase (5) | ||
| EVANS | N in (VASE*) the archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete |
||
| ……………………. | |||
Many thanks Lorraine this was a breeze except for OLIVE DRAB which I’d never heard of before but very guessable.
So sorry that you missed the Quiche last week (it was yummy) but, luckily, we had gallons of Stella to drown our sorrows.
Thanks, Lorraine. Needed you today for explanations of TAHITIANS and HOROSCOPE. Could no doubt have found out for myself, but when you know someone’s blogging the puzzle it makes you lazy, doesn’t it? OLIVE DRAB was new to me as well, as was ROCKING-HORSE-FLY – another couple to file away.
Nice to see my adopted county getting a mention at 1dn. CHESTERFIELD is most noted for its church with the crooked spire:
http://www.visitchesterfield.info/dms-derbyshire.asp?dms=13&venue=6012303
Derbyshire legend has it that when a maid who was not chaste got married in the church, God expended his wrath by twisting the spire; further legend has it that the next time a woman who is chaste gets married there, he’ll untwist it.
Enjoyable Sunday puzzle as always.
…and not forgetting KD, that Tony Benn was famously MP for Chesterfield for many years.
Thanks Lorraine,
Another excellent puzzle from Everyman. I especially liked CHESTERFIELD (great anagram), IT (deceptively difficult to get) and GONDOLIER (nice word play). I had to use ‘Find and Fit’ to get CHEONGSAM as I’d never heard of it. Thanks Everyman.
Thanks Lorraine and Everyman.
All quite straightforward, except for one query, which I’m hoping someone will answer. Re 19D TOUCH, I get = “feel”, but I can’t touch the other definition = “better”. Closest I can think of is “touch”=”equal”, but that doesn’t equal “better”.
Hi scchua, a better is a TOUCH, ie, someone who is ‘touched on’ by a punter.
Hi Stella, thank you very much…but, pardon me, I’m not sure I’ve got it…a punter is the “better”, in which case a touch would be the “bettee” :-).
Since posting, I asked my daughter and her take is “touch” as in “touch up” or “finishing touches”. I’m not totally convinced, as that use would require a preposition.
Scchua @ 6
I think your daughter’s got it right.
You might give something a ‘touch’ to make it ‘better’.
Just as I’ve contributed a touch to this solution and I’ve now made it better.
(I hope)
Thanks Bryan for the touch. The whole thing was a touch elusive to me!
Surprised everyone found this fairly straightforward – it was the toughest I could remember! Really struggled with 50% of it. And not finding today’s much easier either 🙁