A pleasant, easy-going puzzle, this – ideal for those with lots to do and not enough time to do it, which, with Christmas closing in, probably means most of us. A few great clues, a few rather lazy ones (and I’m no fan of three-letter solutions), but all in all a nice way for me to sign off for the year. Sackfuls of thanks to everyone who’s read and commented on my posts this year, and to the marvellous FT setters. A very merry Christmas to you all!
ACROSS
1. TOM JONES Triple definition: the tight-trousered Welsh singer, the opera by Edward German (who was not German) and the Albert Finney-starring film; these two last werre, of course, based on Henry Fielding’s novel
6. RWANDA Wand [stick] within RA [Royal Academy, artist] to give another name for the central African language Kinyarwanda
9. HERMIT Herm [Channel Island] + it – ‘solitary’ here is a noun
10. RED CROSS Red [embarrassed, red-faced] + cross [trial, as in ‘a cross to bear’] to give the hugely admirable medical charity
11. TAXI Tax [duty] + I [one]; a plane taxis when readying to take off
12. OPPOSITION Op [opus, work] + position [station]
14. STAGNATE Anagram of agents at
16. EZRA Z [algebraic unknown] within era [age] to give the Biblical high priest
18. ARIA (M)aria [Callas, the legendary opera singer]
19. FINISHED F(emale) + in [after??] + I shed [I cast off]
21. TURKEY TROT Turkey [country] + Trot [Trotskyite, revolutionary] to give the 20th century dance-step
22. RACE R(uns) + ace [excellent]
24. VIRGINIA Virgin [unspoilt] + I [one] + a(rea) to give the US state of which Richmond is the capital
26. ELEVEN Le [French for ‘the’] within even [level]
27. BEAT IT Beat [defeat] + It(alian)
28. HEDONIST Don [either a university fellow, or a fellow’s name] within heist [armed hold-up]
DOWN
2. OMEGA O [ball, circle] + anagram of game to give the last letter of the Greek alphabet
3. JUMPING JACK Jumping [missing? Possibly in the sense of jumping an obstacle – or, more likely in this case, ‘jumping ship’] + Jack [sailor] to give a kind of string puppet
4. NATIONAL Double definition
5. STRAPPED FOR CASH Stripped for cash [occupation of the (defunct?) male-stripper troupe the Chippendales] with A [definite article] replacing I [one]
6. RADISH R(ecipe) + a dish [a meal]
7. AIR (H)air [70s musical]
8. DISCOURSE D(uke) + is + course [sounds like ‘coarse’, vulgar]
13. TREE SURGEON Very nice cryptic definition: the allusion is to the plane tree
15. TURQUOISE Anagram of ours quite
17. END TO END Anagram of don’t need
20. CYGNET The name for a young swan sounds like ‘signet’ [ring]
23. CHESS C(aught) + anagram of shes
25. GET E(arl) within GT [car]
Thanks for the blog – I wouldn’t call this all that easy, however. Re 19a, which I took a long time to parse properly, the “??” isn’t really necessary. As I finally remembered, “in 3 days” means (more or less) “after 3 days”… I agree about 13d too – excellent misleading CD.
PS. Actually I should withdraw my “(more or less)” above. “He said he’d come back in 3 days.” “He said he’d come back after 3 days.” Certainly close enough in meaning, quite possibly identical.
Thanks Falcon for an enjoyable crossword and Ringo for the blog. I will pick 5dn as my favourite clue.
19ac: After a few minutes thought, I agree with the argument given by Thomas.
15dn: Can anyone justify “garishly” as an anagram indicator?
Not easy for me and couldn’t get
6a I had r?a??? and ran through all the possibilities of r?a but never thought of rwa. I thought it was country not a language.
11a Kicking self
16a Didn’t have any crossing letters and never heard of him .
22a See 11a
2d Is an alphabet a series?
8d I doubt if I ever would have got that. Filed in the “too hard” cabinet.
13d Very good -if I’d had t?e? s?r?e?n I might have guessed it but only t??? s???e?n I couldn’t.
Thanks for the 2011 blogs