Lorraine: Good morning and a happy new year to you all.
Wizzed through this, this morning. Nothing to taxing on the brain, although I was stuck on a couple of easy one’s, Doh.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a wonderful new year.
Big thank you to Everyman for all the puzzling in 2012, and for the up and coming puzzles in 2013.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Shoulder bag, left by a chest, exploded (7) | ||
| SATCHEL | L after (A CHEST*) | ||
| 5. | Skegness finally got hotter, and crowded (7) | ||
| SWARMED | (skegnes)S+WARMED | ||
| 9. | Be excited about a run in vehicle (6,3) | ||
| BUBBLE CAR | BUBBLE+C+A+R | ||
| 10. | Windproof jacket used by old man protecting chest (5) | ||
| PARKA | PA around ARK | ||
| 11. | Nerd starts to dismantle Wankel engines, each bit (5) | ||
| DWEEB | first letters | ||
| 12. | Pests cause inns to be refurbished (9) | ||
| NUISANCES | (CAUSE INNS*) | ||
| 13. | Money no object making an Astaire film? (3,4,3,5) | ||
| THE SKYS THE LIMIT | this film HERE | ||
| 16. | More cheesed off, alarmingly, about president defining a civil right (7,2,6) | ||
| FREEDOM OF SPEECH | (MORE CHEESED OFF*) around P | ||
| 18. | Shock when peeper gets key (3-6) | ||
| EYE-OPENER | EYE+OPENER | ||
| 20. | Message he reportedly put on front of envelope (5) | ||
| homephone of MALE after E(nvelope) | |||
| 22. | Foremost of carveries requests large barrels (5) | ||
| CASKS | C(arveries)+ASKS | ||
| 23. | Drops rock band, dismissing explosive type of music involved (9) | ||
| TRAPDOORS | (T(he) DOORS)[rock band dropping HE=high explosive] around RAP | ||
| 24. | Wrongly praised, padre is unlikely to lose heart (7) | ||
| DESPAIR | two anagrams i](PRAISED)* ii](PADRE IS)* | ||
| 25. | Awfully bad rule, existing for a long time (7) | ||
| DURABLE | (BAD RULE)* | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Correct copy reveals plot in case (7) | ||
| SUBEDIT | BED[plot] in SUIT | ||
| 2. | Story about British food (5) | ||
| TABLE | TALE around B | ||
| 3. | Ridiculous, as an underdone loaf may be (4-5) | ||
| HALF-BAKED | pun, cd | ||
| 4. | Fabulous creature with horns – closest men petrified (4,4,7) | ||
| LOCH NESS MONSTER | (HORNS – CLOSEST MEN)* | ||
| 5. | Plain sailing? Right on! (15) | ||
| STRAIGHTFORWARD | STRAIGHT+FORWARD | ||
| 6. | Greek character employed by local pharmacist (5) | ||
| ALPHA | hidden: locAL PHArmacist | ||
| 7. | Two doctors describing swimming race close to Lancashire resort town (9) | ||
| MORECAMBE | ((MO+MB) around [swimming!](RACE*))+(lancashir)E | ||
| 8. | Absolutely determined, clique departed earlier (4,3) | ||
| DEAD SET | SET[clique] with DEAD in front[earlier] | ||
| 14. | Number joining groups taking time off for morning coffee (9) | ||
| ELEVENSES | ELEVEN+SE(t)S | ||
| 15. | I see what you’re saying (3-6) | ||
| LIP-READER | cd – literal | ||
| 16. | Ripped off down end of road (7) | ||
| FLEECED | FLEECE+(roa)D | ||
| 17. | Bishopric? Yes, possibly in difficult situation (4,3) | ||
| HOLY SEE | (YES*) in HOLE | ||
| 19. | Finished last of lasagna, Italian food (5) | ||
| PASTA | PAST+(lasagn)A | ||
| 21. | Weapon taken from a disorderly crowd climbing on to top of building (1-4) | ||
| A-BOMB | A+((MOB*) after B(uilding)) | ||
| … | |||
Thanks Everyman & Lorraine. Happy New Year!
I rather lazily put ‘teardrops’ in 23 at first and wondered why Everyman had ‘drops’ in both clue and answer. 🙁
Some lovely surfaces as ever. Strange in 24 that there were two anagrams. Favourites were PARKA and MORECAMBE, although the clue for the latter was not very wise. 😉
Thanks Lorraine, though you have a wierd typo – presumably a homephone is as opposed to a cellphone 🙂
Hi Robi, I did the same, though I wasn0t happy with it, so checked it this morning and finally worked out the correct answer – the obstacle was realizing what the definition was – clever!
….ET phone home….. 🙂