We’ve not come across Hob before – is this another guise of one of the regulars, or is it a new face? If so, we wouldn’t have expected a Saturday debut, but with a first puzzle as good as this, we can only offer a warm welcome! We look forward to more!
This was a good themed puzzle with six of the themed items incorporated as the first parts of longer non-themed answers. There were two other directly clued themed answers and references to the theme appeared in five other clues – quite an achievement in a puzzle with only one unusual word – this was 5A (we’d never come across it before, anyway!) but it was readily solvable from the wordplay, so no complaints there!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Embarrassed to spot water being passed by drunkard? | |
| SHEEPISH | Sounds like SEE (spot) PISS (water being passed) as said by a drunkard – the key to the theme | |
| 5 | Wrong tel. no., name forgotten – up a gum tree | |
| TUPELO | Anagram of TEL |
|
| 9 | Once more almost 1A about East Indian music | |
| OVER AGAIN | OVIN |
|
| 11 | Ordered to be a threat to the Allies in WWII | |
| E-BOAT | Anagram of TO BE A (anagrind is ‘ordered’) | |
| 12 | Crashed car into bus? Must not half have become hard to control | |
| RAMBUNCTIOUS | Anagram of CAR INTO BUS MU |
|
| 15 | Priest, a 1A part of 26 | |
| ELIA | ELI (priest) A – the ‘sheepish part of 26 is ‘Lamb’ – Charles Lamb, best known for his ‘Essays of ELIA’ | |
| 16 | European ‘sign of the times’ job fair | |
| EXPOSITION | E (European) + X (sign of the times, as in multiplication) + POSITION (job) | |
| 18 | Print with illuminated corner hit home | |
| LITHOGRAPH | LIT (illuminated) + HOG (corner, as in ‘control’) + RAP (hit) + H (home) | |
| 19 | Sounds like 1A part of 2, 5, 12, 21, 26 or 27 – or a car backfiring? | |
| BAAS | SAAB (car) reversed or ‘backfiring’ – reference to all the answers which include a term for sheep | |
| 21 | A range of sheep-dips? Just the opposite | |
| CHEVIOT HILLS | CHEVIOT (breed of sheep) + HILLS (the opposite of ‘dips’) | |
| 24 | Criminal having a hand in heavy metal number making a comeback | |
| FELON | L (left ‘hand’) in FE (chemical symbol for iron – ‘heavy metal’) NO (number) reversed or ‘making a comeback’) | |
| 25 | Jog one’s memory, as may 1A part of 27 | |
| RING A BELL | Two meanings – a Wether (the ‘sheepish’ part of 27) (or any other kind of sheep) may have a bell round its neck | |
| 26 | Letter from priest about bishop having died | |
| LAMBDA | LAMA (priest) round B (bishop) D (died) | |
| 27 | Place for horse-racing article to run in the ‘Independent’ and ‘Times’ | |
| WETHERBY | THE (article) + R (run) in WE (the ‘Independent’ as an organisation) BY (times, as in multiplied by) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Go pop! | |
| SHOT | Double definition | |
| 2 | A jug of wine? We retched a bit | |
| EWER | Hidden in (‘a bit’ of) (win)E WE R(etched) | |
| 3 | Design a man’s flat | |
| PLANAR | PLAN (design) + A + R (rook – a chess ‘man’) | |
| 4 | Elderly person, getting cross, laid into lout interrupting bunkum as served up for one at Speakers’ Corner | |
| SOAPBOX ORATOR | OAP (elderly person) + X (cross) in BOOR (lout), all in ROT (bunkum) AS reversed or ‘served up’ | |
| 6 | Familiar with that awful outside toilet, for starters | |
| USED TO IT | Anagram of OUTSIDE (anagrind is ‘awful’) + T (first letter or ‘starter’ of Toilet) | |
| 7 | Cheap electronic card with gangster getting leg-over inside | |
| ECONOMICAL | E (electronic) + COMIC (card) + AL (Capone – gangster) round ON (leg, in cricket) reversed or ‘over’ | |
| 8 | Being dim, have fixation about two unconnected bits of melody | |
| OBTUSENESS | OB SE SS (have fixation) about TU NE (unconnected bits of melody) | |
| 10 | Revolting state of sex offender tailed by bent policeman | |
| NONCOMPLIANCE | NONC |
|
| 13 | Sloppy clue, no good, initially left out | |
| NEGLECTFUL | Anagram of CLUE NG (no good ‘initially’) LEFT – anagrind is ‘out’ | |
| 14 | Mary’s pet briefly entertains last of circus-goers with impressive set of tricks | |
| LITTLE SLAM | LITTLE LAM |
|
| 17 | Made a proposal, having shown some cheek raising it internally | |
| MOTIONED | MOONED (having shown some cheek!) round IT reversed or ‘raised’ | |
| 20 | Lighten blackface originally applied to Archie on Broadway? | |
| BLEACH | B (first letter of ‘blackface’) + LEACH (Archie Leach appeared in musicals on Broadway before changing his name to Cary Grant and moving to Hollywood) | |
| 22 | Try to learn | |
| HEAR | Double definition | |
| 23 | Butcher, 1A type from the Outer Hebrides, left for love | |
| SLAY | SoAY (a breed of sheep from the Outer Hebrides) with the O (love) changed to L (left) | |
Magnificent. Favourite puzzle of the year so far. Great clues abound but SOAPBOX ORATOR my favourite.
Spent all week trying to get the answer to 1dn. Obvious, now that I see it.
Thank you, Hob, thank you, Bertandjoyce. One very small quibble re 25A: of course any sheep might wear a bell, but especially a bellwether.
Thanks quodlibet – we wondered about this one!