Lorraine: Good morning to you all.
I have to say I struggled slightly this week especially with the top right hand corner. I had to Google the Preminger film. Favourites this week were 14, 16, 19, 23 and 25ac, 1, 3, 5, 13 and 15dn.
Big thank you to Everyman for making my brain work harder than usual. 🙂
| Across | |||
| 1. | Old lady tucked into wicked things, this being a feast day? (9) | ||
| CANDLEMAS | MA in CANDLES(wicked things!) | ||
| 6. | Dissident bishop in part of film (5) | ||
| REBEL | B in REEL | ||
| 9. | Raised saw made more modern (7) | ||
| UPDATED | UP+DATED[saw, as in going out with somebody] | ||
| 10. | Second name on it initially stumped worker (7) | ||
| INSTANT | (N after[on] I(t))+ST(stumped)+ANT | ||
| 11. | Swear remedy must involve sulphur (5) | ||
| CURSE | S in CURE | ||
| 12. | Relaxed call, we might deduce? (4,4) | ||
| LAID BACK | pun on ‘DIAL'[call] reversed, i.e. LAID back… | ||
| 14. | Easy pickings, since elderly guy is after brass (5,3,3,4) | ||
| MONEY FOR OLD ROPE | (FOR[since]+OLD+ROPE[guy]) after MONEY | ||
| 16. | Appear to score and fulfil an obligation (4,2,2,7) | ||
| COME UP TO SCRATCH | COME UP+TO+SCRATCH | ||
| 19. | Cinema broadcast shows nervous wrens meeting slippery character (8) | ||
| NEWSREEL | (WRENS*)+EEL | ||
| 20. | Confined to school, some cheating at Edmonton (5) | ||
| GATED | hidden: cheatinG AT EDmonton | ||
| 23. | Design style redcoat ordered (3,4) | ||
| ART DECO | (REDCOAT)* | ||
| 24. | Identical costume (7) | ||
| UNIFORM | dd | ||
| 25. | Painter meant to be different (5) | ||
| MANET | (MEANT)* | ||
| 26. | One’s mood following onset of deadly viral illness (9) | ||
| DISTEMPER | (I’S TEMPER) after D(eadly) | ||
| … | |||
| Down | |||
| 1. | They’re proverbially poor children supported by posh children in organised crime (6,4) | ||
| CHURCH MICE | CH+U[posh, Upper class]+(CH in (CRIME*)) | ||
| 2. | Lowest point in drain in need of repair (5) | ||
| NADIR | (DRAIN)* | ||
| 3. | Draw left good swimmer last in relay (7) | ||
| LOTTERY | L+OTTER+(rela)Y | ||
| 4. | Conventional place of refuge? (6-2-3-4) | ||
| MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD | dd | ||
| 5. | Flying solo, first up – is it in a famous plane? (6,2,2,5) | ||
| SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS | (SOLO, FIRST UP – IS IT)* & lit. | ||
| 6. | Became hostile, friend in Preminger film (7) | ||
| ROSEBUD | ROSE+BUD | ||
| 7. | Fight involving cattle station that is to diversify (6,3) | ||
| BRANCH OUT | BOUT around RANCH | ||
| 8. | Departed behind schedule (4) | ||
| LATE | dd | ||
| 13. | Ambassador, in December, somehow produces a delicacy (5-2-3) | ||
| BECHE-DE-MER | HE[ambassador] in (DECEMBER*) | ||
| 15. | A political address? (6,3) | ||
| NUMBER TEN | cd | ||
| 17. | Dirty seat over in a Parisian street (7) | ||
| UNSWEPT | (PEW<) in (UN[‘a’ in French]+ST) | ||
| 18. | I’m great playing Scott Joplin music (7) | ||
| RAGTIME | (I’M GREAT)* | ||
| 21. | Miserable time for returning flock (5) | ||
| TROOP | (POOR+T)< | ||
| 22. | Motorway below remote croft (4) | ||
| FARM | FAR+M | ||
| … | |||
My favourite was CANDLEMAS (wicked things!) and I also enjoyed the wordplay for REBEL, LOTTERY, NUMBER TEN, BECHE-DE-MER & UNSWEPT
New words that I learnt were COME UP TO SCRATCH, SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS, MONEY FOR OLD ROPE.
Last in was TROOP.
Thanks for the blog, Lorraine.
Enjoyable solve; wicked clue for 1a.
Thanks Lorraine; I didn’t know BECHE-DE-MER, although the anagram yielded quite easily.
As well as CANDLEMAS, I particularly liked MONEY FOR OLD ROPE.
Thanks, Lorraine. BECHE-DE-MER a new one for me too, but it was clearly signposted, so as Robi said, it yielded in the end. I too liked CANDLEMAS: ‘wicked’ has been used before, of course, but it’s always misleading.
Thanks too to Everyman.
[BTW, Lorraine, it was 10th March in my time zone when I solved this …]
I think I might regret asking this, but why are candles ‘wicked things’?
Oh, just got it !
Still baffled as to why candles are ‘wicked things’?
Anthony @6
Because they have wicks! It’s become a bit of a crossword cliche (sorry can’t do the accent).
Doh! That’s awful.
Thanks, Colin.
Ref. ‘WICKED’. As stated, it is an old crossword clue misdirect.
WICKED (pronounced WICK’ED) = EVIL.
But WICKED (rhymes with NICKED) means ‘having a wick’.
Another, e.g. is ‘FLOWER’. ‘Tis not a flower (but might be), but can be read as FLOWER (rhymes with ROWER) – meaning a river, sewer etc.
Compilers get up to all sorts of such tricks – and sometimes it makes when solving the clue a *bingo* moment.
Nick
By the pricking of my thumbs …
… and thus a candle was brought to a stage at Stratford. O how the audience tittered. And screamed for a refund.
Folks…i was not surprised to note this but still one cannot help gasping when one sees it with ones own eyes…this crossword figured in today’s(may 5 ’13 Sunday) “The Hindu” – a newspaper that may south indians read – and keep track of for…yes the crossword – at least i do.
I came looking for the “money for old dope” clue (honestly i got most of the rest without much help – getting used to these cryptic ones slowly :-))…
Needless to say any more – this puzzle is a few months old already on the net!
The solution too and per unwritten rule… duly copied from here (this site) to another similarly-intended blog…
Much runs around here under the cut-copy-paste principle…after all we believe in reusing many times after creating once…
:-))))
have you all a good weekend.