Another Bank Holiday and it’s not raining, cold wind again today.
As expected it’s Quixote in his every other week slot, relatively easy I felt with more cryptic defs than I would normally expect.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ASHRAM | A wolf in sheep’s clothing, trickster finally entering religious community (6) |
| (trickste)R in A SHAM | ||
| 4 | STAGNANT | Moribund animal beginning to needle busy little one (8) |
| STAG & N(eedle) & ANT | ||
| 9 | BARQUE | Outer protective covering is said to suit this ship (6) |
| Sounds like BARK | ||
| 10 | POLO NECK | Collar has solitary mark on the outside (4,4) |
| LONE in POCK | ||
| 11 | ROUND TRIP | Canon has accident making journey (5,4) |
| ROUND (canon) & TRIP | ||
| 13 | CHURN | There may be agitation in this church needing tea-making facility (5) |
| CH(urch) & URN | ||
| 14 | APPRENTICES | Trainees respect pain when licked into shape (11) |
| [RESPECT PAIN]* | ||
| 18 | FILL THE BILL | Be exactly what is needed to feed hungry pelican? (4,3,4) |
| Cryptic def | ||
| 21 | AGAPE | Having mouth wide open in Christian feast (5) |
| Double def. The Christian feast was new to me | ||
| 22 | PRESS-GANG | Compel load of people to hang around outside Downing Street? (5-4) |
| Cryptic double def | ||
| 23 | MORAVIAN | Complaint about Indian Protestant (8) |
| MOAN about RAVI | ||
| 24 | DIVEST | Strip clubs the west side of town (6) |
| DIVES (seedy clubs) & T(own) westmost letter in an across clue | ||
| 25 | DOPESTER | Party needs to get at someone with information in America (8) |
| DO & PESTER | ||
| 26 | MENTOR | Guide soldiers to reach Dartmoor location? (6) |
| MEN & TOR | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ARBOREAL | Having trees, a river, a lake — what’s uninteresting in that? (8) |
| BORE in AR & AL | ||
| 2 | HARRUMPH | Make disapproving sound as a bishop stuck in lift getting hot (8) |
| (A R.R.) in HUMP & H(ot) | ||
| 3 | A BUNDLE OF NERVES | Personal communications network makes one very jittery (1,6,2,6) |
| Cryptic double def | ||
| 5 | TROOP | Group of people given bad time in revolution (5) |
| POOR T reversed | ||
| 6 | GLOUCESTERSHIRE | Leicester roughs on the rampage in area around Cheltenham (15) |
| [LEICESTER ROUGHS]* Won’t mention the Rugby on Saturday when the Tigers became champions. Oops 🙂 | ||
| 7 | AVENUE | Street — ace place for a game of football? (6) |
| A(ce) & VENUE | ||
| 8 | TAKING | Accepting part-time soldiers to accompany ruler (6) |
| T.A. & KING | ||
| 12 | RATEL | Mammal with mark on end of tail (5) |
| RATE & (tai)L | ||
| 15 | CUTIE | Endearing person in knockout game not keeping quiet (5) |
| CU(p) TIE | ||
| 16 | FILAMENT | There’s sign of heat around one (not consuming oxygen) (8) |
| &LIT I guess, 1 in FLAME & N(o)T | ||
| 17 | BLIGHTER | Character in pub finally getting dizzier, an irritating guy (8) |
| (pu)B & LIGHTER | ||
| 19 | JAMMED | Like a doughnut getting crushed (6) |
| Double def | ||
| 20 | SATRAP | Ruler in South America facing nasty situation with no escape (6) |
| S(outh) A(merica) & TRAP | ||
| 22 | PEACE | Quiet bit for the listener (5) |
| Sounds like PIECE | ||
*anagram
This was an enjoyable puzzle by Quixote with many smooth surfaces and clearly-written clues. My favourites were 18a, 11a, 2d, 1a, 10a, 1d.
New definitions for me were MORAVIAN = Protestant & AGAPE = Christian feast. I also needed to do some research to parse 26a as I had never heard of the tors of Dartmoor.
Thanks for the blog, flashling. You have a typo at 11a where it should be ROUND (canon) & TRIP.
Thanks Michelle, fixed.
Thanks, flashling.
I found this hard going in places, but it could just be bank holiday lethargy. I thought the two long down clues were cleverly done, and I also liked FILL THE BILL. AGAPE I knew as one of the Greek words meaning ‘love’, but I didn’t know it was a Christian feast. I couldn’t parse FILAMENT, so thank you; and to Quixote for the puzzle.
I found this more difficult than Quixote’s usual Monday offerings but I got there in the end, with FILAMENT my last in after I finally unpicked the wordplay. I was held up slightly by incorrectly entering ‘fits the bill’ at 18ac before I saw that 12dn had to be RATEL.
A pleasant Bank Holiday offering from Quixote. No theme, but a few of the entries – ASHRAM, AGAPE, MORAVIAN probably reflect the Don’s background. DOPESTER was a new word for me. I thought BUNDLE OF NERVES was brilliantly clued.
Thanks, Quixote and Flashling