Lorraine: Good morning to you all.
Very straight forward crossword this week I feel, plenty of my favourite anagrams 🙂
Most enjoyable clues for me this week were, 15 and 18ac, 2, 4, and 5dn. Last in was 13ac, I had put the spacing in wrong. I knew it had to be Victoria station, but in my grid I had put in 7,9. Doh. I hope you enjoyed the solve as much as I did.
Big thank you to Everyman, and keep those anagrams coming 🙂
| Across | |||
| 1. | Amazing acrostic about a country (5,4) | ||
| COSTA RICA | (ACROSTIC*) around A | ||
| 6. | Bitter note (5) | ||
| SHARP | dd | ||
| 9. | Regular time for episode (5) | ||
| EVENT | EVEN+T | ||
| 10. | Actor, terrible at reading (9) | ||
| TRAGEDIAN | (AT READING)* | ||
| 11. | Defiant remark from habitual drunkard present (2,5) | ||
| SO THERE | SOT+HERE | ||
| 12. | Speaker at rear of lady chapel (7) | ||
| ORATORY | ORATOR+(lad)Y | ||
| 13. | Queen attending stage play (8,7) | ||
| VICTORIA STATION | VICTORIA+STATION[attending stage] | ||
| 15. | It bore forbidden fruit – in legend, fewer took bananas (4,2,9) | ||
| TREE OF KNOWLEDGE | (LEGEND, FEWER TOOK)* | ||
| 18. | Elected barrister to sum up (2,5) | ||
| IN BRIEF | IN+BRIEF | ||
| 20. | Manipulates western points of view (7) | ||
| WANGLES | W+ANGLES | ||
| 22. | French chemist varies oil output (9) | ||
| LAVOISIER | (VARIES OIL)* | ||
| 23. | Writer about to leave house (5) | ||
| BINGO | (NIB<)+GO | ||
| 24. | Clergyman caught on immediately (5) | ||
| CANON | C+ANON | ||
| 25. | Heels were broken in another place (9) | ||
| ELSEWHERE | (HEELS WERE)* | ||
| … Down |
|||
| 1. | Game show (5) | ||
| CHESS | cdd | ||
| 2. | Show place sect rebuilt (9) | ||
| SPECTACLE | (PLACE SECT)* | ||
| 3. | Fashion trade company’s style of interior design (3,4) | ||
| ART DECO | (TRADE*)+CO | ||
| 4. | Banged up often, I’m close to parole, and not a moment too soon (2,3,4,2,4) | ||
| IN THE NICK OF TIME | IN THE NICK+OFT+I’M+(parol)E | ||
| 5. | Not knowing what to say, unable to go at Scrabble? (2,1,4,3,5) | ||
| AT A LOSS FOR WORDS | cryptic pun | ||
| 6. | Composer from Wales met an arranger (7) | ||
| SMETANA | hidden: waleS MET AN Arranger | ||
| 7. | I start to support a married friend (5) | ||
| AMIGO | I+GO after A+M | ||
| 8. | Girl, possibly ten, describing a type of poker (5,4) | ||
| PENNY ANTE | (PENNY+(TEN*)) around A | ||
| 13. | Uncommonly civil about threesome, or biting (9) | ||
| VITRIOLIC | (CIVIL*) around TRIO | ||
| 14. | No decline, unfortunately, in laziness (9) | ||
| INDOLENCE | (NO DECLINE)* | ||
| 16. | Work in one, on view (7) | ||
| OPINION | OP+IN+I+ON | ||
| 17. | Weapon made from pine – hollow base missing (7) | ||
| LONGBOW | LONG+BOW(l) | ||
| 19. | Labour statesman getting head round onset of violence (5) | ||
| BEVAN | BEAN around V(iolence) | ||
| 21. | Vexed about contralto’s first record (5) | ||
| SCORE | SORE around C(ontralto) | ||
| … | |||
Greatly assisted by the 4 long clues, I found this to be a fun and pleasant solve. My favourite clues were 23a & 10a.
I enjoyed learning about the British Labour statesman Aneurin BEVAN, the French chemist Antoine-Laurent de LAVOISIER, the Harold Pinter play VICTORIA STATION, and the musical CHESS with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, formerly of ABBA, and with lyrics by Tim Rice. Also, PENNY ANTE was a new phrase.
Thanks for the blog, Lorraine.
Thanks Everyman for an enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks Lorraine – I wondered why I couldn’t do 9a until I noticed I had put in ATR DECO for 3d. 🙁 I didn’t know SMETANA, which was well hidden. I particularly liked AT A LOSS FOR WORDS and some nice anagrams.
Thanks Lorraine,
Another enjoyable puzzle from Everyman. I particularly liked TRAGEDIAN and BINGO.
Another great crossword. I am in New Zealand so a bit behind.
I managed to get it all, including BINGO, but the NIB backwards was a bit of a problem.