Lorraine: Good morning to you all.
Yet another wonderful Sunday morning solve, the only problem is that I did not get to solve it until Wednesday morning due to work 🙁
I counted 6 anagrams and 3 part anagrams, I hope that’s right? Today’s puzzle took me approx half an hour. Struggled with one which was 24ac. Favourites were, 12 and 13ac. Could not believe I did not get 26ac straight away as it is always coming up in crosswords, Doh!
Thank you to Everyman a jolly excellent solve.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Part of spectacular Christmas tree (5) | ||
| LARCH | hidden: spectacuLAR CHristmas | ||
| 4. | Enraged at fancy open-air restaurant (3,6) | ||
| TEA GARDEN | (ENRAGED AT)* | ||
| 9. | Metal in skull? Head’s not the same (7) | ||
| URANIUM | (U for C) in CRANIUM self referential clue in that (sk)U(ll) provides the U (metal in skull!) – at least that’s how I think it works |
||
| 10. | Ask earnestly to go in and dine, being short of energy (7) | ||
| ENTREAT | ENT(e)R+EAT | ||
| 11. | Blows up, having frightful set-to with dean (9) | ||
| DETONATES | (SET-TO+DEAN)* | ||
| 12/13. | Ready to go down, with reservations, to eat first course (5,8,6) | ||
| UNDER STARTERS ORDERS | UNDER+ORDERS ‘to eat’ STARTERS |
||
| 13. | See 12 | ||
| – | – | ||
| 15. | Overcoats in bar, unrestricted part of train (11,3) | ||
| OBSERVATION CAR | (OVERCOATS IN BAR)* | ||
| 20. | Scallywag affected by school, at first (5) | ||
| SCAMP | CAMP after S | ||
| 22. | Fuel that is stored in dollies abroad (6,3) | ||
| DIESEL OIL | I.E. in (DOLLIES)* | ||
| 23. | Oriental festival’s name (7) | ||
| EASTERN | EASTER+N | ||
| 24. | A sin to devour a third of tiramisu – this one? (7) | ||
| AVARICE | (A+(ti)R(amisu)) in A+VICE &lit | ||
| 25. | Comprehensive knowledge about working in a religious community (9) | ||
| MONASTERY | MASTERY around ON[working] | ||
| 26. | Slip lead off dog fetching bird (5) | ||
| EAGLE | (b)EAGLE | ||
| ..—. Down |
|||
| 1. | Place of pilgrimage, terribly old? Sure (7) | ||
| LOURDES | (OLD+SURE)* | ||
| 2. | Something to eat in bar, almost cooked (5,4) | ||
| ROAST LAMB | (BAR, ALMOST)* | ||
| 3. | A woman may wear this hat touring Ireland – almost new (7) | ||
| HAIRNET | HAT around (IR+NE(w)) | ||
| 4. | Take an unnecessary risk in state capital, supporting draw (5,10) | ||
| TEMPT PROVIDENCE | PROVIDENCE after[supporting] TEMPT | ||
| 5. | Type of treatment, a type they knock inside (8,7) | ||
| AVERSION THERAPY | A+VERSION+(RAP in THEY) | ||
| 6. | Startle a teller, firstly, entering safe (7) | ||
| ASTOUND | A+(T(eller) in SOUND) | ||
| 7. | Director to study fear (5) | ||
| DREAD | D+READ | ||
| 8. | Character smashed tea urn (6) | ||
| NATURE | (TEA URN)* | ||
| 14. | Counting, or estimating? (9) | ||
| RECKONING | dd | ||
| 16. | Speak non-stop (7) | ||
| EXPRESS | cdd | ||
| 17. | Work in musical drama, note (7) | ||
| OPERATE | OPERA+TE | ||
| 18. | Sappers reportedly go free (7) | ||
| RELIEVE | R.E.+homophone of LEAVE | ||
| 19. | High value head of expedition placed on climbing experiences (6) | ||
| ESTEEM | E(xpedition)+(MEETS<) | ||
| 21. | Runs in a boy responsible for fire-raising (5) | ||
| ARSON | R in (A+SON) | ||
| ….——————————————… | |||
Thanks for the blog, Lorraine.
This was an enjoyable, quick solve. I managed to finish it in 28 minutes which is fast for me!
I particularly liked 5d, 24a, 25a, 18d and my favourites were 16d EXPRESS, 4d TEMPT PROVIDENCE & 9a URANIUM (last in).
I parsed 22a as IE (that is) in an anagram of DOLLIES.
Lorraine’s parsing of 3d seems to be short of an ‘E’. I parsed it as HAT with insert of anagram of ERIN = “Ireland almost new” but I wasn’t sure why “almost” was there. Otherwise, HAT around (e)IRE with an inserted N?
Thanks Lorraine and Everyman,
I had HAIRNET as HAT, with IR + NE(w) inserted.
I took a while to get EAGLE too!
Sorry ref. 22ac and 3dn, I introduced a few typos when doing the blog from Lorraine’s notes – corrected now.
Nick
thanks Nick@3. I was having trouble understanding 3d as you can see!