Sorry for the late post everyone, I completely forgot it was my turn. Good puzzle from Wanderer, fortunately not too tricky today!
| Across | ||
| 1 | PEACHES AND CREAM | Sweet sort of complexion (7,3,5) |
| double definition | ||
| 9 | REVENGE | Fresh green veg chopped into cold dish, ideally (7) |
| GREEN* anagram=fresh VEg (chopped=cut short) – revenge is a dish best served cold | ||
| 10 | CENTRAL | Key element of decent rallies (7) |
| found in deCENT RALlies | ||
| 11 | OASIS | Blood group like one son’s group (5) |
| O (blood group) AS (like) I (one) S (SON) – I tried BASIS here first | ||
| 12 | NEURALGIA | Suffering nerves in northern Europe, ruler having left country (9) |
| N (northern) EUR (Europe) ALGerIA (country) missing ER (The Queen, a ruler) | ||
| 13 | MORTAL SIN | Greed possibly shown as roast lamb starter demolished in 30 seconds? (6,3) |
| anagram (demolished) of ROAST L (starter of lamb) in MINute (half a minute) | ||
| 15 | RADON | Artist fellow is a gas (5) |
| RA (artist) DON (fellow) | ||
| 16 | NITRE | Fool about making some gunpowder (5) |
| NIT (fool) RE (about) | ||
| 18 | RELOCATED | Moved house while having to declare otherwise (9) |
| (TO DECLARE)* anagram=otherwise | ||
| 20 | FRYING PAN | Item used when cooking fish at home? Doctor has one (6,3) |
| FRY (fish) IN (at home) GP (doctor) has AN (one) | ||
| 23 | HYPER | Over-excited and somewhat pushy person (5) |
| some of pusHY PERson | ||
| 24 | ENTERAL | Penetrate even bits of wall in the gut (7) |
| ENTER (penetrate) wAlL (even letter of) | ||
| 25 | HORMONE | Heard working girl lament one cause of sexual arousal (7) |
| sounds like (heard) “whore moan” | ||
| 26 | SUNSET BOULEVARD | Worried as volunteers dub film (6,9) |
| (AS VOLUNTEERS DUB)* anagram=worried | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PERFORMING FLEAS | Show-jumpers take lead from Princess Royal before making a self-adjustment (10,5) |
| P (lead letter of princess) ER (a royal) FORMING (making) A (SELF)* anagram=adjustment | ||
| 2 | ADVISER | Drives a touring coach (7) |
| (DRIVES A)* anagram=touring | ||
| 3 | HANDSHAKE | Greeting from ship’s crew to fish (9) |
| HANDS (ships crew) to HAKE (fish) | ||
| 4 | STERN | Rump of small bird (5) |
| S (small) TERN (bird) | ||
| 5 | NOCTURNAL | Go into new topless pub like the Red Fox? (9) |
| TURN (g) in N(new) lOCAL (pub, topless) | ||
| 6 | CINNA | In Roman times, one who conspired to report wrongdoer (5) |
| sounds like (to report) sinner (wrongdoer) – this chap? | ||
| 7 | ENRAGED | Livid gardener sacked after finishing early (7) |
| GARDENEr* anagram=sacked | ||
| 8 | MY LEARNED FRIEND | Address for solicitor nearly lost in sea to north of China (2,7,6) |
| NEARLY* anagram=lost in MED (sea) before (to teh north of) FRIEND (china) | ||
| 14 | STRIP CLUB | Where clip is undone, with bust revealed initially? (5,4) |
| anagram (undone) of CLIP with BUST and R (intial letter of revealed) – definition is &lit | ||
| 15 | RACEHORSE | People on heroin? You can bet on it (9) |
| RACE (people) HORSE (heroin, slang) | ||
| 17 | TRY IT ON | Go in to riot, to see what one can get away with (3,2,2) |
| TRY (go) (IN TO)* anagram=riot | ||
| 19 | TAPIOCA | Pudding recipe leaving apricot out? Ace! (7) |
| APrICOT* (anagram=out) with R (recipe) leaving, then A (ace) | ||
| 21 | NERVE | Sauce bottle (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 22 | NEHRU | Famous Indian female only up on sport (5) |
| HEN (female only) reversed ( |
||
*anagram <br />definitions are underlined
Many thanks PeeDee & Wanderer. This was very enjoyable but …
I failed to get PERFORMING FLEAS and ENTERNAL.
I guessed that it would be PERFORMING SOMETHING but never thought of Fleas.
Many thanks, PeeDee, for a man in a hurry you did a pretty good job. For me this was a perfect puzzle: witty, unflawed, occasionally risque surfaces; nicely misleading indicators of the definition; not-too-easy anagrams. I loved it. Thanks, Wanderer
Thanks Wanderer and PeeDee. Just one tiny comment about the blog. In 22 ‘female only up’ the reversal indicator is ‘up’, ‘female only’ is the wordplay for hen in the same way as ‘male only’ would indicate stag.
Thanks for the blog peedee.
13ac – Greed is certainly one of the seven deadly sins, but I’m not sure if constitutes a mortal sin.
15 – I’ve never heard of horse as slang for heroin
19 – R as an abbreviation for recipe?
21 – sauce = nerve? Not sure…
Lynette @ 4
Horse = heroin has been around since, I think, the 1950s at least
R = recipe is, I think, C19
Sauce = nerve I can’t date, but I’ve known it for decades – someone being saucy [without verging necessarily to the blue] is pretty much the same as them having a lot of nerve, isn’t it
hth
With Hornbeam on this. Very entertaining. On the easy side but not too many write-ins. Thanks PD and W.
I would like to echo Hornbeam (and jmac).
A puzzle on the easy side – I have seen harder crosswords by this setter – but extremely well clued.
Very enjoyable, sunny puzzle by the talented Wanderer who brightened up my (late) breakfast this morning (yes, it was still morning 🙂 ).
Thanks PeeDee.
Lynette – Wikipedia lends some support to your suggestion that deadly sins and mortal sins are not the same thing. Perhaps greed is not actually a sin at all but a vice that leads to sin? I couldn’t really grasp the details.
Thanks Wanderer and PeeDee
Surprisingly finished this on my train ride into work on Thursday morning – unusual for this setter. Some nice devices though and did like the long ones around the outside of the grid.