A pleasant puzzle that gave us several smiles. Nothing sneaky or too obscure. Thanks, Gaff
Getting the answer to 1 across and one down at first glance was reassuring and made one of us think this might be a doddle, but there were several clues that we had to think about on the way to completing the grid. We wondered whether 25 down had some reference to the TV series, which we know nothing about, but, having done a bit of research, we think not.
| Across | ||
| 1, 1 down | THE LESSER OF |
Smaller of pair of beetles’ sound choice (3,6,2,3,5)
The lesser of two evils is the sound, or sensible, choice. The last word could be mispronounced or misheard as “weevils”. Sound does double duty, as sensible and as indicating “sounds like”. The clue would work without “sound” in the definition, but not so well. |
| 7 | HUB |
Where one finds one spoke with more focus (3)
A hub is the centre part of a wheel or a focal point |
| 9 | OMEGA |
End of home game (5)
Contained in home game. |
| 10 | LOUDMOUTH |
Turn out mould with hot gas producer (9)
An anagram (turn) of OUT, MOULD and H for hot |
| 11 | VAGUE IDEA |
Notion I gave due attention at first, stupidly (5,4)
An anagram(stupidly) of I GAVE DUE plus A, the first letter of attention |
| 12 | GREEN |
Shooting party? (5)
An allusion to “green shoots” eg of economic spring, as Mr Lamont described them. |
| 13 | LAST BUS |
What walkers may have missed at the end of the day (4,3)
Cryptic definition – if you miss the last bus you have to walk home (or get a taxi!) |
| 15 | BOTH |
See 26
see 26 |
| 18 | YOUR |
See 26
see 26 |
| 20 | LADETTE |
Girl who drinks too much coffee finally overdid caffeine intake (7)
LATTE (coffee) surrounding (intake) the final letters (finally) of overdid and caffeine . |
| 23 | DEVIL |
Cook was rejected (5)
A reversal of lived (was rejected). To devil meat, poultry or the like is to cook it after coating it with a highly flavoured paste of spices. |
| 24 | PUNCHLINE |
Pay off old weekly score (9)
Punch was a humourous weekly magazine. A score can be a notch, scratch or incision; a stroke or line. The punchline is a pay off to a joke. |
| 26, 15, 18, 7 down | A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES |
Curse from one dying to visit holiday home owner with affliction? (1,6,2,4,4,6)
A cryptic definition alluding to Mercutio’s line in Romeo and Juliet. |
| 27 | INEPT |
Useless wine Ptolemy stored (5)
Contained in wine Ptolemy |
| 28 | DIE |
Stamp pass (3)
Double definition |
| 29 | DEEP BLUE SEA |
Surprisingly, be pleased with menu – even Mediterranean, maybe (4,4,3)
An anagram (surprisingly) of BE PLEASED together with E and U, the even letters of menu. And looking out of the bedroom window today the Mediterranean certainly is! |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TWO EVILS |
See 1 across
See 1 across |
| 2 | ENERGISE |
Breathe life into timeless wild Serengeti (8)
An anagram (wild) of Serengeti minus the t (timeless) |
| 3 | ERASE |
Scratch your back in relaxation (5)
R, the final letter of your (your back) inserted into ease (relaxation) |
| 4 | SOLIDUS |
Upstart in succession to milk money of old (7)
U, the first letter of up (up start) inserted into solids, what babies move onto after milk (successsion). |
| 5 | RHUBARB |
Background conversation is often forced (7)
Crytpic definition Rhubarb is the word that actors are said to use to simulate background conversation. Rhubarb, the plant, is often ‘forced’ to grow by raising the local temperature artificially. |
| 6 | FUMIGATED |
Inside, doomed fashionable fighter smoked (9)
Fated(doomed) with U (fashionable) and Mig, the Russian aircraft (fighter) inserted. We thought that ‘in’ was fashionable and ‘u’ was posh but clearly we’re neither! |
| 7 | HOUSES |
See 26
See 26 |
| 8 | BEHIND |
Following live deer (6)
Be (live) plus hind (deer) |
| 14 | BE OBLIGED |
Have a requirement for bold beige design (2,7)
An anagram (design) of bold beige |
| 16 | STRIKERS |
Matches their winners (8)
Cryptic definition referring to what used to be called a ‘centre forward’ who wins a match by scoring goals. |
| 17 | DEMENTIA |
Tire from terrible intermediate illness (8)
Remove TIRE from INTERMEDIATE, scramble the remaining letters and you have DEMENTIA (not literally) |
| 19 | REPLETE |
Satisfied salesman allowed top earnings (7)
Rep (salesman) plus let (allowed) plus e, the top letter of earnings. |
| 20 | LONG NAB |
Head of Yorkshire’s thirst leads to arrest (4,3)
Long (thirst as in thirst for/desire) plus nab (slang for arrest). Long Nab is a headland north of Scarborough in North Yorkshire. |
| 21 | ID CARD |
Wheels in theologian after I needed to show who I am (2,4)
Car (wheels) inside DD (theologian/Doctor of Divinity) after ‘I’. |
| 22 | SVELTE |
Lean against back – shelters centre half (6)
VS, short for versus reversed (back) followed by the central four letters, elte, of shelters. |
| 25 | HAIKU |
Poem recited by bird from The Sopranos? (5)
A bird makes a “coo” and a soprano would have a “high coo” which sounds like (recited) a Haiku |
Thanks Gaff and David and Linda,
There is the DEVIL and the DEEP BLUE SEA. Is the mini theme things with two lots of badness?
@1
Yes (not all that “mini” though). I assumed Gaff was thinking about today’s election – although nowadays there are more than 2 evils to choose between… Gaff always seems to have a theme and they’re very often topical.
I thought 12A was simply a double definition.
The Green Political Party, and green as in bushes are green when shooting
Thanks Gaff and D&L
A different feel to this Gaff puzzle, where I found a lot of tenuous type of clues. The first example is the long Shakesperean quote – I ended up parsing it as a dd with – the first one being the curse from the dying Mercutio and the second being where an infected visitor could bring the plague to the everyday house and the holiday house. Think that 16d may also be a dd – STRIKER is a prison term for a pencil fashioned into a match (and think that I’ve heard of matches called strikers in general) together with the football forward.
Needed help to work out the homophone with HIGH COO at 25d and the ‘forced’ growing of rhubarb in heated greenhouse – it always seemed to grow just fine in my parents back garden !!
Thanks to Herb@2 for putting in perspective the reason for the theme of choices with no good result.