A fairly straightforward puzzle from Tees today – is Thursday no longer the ‘toughie’ day in the Indy?
We didn’t notice it when solving, but we realised when writing up the blog that there are a surprising number of double definitions here (five in twenty-eight clues) as well as seven anagrams.
No complaints, though – all good clues and no unusual words to have to check!
| Across | ||
| 1 | A Manx cat and dog eating very round fruit (7) | |
| AVOCADO | A CA |
|
| 5 | Female engulfed by anger in Winchester? (5) | |
| RIFLE | F (female) in or ‘engulfed by’ RILE (anger) | |
| 8 | Field marshal in explosively gory moment (10) | |
| MONTGOMERY | An anagram of GORY MOMENT – anagrind is ‘explosively’ | |
| 9 | Runs away in defeat (4) | |
| ROUT | R (runs) OUT (away) | |
| 10 | At which point wife gets chicken (4) | |
| WHEN | W (wife) HEN (chicken) | |
| 11 | Pedant thus collars companion only one left in charge (10) | |
| SCHOLASTIC | SO (thus) round or ‘collaring’ CH (Companion of Honour) LAST (only one left) IC (in charge) | |
| 12 | Song about knave, knight and rustic (8) | |
| ARCADIAN | ARIA (song) about CAD (knave) + N (knight) | |
| 14 | Score first in tournament that’s Little Bird! (6) | |
| EAGLET | EAGLE (a score in golf) T (first letter of ‘tournament’) | |
| 15 | Miss Liddell joins Mike in desire to do harm (6) | |
| MALICE | ALICE (Alice Liddell, of ‘Alice in Wonderland’) joining M (mike in the phonetic alphabet) | |
| 17 | Wine to honour hero impaling one vampire? The opposite! (8) | |
| LIBATION | LION (hero) round I (one) BAT (vampire) inferring that the ‘bat’ is impaling the ‘lion’ – but for the surface of the clue to work it has to be the other way round or ‘the opposite’ | |
| 19 | Parents angry with tot expressing dissent (10) | |
| PROTESTANT | An anagram of PARENTS and TOT –anagrind is ‘angry’ | |
| 21 | Signal to stop bombardment (4) | |
| HAIL | Double definition – as in ‘hailing a cab’ and ‘hailing down’ | |
| 22 | Absolutely reasonable (4) | |
| JUST | Another double definition | |
| 23 | Release from duty sailor with answers to crossword (10) | |
| ABSOLUTION | AB (sailor) SOLUTION (answers to crossword) | |
| 24 | Awesome Rastafarian (5) | |
| DREAD | Yet another double definition | |
| 25 | Pseudo intellectual’s beginning to reform incestuous son (7) | |
| OEDIPUS | An anagram of PSEUDO I (first letter or ‘beginning ‘ of ‘intellectual’) – anagrind is ‘reform’ | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | See 4 | |
| 2 | Old business journal edition lacking content repeatedly (5) | |
| OFTEN | O (old) FT (Financial Times – business journal) E |
|
| 3 | Wretched existence if deals go badly (1,4,4) | |
| A DOGS LIFE | An anagram of IF DEALS GO – anagrind is ‘badly’ | |
| 4/1 | Prepare no toad-in-the-hole, and strange how unintended result arises (3,5,5,2,7) | |
| ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER | An anagram of NO TOAD-IN-THE-HOLE and STRANGE – anagrind is ‘prepare’ | |
| 5 | Larger than usual, like Henry VIII (5) | |
| ROYAL | Another double definition | |
| 6 | Fire ghost mysteriously appears in vision (9) | |
| FORESIGHT | An anagram of FIRE GHOST – anagrind is ‘mysteriously’ | |
| 7 | Educated English smutty about sex (7) | |
| ERUDITE | E (English) RUDE (smutty) about IT (sex) | |
| 13 | Philosopher having noble title and renouncing it (9) | |
| ARISTOTLE | ARISTO (noble) T |
|
| 14 | Squiffy ladette straddles doctor engaged in controversy (9) | |
| EMBATTLED | An anagram of LADETTE (anagrind is ‘squiffy’) round or ‘straddling’ MB (doctor) | |
| 16 | Silver bullet having struck bottom (7) | |
| AGROUND | AG (silver) ROUND (bullet) | |
| 18 | Sinister order in America enlisting Oscar (7) | |
| OMINOUS | OM (Order of Merit – ‘order’) IN US (America) round or ‘enlisting’ O (Oscar in the phonetic alphabet) | |
| 20 | Bear to adopt upright position (5) | |
| STAND | Double defintion | |
| 21 | Agitated male provided with accommodation perhaps (3,2) | |
| HET UP | HE (male) PUT reversed or ‘up’ – to ‘put up’ could mean ‘provided with accommodation’ | |
A quick solve, although I failed to parse 21d, so thanks to BJ for explanation. Learned that scholastic can be a noun.
A thoughtful and well-constructed puzzle from Tees, which I enjoyed very much. Is the Thursday puzzle no longer the ‘tough’ one? Who knows these things? Is there life on Mars?
I didn’t quite complete this, because I put PUT UP for 21dn, not understanding the wordplay. Otherwise all clearly clued.
No special favourites today – all good stuff for a daily cryptic.
Bravo, Tees, and thanks to B&J for blogging.
Yes, fairly gentle but none the less enjoyable for that. Count me as another who didn’t know SCHOLASTIC could be a noun. HET UP was good (I entered ‘put up’ initially as well) but the (ever so slightly naughty) wordplay for EMBATTLED was my pick of the day.
Thank you to Tees and B&J
I was expecting something a bit tougher when I saw the setter was Tees, so I was quite pleasantly surprised to complete it in two passes over a pub lunch with no external help. But like others I went for PUT UP first of all, thinking the ‘male’ was TUP till I realised that it didn’t parse properly and that 21ac had to be HAIL. And I wasn’t sure at first which Miss Lidell 14ac referred to, initially thinking of the late Nona Liddell (violinist with the London Sinfonietta) till I got the crossing letters.
Favourites were ERUDITE and ARISTOTLE.
Thanks, Tees and B&J
The ‘vampire’ for me, the ‘silver bullet’ and ‘smutty sex’ ideas. I didn’t mind the 5 DDs, which were good ones, the two 21s especially.
It’s a well-written puzzle as usual from Tees, but I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t find it as easy as B&J have said in their blog!
Thank you to all three.
I loves me a bit of Tees (though I shan’t be telling which bit) and this was no exception. Defo at the easy end of his spectrum as I raced through most of the puzzle with only 12a, 15a, 21a and 22a holding me up at the end. As ever, loads of nice clueing and amusing surfaces with my fave of the day being 10a because it leads you into a whole scene of what might’ve happened before. Many thanks to The Tickler for a lovely puzzle and to B&J for the blog.
Very enjoyable puzzle with lots of nice clues that I enjoyed.
Thank you for 1a which allows me to enter one of my favourite mini rants. A manx cat is a tailless cat so CA(t) is fine. Manx does not mean tailless however, it means from the Isle of Man. ‘From the isle of man’ is not the best of last letter deletion indicators, so I would argue DO(g) is dodgy. I have in vain previously argued against use of Manx as a last letter indicator unless the fodder is a cat – it does seem to get used a lot. I hasten to add that nonetheless 1a is a cute clue.
I liked 17a, 19a, 23a, 25a, the simple 20d, and many more – many thanks Tees and B&J
Many thanks Tees
I liked many of these clues, most of which were very amusing. With this compiler the bits fit together very smoothly. If I had to plump for one it would be the vampire.