A witty and absolutely delightful offering from CHALMIE made an otherwise dreary friday light up like an early christmas
FF: 10 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | CATCH A GLIMPSE OF | Just see pet caught by witch meet weak enemies coming back (5,1,7,2) |
| extended combination of CAT (pet) C (caught) HAG (witch) LIMP (weak) SEOF (enemies = FOES, reversed) | ||
| 9 | EQUERRY | Finally state doubt about queen’s attendant (7) |
| E (finally statE) [ QUERY (doubt) about R (queen) ] | ||
| 10 | FANATIC | Obsessive American inspired by cool reaction (7) |
| A (american) in [FAN (cool) TIC (reaction) ] | ||
| 11 | RHINO | Endangered animal character’s bearing admitted (5) |
| RHO (character) containing IN (admitted) | ||
| 12 | DOUGHNUTS | Money-mad rings (9) |
| DOUGH (money) NUTS (mad) | ||
| 13 | NOTHING ON | Diary clear, get naked (7,2) |
| cryptic clue; ‘nothing on’ could mean no appointments in the calendar | ||
| 15 | PREEN | Groom about to visit prison in Kentucky (5) |
| RE (about) in PEN (american lingo for prison) – i was mislead by kentucky in the clue for a while | ||
| 16 | SAMOA | Country bumpkins a moat restricts (5) |
| hidden in “…bumpkinS A MOAt…” | ||
| 18 | SEEING OFF | Bishop gets one billiards shot to secure grand farewell (6,3) |
| SEE (bishop) [ IN OFF (billards shot) containing G (grand) ] | ||
| 20 | HONEY BEAR | Hard cash doesn’t begin to support tree-dweller (5,4) |
| H (hard) mONEY (cash, without first character) BEAR (support) | ||
| 23 | GULAG | Prison guards use laxatives, angering gang leaders (5) |
| starting characters of “..Guards Use Laxatives Angering Gang..” – funny clue this ! | ||
| 24 | OUTRAGE | Time to stop how old we are being an offence (7) |
| T (time) in [OUR AGE (how old we are)] | ||
| 25 | MARINER | Sailor’s resistance blocks statesman (7) |
| R (resistance) in MAINER (statesman, native of maine) | ||
| 26 | TWENTY-SIX ACROSS | This actress now 60, surprisingly (6-3,6) |
| another interesting clue; ACTRESS NOW SIXTY* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CLEAR ONES THROAT | Cough central to a horse disorder (5,4,6) |
| CENTRAL TO A HORSE* | ||
| 2 | TOURIST | Visitor heading for lawyer, not Japan (7) |
| TO jURIST (heading for a lawyer, without J for Japan) | ||
| 3 | HARMONICA | Instrument damage? Toss a coin! (9) |
| HARM (damage) followed by A COIN* | ||
| 4 | GUYED | Made fun of teacher on the radio (5) |
| sounds like GUIDE (teacher) | ||
| 5 | INFLUENCE | Smoke pipe in pub with cigarette ends, changing minds (9) |
| [FLUE (smoke pipe) in INN (pub)] CE (CigarettE, ends) | ||
| 6 | PUNCH | Horse mixed drink (5) |
| double def | ||
| 7 | ENTHUSE | See Hunt squirm and go into raptures (7) |
| SEE HUNT* | ||
| 8 | FACTS AND FIGURES | Solid evidence, initially, for book with characters (5,3,7) |
| F (For, initially) ACTS (book) AND (with) FIGURES (characters) | ||
| 14 | GAS METERS | Energy regulators those risking putting sulphur content up (3,6) |
| GAMESTERS (those risking) with the first S (sulphur) moved up | ||
| 15 | PANEGYRIC | Praise article on, say, backing track in movie (9) |
| [AN (article) EG (say) YR (track = RY, reversed)] in PIC (movie) | ||
| 17 | MANATEE | Fellow with some support for swimmer (7) |
| MAN (fellow) A TEE (some support) | ||
| 19 | ORLANDO | Gold country round US resort (7) |
| OR (gold) LAND (country) O (round) | ||
| 21 | YEAST | Still outside, like fungus (5) |
| YET (still) outside AS (like) | ||
| 22 | REMIX | Make new version by putting successive notes earlier (5) |
| [RE MI (successive notes) ] before X (by) | ||
*anagram
Comments are closed.