Good morning everyone
A number of “firsts” on this blog: my first My Crossword blog, my first blog of MC setter Meles, and first use of the crossword blogging utility. Perhaps only my 15×15 colleagues will care about that last one, though!
This was a real joy of a grid to solve, with lots of lovely surfaces, if (purely for my tastes) a touch anagram-heavy, although I wouldn’t disagree I need the practice. I’m going to pick out 8d as a stand-out for the deftness of the construction.
Thanks to Meles for the grid, and also Quirister for the utility assistance.
ACROSS
House [HO] master [M] is after most of fortune [FATE]
Double definition
Walks [TREADS] around hospital [H]
Run [R] by pub [BAR] in centre [HUB]
Anag. [“doctor”] CAN GET WORK NORTH
Every now and then [alternate letters] garden [G R E] has year [Y]
Anag. [“about”] FACE DOUBTS
Backfiring [reversed] issue [EMIT] with guns [PIECES]
Hidden word [“hosts”] ASK OLD
Anag. [“flying”] GRUMPIER ONES about [around] enclosure [PEN]
ILLUMINATES with anag [“with arrangement”] LANE removed [“lacking”] backwards [“on reflection”]
Is one [IS I] entering [inside] fish [TUNA]
Underhand [SLY] grips [around] help when playing golf [TEE]
Cryptic def
DOWN
Dry [AIR] stone [ST] walls of Rome [RE] are made primarily [first letters = A M]
Raised [HEAVED] dead [D] to become [changed for] finally [last letter of] reborn [N]
Anag. [“to wind”] REBEL AIMS
Goes higher [RISEN] upending the top three [SIR reversed]
Anag. [“composed”] initially using [U] poetic [POETIC] licence at the start [L]
In the morning [AM] everyone [ALL] tips [reversed]
Essentially [centre letters] completely [LE] missed [SS] but [THOUGH] temperature [T] takes precedence [goes first]
Charlotte’s stoned [BAKED] ill ask her in conversation [sounds like = ALASKA].
I’m presuming “Charlotte” here a reference to the city in N. Carolina for which “baked” would be a local slang
Cryptic. Standing for election in this case
Cryptic double def
Anag [“stupidly”] TEAR UP about [RE]
Double def and sound alike AGENDA/ A GENDER
Light touch [PAT] across home [IN]
Clever [BRAINY] bishop escapes [-B]
This might just be terminology but I took DRAWER to be a double definition rather than a cryptic def.
I am, of course, familiar with this setter’s work from MyC and the puzzle is, as expected, smoothly put together with very little in the way of surplus wordage. I had plenty of ticks including FATHOM, ON THE WRONG TRACK, SKOL, EMPEROR PENGUINS, TUNISIA, AIRSTREAM, HEAVEN, POULTICE, UNELECTED and TAKE ISSUE.
Thanks Meles and Leedsclimber for the blog