Across
8. MAKE LOVE. M(AKEL(a))OVE.
9. PRISE. “PRIZE”.
10. FISH. (thie)FISH(opeless).
11. BANANA SKIN. BA(NANA)SKIN. Baskin Robbins is a chain of ice cream sellers.
12. STABLE. double def.
14. CHIPMUNK. CHIP + “MONK”. Chip as ‘not the fish’ is terrible.
15. COLONIC IRRIGATION. COLONCAIROTIRINGI*. I like the use of ‘colon’.
17. AGONISE. AG(SINO<)E.
20. WATCH OUT. WAT(CHOU(x))T.
22. BUTT. double def.
25. FRIAR. FRI + AR(my).
26. EVENSONG. (st)EVENSON + G.
Down
1. RADIO TWO. AWORDTOI*.
2. YEAH. HA(E)Y<.
3. DOUBLE WHAMMY. DOU(r) + BLEW + HAMMY.
4. REDNECK. RED + NECK.
5. SPANKING. double def.
6. DIPSOMANIA. IMASOPINAD(aze)*.
7. BENIGN. BE(NIG<)N.
13. BRONCHITIS. BR(ON + C(aught))ITISH*
16. IDOLATRY. I + DO + LA + TRY.
18. SEMITONE. TIMES< + ONE.
19. STRIKER. Double def.
21. ADRIFT. AD RIFT.
22. WINGER. Double def.
24. BASS. Double def.
I loved this though we were held up for ages looking for Australian public holidays for 15Ac!
14Ac I liked the fact that the “chip Monk” is not the “Fish Fryer” I obviously have a sad sense of humour!
Tricky, but enjoyable. Never heard of Baskin Robbins where do they flourish? But the solution was pretty clear. Originally had “fore play” for 9ac. Well – it does precede the solution!
Many thanks, Ciaran, yet another wonderful puzzle.
At one stage, I thought I would never finish but I re-entered the fray and got there in the end.
However, I was still puzzling over some of the solutions until I read your explanations.
Proof, if it were required, that setters do not necessarily have to use obscure or foreign names to produce a real challenge.
Exceptionally, like Cholecyst, I’ve never heard of Baskin Robbins. (I never eat ice cream.)
Excellent puzzle.
Never heard of Baskin. My only other gripe is why ‘slightly upset’ in 13 down? The ‘slightly’ is superfluous is it not?
…oh! I see now. It’s because it’s only just an anagram. Very clever.
..oh. I see now. It’s because it’s a shift of a single letter so not a major anagram. Silly me!
Another excellent puzzle from Paul. However as I was struggling through I had a feeling that I had done this puzzle before. “Vacation down under” was a write in as I have definitly seen this clue and chipmonk / fish friar and redneck also seemed familiar. Did anyone else have the same deja vu
I was another that didn’t get ‘baskin’ from ‘ice cream seller’. A little research has revealed the existence of three Baskin Robbins shops in London but elsewhere in the country their franchise outlets appear to trade under the name ‘Millie’s Cookies’. The parent company may be well known in the States where it originated but it is hardly a household name here in the UK so perhaps this clue was a little less than fair (though solvable without the need to know about BR).
Also, should there not have been some indication in the clue that only half of the firm’s name was to be used as part of the wordplay?
Not a me puzzle, but you knew that, I just wanted to add my voice to the request for info on Baskin Robbins. Then I thought, don’t be a clod, just google it. So I did that. And they are big, the biggest. They are famous. And I still never heard of them. I think their PR department may need to brush up a little! LOL!
Derek – They’re not actually that big in the UK I think. I’ve just picked the name up from US TV and movies. Haagen-Dazs and Ben and Jerry are much bigger.
Gaufrid – Burt Baskin was one of the company’s founders so presumably it’s allowable to just use his half of the name.
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baskin-Robbins) tells us that BR was once owned by Joe Lyons (famed for its Corner Houses and Leo computers).
Relatively easy for Paul.
Redneck, though not particularly PC, was a corker!.
Enjoyed 21dn and, for a brief moment, toyed with Waggel for 22dn
Shirley, if you google ‘fish fryer / chip monk’, you’ll find many versions of the joke. I first heard it on ‘Round the Horne’ in the sixties!
I thought 15,23 was superb. And I liked the novel cluing of EVENSONG. I’ve see it so often as a charade.
Ciaran
Re comment #11, I’m going to nitpick here. The company currently selling ice creams is Baskin-Robbins. If only part of this hyphenated word is to be used then this should have been indicated.
If the clue is referring to one of the company’s founders then it should have been ‘former ice cream seller’ since the person in question has been dead for over 40 years.
Great puzzle that Dr Gurmukh and I solved together and enjoyed. Vacation down under got the good doctor rolling on the floor. I can almost imagine him asking a patient “You want a vacation down under?”
Baskin-Robbins is a well-known and popular ice-cream chain in Malaysia so we had no problems.
Our esteem for Paul has gone up yet another notch for his sense of humour and his clever word-play. Bravo!
Thanks, Ciaran. I would never have got this out without the check button and mistakenly (sloppily) had PRIZE instead of PRISE, but I enjoyed the humour, esp 14ac and 15, 23. Despite having heard of Baskin-Robbins, I missed the wordplay.
It was a classic Paul, I thought!
I used to love B-R’s maple-walnut when I lived in Canada. In the nineties, I think, they made it to the sticks in Dundee, too, but, unfortunately, did not last long.
50 minutes to do 19 answers today. I then gave up, read the answer to 9ac and finished the rest without peeping in about a minute (apart from 4d). Quite a tough one.
I didn’t enjoy this.
Dear Edward
Don’t be so down. Neither did we, especially after last night’s rapid triumph! But this site keeps us going!