A fun puzzle from Gozo, easier than usual and requiring no specialist knowledge. Thank you Gozo.
All but two of the across entries are homophones of another entry. Spotting this helped me solve the puzzle quickly and put a smile on my face. A shame that all the across entries were not homophones, but I suppose that must be too much to ask. I expect a computer program could be written to achieve this, but in my experience hand-crafted grids are more interesting to solve.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | KNIGHT |
Spoke of dark follower of monarch? (6)
|
| sounds like (spoke of) “night” (dark) | ||
| 4 | PALLET |
Everyone’s favourite outside platform (6)
|
| ALL (everyone) inside (has…outside) PET (favourite) | ||
| 8 | PALETTE |
Range of colour allowed in crown (7)
|
| LET (allowed) inside PATE (crown) | ||
| 9 | DESCENT |
Drop of French perfume (7)
|
| DE (of in French) and SCENT (perfume) | ||
| 11 | STATIONARY |
Not moving position by a railway (10)
|
| STATION (position) then A RY (railway) | ||
| 12 | REED |
Does, say, return to grass (4)
|
| DEER (does, female deer say) reversed (return) | ||
| 13 | GHANA |
Meghan attracted in part to African country (5)
|
| found inside (in part) of meGHAN Attracted | ||
| 14 | ESCHEWED |
Middle of Test ground is to be avoided (8)
|
| tESt (middle of) and CHEWED (ground) | ||
| 16 | FOREWORD |
Preface spoken in Bow? (8)
|
| sounds like (spoken) of “forward” (in the bow, of a ship) | ||
| 18 | NIGHT |
Close outlet finally after sunset (5)
|
| NIGH (close) and outleT (final letter of) | ||
| 20 | READ |
Examine and register (4)
|
| double definition | ||
| 21 | STATIONERY |
A tiny store ordered writing supplies (10)
|
| anagram (ordered) of A TINY STORE | ||
| 23 | DISSENT |
Protest from Democrat is posted (7)
|
| D (democrat) IS SENT (posted) | ||
| 24 | RECEIPT |
Confirmation of right to hold gun overturned (7)
|
| RT(right) contains (to hold) PIECE (gun) reversed (overturned) | ||
| 25 | GARNER |
Collect from heartless horticulturalist (6)
|
| GARdeNER (horticulturalist) missing middle letters (heart-less) | ||
| 26 | RESEAT |
Poor Teresa put in another chair (6)
|
| anagram (poor) of TERESA | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | KRAIT |
Packing container is suggested for venomous snake (5)
|
| sounds like (is suggested) “crate” (packing container) | ||
| 2 | ICED TEA |
Reserve rearranged date for drink (4,3)
|
| ICE (reserve) then anagram (rearranged) of DATE | ||
| 3 | HOT POTATO |
Stolen jacket – a tricky case (3,6)
|
| HOT (stolen) and POTATO (a jacket potato perhaps) | ||
| 5 | APERY |
Imitation table linen with no name (5)
|
| nAPERY (table linen) missing N (name) | ||
| 6 | LUCERNE |
Alfalfa from Swiss lake (7)
|
| double definition | ||
| 7 | TENDEREST |
Most gentle incline with replanted trees (9)
|
| TEND (incline, have preference for) with anagram (replanted) of TREES | ||
| 10 | JAMES DEAN |
Crumpled jeans made him a cinematic heart-throb (5,4)
|
| anagram (crumpled) of JEANS MADE | ||
| 13 | GLOWERING |
German looking angry, scowling (9)
|
| G (German) and LOWERING (looking angry) | ||
| 15 | CENTIPEDE |
Mince pie consumed by awfully decent creature (9)
|
| anagram (mince) of PIE inside (consumed by) anagram (awfully) of DECENT | ||
| 17 | END USER |
The last link in the chain! (3,4)
|
| cryptic definition? | ||
| 19 | GENOESE |
Italian birds – number caged (7)
|
| GEESE (birds) contains (with…caged) NO (No. number) | ||
| 21 | SENSE |
Baseless Japanese martial arts instructor’s opinion (5)
|
| SENSEi (Japanese martial arts instructor) missing last letter (base-less) | ||
| 22 | REPOT |
Heavy drinker gets up to transfer plants (5)
|
| TOPER (heavy drinker) reversed (gets up) |
Nice puzzle and blog. To be picky the words that sound the same are homophones
I have also always taken homonym to refer to words that are spelled the same and pronounced the same but have different meanings (e.g. bear (animal) & bear (tolerate) ), so agree with SM @1. However, the definition in Chambers doesn’t seem to agree. Is Chambers wrong?
Found the puzzle enjoyable but spoiled by a few iffy clues IMO. Didn’t like 17d, napery for “table linen” is listed as archaic in Chambers, felt 12a could just as well clue DEER.
Typo in blog for 21d – should be “sensei”.
No, chambers is not wrong, I am. They are definitely homophones not homonyms. Sorry for that temporary loss of my marbles!
Never a dull moment with Gozo at the helm. With that film star (great surface) at the centre as my FOI, I wondered initially if a slew of silver screen icons would be unveiled. Gozo, however, had other ideas which were more subtly revealed to me about half way through the grid. Playing it by ear, as it were, helped to confirm a couple of stubborn holdouts including 24a and 25a. Of these, 9a was a favourite for its surface along with the homophone at 1d which I’ve come across on country hikes, together with a 15d, and quickened my pace.
There was fun to be had all over the grid, not just with those paired clues, so thanks to Gozo for another playful interlude and PeeDee for the blog.
The reason I mentioned Chambers is that it says homonyms have the same sound and perhaps the same spelling. It also says it can refer to words with the same spelling but different pronunciations (e.g. refuse (litter) and refuse (decline) ) which doesn’t match what I thought it meant.
I enjoyed this puzzle. And as PeeDee opined, relatively easier than other Gozo offerings.
Small correction for 19d .. should be NO for number, rather than just the N. Thanks to Gozo and Peedee
Regards,
TL
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Hovis@2 re 12ac: I had the same misgivings at first and matters are not helped by the double E in the middle of the word. However, the word “to” clearly functions as a means of separating the wordplay from the definition, as it does in 13ac, so the “return” really has to go with “Does, say”.
I wondered about that, Pelham Barton, but also felt that you could read it as applying “return” to “grass”. I would agree that REED is the most likely answer and I’m just trying to to cover up the fact that I entered DEER first 😉
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee. Great fun and surprisingly easy from this setter. Once the penny dropped I knew 20A had to be READ (though I did not make the connection with “register”), but I kept trying to find a connection between ESCHEWED and FOREWORD. Too much to ask?
Enjoyed spotting the homophones which also helped the solve as I wouldn’t have thought of READ for ‘register’. Of the down clues I liked JAMES DEAN, irrespective of whether he ever wore ‘Crumpled jeans’ or not!
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee
I guess if I’m going to continue doing British cryptically, I’ll have to accept that “Ghana” and “garner” are homophones. 🙂
Very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee.
This might be my fastest solve of a Gozo crossword; most of the others have ended in the DNF file. Nonetheless, it was fun and all the homophones amplified the enjoyment. I liked DESCENT for its succinctness and JAMES DEAN for its surface. I didn’t know alfalfa as LUCERNE but knowing the Swiss lake caused me to reverse deer and enter REED. Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
This was a fun puzzle with the homophonic across pairs that became apparent after the PALLET / PALETTE and STATIONERY / STATIONARY answers appeared. Nice to see the homophones crept into the down clues too, at 1d. Couldn’t really see much difference between GLOWERING and LOWERING at 13a, not that it mattered.
Finished in the SW corner with FOREWORD (another almost homophone), END USER (which took a while to twig) and SENSEI (that took a longer while to remember the Japanese teacher).
Not all that hard, but none the worse for it.
Ed@11 re GARNER/GHANA: If a clue depended on the homophone, I would expect the setter to use an indicator such as “some say”, precisely to cover the fact that many English speakers would not pronounce the two words the same way. Then again, for RECEIPT/RESEAT, I would hope to see something along the lines of “sounding a bit like” (but preferably less clumsy). My view is that the indicator used in the clue must make sense for the specific application, rather than having some sort of rule that says that accent specific homophones are always allowed with any homophone indicator.
Of course, in this crossword, there is no actual claim by the setter that any of the “matched” across answers are homophones at all.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee. Loved the homophones! In school (decades ago) I learned to call these homonyms; I’ve always thought the terms were interchangeable, but thanks to all who noted the distinction.
Marvellous fun! Thanks Gozo and Peedee.
I only noticed the connection when I had almost finished.
All these pairs of similar-sounding words – brilliant! We did wonder, once we got FOREWORD if ‘forward’ was going to turn up – but no matter, constructing the puzzle was still a great achievement.
Our favourites were in the downs, though – HOT POTATO, JAMES DEAN and CENTIPEDE.
Thanks, Gozo and PeeDee.
well I did spot the occasional homophone, or whatever… most obviously with STATIONARY and STATIONERY.. but equally obviously didn’t put 2 n 2 together… just happy I could actually solve it with minimal help… LUCERNE unknown except as a Swiss lake but I wasn’t going to put it in without checking that it can double as alfalfa.. much enjoyment
thanks GOZO n PeeDee