More great stuff from the mid-week master, with some class clues along the way. A very enjoyable way to spend a bus journey to work.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | CASELOAD – CASE,LOAD – “Bar work” is a nice definition |
| 5 | SPADES – PAD[-re] in S(unday) S(chool) |
| 10 | COMBATANT – (BATMAN)* in COT |
| 12 | LIGHT ON – Chambers defines this as ‘to come upon by chance’. Don’t think I’ve ever come across this meaning before |
| 13 | NIGELLA – GEL in NIL,A – ‘gel’ is an upper-class pronunciation of ‘girl’ |
| 14 | VICTORIA FALLS – ‘Posh’ here referring to Mrs. Beckham |
| 18 | SIT ON THE FENCE – (ONE THIEF SENT +C)* – Lovely anagram |
| 20 | HOUDINI – HOU[-r],D,IN,I – Some may argue that the rather cheeky ’45 minutes’ (three-quarters of an hour!) wordplay isn’t fair, but I liked it a lot. Besides, how many other escapologists are there!? |
| 22 | MAYFAIR – MAY,”FARE” |
| 24 | REINSEPCT – IN in RESPECT – Sock it to me, sock it to me, etc. |
| 25 | TEACH – TEA,C,H – The wordplay here seems to give TEAHC, but I guess ‘hot and cold’ reads better than ‘cold and hot’ Edit – I’m talking rubbish, the wordplay is fine! |
| 26 | SCREED – S,CREED |
| 27 | SHREDDER – R in SHED,DER |
| Down | |
| 1 | CALF LOVE – (F[-i]VE LOCAL)* – The same as puppy love, though I’d never come across this before |
| 2 | STING – T in SING – He of The Police, who’ll have made another few quid from ‘Every Breath You Take’ in the time it’s taken you to read this sentence |
| 3 | LIGHTFOOT – Gordon Lightfoot is a bit before my time I’m afraid, but I had heard of him somewhere before |
| 4 | ASCENSIONTIDE – (ONCE SAINT DIES)* – Had never heard of this before. It’s the period from Ascension Day to Whitsunday. |
| 7 | DEADLY SIN – (LADY DINES)* – Another great anagram clue |
| 8 | SATRAP – SAT,RAP – This was my last answer, and I got lucky with a guess for the RAP part |
| 11 | MAN OF THE MATCH – A nice wedding/sport double definition |
| 13 | COSTUMIER – (TOM CRUISE)* – And yet another belter of an anagram |
| 16 | LAFAYETTE – LA + YET in FATE |
| 19 | SHARPS – S,HARPS |
| 21 | ISSUE – Alternate letters in kIdS aSsUmE – Nice use of the kids idea here, given that ISSUE can means the same thing |
| 23 | AWARD – A,DRAW rev. |
25 ac has cold and hot in the right order in my paper (and online). I don’t see any problem with this.
Very nice puzzle, especially the brilliant anagrams at 4d and 13d.
Oops, sorry, they are the right way round. No idea why I thought otherwise. Post duly edited!
Cheers
I’ve seen HOU indicated by ’45 minutes’ elsewhere – in The Times puzzle I think. I like this a lot (esp in disposing of such as GUANGZHOU), but I was surprised to learn it falls, or at least at that time fell, within their boundaries of fairness.
I too found this puzzle an enjoyable breeze. I got SATRAP early, one of those Listener words! However, reading the explanation for 19d I was a little confused as I don’t remember writing in SHARPS. I just checked the paper and I have CHORDS which is, as far as I can tell, reasonably justifiable, though perhaps less fair.
CHORD+S
CHORD = notes
CHORDS = strings of musical instruments (a separate headword in Chambers).
I have to admit that I put in CHORDS too but I wasn’t fully happy with it and wondered if I was missing some homophone indicator for “cords”. Pressing Reveal showed me the error of my ways though.