A tricky one today from Harpo (aka Monk), with some unfamiliar (though helpfully clued) words. Thanks to Harpo.
With AJAX, QADI and ZONE in the grid, I suspected a pangram, and indeed it is one. No other theme as far as I can see, but you never know…
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | WANDER | Bat around wicket heading glances away from cover (6) W[icket] + GANDERS (glances) without its “cover”; bat around for wander is in Chambers, flagged as “slang” |
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| 5 | HOTHOUSE | Drying-room pipe that’s 25.4 microns internally (8) THOU (a thousandth of an inch, equal to 25.4 microns; 25.4 is the number of millimetres in an inch) in HOSE |
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| 9 | LABRADOR | American workforce embracing impressive US dog (8) RAD (impressive – a US usage) in LABOR (US spelling of labour, workforce) |
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| 10 | E LAYER | Procrastinator shuns Germany in high-level 13 (1,5) DELAYER less D – the E Layer is part of the ionosphere, 90-150 km above the ground |
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| 11 | CONGENITALLY | Innately study info linked to large country houses (12) CON (study) + GEN (informational) + L[arge] in (housed by) ITALY |
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| 13 | ZONE | Working after turning north, back from Bible belt (4) Z (N turned on its side) + ON (working) + [bibl]E |
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| 14 | HUDDLING | Bundling, say, Roy and Heather together (8) HUDD (Roy Hudd, comedian) + LING (type of heather) |
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| 17 | JET PLANE | Bound to incorporate map for rapid transport (3,5) PLAN in JÉTÉ (a “bound” in ballet) |
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| 18 | DOSH | I’ve been stupid about beginning to save money (4) S[ave] in D’OH! |
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| 20 | CONSERVATIVE | Right – not, vice versa, wrong (12) (NOT VICE VERSA)* |
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| 23 | PAEANS | Songs of Praise in España translated (6) ESPANA* |
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| 24 | NEHEMIAH | Book half a hotel on 3rd and 4th of June (8) 3rd & 4th letters of juNE + HEMI (half) + A + H[otel] – Nehemiah is one of the books of the Old Testament |
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| 25 | PLAINEST | Most obvious nuisance, note, among cuts (8) LA (note) + IN (among) in (cutting) PEST |
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| 26 | PINKIE | Arbitrary number checked by sharp staff includes one small digit (6) N and I in PIKE |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | AJAX | Hero’s cross, mostly open up-front (4) AJA[r] + X (cross) |
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| 3 | DIRT CHEAP | Budget papers boosted feverish chapter (4,5) Reverse of ID + CHAPTER* |
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| 4 | RODENT | Maybe rat’s lair beset by decay (6) DEN (retreat) in ROT |
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| 5 | HORSESHOE MAGNET | What attracts sick hatemongers outside Oxford? (9,6) SHOE (Oxford is a kind of shoe) in HATEMONGERS* |
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| 6 | THE BIRDS | Article on Charlie Parker’s film (3,5) THE (definite article) + BIRD’S (nickname of Charlie Parker, jazz saxophonist) |
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| 7 | OMAHA | D-Day objective that’s now clear following order (5) OM (Order of Merit) + AHA! – Omaha was the code name one of the Normandy beaches on D-Day |
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| 8 | SMELLINESS | It’ll emerge from sulphur left in furrow overwhelmed by poo (10) S[ulphur] + L in LINE (furrow), in MESS, &lit |
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| 12 | NOSE TO TAIL | Closely pursuing dodgy exploits at No.1 after release of fake pix (4,2,4) Anagram of EXPLOITS AT NO I less PIX |
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| 15 | LADIES’ MAN | Liberal ideas shocked mum’s new Lothario (6,3) L[iberal] + IDEAS* + MA + N[ew] |
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| 16 | FAIR ISLE | Design fine publicity I will shortly read out (4,4) F[ine] + AIR (publicity) + homophone of “I’ll” |
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| 19 | BISHOP | He’s committed to see AC/DC on grass (6) BI (bisexual, ac/dc) + SHOP (to betray, grass) – a bishop is in charge of, so presumably committed to, his See |
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| 21 | SCAPI | Flower stems, section of Turk’s Cap, identified (5) Hidden in turk’S CAP Identified |
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| 22 | QADI | Judge’s first question covering promotion (4) AD (promotion) in Q 1 |
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Hi Andrew. I think your explanation for 5a may only be half complete; you’ve omitted the HOSE container.
Some tough words in here. And some tough constructions. Beaten by WANDER – ‘bat around’ is not the first definition I would have come up with; neither was it the 50th or so! – and glances/ganders did not come to mind. And, as pangrams are not something of particular interest, I was not looking for one so AJAX escaped me too. Ho hum.
Thanks both
Thanks Andrew and Harpo.
Enjoyed this.
PINKIE, DOSH, DIRT-CHEAP, NOSE TO TAIL, HORSESHOE MAGNET are my favs.
Monk in Indy, too. Quite good.
Thanks PostMark @1 – 5a now corrected
Alerted to the pangram by other commenters on the Guardian site, so didn’t help the solve, though Ajax was one of my first ones in (I knew reading the Iliad would come in handy sometime). Found the parsing all a little over-engineered to my taste, but ingenious nonetheless. I don’t recall having seen the ‘turning north’ device to get Z before. Did like HORSESHOE MAGNET and HUDDLING for the memory of Roy Hudd doing his music hall routines, though obviously the latter would be difficult for non-UK solvers (and even UK solvers below a certain age). Thanks to Harpo and Andrew.
Thanks Andrew. I gave up in the end, and even most of the ones I did enter had me going ‘Huh?’. It all felt a bit too contrived.
Greatly enjoyed. I would not have solved 22d had I not realised I was looking at a pangram and a ‘Q’ was needed. Top Marx to Harpo.
WANDER was very much a stretch in both definition and wordplay a la PostMark @1.
I don’t know about anyone else but when I write a Z (I print the pdf) it has a line through it but I guess a typed Z is OK. I’ve come across this letter shape trick a few times now.
Some great anagrams. Surprised that CONSERVATIVE isn’t a chestnut (or not to me, at least) as it’s such a lovely construction. “Bat around” in 1 across also had me flailing, PM@1, and I had to return when I’d entered the ‘crossers’…
All in all, toughest this week so far, in my opinion
Thank you, Harpo
This was a lot of fun. I commented on the G site that HUDDLING might be a stretch for overseas solvers, and so it seems from the various comments. Only after reading his story, did I realise how talented he really was. I liked HORSESHOE MAGNET, THE BIRDS, SMELLINESS and QADI (one of my go to scrabble words).
Ta Harpo & Andrew.
Didn’t know “bat around” and ganders=glances didn’t come to mind, so WANDER was a guess. Nho E LAYER or SCAPI but I did find the THOU (though not sure why HOTHOUSE= drying room). By the time I got to QADI the pangram told me there had to be a Q in it, so…
Tricky but enjoyable: I liked BISHOP and CONSERVATIVE and the unfortunately topical surface for HORSESHOE MAGNET. I’ve seen letters clued with a 180° rotation (M for W) before but not N for Z. Couldn’t parse SMELLINESS or NOSE TO TAIL.
Very tough and not very enjoyable. I felt the same as Crispy@5.
I failed to solve 10ac E-LAYER, 26ac PINKIE, 12d NOSE-TO-TAIL, 19d BISHOP. Of the ones I solved, I couldn’t parse 1ac, 5ac, 13ac.
New for me: SCAPI, comedian Roy HUDD (for 14ac); NEHEMIAH; QADI.
Thanks to Andrew for explanations.
Bat around for WANDER is in my idiolect so other than not spotting gander to parse it, I got that OK. QADI, ZONE and AJAX were helped by spotting the pangram. I hadn’t seen the N>Z trick before
Parsed NOSE TO TAIL , and part of SMELLINESS, but it was late in: I find my later words in I often forget to go back and parse. NEHEMIAH went in from knowing the book – stuck in my mind from a Nicky Gumbel sermon drumming up funding at HTB based on a verse from that book
Thank you to Harpo and Andrew
It looks like this one is going to be quite polarizing. I am in the camp of those who found many of the constructions overly contrived. 4D I particularly disliked. E-LAYER and QADI seem a bit obscure for GK, although derivable from the word play.
This was a DNF for me with the NW corner a blank and a couple of reveals elsewhere.
Didn’t spot pangram (seems to be part of my theme blind spot). Might well have helped with last few.
I felt a few (mentioned above ) were a bit if a stretch – but nothing unfair.
Good crossword with lovely 15 letter answer beautifully clued.
Thanks Harpo and Andrew
I liked DIRT CHEAP, HORSESHOE MAGNET and CONSERVATIVE. Couldn’t get WANDER and spent too long racking my brain for a way in which NONE could be a belt.
I’m with gladys@10 on the question of HOTHOUSE. For me, it’s far from a drying room.
Had I seen the pangram it might have helped me with ZONE and QADI. Post solve, I noticed that X, Z, J, and Q are hanging bare, no intersecting clues. I wondered if Harpo cleverly placed those words/letters in the grid so that the pangram wouldn’t be that obvious to provide assistance.
Is fake in the clue for NOSE TO TAIL indicating that the letters for pix are not in the correct order in the fodder?
BISHOP, SMELLINESS, and PINKIE my favs.
HOTHOUSE
Chambers has this meaning at sl.no. 2 (noun):
Any heated chamber or drying-room, esp that where pottery is placed
before going into the kiln.
paddymelon@16
NOSE TO TAIL
Agree with you on the usage of ‘fake’.
Another who failed on WANDER, and had to reveal it before getting AJAX. The rest I found not too hard, though had to Google-check SCAPI and had forgotten E LAYER, which I probably once knew from working at the Met Office decades ago. As often noted here, experiences are subjective – like several others I don’t like over-convoluted clues, but I didn’t notice these ones being too bad. So mostly a pretty good puzzle IMO.
Favourites include RODENTS – for simplicity; NEHEMIAH – maybe a bit convoluted, but nice concise clue; CONSERVATIVE; and several others.
Thanks Harpo and Andrew.
Thanks (?) Harpo and Andrew
A DNF – I revealed WANDER, nho “bat around” – and nine other question marks. RAD another nho. At least we had the plural LADIES this time!
I think I won’t bother with another Harpo.
Ah, KVa@17. That HOTHOUSE. I was thinking of horticulture.
Spotted the pangram (miraculously) early enough to give me ZONE and AJAX.
I think a purist might argue that “It’ll emerge from” is not part of the wordplay, so SMELLINESS is not an &lit. However, you could also say it is just like the linking phrase in regular clues (in clues that have them), so it effectively disappears. Good &lit.s are hard to create, so I’d vote for cutting the setter some slack. (Not that I have a vote, but you get the drift.)
Interesting puzzle with some clever, albeit convoluted constructions. I was surprised that I didn’t find it especially difficult. WANDER was my LOI as ‘bat around’ was unfamiliar also to me, but I worked it out (with difficulty) from the wordplay.
I liked the two long anagrams, OMAHA, NEHEMIAH, and ‘large country houses’.
paddymelon @16 suggests that Harpo set out to hide J, Q, X and Z in places where they wouldn’t be noticeable. I would suggest that the idea of a pangram came later when he was deciding on which four letter words to complete the grid 🙂
Thanks to Harpo and Andrew
AJAX was my FOI but any hopes of a Dutch football theme soon evaporated. Lots to like here including NEHEMIAH, NOSE TO TAIL & DIRT CHEAP
One or two that fell into the CQBA category like HOTHOUSE – my bad rather than Harpo’s
I shall now take the dog for a “bat around” on the heath
Cheers A&H
Mixed. I had a lot of fun with NEHEMIAH and a JET PLANE, along with several other good clues, and specially enjoyed teasing out THOU from knowing the significance of 25.4 and a very faint memory of an abbreviation of an Imperial measurement.
On the other hand, some clues were a struggle with several being on the obscure side, such as QADI which was my last, given away by the pangram and a word search but not by the clue which appears to have unnecessarily misleading word order.
SMELLINESS
Dr. WhatsOn@22
I was thinking it wasn’t an &lit. Your explanation is convincing (The ‘it’ may still be outside the WP?).
Excellent clue whatever the classification is.
I was almost put off at the very start, ploughing through “Bay around wicket heading glances away from cover”. But O.K, I’d return to that one. Though I never did solve it even with all its crossers on place. Soldiered on. Impressed by HORSESHOE MAGNET and CONSERVATIVE but soundly defeated in the end by the likes of ZONE, E-LAYER, JET PLANE (really should have got that one) and QADI. SMELLINESS very clever, and perhaps with a bit more persistence I should have got that one too. Thanks for the challenge today HARPO, and Andrew for the explanations. But just out of my comfort ZONE this morning…
Bat, not bay, of course…
A chewy and entertaining crossword. Having sussed ZONE early, and AJAX shortly after, I had a sneaking suspicion a pangram was in the offing. When only Q was left, I confess I tried it in various gaps then checked to see if such a word existed – which was how I learned about a QADI. I doubt this is pukka crossword-technique, but I also doubt I’ll be able to try it again!
Many thanks to Harpo and to Andrew – especially for explaining WANDER (a Crossed Fingers Entry), as I’ve never heard the expression “bat around” & had been wondering if a-n-d-e-r was an anagram of some kind of bat…
I did get WANDER, once I realised it had nothing to do with cricket. I didn’t much like HUDDLING as a synonym for ‘bundling’, but Chambers disagrees. The substitution of N for Ñ in 23A is a longstanding bugbear. They are not the same letter. Aside from those niggles, I quite liked it.
Like ronald@27, I read the first clue and almost noped out of today’s. I glanced down at the G comments and steeled myself for the worst, but actually it all started coming together with the down clues and long anagrams. Scrabble helped me figure out QADI. HORSESHOE MAGNET and SMELLINESS were very clever.
Thanks Harpo and Andrew
Cor, absolutely battered – I figured there was a pangram but I couldn’t fit the Q at all until I’d given up and revealed PAEANS and NEHEMIAH – the latter of which I had clocked might have been a bible book but the more obscure volumes certainly escape me. España I am furious with myself for! At that point, with a Q outstanding, QADI emerged from the fog… HOTHOUSE – 25.4 microns immediately put me on to something to do with an inch, but I am (perhaps) not of the era where inches, and certainly thousandths thereof, were taught. I got there because I do a bit of railway modelling for my own personal entertainment, and colleagues in this hobby – who are generally of the aforementioned era – often refer to the measurement, e.g. “40 thou plasticard” which is a material of about a millimetre in thickness.
Very enjoyable but a stark reminder that whilst I have come a long way, there is a much longer way to go! Thanks Andrew and Harpo!
Was thinking (probably a bad idea) about the oft quoted saying: Familiarity Breeds Contempt. But somehow if I see a setter’s name attached to a brand new Guardian Cryptic in the morning – one whose ways and technique I feel Familiar with, I feel more relaxed. For me personally they mostly seem to begin with the letter P – Philistine, Picaroon, Pasquale, Paul (even he!). Quite the opposite emotion to FBC in other words. Though I’m not on any way trying to take anything away from all these other more recently arrived other setters with their own new quirks and style. I’m probably too CONSERVATIVE in my cruciverbalist tastes, resisting/resenting? any kind of change, easily thrown by fresh approaches. Just saying…
I got WANDER from W and gander, but was still not quite sure what the definition was. I had the D and R as well. Far from easy, but not punishingly difficult, there were enough doable clues around to get a few crossers, then quite a drawn out clatter of pennies. I failed to notice the pangram, but I don’t think it would have helped. The Q and the X were quite obvious, maybe for ZONE, but I had solved that before it would have been obvious.
KVa@17: if HOTHOUSE=drying room is a specialised term in the manufacture of pottery and documented as such in Holy Writ, then I accept that it’s allowed. But I bet Not A Lot Of People Know That. (And in my experience, a horticultural HOTHOUSE is usually damp and steamy inside rather than dry).
[nho 21d SCAPI, the Latin plural of SCAPUS, meaning ‘1. stem, stalk (of a plant) or 2. Shaft (or similar upright column)’]
Thanks H&A
I’m another one defeated by WANDER. I also had to reveal HUDDLING, never having heard of Mr. Hudd, and FAIR ISLE, never having heard of that one either. Otherwise, completed–but I did not spot the pangram.
I agree with the sentiment that while a lot of this felt a little convoluted, a different lot of it was quite pleasing.
Oh, I wanted to add (and adding this might take more than the allowed three minutes to type on this brand-new phone that is still making weird Autocorrects because it hasn’t learned my vocabulary yet) that the “rad” in LABRADOR, for those who are wondering about it, has a late-20th-century vibe to it. You started hearing it in the 80s, and stopped hearing it in the early 2000s. Kids and slang, y’know–new kids, new slang.
I did once come up with this clue:
Vegetable was sorta cool in the 90s? (6)
A mixed bag for me: generally fun and challenging, with some nifty clues like CONGENITALLY and LABRADOR, and the extra element of finding a pangram.
But also some I couldn’t fully parse or hadn’t heard of before reading Andrew’s excellent blog, such as “Bat around”, “25.4 microns”, the E-LAYER, the “committed” BISHOP, QADI, SCAPI, and the not very pleasant SMELLINESS.
Never a fan of Biblical references (I resent having to know anything about them, as an atheist), but NEHEMIAH was cleverly constructed. I am old enough to remember Roy HUDD, but wonder if he is still present in the general consciousness, especially outside the UK.
Thanks to Harpo and Andrew.
Thanks Harpo, one of the best in my opinion at cryptic craftsmanship. I loved many of the clues including LABRADOR, CONGENITALLY, ZONE, NEHEMIAH, HORSESHOE MAGNET, OMAHA, LADIES MAN, and BISHOP. I guessed but didn’t understand HUDDLING. Thanks Andrew for the blog.
[I resent having to know anything about Latin literature, as a philistine who disliked Latin lessons, but I have to admit that those works are culturally significant.]
I enjoyed this though it did take me a while. I agree that some of the clueing was over engineered. LOI was E-Layer!
Thanks
Very tough . Thanks Andrew for sorting out .Imho some clues over complicated ( For those who may wonder about Roy Hudd go the BBC I player and look for “The Good old days” from the Leeds Variety theatre . All from another age!
Completed less than half. Obscure and over complicated. I really should stop wasting time on these.
I love over complicated and contrived: excellent crossword! And I say this despite 9 clues which I couldn’t solve and another I couldn’t parse. Having read the blog, all were sort of gettable, and clever.
CONSERVATIVE – wow, what a great anagram. Who knew (other than Harpo of course)?
Some top-notch clues here and others that required pretty liberal use of the check button (WANDER for the usual reason, HUDDLING b/c NHO Roy, NHO QADI either–though I should have worked that out quicker from the pangram since it was LOI). Great constructions for JET PLANE, NEHEMIAH, HORSESHOE MAGNET, and a smile/groan for the definition of BISHOP.
Thanks Harpo and Andrew!
Surely a Lab is a Canadian dog! (How to misread a clue.)
Never heard of Mr. Hudd, but that’s UK GK. But surely GK, UK or otherwise, doesn’t include “thou” as “thousandth of an inch”! Who would know that, besides Perfidious Albion’s elderly friends?
Vary hard puzzle, got very little last night and had to wallow in the check button this morning. But good fun, so thanks to Harpo and Andrew.
Tough and not enjoyable today, sadly. I really don’t like ‘turning north’ for Z, have never heard the expression ‘bat around’ and didn’t know Parker’s nickname. The OT book was never going to come to mind without reference to source which, surprisingly perhaps, I don’t carry with me, and the judge is pretty obscure as well. Lots of time spent and maybe half finished. Well done to our blogger for unravelling this lot and to everyone else who completed it. Not one for me, however.
My grandson persuaded me to take him to ‘Twisters’, a film about tornadoes. As a result I quite enjoyed the tortures of Harpo’s twists.
Valentine@47, I suspect there is a reasonable overlap amongst UK solvers between those who have heard of Roy Hudd and those who have heard of thou as a unit. I’m in the intersection.
I first heard “gander” from my Australian biology teacher – “have a gander down the mic” to look at a specimen. C shows it as slang – is it particularly Australian?
Thanks to Harpo and Andrew – I was one of those who enjoyed this.
Notwithstanding the pangram, have an oblique look at the completed grid … 😉
I enjoyed what I was able to do, which was barely a quarter of the grid. Hoped more of it would fall into place as and when I came back to it throughout the day, but maybe two or three more budged, and that was it. So the bulk of it is a reveal and, well – not for me, all told.
Oh and if today has taught me anything, it’s that for some reason when I think of Roy Hudd, it’s John Junkin that I’ve got a mental picture of.
Oh, well spotted Nina-nonymous@51. Was it just the one phrase coming up from the bottom left, or have I missed something else?
Nina-nonymous@51 Nice spotting! H H H H is for Harpo (or something).
Fine puzzle. ZONE defeated me but I like the Z trick. HORSESHOE MAGNET and BISHOP were both peaches.
Totally missed the pangram and the Nina.
Thanks, Harpo & Andrew. One question, what’s the Order of Meir? 😉 .
With HOTHOUSE and Charlie Parker present I thought we might be in for a musical theme.
I’ve only seen QADI spelled with a ‘c’. Gander brought this dialogue from the Goon Show to mind:
“Do you mind if I take a gander round the shop?”
“Certainly, as long as it’s housetrained.”
[In the bookmakers:
Customer: Can I back a horse in here?
Bookie: Of course.
Customer: (shouting at door) Ok lads…..]
I’m inclined towards muffin@20 on this one. QADI, NEHEMIAH, SCAPI, E-LAYER, WANDER, SMELLINESS all too cold for this bear’s taste (although I did enjoy the nina thanks to you fellows here).
For all that I got an amount of entertainment and mental exercise out of the experience so thanks both.
DNF for me – never heard of QADI and the wp wasn’t obvious to me, should it have been?
The other failure was THE BIRDS though I wrote it in as the only movie I could think of to fit “THE ?I?D?”. I’d heard of Charlie Parker but didn’t know his nickname.
SCAPI was a new word but this time the wp was easy!
Lots to like here: ticks for OMAHA (a reminder of that infamous Telegraph crossword in 1944 that almost gave the game away!); DIRT CHEAP; HOTHOUSE; LABRADOR; CONGENITALLY; ZONE (very clever that one!); JET PLANE; NEHEMIAH; BISHOP … and more.
Thanks to Harpo for a real toughie that defeated me – and Andrew for helping out…
Can anyone clarify how “mum’s” becomes MA in 15d please? I can see how it would be MAS but then what’s happening to the S?
Nina-nonymous@51 – just seen your comment. I’d certainly never have spotted the nina myself. Diagonal ninas must be quite a rarity. Thanks.
TomC @ 61 MA ’s/has N
TomC@61: It’s a fair point….?
Thanks both!
Laccaria @62: Serpent once had a diagonal Nina that read, ‘This is not a nina’.
Nina@51
What a good spot of your well hidden namesake!
A phrase that fits as well today as it did back then, and with two words substituted by puns. I was pleased enough to get the pangram (and after reading comments above, to notice the four Hs) but that is next level.
Belated congrats to Harpo the silent setter!
Ok so why is a bishop automatically a he? Female bishops and crossword solvers exist….