Our first blog as husband and wife, completed in true Handel style, with a pint of ale in Stockwell’s uncharacteristically sophisticated pub The Canton Arms.
ACROSS
4. HE(LP)ED
7. splenDID ACT I Contrived
9. B(A.T.M.)AN
10. LINDA N E
11. O.K. A PI(g)
12. CLEMEN(t) S The real name of Mark Twain
13. BROUGHT TO BOOK dd
17. BELUGAS (bulge as)*
20. TI(D)ES
21. DISROBE (so bride)* How apt.
22. POND ER
23. T(AMEN)ESS
24. SOL(V)E R
DOWN
1. HE C A TOMB not a word we knew, but easy enough to parse
2. OCTAVE dd
3. EIDERS (desire)*
5. PO MP A NO
6. DANCING sounds like ‘Dan sing’, though I have to say it doesn’t sound like that for two southerners like us!
7. DELICATESSENS (neediest class)* Not a difficult clue, as long as your spelling brain is functioning…
8. DUN C.E.
14. O.C. TOP U.S.
15. OR(DIN)AL
16. KESTEVEN (see Kent)*
17. BED LAM
18. LESSEE We liked this one – as NMS points out it’s ‘less ee’ (‘thus week becomes wk’). Quixote is excellent at spotting unusual structural wordplays like this, which always raise a smile
19. G LOB E
Congrats, Handel. Being aware of the reason for yr absence, I did wonder if 21A was intentional, but it may have been pure coincidence as I think these puzzles are set some time ahead. Two minor points, there’s a typo in the spelling of the answer in 7D and the excellent 18D is not actually explained, it’s LESS EE. I found this a very enjoyable crossword, quite a bit harder than Quixote usually is with my last answer being OCTAVE.
Heartiest congratulations Handel — may your life together be as Handel’s famous blacksmith!
Congratulations, and thanks for the blog.
Curiously, the first answer I got was “hecatomb”, probably because my husband, who studied Greek, has often explained the word to me as the sacrifice of a hundred head of cattle – presumably to placate some very angry gods! 😀