Whether it was deliberate after the Bannsider debut yesterday, this was very straightforward. I’d everything, except one, solved in 12 mins, but that took me another 10 mins to get so solving time was 22 mins.
4 couples around the perimeter and another linking 11 across and 24 down
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 When I saw this I thought the theme was going to be movies, which I know very little about, missing Math’s recent theme on James Bond. But I knew this one.
BONN IE AND CLYDE
9 ANTIPODES (AS POINTED)* Where a cricket match was finally won.
10 S AUDI
21 I AM BUSES An alternative plural to iambi
25 ref Prisoner of Z END A Looked first at n and l as extremes in novel, but the novel is part of the definition.
26 TWO FOR TEA The second recent reference by Virgilius to the oldish song – also in his F-themed puzzle. “Tea for two, two for tea”.
DOWN
1 BRAHMS AND LISZT Rhyming slang – two composers.
3 I’M P (pawn) ASS gam(E)
4 ANDY My ten-minute clue, thinking also of AIDE. Then I got it, William of NORM ANDY.
5 (INDIANS)* in DIG i.e DISDAINING
6 LA (as in LA Galaxy) + SCAR
8 WILLIAM AND MARY Ruled jointly – not too difficult, that.
15 THE OMANI A
19 PIBROCH Cryptic definition, though not far off a straight one, if you were familiar with it.
20 A U PAIR
23 UTTER Double definition (sometimes think this is the most common answer in crosswords, usually with a clue just like this).
19 PIBROCH Cryptic definition, though not far off a straight one, if you were familiar with it.
And completely impossible if you weren’t! I wasted so much time on this with P-B—- thinking I should surely be able to get it, but eventually left it to the end and gave up on it having decided I definitely didn’t know the word.
I couldn’t get it either. Should have had some easy wordplay I think, even though it’s in COED.
There was some song from way back – Andy Stewart (Scottish), I think – from which I remembered “Pibroch sad to play” – so I got it straightaway! May be a generation thing.
Pibroch: I guess it’s just one of those words you pick up somewhere. At least it’s easier to spell than the authentic “Pìobaireachd”. At school, our music master once decided to get everyone in the class who played an instrument to do a quick demo. I don’t think he’d realised that the class contained a bagpiper. Proper Scottish pipes played in a classroom are probably the loudest thing I’ve ever heard.