The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hi all. Quince has been a bit naughty today: I was surprised to find the “congressional record” (15a) by “one scoring openly” (16a). Will this cause outrage (18d)?
Lots of playfulness and invention on show as usual, much enjoyed. Thanks Quince!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Fed herb tea, settling down for the night (7,3) |
| FEATHER BED — An anagram of (settling) FED HERB TEA | |
| 6a | Hammer thrower nicked the gold (4) |
| THOR — Without the last letter (nicked) THe + OR (gold) | |
| 9a | Snack money primarily spent on credit (10) |
| BREADSTICK — BREAD (money) + the first letter of (primarily) Spent + TICK (credit) | |
| 10a | Performer Sandra Bullock returns in part (4) |
| BARD — The answer is contained in (… in part) sanDRA Bullock, which goes backwards (returns) | |
| 12a | Wannabe influencer girl on Love Island has one account following me (12) |
| MEGALOMANIAC — GAL (girl), O (Love), MAN (Island), I (one) and AC (account) following ME | |
| 15a | Way to preserve old copy for congressional record (3,4) |
| SEX TAPE — ST (way) containing (to preserve) EX (old) + APE (copy) | |
| 16a | Spain’s top footballer is one scoring openly (7) |
| SWINGER — Spain’s first letter (top) + WINGER (footballer) | |
| 17a | Gates and Elon struggling to deliver on newcomers to Twitter? (7) |
| EAGLETS — An anagram of (… struggling) GATES and EL[on] removing (to deliver) ON | |
| 19a | Unfaithful type at his wit’s end taking pill (7) |
| ATHEIST — AT HIS + wiT’s last letter (end) having inserted (taking) E (pill) | |
| 20a | They could catch you by the way (5,7) |
| SPEED CAMERAS — A cryptic definition; the way is a road | |
| 23a | Seconds from leaving alehouse, have another spirit (4) |
| ELAN — The second letters (seconds) from lEaving aLehouse, hAve aNother | |
| 24a | Ron DeSantis about to axe new facility (10) |
| ADROITNESS — RON DE SA[n]TIS anagrammed (about) removing (to axe) N (new) | |
| 25a | Who’s responsible for wedding row? (4) |
| TIER — Somebody who ties: TIER | |
| 26a | He’s a deeply distressed person keen to retire (10) |
| SLEEPYHEAD — An anagram of (… distressed) HE’S A DEEPLY | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Family at first has trouble evacuating kids (4) |
| FIBS — The initial letter of (… at first) Family + IBS (trouble evacuating) | |
| 2d | Notice welcoming church offered great service (4) |
| ACED — AD (notice) taking in (welcoming) CE (church) | |
| 3d | Subtle design feature of Volkswagen dashboard (6,6) |
| HIDDEN AGENDA — The HIDDEN feature of VolkswAGEN DAshboard | |
| 4d | Artist sketches endless daily struggle (3,4) |
| RAT RACE — RA (artist) + TRACEs (sketches) without the last letter (endless) | |
| 5d | Mess exposed murder deeds (7) |
| ESCROWS — Without outer letters (… exposed) mESs + CROWS (murder) | |
| 7d | Do I hang on lipreader? Hm, on head occasionally (7,3) |
| HEARING AID — Regular letters of (… occasionally) Do I hAnG oN lIpReAdEr? Hm going upwards (on head) | |
| 8d | Redo, create anew! (10) |
| REDECORATE — An anagram of (… anew) REDO CREATE | |
| 11d | Polonius and King Hamlet perhaps taste sweet (6,6) |
| DANISH PASTRY — DANISH PAS (Polonius and King Hamlet perhaps – fathers in Shakespeare’s Danish play) + TRY (taste) | |
| 13d | Idiots delighted about marks in test (10) |
| ASSESSMENT — ASSES (idiots) + SENT (delighted) around (about) M (marks) | |
| 14d | Overplay retro Jamaican music covers Kiss sampled (10) |
| EXAGGERATE — Reversed (retro) REGGAE (Jamaican music) covers X (kiss), followed by ATE (sampled) | |
| 18d | Outrage two of Georgia’s neighbours, briefly (7) |
| SCANDAL — The state abbreviations of (… briefly) SC AND AL (two of Georgia’s neighbours) | |
| 19d | Alpha males upset by a single buttercup (7) |
| ANEMONE — A (alpha) + MEN (males) reversed (upset) + ONE (a single) | |
| 21d | Wilder for one pool party? (4) |
| GENE — An individual (party) in a GENE pool | |
| 22d | Setter and solver and editor getting exhausted (4) |
| USED — US (setter and solver) and ED (editor) | |
Very creative and fun puzzle with all sorts of things going on – as well as the naughtiness. Some very nice cryptic defs newcomers to Twitter, down for the night, hammer thrower, congressional record of course etc. Thanks for parsing HEARING AID – I did not spot that remarkable alternation – chapeau to the setter (and to the blogger for recognising it for what it is). Danish Pas is also very amusing.
Thanks Quince and Kitty
Thanks both. I only have good things to say, with favourites from a longer list of candidates being HIDDEN AGENDA. ESCROWS, and GENE – for the latter, thankfully said actor’s name was my first thought, so the very clever pool party angle made entire sense.
Top pick: HEARING AID.
Also liked FEATHER BED, SWINGER, SLEEPYHEAD, HIDDEN AGENDA, SCANDAL and GENE.
Excellent puzzle. Superb blog.
Thanks Quince and Kitty.
Thanks both. Liked FEATHER BED and EAGLETS (fun definition) among many others and thanks Kitty for the. parsing of GENE. Knew it had to be that as gene pool a familiar term to me but couldn’t quite work it out.