My 1,000th Fifteensquared blog.
This was a fine puzzle to mark the occasion. Not too easy, not too difficult, a smattering of easy general knowledge, a good range of cryptic devices, clean surfaces and no obscure solutions. It was an unusual experience for me as I normally solve the long entries in a puzzle first to give me a lot of crossers, making other solutions more obvious, but the two long entries were nearly the last two I solved, with GROWN being my LOI becaise it took a second to see what Leonidas was doing there.
Thanks, Leonidas.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ALMANAC |
Servant in palace unwrapped yearbook (7)
|
| MAN (“servant”) in (p)ALAC(e) [unwrapped] | ||
| 5 | TIPPLES |
Drinks from pages wearing hats (7)
|
| PP (pages) wearing TILES (“hats”) | ||
| 9 | ONSET |
Where working actors are beginning (5)
|
| Working film actors would be ON SET. | ||
| 10 | BOYFRIEND |
Squeeze bananas if bone-dry (9)
|
| *(if bone dry) [anag:bananas] | ||
| 11 | STEEL-BLUE |
Colour Nick messed up in delivery (5- 4)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [in delivery] of STEAL (“nick”) + BLEW (“messed up”) | ||
| 12 | ETHOS |
Distinctive spirit of people that lot cycling (5)
|
| THOS-E (“that lot”) cycling becomes E-THOS | ||
| 13 | CONCRETE JUNGLE |
Fool island psychologist outside of large urban development (8,6)
|
| CON (“fool”) + CRETE (Greek “island”) + (Carl) JUNG (Swiss “psychologist”) + [outside of] L(arg)E | ||
| 18 | EXTEMPORANEOUS |
Impromptu poem excited foreign nurses (14)
|
| EXTRANEOUS (“foreign”) nurses *(poem) [anag:excited] | ||
| 20 | TIBIA |
Rolled Thai bites incorporating some of shin? (5)
|
| Hidden backwards in [rolled…incorporating] “thAI BITes” | ||
| 22 | OUTLAWING |
Trip around city wife is officially ruling out (9)
|
| OUTING (“trop”) around LA (Los Angeles, so “city”) + W (wife) | ||
| 24 | CANDIDATE |
Applicant is able to start in December, I see (9)
|
| CAN (“is able to”) + [start in] D(ecember) + I + DATE (“see”) | ||
| 25 | GROAN |
Sound of distress when adult escapes from trap (5)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [when…escapes from trap (mouth)] of GROWN (“adult”) | ||
| 26 | LUSHEST |
Most attractive female overwhelmed by desire (7)
|
| SHE (“female”) overwhelmed by LUST (“desire”) | ||
| 27 | TUNISIA |
Fish speared by two patrolling southern country (7)
|
| TUNA (“fish”) speared by II (two, in Roman numerals) patrolling S (southern), so TUN(I(S)I)A | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | AROUSE |
Stimulate half of area with zero employment (6)
|
| [half of] AR(ea) with O (zero) + USE (“employment”) | ||
| 2 | MISREPORT |
Emirs possibly harbour fake news (9)
|
| *(emirs) [anag:possibly] + PORT (“harbour”) | ||
| 3 | NATAL |
Sporting pro taking day off for time of birth (5)
|
| (Rafael) NA(D)AL (“sporting pro”) taking D (day) off for T (time) (i.e. replacing the D with a T) becomes NA(T)AL | ||
| 4 | CABALLERO |
Spanish gentleman visitor carrying a black duck (9)
|
| (CALLER (“visitor”) carrying A + B (black)) + O (zero, so “duck” in cricket) | ||
| 5 | THYME |
Plant height raised with variable covering of manure (5)
|
| <=Ht. (height, raised) with Y (“variable”, in mathematics) + [covering of] M(anur)E | ||
| 6 | PERSECUTE |
Core of horsemen led by a shrewd hound (9)
|
| [core of] (hor)SE(men) led by PER (“a”) + CUTE (“shrewd”) | ||
| 7 | LEECH |
Sapper protected part at top of church (5)
|
| LEE (“protected part” (out of the wind or weather)) at top of Ch. (church) | ||
| 8 | SIDESTEP |
Duck dish on ‘Favourites’ brought up (8)
|
| SIDE (dish) on <=PETS (“favourites”, brought up) | ||
| 14 | CAMPANILE |
Bell tower assistant cutting different flowers (9)
|
| PA (personal “assistant”) cutting CAM + NILE (two “different flowers”, i.e. those that flow, so rivers) | ||
| 15 | ENACTMENT |
Rod erected shelter keeping close to stadium staging (9)
|
| <=CANE (“rod”, erected) + TENT (“shelter”) keeping [close to] (stadiu)M | ||
| 16 | GLUTINOUS |
Carelessly sling out uniform that’s sticky (9)
|
| *(sling out u) [anag:carelessly] where U = Uniform (in the NATO alphabet) | ||
| 17 | VERTICAL |
Upright clergy member recalled note about Latin (8)
|
| <=Rev. (reverend, so “clergy member”, recalled) + TI (musical “note”) + Ca. (circa, so “about”) + L (Latin) | ||
| 19 | AGENDA |
Stop interrupting oven programme (6)
|
| END (“stop”) interrupting AGA (“oven”) | ||
| 21 | BONUS |
Working vehicle’s taking extra (5)
|
| BUS (“vehicle”) taking ON (“working”) | ||
| 22 | OP ART |
Section at the foot of old abstract painting (2,3)
|
| PART (“section”) at foot of O (old) | ||
| 23 | ARGON |
Vessel essentially cleansing gas (5)
|
| ARGO (mythological ship, so “vessel”) + [essentially] (clea)N(sing) |
Congratulations, Loonapick, on your landmark. A sterling job today, as usual, and I agree with the sentiments contained within the blog to a large degree.
Thanks also to Leonidas for the ‘just right puzzle. I liked CAMPANILE, LEECH and CONCRETE JUNGLE best.
Congratulations on reaching the milestone, loonapick. And, yes, Leonidas is a great compiler to encounter on such a day. I could not agree more with your opening comments. OUTLAWING, CANDIDATE, CABALLERO, PERSECUTE, CAMPANILE (COTD) and AGENDA are my faves but the whole puzzle was a pleasure.
Thanks both
Congratulations loonapick. (Was the Io worth it?).
Sorry to rain on your parade, but the app crossword thinks it’s GROAN not grown. I entered it thinking I’d probably get the “at least one word is incorrect” message, because I wasn’t sure, but got “congratulations”. It was my last in, I’d solved the two longer clues earlier.
Fun puzzle, thank you to Leonidas and loonapick.
Congrats loonapick. Solid blog on a solid puzzle! All very enjoyable. Agree with Diane, as usual. Liked concrete jungle.
Congratualtions loonapick! Thousands more to come.
Excellent blog as usual. Thank you.
Enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks Leonidas.
CAMPANILE my COTD as well.
Other faves: CONCRETE JUNGLE and VERTICAL.
Thanks and congratulations loonapick
Thanks for the blog and thanks to Leonidas for the puzzle
Congratulations, loonapick, how remarkable. When I started blogging and was trying to figure out how, as a practical matter, to explain the solutions, I emulated your formatting style as being the most workable combination of clear and concise, given the limited time I had to devote to the effort. I have since added my own touches, I suppose, but the basic original structure is still apparent. Well done.
Shanne @3 GROAN is the answer I put in the blog?
The Io was definitely worth it – thanks!
Congratulations from me, too! As for the puzzle, this was one that I stared at for quite a long time before anything clicked – then the two long ones went in (I had evidently woken up) and then things went along quite smoothly. Thanks to both.
Totally forgot about trap = mouth and went Surely no such thing as a garoan … talk about dim! Plus a bit of bung and shrug around the foreign nurses and old Carl Gustav — both great clues but too busy with cricket to back-parse. Enjoyed it tho, thanks to both ells.
Congratulations on the milestone, loonapick – lucky you to get Leonidas to celebrate with. 🙂
My last entries were in the top right corner. Having eventually escaped the misdirection with the duck dish at 8dn, I was then bamboozled by 7dn – convinced I had to get RE in somehow. Got there in the end – Doh!
I agree with Post Mark’s thoughts @ 2 re favourites. (And I loved the two long ones.)
Many thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks to Leonidas: thanks and congratulations to loonapick
In 8 you have the capitalisation on DISH, not SIDE, but hey ho
Congratulations, Loonapick. I doubt whether I could count up to a thousand.
I didn’t parse CAMPANILE, as I failed to recognise the old chestnut of flower/river. D’oh! (Although, I haven’t seen it for a while.)
I never knew a squeeze was a boyfriend. I’ll use my imagination to try to work out why.
1000! That’s amazing. Congratulations. And I agree with all the praise for the puzzle
Well done loona. A grand achievement 😀
Nice work too from Nick.
Congratulations to Loonapick.
This was lots of fun with just enough thought required. I always like puzzles set by Leonidas. Lots of favourites, Concrete Jungle, Caballero, Glutinous pretty much all of them. I came up short on a handful but that’s OK because I had fun.
Congratulations to Loonapick. You have been an inspirational blogger. I greatly enjoyed the puzzle.
Thanks to both
Nothing much to say on the crossword but my goodness what an achievement loonapick- well done and thank you!
Congratulations to Loonapick. You have been an inspirational blogger. I greatly enjoyed the puzzle.
Thanks to both.
One couldn’t get a better combo than Leonidas & loonapick — thanks to the former & congrats to the latter. As is customary with Leonidas I had many ticks including ONSET, STEEL-BLUE, EXTEMPORANEOUS, OUTLAWING, CANDIDATE, & CAMPANILE. Good stuff overall.
Well done Loonapick. Have you worked out how many hours you’ve spent enlightening the likes of me?
I didn’t know steel was blue, but there was nothing else it could be.
Congrats Loonapick. Quite a milestone. Let’s do it again for your 2000th.
Thanks to all for comments, best wishes for the season. See you in 2026.
Xmas has officially started for me & Mrs L this evening. A ham is roasting in the oven, studded with cloves, coated with mustard and demerara sugar. Delia Smith’s Christmas classic. Decidedly un-Spartan.
Congrats on the milestone, Loonapik. I have always appreciated your style. (Which does not rule out appreciating the others’ styles as well.)
Geoff @13: “squeeze” (sometimes “main squeeze”) for boyfriend or girlfriend is, as so often with such things, dated slang. It calls to my mind the world of Rebel Without a Cause, Grease, and the like.
Congrats on the 1,000th, loonapick. An impressive achievement. At one time way way back, I’d written more than anyone else, but it was nowhere near a thousand.