A fairly straightforward puzzle this week, certainly one of Kruger’s easier ones … perhaps to help us meet the one day earlier deadline. What’s more, no extra letters, words or misprints to worry about!
Pretty much everything was spelled out for us in the preamble. Some answers wouldn’t fill their entry space, and then three blocks of cells needed to be relocated, presumably into those empty spaces. This was helped by the unclued light, HADRIAN’S WALL across the middle of the grid. Thus three Scotsmen, ANGUS, HAMISH and CALUM, hidden in the South of the grid, needed to be relocated to the North … and the South is dePICTed!
A very entertaining puzzle from Kruger, and a nice piece of grid construction.
Solving time: just under the hour.
Legend:
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
Definition in clue
Scotsmen before they are moved
Scotsmen after they are moved
| ACROSS | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GOTHAM | Barbarian almost attacked (6) GOT(H) (Barbarian) |
| 5 | ISHTAR | Insight to fight sailor (6) 2 meanings |
| 11 | MOORED | Made fast, low squadron (6) MOO (low) RED (squadron) |
| 12 | DAGO | Perhaps man from Lisbon‘s an eccentric with nothing on (4) DAG (eccentric) + O (nothing) |
| 13 | ALUMNUS | Star backed organisation for undergraduates (7) SUN< (star) |
| 14 | URANIN | In Nunavut Territory returning rain dissolved salt (6) RAIN* in NU (Nunavut Territory) |
| 15 | APPORT | It may be seen at seance — a headless relation (6) (R)APPORT (relation) |
| 16 | TITAN | Contemptible person‘s bird (5) 2 meanings |
| 17 | GUSTIER | Ribbon on back of hair is rank (7) TIE (ribbon) + R (back of haiR) |
| 19 | AGRIMONY | Unappealing ring in one unspecified herb (8) GRIM (unappealing) O (ring) in ANY (one unspecified) |
| 22 | HADRIAN’S WALL | Unclued |
| 24 | CHOKING | Blocking feature about satisfactory start to glasnost (7) CHIN (feature) about OK (satisfactory) + G (start to Glasnost) |
| 26 | AMICE | I’m about wearing excellent cloak (5) I’M< wearing ACE (excellent) |
| 29 | OARING | Rowing and shouting with no end of rancour (6) ROARING (shouting) – R (end of rancouR) |
| 32 | MOLAL | A mixture of loam with a bit of leaf-mould containing a certain amount of substance (5) LOAM* + L (bit of leaf-mould) |
| 35 | EARN | Gain by Labour in ballot box, we hear (4) sounds like URN (ballot-box) |
| 38 | WIELDER | He exerts power with island tribal administrator (7) W (with) I (island) ELDER (tribal administrator) |
| 39 | VALUE | The world accepts uranium’s price (5) VALE (the world) holding U (uranium) |
| 40 | SLEDGER | Cook may be distracted by this man‘s deformed red legs (7) (RED LEGS)*; a reference to cricket, I think! |
| 41 | DAMN | Old copper coin — not originally something of little value (4) DAM (old copper coin) + N (Not originally) |
| 42 | BHUTAN | Temporarily accommodation in Britain and anonymous kingdom (6) HUT (temporary accommodation) in B (Britain) AN (anonymous) |
| 43 | GUSSET | Guests smashed plate (6) GUESTS* |
| DOWN | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GO DUTCH | Share the cost of fare with wife (7, 2 WORDS) GO (fare) + DUTCH (wife) |
| 2 | TOGATED | Will’s wearing Roman garment to go, initially, with fancy date (7) TO + G (Go initially) + DATE* |
| 3 | ARCING | Wanton person‘s prank (6) 2 meanings |
| 4 | MEAN | Space: the beginnings of endless nothingness (4) EN (beginnings of Endless Nothingness) |
| 6 | SOUPS | Work, in short, is out of print (5) OP (out of print) |
| 7 | HUMP | Pastor follows United all the way (4) P (pastor) after U (united) |
| 8 | TON | With close cut hair is back in fashion (3) NOT< (with close cut hair) |
| 9 | AZURE | Arizona river’s blue (5) AZ (Arizona) + URE (river) |
| 10 | ROSTRAL | Rook’s left holding roast nuts near to mouth (7) R (rook) L (left) holding ROAST* |
| 11 | MARID | Departs from European city showing spirit (5) MADRID (European city) – D (departs) |
| 17 | GRANGE | Unfamiliar street’s forgotten in American strip of townships (6) STRANGE (unfamiliar) – ST (street) |
| 18 | TOW | Synthetic fibres for rope (3) 2 meanings |
| 19 | ARK | Model has no money in chest (3) MARK (model) – M (money) |
| 20 | INGO | Perhaps Jones is disheartened in Macdonald’s entrance (4) IN(I)GO (Jones) |
| 21 | NAIL | Third of trainers entering nothing in plate (4) A (third of trAiners) in NIL (nothing) |
| 23 | SAM | Book is almost unchanged (2) SAM(E) (unchanged); reference to the Book of Samuel |
| 24 | COBWEB | Something that obscures lump on roll of paper (6) COB (lump) + WEB (roll of paper) |
| 25 | ORIEL | Window in wrecked oiler (5) OILER* |
| 27 | MONADS | Upset, moans about distillery’s foremost spirits (6) MOANS* about D (Distillery’s foremost) |
| 28 | ELUENT | Fairy possibly instils some light energy into part of hospital (6) LU (some light, ie lumen) E (energy) in ENT (part of hospital, ie Ear, Nose and Throat); reference to Fairy Liquid, washing up product |
| 30 | AMISH | Belonging to strict sect, friend’s extremely standoffish (5) AMI (friend) + SH (extremely StandoffisH) |
| 31 | INLET | Contents of chain letters entrance (5) in chaIN LETters |
| 33 | ALUM | Double salt in potato (mashed at first) (4) ALU (potato) + M (Mashed at first) |
| 34 | EDDA | 50% of addendum is back to front in ancient books (4) ADDE< (half of ADDEndum) |
| 36 | AREG | 100 square metres: the heart of Negev’s moving dunes (4) ARE (100 square metres) + G (heart of neGev) |
| 37 | ALAS | Troy’s not included in geographical publication, unfortunately (4) ATLAS (geographical publication) – T (Troy) |