What a relief. When no crossword appeared on Monday, I wondered if the Indy had quietly dropped it, but when I rang them they admitted their error. To do them justice, they did at least say that they’d made a mistake, and this morning they didn’t hide behind “technical reasons”; “a production error” was at least more or less the case. “A cock-up” would have been more accurate, though.
Up to Virgilius’s usual standard. The words at the perimeter are all homophones, although those down the left side stretch things a bit. Perhaps in Virgilius’s Northern Irish accent they sound more similar than they do to me.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SOLE — if it isn’t in the shoal it’s alone, or sole |
| 3 | SEOUL — first letters |
| 6 | SOUL — two defs |
| 10 | R(E M)AP |
| 12 | REPRIMAND (?) — it is I think re(pr(eceding) 1 man)d, although I can find nothing in Chambers, Collins or the COD to suggest that pr = preceding |
| 13 | HOMOPHONIC — referring to the perimeter entries |
| 17 | O(U)NCE |
| 18 | THE MIKADO — (had OK time)* |
| 20 | EASY TERMS — two defs |
| 21 | GREBE — (E Berg)rev. |
| 22 | THREESOMES — (see mothers)* |
| 27 | O TO LOG IS T |
| 28 | R ON DO |
| 29 | ROD E — the bay is a horse |
| 30 | ROWED — two defs |
| 31 | (B)ROAD(s) |
| Down | |
| 1 | SORE — one end of shinbone is s or e |
| 2 | LAMPOONIST — 0 in (Platonism)* |
| 4 | EARTHSTAR — (that’s rare)* |
| 5 | UN(P)I(o)N |
| 7 | OKAY — not quite sure, but I think it’s o Kay, where Kay is both the name of a girl and the letter K |
| 8 | LODE — (old)* E |
| 9 | WITCHING HOUR — two defs |
| 11 | PRO T(h)E STATION |
| 14 | SOWER — (worse)* |
| 15 | GAVE REIN TO — (overeating)* |
| 16 | L OWED — 25, say is mooed |
| 19 | brackENS HEATHEr — this fairly straightforward hidden clue defeated me until the very end, when I gave up and cheated with an electronic wordfinder. Fool |
| 23 | R (wort)H IN O |
| 24 | SO A R(ebellion) |
| 25 | MOOD — 0-0 in M(an. Ut)D. |
| 26 | L(0)AD |
3D REPRIMAND is PR,1,MAN inside RED PR is from Publicity preceding is just a link word
Thanks for explaining 1D “S or E” which I only got after seeing the HOMOPHONIC THREESOMES theme.
Strangely enough, UNSHEATHE Was the last one I got. Clever stuff as ever from Virgilius.
(I didn’t work out the HOMOPHONIC THREESOMES answers and ended up putting in MONOPHONIC)
Agreed that SOWER stretches homophony a bit. In my opinion, before homophones are used, they should be rigorously checked- in Chambers, preferably- to see whether they are actually homophones.
ensheathe defeated me too, came here to find the answer, what an idiot, I know there should be a hidden word every time!
I do love Virgillius, even when I cant finish him I always enjoy his work
A nice one. I didn’t follow some of the wordplay but answers were obvious from the checking letters – e.g. ‘reprimand’ where the definition was obviously ‘carpet’. but I didn’t get ‘homophonic’ either till I put the checking letters into a spell-checker, yet it should have been obvious!