Nothing too difficult but certainly some very clever clueing and nice surfaces throughout. Loved 24ac.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CHUMMY | CHUMMY=”sociable” and I’ve vaguely heard of police calling a criminal “chummy”. |
| 4 | DISCUS | DISCUS[s] |
| 9 | BOLTON WANDERERS | (Brown’s not leader)* – nice long anagram. |
| 10 | MIRROR | double def. |
| 11 | CHANGING | C[riminals] HANGING |
| 12 | SEARCH ME | (cashmere)* |
| 14 | AGASSI | rev(IS SAGA). I like SAGA=”old relation” |
| 15 | THAMES | hidden in “wiTH A MESembryanthemum”. |
| 18 | GYRATING | G[alle]Y, RATING=sailor |
| 21 | FLUSHING | FLUSH IN G[uilders]. The English name for Vlissingen. |
| 22 | BEHEST | (Thebes)* |
| 24 | PUT IN THE PICTURE | very nice |
| 25 | SENTRY | SENT, RY=railway |
| 26 | ESTEEM | [Clos]E, rev(MEETS) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CHOC ICE | CHOICE around C[old] |
| 2 | UTTER | double def |
| 3 | MONARCH | MARCH around ON |
| 5 | INDIANA | I=”one’s”?, N[ame], DIANA the roman goddess |
| 6 | CARY GRANT | CRY around A, GRANT. “a piercing cry” was nice. |
| 7 | SARONGS | (on grass)* |
| 8 | GAUCHE | GAUCH[o], [hors]E = “horseback” |
| 13 | REMISSION | REMISS I ON |
| 16 | HOLD UPS | |
| 17 | SNIFTER | SIFTER around N[ag]. A riddler is a sievelike thing used in the manufacture of coins, I think. |
| 18 | GAGGED | another double def. |
| 19 | RABBITS | and another |
| 20 | NOSTRUM | NO ST RUM |
| 23 | HYTHE | HY (the extremes of HeavY) THE=article. |
17dn – I took this as a reference to a garden riddle, used to sift stones from the soil. I’ve never known them to be called riddlers, though.
5dn – “One’s” can be read as “One has”, i.e. “One (I) is followed by…”
17dn again – I suppose someone using a riddle would be a riddler, and also a sifter.
Manehi
I don’t know [SEARCH ME] whether you missed out 12ac deliberately. [I understood we didn’t need to do this any more.] I thought it was great – and 24ac has to be one of the shortest good clues I’ve seen for an answer of that length.
[I’ve just noticed a couple more you haven’t included – maybe you don’t ‘do’ anagrams. 🙂 I thought they were all pretty good ones.]
Eileen
I seem to have missed that we don’t have to leave clues out any more. I certainly have nothing against anagrams – I just thought these were quite gettable, and as I say, all the surface readings were very smooth today.
Having said all that, I had initially meant to include either 12 or 22 but forgot by the time I’d written up the rest :). Omitted clues will be added in in a sec.
I don’t think there’s been an official pronouncement on the matter, but I’ve stopped excluding clues from my own blogs, on the grounds that anyone who can read them can now also get to the Guardian crosswords site and use the Cheat button there.
(Ditto with regard to no longer missing out clues…)
I was totally unconvinced about CHUMMY being “villain identified by police?”, but I see it’s in the OED as “Police slang. A prisoner; a person accused or detained.” That seems pretty obscure to me (since it’s not in Collins and appeared in Chambers some time after the 1990 edition) but maybe this is just another generational disadvantage…
Fun crossword today, anyway – I was delighted to remember the frequently-clued NOSTRUM 🙂
I was hesitant about CHUMMY but it’s inclusion meant my third completed Guardian Xword. Cause for celebration. Some bloggers on here must be getting bored with my elation at full grids. Apologies. Also, I found this really fun – esp. 6dn
Oh dear. My spelling, punctuation and sense of sense seems to have deserted me in my delight…
I didn’t enjoy being made to choose between the puzzle and a free coffee…
Well done Pricklewedge – I remember my own elation at a first completed grid – it was half way up a mountain in Switzerland – the height went with the mood
That said – some very awkward ones – ‘chummy’ and ‘agassi’ were not as well clued as I would wish.
Once again – well done