Solving time: 9:02
A very rapid blog this week as I’m already running extremely late! I found this much easier than some of Araucaria’s recent puzzles. There is a geometric theme running through the puzzle, including various shapes, some of which are special cases of others (e.g. a square is a special case of a rectangle).
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | QUADRILATERAL; QUA + DR + (A + TEAR*) in ILL |
| 10 | ALDERS + HOT – home of much of the British Army. |
| 11 | P + IOUS |
| 13 | RECTANGLE; “WRECK” + TANGLE |
| 14 | NOR’EAST; (TREASON)* |
| 16 | RHO + M.B. + U.S. |
| 18 | MAD DOGS; ADD in MOGS – from a song by Noel Coward. |
| 20 | SHYSTER; S (= ‘society’) + HYSTER[ia] |
| 21 | SQUARE + ONE |
| 23 | CREE + P – this seems the wrong part of speech for the definition (‘What are reptiles doing’). |
| 24 | E + QUIP |
| 25 | [a]FRICA’S + SEE |
| 26 | PARALLELOGRAM; PAR + ALL, + rev. of ARGO in ELM |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | UNDESIRED; (NUDE)* + SIRED |
| 3 | DARTS; rev. of STRAD – a Strad, or Stradivarius, is a make of violin. |
| 4 | INHERIT; IN, + E.R. in HIT |
| 5 | AUTOCAR (hidden) |
| 6 | EXPIATORY; rev. of I.E. around X,P (= ’10p’) + A TORY |
| 7 | A + MON + [mornin]G |
| 8 | DANCING MASTER; (MAGNETIC DARNS)* – I was lucky to spot this early on from the wordplay, which probably helped towards what felt a fastish time. |
| 9 | ASSET-STRIPPER; SET in (ASS + TRIPPER) |
| 15 | APOCRYPHA; CRY in (A POP HA[s]) |
| 17 | BATTER + SEA |
| 19 | SHO(PF)UL[d] |
| 20/12 | SPECIAL CASES; (PASS ECCLESIA)* – the theme of the puzzle. |
| 22 | UVULA; (U + L) in UVA (= ‘grape’) – ‘One of you’ for ‘U’?! |
| 23 | CLANG (hidden) |
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