Good stuff from IO, with some clever and amusing clues.
18,19 was my clear favourite, one of the easier ones but it made me laugh, I thought 15dn was clever too.
I can’t get to the bottom of 6 dn. All the rest of the clues are pretty tight, so I suspect that it is me that is failing to see the light rather than the clue failing to enlighten me. Any help welcome.
I’m off to the dentist now for some root canal treatment (always a pleasure), I’ll update the blog when I get back.
Hold mouse over clue number to see the clue.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ISABELLA | IS ABEL (biblical murder victim) LA (‘the’ in French) – Isabella of France was the mother of Edward III. The question mark in the clue mark indicates that this is just one example of an Isabella. |
| 6 | LAVABO | LAVA (eg pumice) with BO (unpleasant smell) – a ritual washing of hands during mass |
| 9 | LESSON | LESS ONe (last letter scored, cut out) – definition is ‘maths perhaps’ |
| 10 | TIRESOME | TO ME (the way I see it) going around IRE (anger) |
| 11 | SEMI | IS containing (wrapping around) ME (the writer) – definition is ‘not the biggest’ |
| 12 | T-BONE STEAK | TB (consumption) ONE’S TEAK (yellowish brown) – definition is ‘item on a plate’ |
| 14, 16 | LOLLIPOP LADY | I POP (a shot) LAD (one of the boys) in LOLLY (money) – a school road crossing safety officer, nick-named lollipop lady (or man) in the UK because they carry a round stop sign on a stick. |
| 18, 19 | GOOD THIN KING | Definition and cryptic definition |
| 21 | MOLYBDENUM | MUM (old dear) going around (on tour) (LED ON BY)* – definition is ‘Mo’, chemical symbol |
| 22 | NOPE | NO PE (missing games period, PE lesson) – definition is ‘but no’ stressed, Chambers gives the definition of nope as ‘an emphatic form of no’ |
| 24 | MISSOURI | IS SOUR in M1 (a big way, road) – definition is ‘the state’ |
| 26 | TISHRI | TIS (it is) HR I (hour 1 follows hour 0) – a month of the Hebrew calendar |
| 27 | AT BEST | Bowled in A TEST (a match in the Ashes series for example, cricket) |
| 28 | LARKSPUR | LARKS (plays tricks) PURe (innocent, mostly) – definition is ‘plant’ |
| Down | ||
| 2 | SWEDE | WED (married) in SE (London postal code area) |
| 3 | BASTILLE DAY | A (one) STILLED (becalmed) inside BAY (inlet) – a bank holiday in Paris |
| 4 | LINOTYPE | anagram (cryptically) of PLY and IT NEO – a typesetting machine |
| 5 | ACTION POTENTIAL | (ON PETTICOAT LANe I)* missing e=energy – a physiological electrical response |
| 6 | LARDER | DR inside (plundering?) REAL (genuine) reversed (rising) – definition is ‘food store’. I don’t understand ‘plundering’ here. The definition of plunder is ‘to carry off’, so REAL should be carried by DR, not the other way round. |
| 7 | VIS | vis-a-VIS (in relation to) missing VISA (authentication) – definition is ‘Roman power’, power in Latin |
| 8 | BOMBARDON | NO DRAB MOB (anything but boring gang) reversed (going north=read from bottom to top) – an organ stop |
| 13 | TELEKENESIS | Cryptic definition |
| 15 | OROLOGIST | hOROLOGIST (clockmaker dropping the H in cockney fashion) – one whose range (field of study) is the formation of mountain ranges |
| 17 | DIAMETER | DETER (put off) going round I AM – a line inside a circle |
| 20 | ADJUST | AD (bill, advertisement) has JUST (only) |
| 23 | PERDU | PER (through) DUel (a showdown at dawn, half the letters) – definition is ‘lost’ |
| 25 | SEE | SEEk (look for endlessly) gives (you find) a seat of a bishop. |
*anagram
Thanks, PeeDee, for a great blog, and Io for a super puzzle, with some wonderful definitions, my favourite being ‘repeated double-crosser’.
There’s a bit more going on in 4adn: Neo is ‘a setting machine’ – he set yesterday’s crossword!
Of the two of Mr Henderson’s puzzles today (he has an Elgar Toughie in the DT) I found this one much harder work. Very entertaining as usual thank you to him and thank you to PeeDee for the blog.
I did not enjoy this at all. Far too contrived.
I sympathise with you Lynette. I didn’t enjoy this, either. There was a lot of good clever stuff in this, but just a few clues overstepped the mark and ruined it.
I thought ‘a big way’ = MI was very poor. ‘SE’ is ‘a’ London postcode area and not ‘the’ London area, unless ‘SE’ is meant to be ‘South East’ which is also not acceptable as ‘the London area’. Also in 9 to ‘score’ does not mean to cut off, it means to make a notch or an incision so is inappropriate in this context.
Hi Joan,
I don’t like MI for M1 either, Roman numerals do not make sense for motorway numbers. Treating 1 and I as interchangeable characters has become a long esstablished tradition, so I guess we just have to live with it.
Score can also mean to delete or mark as deleted (in a typographical sense), so this is OK I think.