Time once again for my quadrihebdomadal appointment with Hypnos.
I looked that word up on the internet, of course, but I think it was the only one this week. This seemed to be an enjoyable yet relatively tractable puzzle, which is attested to by my almost complete lack of notes and scribbles on the paper.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | LAWRENCE DURRELL – D.H. LAWRENCE + (ERR< in DULL). Not a writer with whose work I’m overly familiar, though I remember seeing the name on my parent’s bookshelves as a youngster. |
| 9 | BASSIST – B[agatelles] + ASSIST. |
| 10 | TESTING – TE + STING. |
| 11 | TROUT – U in TROT. |
| 12 | PRIVILEGE – (VILE in PRIG) + E. |
| 13 | RUST BELT – BUTLERS* + T. |
| 15 | FAT CAT – FAT[e] + CAT. A “queen” is a female cat. |
| 18 | FANDOM – F + [r]ANDOM. |
| 19 | GOVERNOR – (OVER + N) in Al GOR[e]. |
| 22 | RESIDENCE – (CIDER’S [s]EEN)*. |
| 24 | ADIEU – DIE in Au. |
| 25 | IKEBANA – BAN in IKEA. |
| 26 | PLACEBO – (ACE + B) in PLO[t]. |
| 27 | HALF-HEARTEDNESS – HAL + (DENSE FATHER’S)*. |
| Down | |
| 1 | LOBSTER – BEST* in LOR. |
| 2 | WISCONSIN – (SCON[e] + I) in WIN. |
| 3 | EDICT – a slight whimsical one. An online reference work could be an E-DICTIONARY, of which this could be a shortened version. |
| 4 | CATAPULT – (A TAP) in CULT. |
| 5 | DETAIL – double definition. |
| 6 | RUSTICATE – (US + TIC) in RATE. |
| 7 | ELITE – E + LITE. |
| 8 | LEG-REST – cryptic definition. |
| 14 | BLOODBATH – BLOOD + (T[umultuous] in BAH). |
| 16 | CENTIPEDE – CENT + 1P + E + D + E. E, D and E again are all musical notes, which is a little non-deterministic, but a common device all the same. |
| 17 | HONEYPOT – PEONY* in HOT. |
| 18 | FURNISH – double definition. A reference to David Furnish, of course. |
| 20 | RAUCOUS – homophone of “raw cuss”, though I expect at least one comment saying “not in my accent it isn’t”. |
| 21 | ANKARA – K in (A RANA)<. |
| 23 | SHELL – double definition. |
| 24 | AWARD – [blai]R in A WAD. One of those well-hidden definitions where you have to force yourself to mentally separate “Tony” and “Blair”. |
Thanks for the blog, Simon, though I am sure you meant to say “PEONY* in HOT” for 17d
16D is IP (for 1p) after CENT. Slightly puzzled by 23D; is this a double definition or a triple? Not certain about wordplay. What is the second definition after “bit of explosive”?
Hi gwep
Re 23dn. From Chambers under SHELL: “The outer, often waterproof or showerproof, layer of a lined garment such as a jacket, coat, trousers, etc”.
Well you’re obviously rather sharper than I am Simon, because I found this one on the hard side for Hypnos. His puzzles usually take me less than half an hour, but this time I see, together with several scribbles, that it took me 56 minutes.
But no quibbles. It was a good crossword.
I didn’t know that meaning of ‘shell’, but because of ‘shell suit’ I suspected it to exist.