Happy New Year! The Editor (peace be upon him) has chosen to usher in 2026 with a fine puzzle from the old master, Izetti. I found this generally gentle and thus suitable for those who had a late night and a celebratory dram or two, but laced with three cryptic definitions of progressive difficulty.
Getting 1d early was important for smooth progress: I saw it straight away, and so was detained for only 06:24. It would have been a lot faster had it not been for 9d, though. Hope you all enjoyed it too, and here’s to another twelve months of cryptic pleasure.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 7 | They may succeed in due course (5) |
| HEIRS – the first, and for me the easiest, of our three cryptic definitions. | |
| 8 | They leave their country, changing regimes (7) |
| EMIGRES – anagram [changing] of “regimes”. Such a neat surface. | |
| 10 | Story a nobleman heard (7) |
| ACCOUNT -sounds like [heard] “a count”. | |
| 11 | See Conservative beginning to upset male stand-in (5) |
| LOCUM – LO [see] + C [Conservative] + UM [beginning to upset male]. | |
| 12 | Given a new coat? (9) |
| REPAINTED – the second cryptic definition. I couldn’t see this on first pass but the penny dropped immediately when I returned to it. | |
| 14 | Stuck in America, dreadfully bad person (3) |
| CAD – hidden [stuck in]. | |
| 15 | Winning the prize ultimately? Wow! (3) |
| GEE – final letters [ultimately]. | |
| 16 | Happened to be banished (6,3) |
| TURNED OUT – double definition. | |
| 18 | Some princess ending in German city (5) |
| ESSEN – hidden [some]. | |
| 20 | Taciturn prisoner in American city ignored curfew initially (7) |
| LACONIC – CON [prisoner] inside [in] LA [American city] + IC [first letters of ignored curfew, indicated by “initially”]. | |
| 22 | Learner in hospital department trailing after boss (7) |
| STUDENT – STUD [boss] and then [trailing after] ENT [hospital department]. | |
| 23 | Goddess shortened end of programme in sports stadium maybe (5) |
| VENUE – VENUs is our goddess; remove the S [shortened] and add an E [end of programme]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Greatest hero excited people looking for entertainment (12) |
| THEATREGOERS – anagram [excited] of “greatest hero”. | |
| 2 | I’m A Believer — record on random pile (8) |
| DISCIPLE – DISC [record] above [on] anagram [random] of “pile”. Very good definition. | |
| 3 | Hairy man and son in water in France (4) |
| ESAU – S for “son” inside EAU [water in France]. Esau may be the most famously hirsute man in history, thanks to Genesis 27:11: “And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man”. Rebekah duly covered Jacob’s hands with kidskin; blind old Isaac felt them as an ID check and thus was tricked into giving his blessing to his deceitful second son, not his first born as intended. What a 14a Jacob was. | |
| 4 | Act like bird and go away! (4,2)n |
| BEAT IT – BE A TIT [act like bird]. I loved this, COD from me. | |
| 5 | Is learner involved in clever trick free? (8) |
| DISLODGE – IS [is] + L [learner] inside [involved in] DODGE [clever trick]. I found it hard to isolate the definition as just the final word. | |
| 6 | Reptile caught by fabulous bird (4) |
| CROC – C [caught] + ROC [fabulous bird]. | |
| 9 | Having something in common with next door? (12) |
| SEMIDETACHED – our third cryptic definition, and for me by far the hardest. Fortunately the checkers included the first letter or I think I’d have failed, because I had to crack this by brute force alpha-trawling. My LOI by miles. I was surprised to see it clued as a single word since I have only ever seen it hyphenated. | |
| 13 | One set of religious books completed as planned (8) |
| INTENDED – I [one] + NT [New Testament, “set of religious books”] + ENDED [completed]. | |
| 14 | Ceremonially installing knight with boasting all round (8) |
| CROWNING– N [knight – chess notation] has CROWING [boasting] outside it [all around]. | |
| 17 | Tell family member, one very small being ignored (6) |
| RELATE – a “relative” is a “family member”; remove [ignored] the “i” [one] and “v” [very small]. | |
| 19 | Evade southern invader (4) |
| SHUN – S [southern] + HUN [invader]. | |
| 21 | Desperately want to leave king’s underground chamber (4) |
| CAVE – C{r}AVE. The removal of the “r” from “crave” [desperately want] is signalled by “to leave king”. I think we’ve had controversy over this construction before, but I understand it as “leave” here meaning “abandon” – thus if “crave” abandons “r”, then it becomes “cave”. | |