…will appear here – finally getting a round tuit at 12:30am on Tuesday!
Solving time 28:09, although should have been a lot faster. There were a lot of 14- and 17-letter multi-word phrases interlocking in this puzzle, and I was able to get all of them before starting on any of the other clues. It was a couple of weeks ago now, and I can’t remember what held me up.
Across
| 7 | C.E.,SAREWITCH(with races*) – actually a 2m2f flat race run at Newmarket in October. The 9/2 fav Detroit City won it last year. |
| 16 | ‘ALLO,DIAL – a feudal type of freehold. |
| 31 | SENT TO COVENTRY – For non-Brits, Lady Godiva rode naked round the town on a horse to get her husband Leofric to lower taxes on the poor. Totally unrelated, to be sent to Coventry means to be ostracised. According to Brewer’s, this is because the people of Coventry once hated soldiers so much that if a woman was caught talking to one she was instantly outlawed! I’ve lived here for 3 years now and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a soldier in that time, maybe it’s still true… |
| 44 | DENTALIA (laid a net*) |
| 53 | A,FOOT – not metrical as in SI units, but in poetic rhythm. |
| 54 | REDUCED TO THE RANKS – I had to get the Tippex out here, as I got the case wrong and put REDUCE TO THE RANKS_ with a letter short at first. |
Down
| 1 | P(A,LIND)ROM,I,C – ref Jenny Lind, aka The Swedish Nightingale. 51dn is an example. |
| 7 | COUSINLY – ref. Balzac’s Le Cousin Pons and La Cousine Bette. |
| 10 | W,A,LLAH(hall rev) – a familiar term to anyone who remembers It Ain’t Half Hot Mum! |
| 22 | S(T)OLON – a runner in the sense of a shoot from the base of a plant. I knew the Athenian statesman, so it was easy to guess right. |
| 33 | (yo)U,SHAN’T – an island in the English Channel, but not one of the Channel Islands. |
| 39 | C(REST)AR,UN |
| 46 | ANAGRAM – I’m sure this made sense when I solved it, but I don’t get the wordplay now (it is late though). |
had heard of La Cousine Bette; hadn’t heard of
Le Cousin Pons; had heard of de Balzac; hadn’t heard of du Balzac!