Solving time: 50 minutes, with a dictionary used for the last couple of clues.
This started out easily enough, but I got very bogged down in the SW corner (44A and D, 48, 54, 43) and eventually resorted to looking things up for 48A and 43D. On reflection I should probably have managed without.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 14 | SLEDGE – short for a sledgehammer, and abuse (noun or verb) on the cricket field |
| 25 | ANEMONES – cheeky clue: Guys are bowled over by my bloomers (guys = MEN, are = A) all rev., then mine = ONE’S |
| 39 | REEDS=”reads”,TOP – tempted for a while by ‘reed pipe’ |
| 44 | P,RESENTMENT – some kind of legal statement… |
| 48 | P(Al(l))O,MINOS – Minos of Knossos was a King. |
| 54 | R(OS)ACE – a rose window |
| Down | |
| 3 | BLACK MASS – the witchcraft version of the communion service. This would have been my last clue solved if that SW corner had been easier. |
| 23 | STOP ALL THE CLOCKS – a quote from an Auden poem. The definition of a cultured person used to be “Can hear the William Tell overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger”. How about “Can hear ‘stop all the clocks’ without thinking of Four Weddings and a Funeral“? |
| 37 | EXEUNT OMNES – a stock stage direction for the end of a play. |
| 43 | GERMANIC – airmen* in GC = George Cross. Even def. by example done the pukka way with indication didn’t help me here! |
| 44 | PO(P)STER – bill = poster |
And in 18A does “criminal” indicate the anagram? If so I’ve never seen it used before.
18A: Well, by a process of elimination it has to. A bit of a stretch perhaps, but my cryptic apprenticeship in the fairly lax world of the Guardian puzzle means I still have some brain cells that recognise anything with the faintest suggestion of change or dodginess as a possible anag. indicator.