A 36 minute slog with few highlights. I’m never keen on “dictionary” words, but this one had four – australopithecus, raclette, horus and imbricated – all in the top right corner. There were two others entered from wordplay – LUCKY and OUIJA – that I couldn’t adequately explain.
Shameless plug – Anax has kindly hosted one of my efforts at setting. If you fancy a go it can be found here. It would be nice if you let me know what you think.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | CORPUS CHRISTI – a double def being both an Oxford University college and a mainly Roman Catholic festival |
| 8 | UP THE WALL – antoher double def but one, “where spiderman may go”, slightly playful |
| 13 | EL CID – EL being LIE rev and eyeless |
| 14 | SWITCH,BLADE – a switch is a thin branch of a tree, split at the business end and used for punishing people. I think I’d better go for a lie down |
| 15 | TACIT – T[ibet] + A CIT[-y] |
| 16 | SCOTCH EGG – EGG being E[atin]G + G[ood]. Scotch isn’t really a drink, but whisky is. |
| 17 | NAIL – another double def |
| 18 | RACLETTE – RACE around LETT. A Swiss dish of cheese melted in front of a fire then scraped onto a plate – a bit like cheese on toast without the toast but with added scraping. |
| 20 | TUNDRA – TUNA with DR[y] in it |
| 21 | AUSTRALOPITHECUS – take the letters from UP A CHESS TUTORIAL and try and make a word using the template ?U?T?A?O?I?H?C?S. I’m not too keen on crosswords that rely on shoehorning words like this in. Wikipedia tells me that the brain of Australopithecus was about 35% of the size of the modern human brain, hence its closeness to the word “Australian” 😛 |
| 24 | DEBUTANTE – DANTE with a TUBE inserted and twisted |
| 26 | NO ENTRY – more reversals with NEON rev + TRY |
| 27 | RASTA – alternate letters of ReAdS aTlAs. Bob Marley the reggae legend famous for song like No Rum And No Pie (I think that’s what he said) |
| 29 | PARADE,GROUND |
| 31 | FIRE ESCAPE – SEER IF rev then C,APE (carbon copy – nice one setter!) |
| 33 | RA,RING,TOGO |
| 35 | DRAG ONES FEET – DRAGON then FEE in E,ST, E being the middle of FLEET |
| 38 | IZMIR – “is mere”. Turkey’s 3rd most populous city and 2nd biggest port. I once landed there, but Wikipedia seems to be unaware of that. |
| 39 | OINKING – OKing around IN |
| 40 | PROCURESS – O,CUR in PRESS. Two new words here for me, BAWD and PROCURESS are both keepers of prostitutes |
| 42 | SPAGHETTI WESTERN – “what we may wind up eating”=SPAGHETTI (brilliant) + WE,STERN |
| 44 | WHITER – W[asherwoman] + (THEIR)* |
| 47 | NO,TABLES |
| 49 | SWAN – first letters of Song When Approaching Nirvana |
| 50 | [-L]IMITATION – another great def with “art of impressionists” |
| 52 | LUCKY – LUCY around K. Lucy must be a noted HORUS but I don’t know what this means. Google is uncharacteristically tight-lipped on the subject No wonder I didn’t understand it – the clue refers to 21, not 22.Lucy was the name given to an almost complete Australopithecus skeleton. Thanks to Linxit for pointing out my error |
| 53 | OTTER HOUNDS – (DOES NOT HURT)* my first blogging otter clue 😉 |
| 54 | OUI,JA – I need help again, What does this have to do with “she” or “she wrote” More thanks to Linxit . I got the second “yes” wrong – it’s Ouida, a 19th century novellist |
| 55 | WEDNESDAY – easiest clue of the lot. Sheffield Wednesday are a football team more famous for their funny name than for their football successes |
| 56 | TAKEN FOR A RIDE – two very weak definitions and another very easy clue |
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| Down | |
| 1 | CREOSOTED – CREED around O,SOT. |
| 2 | RACCOON – RAN around CC,OO (two hundred ducks) |
| 3 | UNDECORATED = (COURTED DEAN)* |
| 4 | CUSTER – included in specifiC US TERritories |
| 5 | RAIN GAUGE – Spooner’s Gain Rage |
| 6 | SECOND,TO N,ONE |
| 7 | IMBRICATED – (TIMBER+ACID)* – another got by best-fitting the remaining letters |
| 8 | URAL – included in horticultURAList. I really don’t know why but I really struggled with this. My first thought was that it was an inclusion clue but couldn’t see anything. Then, the biggest cliche in the crossword world and I didn’t spot that flower=something that flows for ages! |
| 9 | THE FAMILY REUNION – (IN A TRULY FINE HOME)* A play by toilets, strangely |
| 10 | EX,TOL – TOL being LOT rev |
| 11 | ASCETIC – AS CE[-l]TIC, more footy, this time Scottish |
| 12 | LETTERS PAT[-i]ENT – Instrument issued by a government granting a right or conveying title to a private individual, whatever that means. |
| 19 | SO,O,THING |
| 22 | [-c]HORUS – a falcon-headed sun god, one being called Lucy apparently (see 52a) |
| 23 | KNIGHTS OF THE ROAD – (GOOD FATHER THINKS)* |
| 25 | B,ER,TRAM |
| 28 | SIAMESE – (SEES)* around 1A.M. |
| 29 | PARKINSONS LAW – PARK then SONS IN LAW with IN moved |
| 30 | ORGAN,DIE |
| 32 | BRIGHTON ROCK – BROCK around RIGHT ON |
| 34 | NORAH – NOAH around R |
| 36 | SOUTH DAKOTA – (OK DO THAT USA)* I don’t think I’ve ever seen “anagram” used as an anagram indicator before. Poor clue, I thought. |
| 37 | LIVERWURST – LIVER[-y] + “WORST”. Surely not, isn’t it pronounced VURST? |
| 40 | PER,PIG,NAN – French city near the Spanish border having an airport that budget airlines fly to. |
| 41 | SHRINK,AGE |
| 43 | ANTACID – formic acid can be made from distilled ants |
| 45 | TBILISI-second spelling out of a word using first letters, this time “to be invested, light industry seems ideal”. |
| 46 | FIASCO – IF rec+AS+CO |
| 48 | BOYLE – Robert, the chemist responsible for Boyle’s Law and “BOIL”. No mention of Susan |
| 51 | STAY – double def |
54ac is actually OUIDA, not OUIJA. She was a 19th C. novelist.