Our second monthly gourmet treat of a crossword for 2025 with the usual smorgasbord of entertaining wacky vocabulary from the dusty corners of the dictionary and witty wordplay.
In all it took me about 1hr 20 minutes. Word of the month goes to THANATOGNOMINIC but NYCTALOPS and RHYNCHOTA deserve a mention. As for wordplay of the month, that has to go to the ingenious APATITE where you have to lift and separate “mineral rights” and subsequently remove all Rs.
Thank-you clever setter!
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Learned Irishman travelling west, damned without St John (5) |
| OLLAV – LO{st} (damned) without the ST, reversed -> OL, LAV (lavatory; john). | |
| 4 | British single about embracing semi-uneasy charms (9) |
| BRELOQUES – BR (British) and SOLE (single) reversed, [about], -> ELOS. about half of QUE{asy} (uneasy). | |
| 9 | Abrasive retrospective energy provider probes corruption of jury (9) |
| EMBRACERY – CARB (energy provider) [retrospective] -> BRAC, in EMERY (abrasive). | |
| 10 | Back in dock, bishop entering affray exposed churchman once (5) |
| KEBLE – Last letter in docK, B (bishop) in {m}ELE{e} (affray) [exposed]. | |
| 11 | When spirit is due, bar swapping case of cheap bottled wine with tea, OK (11,4) |
| EXPECTATION WEEK – The spirit is the Holy Spirit. EXCEPT (bar) swapping the outside letters of CheaP -> EXPECT, [bottled] (wine tea OK)*. Wow! That took some parsing! | |
| 12 | Resin, the first university’s extracted from opiate (7) |
| LADANUM – LA{u}DANUM (opiate) without the first U (university). | |
| 14 | I now understand male prophet catches fish (7) |
| MAHSEER – AH (I now understand) in M (male) SEER (prophet). | |
| 16 | Might they drop round in Caledonian coastal waters? (7) |
| SEALCHS – |
|
| 19 | Ivy barely turning yellow, as is sequoia (7) |
| VOWELLY – ({i}v{y] yellow)* [turning] removing the outside letters of IVY [barely]. With 5 vowels and 2 consonants, I guess “sequoia” is pretty VOWELLY. As is “queue” and several other 5 letter words. Can you think of any other longer ones? An internet search found me “euouae”. | |
| 21 | Possibly not a coma, nothing close to death (15) |
| THANATOGNOMINIC – [possibly] (not a come nothing)*. Great anagram. | |
| 23 | Former dispatch boat is to put in river shortly (5) |
| AVISO – IS in AVO{n} (river) [shortly]. | |
| 24 | Hit Victorian dandy into endless smut (9) |
| SMASHEROO – MASHER (Victorian dandy) in SOO{t} (smut) without the last letter. | |
| 25 | Very confident daughter displaying subordinary signs (9) |
| TRESSURED – TRES (very) SURE (confident) D (daughter). | |
| 26 | At last, tea urn sent round Clackmannanshire town (5) |
| ALLOA – Last letter of {te}A, OLLA (urn) all reversed -> ALLOA. My first one in as I have an aunt and uncle who moved there last year after many years living in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Snowflake periodically baleful, upsetting group of old fossils (9) |
| OLENELLUS – snOwfLakE [periodically], SULLEN (baleful) [upsetting] -> NELLUS. | |
| 2 | Like a phalarope — shy, mottled, with head slightly dipped (7) |
| LOBIPED – LOB (throw; shy), PIED (mottled) moving the first letter down a bit -> IPED. | |
| 3 | Seaweed containing iodine, mostly cut up (5) |
| VRAIC – I (iodine) in CARV{e} (cut up) [mostly], all reversed -> VRAIC. | |
| 4 | Flower in channel adjacent to pollarded tree (3,4) |
| BEE BALM – BEEB (BBC; channel) {p}ALM (tree) without it’s top letter [pollarded]. | |
| 5 | See island immersed in total state of delight (7) |
| ELYSIUM – ELY (see; bishopric), I (island) in SUM (total). | |
| 6 | Little wood pigeon’s half worried with hawks beginning to attack (9) |
| OAKENSHAW – Anagram of pigEON [‘shalf] HAWKS and first letter of attack – i.e. (eon hawks a)* [worried]. | |
| 7 | Let me see both sides of beaver before Edmund’s visor (7) |
| UMBRERE – UM (let me see) [both sides of] B{eave}R ERE (before). Edmund as in Spenser. | |
| 8 | Exhausted sheep and deer shiver up north (5) |
| SPELK – Outside letters [exhausted] of S{hee}P, ELK (deer). Shiver as in splinter. | |
| 13 | US finance hub introducing trade agreement primarily cuts off one with diminished vision (9) |
| NYCTALOPS – NYC (New York City; US financial hub), first letters of Trade Agreement [primarily] LOPS (cuts off). | |
| 15 | Little fliers notary distributed about church hospital charges (9) |
| RHYNCHOTA – H (hospital) in [charges], (notary)* [distributed] [about] CH (church). Wow! Top IKEAN construction! | |
| 17 | Mineral rights initially squandered throughout separate ceremony (7) |
| APATITE – APA{r}T (separate) {r}ITE (ceremony) without the first letter [initially] of Rights. Very clever! | |
| 18 | Boer pedlar‘s small, effective kitty (7) |
| SMOUSER – S (small) MOUSER (kitty). | |
| 19 | Film involves new network site that Norsemen visited (7) |
| VINLAND – N (new) LAN (Local Area Network; network) in VID (video; film) | |
| 20 | Shot rang out, echo pervading large lake (7) |
| LANGREL – (rang)* [out} E (echo in the phonetic alphabet), in L (large) L (lake). | |
| 21 | Crown taken off royal family tree (5) |
| TUART – {s}TUART (royal family) without first letter [crown taken off] | |
| 22 | Ace pop duo served up alcohol (5) |
| MAHWA – A (ace) WHAM (pop duo) reversed [served up]. | |
Re VOWELLY: Onomatopoeia has 8 vowels to 4 consonants.
Nice one. Thanks.
I actually rather enjoyed this one, with several clues being solved in the usual way, even if the words were odd. THANATOGNOMINIC was really good, the wordplay very much on point. I’ll admit use of Electric Chambers helped to unscramble the letters!
SEALCHS parses as SEA LOCHS – O &lit
Thanks. Good spot! And rather a better clue than I’d thought. I’ll update the blog.
Thanks for the blog. Why anyone would choose to live in Alloa is beyond me.. Th0ugh, compared to Stornoway, at least you can hang your washing out and get a pint on a Sunday.