Solving time: 6:04
Apart from one question mark over 23dn, much more accurate clueing than normal this week. Nothing too difficult, apart from a couple of less well known names, one of which (the artist Watts at 10ac) caused me a bit of a hold-up on the right-hand side towards the end.
Sorry this is a bit late: I did have a ‘posting window’ earlier in the day but my computer was in a mood.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | FREEF(OR)ALL |
| 6 | L(O)AD |
| 9 | ER + R(O)R – the wordplay here is ‘Hesitation by bishop to admit old [heresy]’. For ‘to admit’ to make sense in the cryptic reading, ‘Hesitation by bishop’ has to be considered to be “in brackets”. There’s nothing wrong with this, except that it’s really just ‘bishop’ doing the admitting, so maybe ‘Hesitation by bishop admitting old heresy’ would have been slightly better? I think I’m picking nits here – which is certainly testament to the fact that this is a much better puzzle than usual! |
| 10 | GIG + A + WATTS – the artist (and sculptor) is George Frederic Watts. This was one of my last solves, along with 4dn and 11dn. |
| 12 | COMPASSIONATE; (A MONASTIC POSE)* – nice anagram, but took me longer than it should have to solve. |
| 14 | ABERDEEN; (DEER)* in A BEN – a ben being a Scottish mountain. |
| 15 | AGREES; (GREASE)* |
| 19 | COTTAGER; COT + (GREAT)* |
| 21 | TURN (= ‘performance’) OF THE YEAR |
| 24 | S[ain]T + AND + FAST |
| 25 | I + TA(L)Y |
| 26 | SEE + D |
| 27 | IN PROGRESS; PRO in (SINGERS)* |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | FLEA; rev. of ELF, + A |
| 2 | EARACHE (hidden) |
| 3 | FORD + MAD + OX + FORD – nice clue, with two different indications for ‘ford’. I’ve only heard of Ford Madox Ford from a previous crossword and (if I recall correctly) a confusing clue if you hadn’t heard of the author, but the wordplay here was helpful. |
| 4 | REGRADED, from REGARDED – I took a while to spot this. |
| 5 | LAG + OS (= ordinary seaman) |
| 7 | OUTR(AG)E |
| 11 | WOOLGATHERING; WOO + (GAL)* + THE RING – tricky without the initial W. |
| 13 | RAP ARTISTS; (PARIS TARTS)* |
| 16 | DO + PESTER – cleverly broken up. |
| 20 | GAR(BAG)E – ‘Gare’ as in Gare du Nord. |
| 22 | TWAIN; (I WANT)* |
| 23 | DYES; “DIE” + S – I suspect this clue was meant to read “Colours fade…”, but I’ll give the printers the benefit of the doubt: the singular ‘colour’ for ‘dyes’ is just about ok, and the surface makes sense if you accept “Colour fade” as a nounal phrase. |
Just the 3 “easies” not on the blog:
17a Additional building girl found by river (6)
ANN EXE
8d (Any spiders)* must be disposed of in medical establishment (10)
DISPENSARY. Well they must – what about the arachnophobes who need their prescriptions?
18d Raced up gaining speed to give an account (7)
NAR RATE