Time taken: 10:22 but with one very careless error as I was so convinced 1 across had a double L that I forced it in without thinking about where the I needed to go. So here’s everyone’s chance to beat the blogger, whee!
Odd puzzle this one, with a few devices and words I’m used to seeing in Mephisto rather than in the daily. When a Z and an X appeared early on in my solving I was on the lookout for a pangram, but it is missing a few letters. I did a double take at seeing SHELL twice, clued in a different way each time.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Will may have had four instances of these (9,5) |
| AUXILIARY VERBS – and not AUXILLARY VERBS which is what I had. Odd clue – WILL, MAY, HAVE, and HAD area all auxiliary verbs | |
| 9 | Intend to be in Paris to tour energy plant (5,4) |
| PLANE TREE – PLAN(intend) then ETRE(to be in French) surrounding E(energy) | |
| 10 | Bend a rim around dish (5) |
| PILAU – U(bend), A, LIP(rim) all reversed | |
| 11 | This writer’s about to chop wood for people associated with PA (5) |
| AMISH – I’M(this writer) reversed inside ASH(wood). The Amish are found mostly in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the USA | |
| 12 | One month enclosed in city leads to lewd behaviour (9) |
| INDECENCY – I(one) then DEC(month), ENC(enclosed) inside NY(city) | |
| 13 | Finish, say, golf round (8) |
| EGGSHELL – EG(say), G(golf), SHELL(round of ammunition) | |
| 15 | Israeli character halted round the bend (6) |
| DALETH – anagram of HALTED – fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet | |
| 17 | Detain the latest flyer (6) |
| INTERN – IN(the latest), TERN(flyer) | |
| 19 | Chat up drunk husband round rear of Ritz? The cheek! (8) |
| CHUTZPAH – anagram of CHAT,UP and H(husband) surrounding the last letter in ritZ | |
| 22 | Plug new gold vein until all are bored (2,7) |
| AD NAUSEAM – AD(plug), N(new), AU(gold), SEAM(vein) | |
| 23 | Bordeaux leaking litres, a sign something’s missing (5) |
| CARET – the Bordeaux is a CLARET, remove L(litres) | |
| 24 | Given some whitewash, being restricted without it (5) |
| LIMED – LIMITED(restricted) missing IT | |
| 25 | Seafood from Hull is served in fine hotel (9) |
| SHELLFISH – SHELL(hull), then IS inside F(fine) and H(hotel) | |
| 26 | Electricity bill that attracts little or no interest? (7,7) |
| CURRENT ACCOUNT – CURRENT(electricity), ACCOUNT(bill) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | A typical ball he tossed in order that most of us follow (14) |
| ALPHABETICALLY – anagram of A,TYPICAL,BALL,HE | |
| 2 | Investigative job, one in Glasgow, in Times newspaper (1-6) |
| X-RAYING – YIN(Scots one) inside X(times, multiplied by), RAG(newspaper). Wonder if anyone put in X-RATING | |
| 3 | Shelter chief doctor of old (5) |
| LEECH – LEE(shelter), CH(chief) | |
| 4 | Where flier’s managed to drop in relief? (8) |
| AIRFIELD – terrific all-in-one clue here. The wordplay is an anagram of FLIER inside AID(relief) | |
| 5 | Yankee regularly reeled in one’s profits (6) |
| YIELDS – Y(Yankee) then alternating letters in rEeLeD inside I’S(one’s) | |
| 6 | Anticipating men avoiding cough medicine? (9) |
| EXPECTANT – remove OR(men) from EXPECTORANT(cough medicine) | |
| 7 | Blondin needed this money in the bank (7) |
| BALANCE – double definition – Blondin was a tightrope walker | |
| 8 | Stop fighting that butchery he spread (4,3,7) |
| BURY THE HATCHET – anagram of THAT,BUTCHERY,HE | |
| 14 | Ambassador dealing with foreign articles later (9) |
| HEREUNDER – HE(ambassador), RE(dealing with), then UN and DER are the foreign articles | |
| 16 | Go along with gunmen to capture a monster (8) |
| CHIMAERA – CHIME(go along with), RA(gunmen) containing A | |
| 18 | Bird caught in a mountain, wings clipped (7) |
| TINAMOU – hidden inside caughT IN A MOUntain | |
| 20 | Border stitch that is initially unravelling (7) |
| PURLIEU – PURL stitch, then IE(that is), and the first letter of Unravelling | |
| 21 | Not as busy, having this class? (6) |
| LESSON – not as busy would be LESS ON | |
| 23 | Officer in charge of early complaint (5) |
| COLIC – COL(officer), IC(in charge) | |
I was an AUXILLARY! For the record:-)
FOI 3dn Leech (Why isn’t George be a tad more explanatory?)
LOI 13dn which was entirely wrong JAPETH!
COD 13ac EGGSHELL
WOD 19ac CHUTZPAH
Edited at 2020-05-18 12:45 pm (UTC)
Trisha