Alfie is an occasional setter who invariably gives us a puzzle on an Alfie-betical theme, and this is true here as well. Themed crosswords can appear contrived, and annoy some solvers who might find them clunky. However, I always enjoy their cleverness and craft, so count me as a fan.
I’ll describe what I have found at the end of the blog, to give you all a chance to find it for yourselves. Also, sorry for my radio silence on this blog this week. I started the week with a 72 hour golf trip to Wiltshire, and yesterday did a round trip from Surrey to Scotland for a very sad family funeral. However, that is all behind us, and we can now move on. I have completed all of the QCs this week with times between 10 and 13 minutes (except for this one!), which may be related to exhaution. However, I have had neither the time nor opportunity to comment here until now.
Across
1 Sale that sounds weird to some? (6)
BAZAAR – Sounds a little like BIZARRE (weird). One of those homophone clues that doesn’t quite work in my opinion. The first syllable is definitely not the same sound in the two words.
5 Told stories added by brief, regularly recalled (6)
FIBBED – Alternate letters (regularly), reversed (recalled) in aDdEd By BrIeF.
8 Reports Athletic Club matters (8)
ACCOUNTS – A{thletic} C{lub} and COUNTS (matters).
9 Fish a healthy red colour, tailless (4)
RUDD – RUDD{y} (healthy red colour), tailless = drop the last letter.
10 Measure of length of payment time (4)
FEET – FEE (payment) and T{ime}.
11 Widespread agitating I’d suffer endlessly (7)
DIFFUSE – Anagram (agitating) of [I’D SUFFE[r}] (endlessly).
12 Returning favour to Ms Darling perhaps, as compensation (6,5)
SAVING GRACE – This is where I struggled with the parsing. Ms Darling is Grace Darling, a lighthouse keeper’s daughter whose participation in the sea rescue of a handful of survivors from the shipwrecked Forfarshire in 1838 brought her to the attention of society, and made her a heroine. A SAVING GRACE is a compensation, or compensating virtue or quality, so answer and definition fit. However, how does the wordplay work? The best I could arrive at is this: Grace Darling undoubtedly saved lives in her heroic rescue, If one were to save Grace, one would be returning the favour. Can anyone do better than that?
15 Arrogant school bowler, perhaps (4,3)
HIGH HAT – HIGH (school, as in HIGH school) and HAT (bowler is an example of a type of HAT). To HIGH HAT is to adopt a superior attitude towards, or to ignore socially, or to be arrogant.
16 Pilgrimage starts off hopeful and joyful journey (4)
HAJJ – First letters from (starts off) H{opeful} A{nd} J{oyful} J{ourney}. The HAJJ is the name of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
17 A couple of lines penned by each girl (4)
ELLA – A couple or pair of L{ines} to give LL, which is inside EA{ch}.
18 Back in Paris, I annoy local French citizen (8)
LYONNAIS – Reverse hidden (back in) in {pari}S, I ANNOY L{ocal}. LYONNAISe (usually written with the final E) is a cooking term meaning cooked or served with onions, but comes from ‘a la Lyonnais’, of or made in Lyon or the Lyonnais region, which can equally apply to a citizen of the region.
20 Lincoln’s assassin, by front of stage, stalls (6)
BOOTHS – BOOTH (John Wilkes, assassin of Abe Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre) and S{tage} (front of stage).
21 Stylish clothes, ultimately, dyer’s transformed (6)
DRESSY – Anagram (transformed) of [DYER’S] and S ({clothe}S ultimately).
Down
2 Family on radio taking their bow? (7)
ARCHERS – A cryptic hint to give the name of British Radio’s most famous family, the ARCHERS, broadcast since 1951 (a good year, that!).
3 Sailor not at home? That’s concerning (5)
ABOUT – AB (sailor) and OUT (not at home).
4 Manage to flee (3)
RUN – Double definition.
5 Female at first rubbished this gift, causing a punch-up (9)
FISTFIGHT – Anagram (rubbished) of [THIS GIFT] with F{emale} (at first).
6 Live with artist, accepting vilification, in Caribbean location (7)
BERMUDA – BE (live) with RA (artist) containing MUD (vilification).
7 Fellow spun around endlessly (5)
EDDIE – EDDIE{d} (spun around) endlessly = drop the last letter.
11 Foul places knight visits heaving dull sigh (9)
DUNGHILLS – Anagram (heaving) of [DULL SIGH] with N (Knight, N, chess notation) ‘visiting’.
13 Wandering around Virginia, on allowance (7)
VAGRANT – VA (Virginia, standard abbreviation) on GRANT (allowance).
14 Exhorts, in French, to marry son (7)
ENJOINS – EN (‘in’ in the French language), JOIN (to marry) and S{on}.
15 A greeting the chap is going to love (5)
HELLO – HE’LL (he will, the chap is going to) and O (love).
16 Joint that’s nothing exceptional inside (5)
HINGE – Hidden (inside) in {not}HING E{xceptional}.
19 Elderly Cockney’s influence (3)
OLD – HOLD equals influence. If said by a cockney, he’d probably say ‘OLD and drop the aitch.
Back to Alfie’s theme. Answers to all of the across clues contain double letters, starting with AA in 1a, BB in 5a, CC in 8a, etc, working through the alphabet in order, but missing occasional letters. We continue with DD, EE, FF, GG, HH, JJ, LL, NN, OO and finally SS in 21a. A couple of the down answers also feature double letters, 11d and 15d. In addition, all but seven of the twenty-five clues, across and down, feature double letters.
Alfie also sets under the name Noel, usually at Christmas. Famously, in one of his Xmas puzzles a few years ago, Alfie / Noel included a grid that was one letter short of a pangram (called a Lipogram). The missing letter? It was L that was missing – No El! Today, the only clue that does not contain a letter L is 14d.
Please let me know if you spot anything else.
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