The recent sad news about Richard Rogan gave this typically lovely puzzle from Felix – one of his many pseudonyms – a degree of poignancy while solving.
I made my through it with no major hold-ups in a roughly par time of 6:31. Several minutes thereafter looking in vain for a theme: it doesn’t seem like a very promising assembly of words for one, so I’ll be interested to see if sharper eyes can tease something out.
Many thanks to Felix for all the wonderful puzzles over the years.
| Across | |
| 1 | Happens to include pastry dish for those inside (9) |
| OCCUPIERS – OCCURS (happens) to include PIE (pastry dish) | |
| 6 | Face attack in street? (3) |
| MUG – double definition | |
| 8 | I’m covered in paint playing drums (7) |
| TIMPANI – IM covered by an anagram (playing) of PAINT | |
| 9 | Early part of day for poet to hear lament (5) |
| MOURN – sounds like MORN, a poetic way to describe the early part of the day | |
| 10 | Young wizard’s wife with list showing craftsperson’s tool (7,5) |
| POTTERS WHEEL – [Harry] POTTER’S (wizard’s) W(ife) HEEL (list) | |
| 12 | Bill the magistrate (4) |
| BEAK – double definition, the second a slang term of unknown origin going back to the mid 16th century. | |
| 13 | Irish Gaelic featuring in teachers’ seminar (4) |
| ERSE – “featuring in” teachER SEminar. Slight error in the clue here, with the double-S, that would probably have been picked up under normal circumstances. | |
| 17 | Group into match-fixing can’t deny a gig that’s corrupt (6,6) |
| DATING AGENCY – anagram (corrupt) of CANT DENY A GIG | |
| 20 | Charlie, along with Oscar, promoting a positive attitude (3-2) |
| CAN-DO – C(harlie) AND (along with) O(scar) | |
| 21 | Black sheep runs into railway factory for drink (7) |
| BREWERY – B(lack) EWE (sheep) R(uns) into RY (railway) | |
| 23 | Bag in the boot, we hear! (3) |
| SAC – sounds (“we hear”) like SACK (boot). As in to give someone the boot/sack. | |
| 24 | Being plump, bachelor wears Ben’s suit badly (9) |
| TUBBINESS – B(achelor) wears an anagram (badly) of BENS SUIT | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Grass pop artist used regularly (4) |
| OATS – p O p A r T i S t “used regularly” | |
| 2 | In advance, post offices put together (7) |
| COMPOSE – into COME (advance) put POS (Post Offices) | |
| 3 | Gym needed by a climber (3) |
| PEA – PE (gym) needed by A | |
| 4 | Political exile maybe once before commandeering fighter plane (6) |
| EMIGRE – ERE (before) commandeering MIG (fighter plane) | |
| 5 | Homes we rebuilt, note, in a particular location (9) |
| SOMEWHERE – anagram (rebuilt) of HOMES WE, RE (note, do re me etc.) | |
| 6 | Army medic to employ a shrinking violet? (5) |
| MOUSE – MO (medical officer = army medic) to USE (employ) | |
| 7 | Moderate felt neglected, somewhat upset (6) |
| GENTLE – fELT NEGlected, somewhat = partially, upset = reversed | |
| 11 | Removing solicitor grabbing a monarch (6,3) |
| TAKING OUT – TOUT (solicitor) grabbing A, KING (monarch) | |
| 14 | Hide in empty storehouse on Greek island (7) |
| SECRETE – SE (“empty” S |
|
| 15 | Orders from new CD site (6) |
| EDICTS – anagram (new) of CD SITE | |
| 16 | Tree by an old barn appearing black initially (6) |
| BAOBAB – By An Old Barn Appearing Black “initially” | |
| 18 | Tango on ice mostly is something refreshing! (5) |
| TONIC – T(ango) ON ICe “mostly” | |
| 19 | Bishop and I agree to provide extras (4) |
| BYES – B(ishop) and YES (I agree). Extras in cricket. | |
| 22 | High priest found in some religions (3) |
| ELI – “found in some” rELIgions | |
Great puzzle from the Master. RIP and thank you
Thank you Felix, I enjoyed that, and seemed to be on the wavelength at 14:57.
Thank you as always to Roly for the blog!
I limped home in just over 30 minutes in what I found to be a quite tough puzzle. I had a word, possibly ‘urse’ at the back of my mind for Gaelic, which led me to the hidden erss. When I checked it in the dictionary it was not to be found. In the end I had to search online for an answer.
POTTERS WHEEL held me up for a while as I have heard of Harry Potter but thought he was a schoolboy, not a wizard. My LOI was BAOBAB, where I wasn’t sure if I had invented a nonsense word or used the clue as intended.
20 minutes for 2nd day in a row. 🙁
I’ve always found QCs by Felix to be hard and so it seems fitting that he got the better of me one last time.
As so often, the easy clues were my undoing as I was looking for something more tricky. Total mental block on MO and completely flummoxed by 6ac. A shame because I was doing well up to that point. Like yesterday, the last clue was my undoing.
Thanks for the blog.
I shall never understand how some people can do these things in less than five mins. I do on paper and my pen was melting and the paper smouldering. I was almost out of breath: my time 9 mins.