Solving time : 23 minutes, though at the end of that I was still feeling a little unsure about a few of the answers, so I got back on to the Crossword Club and entered them in - it came back as a correct entry, so a trip back to the dictionaries was in order, to find how it was I managed to successfully complete it.
This was one of the more difficult ones for me in recent memory, and I was a long way from the setter's wavelength. There's also one very strange bit of enumeration and a few wordplay elements that I don't recall seeing in the daily puzzle.
Away we go!
This was one of the more difficult ones for me in recent memory, and I was a long way from the setter's wavelength. There's also one very strange bit of enumeration and a few wordplay elements that I don't recall seeing in the daily puzzle.
Away we go!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | CASINO: A, SIN in CO |
| 4 | RANSOMED: SOME in RAND - interesting that RANSOMED can mean both the person doing the ransoming and the one paying for it |
| 10 | MOORAGE: or MOO RAGE |
| 11 | FILINGS: FILLINGS(work on teeth) with one of the L's missing |
| 12 | LI PO: Never heard of him, but obtainable from wordplay - LIP(kiss) before 0(love) |
| 13 | JUMBLE SALE: you can get SEAL by jumbling SALE |
| 15 | PREDICATE: I put this in as the only word that seemed to fit - the definition is a part of a sentence, and the wordplay is I,C(caught) in PREDATE(batten, prey on) |
| 16 | STROP: double definition |
| 18 | LASSO: ASS in LO, &lit |
| 19 | COTE D'AZUR: surprised no apostrophe in the enumeration - COSTED without S, AZ(map, as in street directory), UR(old city) |
| 21 | GO GO DANCER: double definition, though I don't think that was what Father Christmas had in mind when he named a reindeer Dancer... |
| 23 | PROP: double definition |
| 26 | AQUARIA: AQUA REGIA without EG |
| 27 | AMORIST: agonized over this one, but once I looked it up afterwards - AORIST is a tense, so we put M in it |
| 28 | ENTRY FEE: cryptic definition |
| 29 | our across omission |
| Down | |
| 1 | CAMEL: CARAMEL without RA |
| 2 | STOP PRESS: ST, OPPRESS |
| 3 | NOAH: cryptic definition - he had every creature twice over |
| 5 | AFFABLE: F(ire) in A,FABLE |
| 6 | SILVER,SIDE |
| 7 | out down omission |
| 8 | DISTEMPER: TEMP in (DRIES)* |
| 9 | MED(sea),USA(land) |
| 14 | DISORDERLY: (DRY,SOLDIER)* |
| 15 | P,ALS |
| 17 | RAZORBILL: double definition |
| 19 | CONCAVE: C(chapter), then AV(authorized version) in ONCE |
| 20 | TREPAN: REP in TAN(as in "tan one's hide") |
| 22 | GAUNT: referring to John of Gaunt |
| 24 | POTTY: double def |
| 25 | COSH: anagram of SHOCK without the K at the end |
Comment Form