Last Sunday here was kind of cold and miserable, so I recall racing through both the Mephisto and Sunday Times offering in pretty quick succession.
A lot of times with Don Manley crosswords I've relied on wordplay as the way in, but this time around there was a fair bit of what is called "biffing" during the week with a return to the clues for wordplay sorting out for this blog. I hope I have it all sorted out.
Away we go
A lot of times with Don Manley crosswords I've relied on wordplay as the way in, but this time around there was a fair bit of what is called "biffing" during the week with a return to the clues for wordplay sorting out for this blog. I hope I have it all sorted out.
Away we go
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BRIDESMAN: BAN containing RIDES,M |
| 11 | VELETA: VELA is a southern constellation, so I think ET is the little monster from the early 80's movie |
| 12 | DACHA: AH(my) and CAD(Computer-aided design) all reversed |
| 13 | HALCYON: another one from definition - the old person is a CHAL so put the C at the end, YON(that) |
| 14 | HOAR: HOARD missing D |
| 16 | MOUTERER: MOUTHER(one speaking) and ER(hesitation) missing H |
| 17 | AMAH: MA in A,H |
| 18 | IMPASTO: I'M PAST O |
| 20 | PESANTE: musically heavy, PEASANT missing A(afternoon), E |
| 25 | RASORES: SORE(Chambers has "in distress" for SORE as an adverb, but I can't think of how it could be used as such) in RAS(headland) |
| 26 | TRUDGE,N |
| 27 | RYPE: P in RYE |
| 29 | OUISTITI: a marmoset - IS after U in O,TITI(American shrub) |
| 32 | RIND: GRIND without the G |
| 33 | LEDGIER: LEDGER containing I, and a word I need to use someday "your bookshelf is impressive, Mr Bond, but I think you'll find mine far ledgier" |
| 34 | ANCLE: hidden in womAN CLEaned |
| 35 | SIENNA: ANNE,IS all reversed |
| 36 | TREPANNER: REP in TANNER(sixpence) |
| Down | |
| 2 | REARM: REAM,M(meridiem, noon) |
| 3 | ILLY: take the first letter away from SILLY |
| 4 | DECKHAND: anagram of HAND-PICKED less PI |
| 5 | ETYMONS: anagram of YET, then MONS(site of the first battle the British were involved with in WWI) |
| 6 | MANUMEA: UNMAN reversed then E,A |
| 7 | A,DIT |
| 8 | SCORSER: anagram of CROSSER |
| 9 | CHAETA: CHAP without the P(shaved) containing TEA reversed |
| 10 | CARROUSEL: Although this is given in Chambers as the North American spelling of the word, I've not seen it spelled that way in 20 years in the US and Canada. Anyhoo, the country worker is a CARL, holding ROUSE(bumper) |
| 15 | HAPHTORAH: anagram of TH |
| 19 | A,B,ORIGEN: read all about ORIGEN in the entry for ORIGENIST in Chambers |
| 21 | SQUINCH: QUIN in SCH |
| 22 | TREILLE: ILL inside TREE |
| 23 | ASPIDIA: ASPIRED(towered up) missing RE(about to fall), then 1,A. Another from definition that took a while to figure out the wordplay |
| 24 | PRUINE: UNRIPE* |
| 28 | PHENE: HEN in PE |
| 30 | TEER: (desser)T,EER |
| 31 | WINN: WINNIE (the pooh) losing IE |