Another excellent themed puzzle by Virgilius – four colours with in many cases linked clues.
Solving time: 16 mins
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 ROSE BUSH Very good
5 JAFFA First letters
10/11/12 LILY WHITE MEAT
15 UNCL(e) AD barely = naked
17 U in CIRCS
19 S (succeeded) AWING
22 NILE GREEN BELT
28 SUSIE (Issue)*
29 DESSERTS Fools = gooseberry, apple fool etc.
DOWN
4 SEE THE D
7 A VESTA
13 BLACK HOLE You can’t get out of it
18 SURETY Hidden
20 SNAKES (and ladders) – game cf ADDERS
21 ST AS IS
22 B ESS
Thanks to nsmindy for picking up the baton when I dropped it!
The obvious place to look for a theme when picking up this puzzle was the overlapping of the entries on two of the across rows. I got NILE GREEN early and then LILY WHITE. BLACK and BROWN were then fairly obvious given a couple of checking letters. What surprised me is that the colour-columns didn’t use the overlapping idea even though BOOTBLACK and BROWN BESS are both in Chambers. Perhaps eimi can enlighten us.
Incidentally, the main diagonal reads: REDSSS. probably a coincidence.
Great puzzle from Virgilius, as ever, though tougher than average maybe.
17A – I can see the U from ‘university’, but why is CIRCS ‘financial state’?
Jon
CIRCS = Reduced circumstances.
I found this harder than the average Virgilius, not helped by me entering FATHER CONFESSOR where KING OF THE BEASTS should have been! I also had JOHN BLACK and BLACK BESS to start with.
I too was puzzled by the lack of a full set of linking clues. I guess that it doesn’t really spoil the theme. And maybe Virgilius is paid by the clue 🙂
Maybe Nimrod is too, come to think of it, to judge by that shirt he was wearing in the pub last week (!!)
Here is the explanation Virgilius submitted with the puzzle:
“Theme is the 4 colours at 11, 23, 13, 14 and their before and after connections. However, I did not clue BOOTBLACK across 3 and 13 down because it’s not hyphenated, and for symmetry did not clue BROWN BESS together.”
I’m afraid I have no explanation for Nimrod’s shirt.