Always good to get the chance to blog a Morph puzzle. You can be fairly sure there’ll be a good selection of cheeky, inventive clues and a decent challenge along the way. And so it was with this puzzle. Very enjoyable stuff, Mr Hodgkin!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | DEMISE – DEMI‘S,E |
| 4 | ADENOIDS – A,(NOSE DID)* |
| 9 | ENDEAR – END,EAR – A very neat, succinct clue, with ‘lobe may’ the wordplay and ‘be charming’ the definition |
| 10 | AEROBICS – AERO,BICS – Ho ho! Simple, but very clever |
| 12 | DEEP-FRIED – (PIE FREE)* in DD (dates) |
| 13 | HEAVY – HEAV[-y],E |
| 14 | UNMENTIONABLES – CD. ‘Mum’ as in quiet and ‘bloomers’ as in underwear |
| 17 | CENTRAL HEATING – C (Carbon) + ENTHRAL with H (Hydrogen) slipping + EATING |
| 21 | EXPAT – A reformed cowpat! |
| 22 | WINNEBAGO – (NOW BEING A)* |
| 24 | GAROTTE – ROT,T[-roops] in (RAGE)* |
| 25 | COWPAT – COW,PAT – ‘One expelled from Jersey’ is a genius definition! |
| 26 | SCREECHY – SCREE,CH,Y |
| 27 | HECTIC – Not sure on this one. ‘Nervous disorder’ gives TIC, but not sure how we get the HEC |
| Down | |
| 1 | DREADFUL – Very nice clue |
| 2 | MIDTERM – ER being the middle letters of tERm |
| 3 | STAFF – DD |
| 5 | DRESDEN CHINA – Had to cheat on this one and I’m still unsure. Is this a cryptic definition? |
| 6 | NEOPHOBIA – (I ABHo[-r] OPEN)* |
| 7 | IMITATE – IT in I,MATE – IT here referring to sex, which then links to…… |
| 8 | SUSSEX – SEX under SUS |
| 11 | DIGITAL WATCH – CD |
| 15 | NOT AT HOME – (TO NAME HOT)* |
| 16 | AGNOSTIC – IT’S ON < in AG,C |
| 18 | EMPEROR – EMP,ER,OR |
| 19 | IN A SPOT – IN,AS,POT |
| 20 | WEDDGE – W,EDGE,S |
| 23 | ERODE – ‘E RODE! |
HECTIC is HECK less K, I think. Very tough, inventive puzzle.
In 5 down, I think it’s an “Incorrect address” in that Dresden isn’t in China 🙂
Brilliant puzzle, I thought – really good fun. I liked WINNEBAGO, ENDEAR and AEROBICS in particular.
No Graun in my shop this morning, so I picked up the Indie. I now consider myself immensely lucky to have done so, as the puzzle was sublime. No obscure words to have to check in a dictionary, just clue after clue of inventive wordplay and penny-dropping moments. My favourite has to be COWPAT clued as “expelled from Jersey?”!
Monsieur Croque has picked out the plum for me too. I was faffing around trying to think of sweaters/islands etc. so had to ‘reveal’ it and actually laughed out loud. But there were so many other gems of glittering quality. More Morph please!
5 down, “incorrect address” refers to Dresden being in Germany, not China, and of course the good crockery.