It’s the Don’s turn to challenge us this week in the Prize slot.
Although initially daunting, Timon and I soon got on Pasquale’s wavelength and were able to polish this off in good time. There were some excellent surfaces and a couple of clues which came close to & lit status: PRISONER and ESOTERICA, for example. We’re not quite sure why Don Carlos is described as a pretender, but perhaps some opera or history buff can explain that. We had to look up CONKY (to get CONKIER), and LACHESIS also needed to be checked, although completely gettable from the wordplay. There was no theme that we could discern, but there were the characteristic references to religion and the Bible (e.g. OT and Adam) that we’ve come to expect from Pasquale.
Many thanks to Pasquale for the challenge and the entertainment.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SPOTLIT |
Specially illuminated set of old books torn on the outside (7)
|
| OT (Old Testament – old books) inside SPLIT. | ||
| 5 | HAYCOCK |
Wine that’s drunk always cold makes a pile for the country dweller (7)
|
| AY (always) C(old) inside HOCK (wine). | ||
| 10 | SNOW |
Coke spells out end of dryness for the moment (4)
|
| (drynes)S NOW (for the moment). Both coke and snow are slang terms for cocaine. | ||
| 11 | CLAMBERING |
Moving awkwardly using clutch when straddling warning sign (10)
|
| AMBER (warning signal) inside CLING (clutch). | ||
| 12 | CARLOS |
Old rustics admitting love for pretender Don (6)
|
| 0 (love) inside CARLS (old rustics). Don Carlos is an opera by Verdi. | ||
| 13 | LACHESIS |
Fate is pursuing learner with pains (8)
|
| L(earner) ACHES (pains) IS. One of the Greek Fates. | ||
| 14 | FLOWERING |
Blooming fellow needs taking down (9)
|
| F(ellow) LOWERING (taking down). | ||
| 16 |
See 17
|
|
| 17, 16 | FALSE START |
A useless beginning – what’s after lasts, possibly (5,5)
|
| *(AFTER LASTS). | ||
| 19 | ESOTERICA |
A coterie’s unusual mysteries? (9)
|
| *(A COTERIE’S). | ||
| 23 | PRISONER |
Punished rogue primarily, one is in stir, right? (8)
|
| PR (first letters of Punished Rogue) IS ONE R(ight). “stir” indicates the transposition of ONE and IS, as well as being part of the definition. Almost an & lit. | ||
| 24 | LOG OUT |
See problem with drinking too much port? Switch off (3,3)
|
| LO (see) GOUT (problem with drinking too much port, supposedly). | ||
| 26 | ABRASIVELY |
Leader of America having courageous style? Is twisted inside, showing bluntness (10)
|
| A(merica), IS (rev) inside BRAVELY (having courageous style). | ||
| 27 | MAUD |
Muck covering a woman lured into the garden? (4)
|
| A in MUD (muck); a reference to the Tennyson poem. | ||
| 28 | ACADEMY |
Little woman grabbing baddy, head of English in school (7)
|
| CAD (baddy) E(nglish) all inside AMY (one of the Little Women in the Louisa Alcott novel). | ||
| 29 | COVERED |
What Adam became after realisation of nudity? Fellow looking embarrassed (7)
|
| COVE (fellow) RED (embarrassed). The story of how Adam (and Eve) became aware of their nudity is to be found in Genesis, Chapter 3. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | PINTAIL |
Bird, one on lake after daily drink? (7)
|
| PINTA (daily drink) 1 L(ake). | ||
| 3 | TOWEL |
The royal I found in upsetting fate – it’s absorbing? (5)
|
| WE (the “royal we”) inside LOT (fate, rev). | ||
| 4 | INCISOR |
One bit of nut is stuck in my tooth (7)
|
| 1 N(ut), IS inside COR (my!). | ||
| 6 | ABBACY |
A bishop must get by, having welcomed a Catholic in ecclesiastical office (6)
|
| A B(ishop) BY, including A C(atholic). | ||
| 7 | CORRECTOR |
Conservative minister entertaining those from the ranks – someone putting the record straight? (9)
|
| OR (other ranks) inside C(onservative) RECTOR (minister). | ||
| 8 | CONKIER |
Like tree worse affected by fungus – one penetrating horse chestnut (7)
|
| I in CONKER (fruit of the horse chestnut). Conky is an adjective describing the effects of a parasitic fungus. | ||
| 9 | WATLING STREET |
The old way engineer catches fish with something wooden (7,6)
|
| LINGS (fish) TREE (something wooden) inside (James) WATT (engineer). It’s an old Roman road, nowadays comprising much of the A2 between London and Dover and the A5 between London and Shropshire. | ||
| 15 | WASHSTAND |
Rod collects wood and stone to make item of furniture (9)
|
| ASH (wood) ST(one) in WAND (rod). | ||
| 18 | AEROBIC |
Beginning of intensive care organised to save old boy reliant on oxygen (7)
|
| *(I(ntensive) CARE OB (old boy)). | ||
| 20 | TALLY-HO |
Cry in the country – gentry ultimately trapped in multi-storey house? (5-2)
|
| (gentr)Y inside TALL (multi-storey) HO(use). | ||
| 21 | COUTURE |
Stylish dressmaking not in fashion – external remedy needed (7)
|
| OUT (not in fashion) inside CURE (external remedy). | ||
| 22 | INFIRM |
Trendy business not enjoying healthy state (6)
|
| IN (trendy) FIRM (business). | ||
| 25 | GIMME |
Let me have a piece of string immediately (5)
|
| Hidden in “string immediately”. |
Good blog and puzzle. My only ? was the function of “spells out” in 10A? Just to make the surface more readable?
Thanks bridgesong. A pleasant and not too taxing interlude which I enjoyed. I wasn’t too sure about the plural of ling but found lings could be used in the context of sub species of the fish.
Thanks both – a fine entertainment.
The Don Carlos in question was a pretender to the Spanish throne in answer to the succession of his niece. All very complicated but at the time there was a certain resistance to the idea of a female monarch.
Comment #4