Today’s puzzle from Gaff bears the epigraph “A memorial puzzle” . . .
. . . referring the first anniversary of the death of the actress PRUNELLA SCALES, (June 22, 1932 – October 27, 2025), including references to her work in the sitcoms MARRIAGE LINES and FAWLTY TOWERS, as well as the documentary series GREAT CANAL JOURNEYS, the humorous adverts (SPOTS at 1A?) she did with Joan Sanderson for the Hoover VACUUM, plus her longstanding patronage of the LACE MARKET Theatre in Nottingham. I think probably also the inclusion of SPARROW was deliberate, in that the taxonomic name of the hedge sparrow is Prunella modularis. Please let me know if I missed any other references.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | G-SPOTS |
Golf holes are stimulating places (1-5)
|
| G (golf) + SPOTS (holes). I wondered about “spot” as a synonym for “hole,” but they have the shared sense of “scrape,” for one. | ||
| 4 | CANAL |
Caledonian may be cold and fussy (5)
|
| C (cold) + ANAL (fussy). “May be” might be a spacing misdirection for “maybe.” | ||
| 8 | VACUUM |
Cleaner air lacking (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | UPDATING |
At Universtity, courtship is refreshing (8)
|
| UP (at university) + DATING (courtship) | ||
| 10 | LACE MARKET |
Make claret production focus for net sales (4,6)
|
| Anagram of (production) MAKE CLARET | ||
| 11 | EAST |
Main point of banquet with no starter (4)
|
| [F]EAST (banquet) minus first letter (with no starter), referring to the compass | ||
| 12 | FAWLTY |
Utterly dysfunctional hotelier (6)
|
| Homophone of (utterly) FAULTY (dysfunctional). Also arguably &lit. | ||
| 14 | COCOYAM |
Companies may turn to root vegetable (7)
|
| {CO. + CO.} (companies) + MAY reversed (turn) | ||
| 17 | SPARROW |
Bird-box commotion (7)
|
| SPAR (box) + ROW (commotion), with a hyphenation misdirection | ||
| 19 | TOWERS |
Ruins ultimately make worst defensive structures (6)
|
| Anagram of (ruins) {last letter of (ultimately) [MAK]E + WORST} | ||
| 20 | BARB |
Raise support after business leader’s insult (4)
|
| First letter of (leader [of]) B[USINESS] + BRA (support) reversed (raised). The reversal indicator might have worked better with a Down clue. | ||
| 22 | GRANT-IN-AID |
Government funding for ridiculous training ad (5-2-3)
|
| Anagram of (ridiculous) TRAINING AD | ||
| 24 | JOURNEYS |
Wonders about pot and ecstasy trips (8)
|
| JOYS (wonders) around (about) {URN (pot) + E (ecstasy)} | ||
| 25 | NEW AGE |
Alternative movement to that of dog that’s inborn (3,3)
|
| WAG (movement to that of dog) inside (that’s in) NÉE (born), with a spacing misdirection | ||
| 26 | ASSET |
The advantage of cassettes (5)
|
| Hidden in (of) [C]ASSET[TES] | ||
| 27 | SCALES |
Surmounts piano practice (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GHANAIANS |
Perhaps people from Accra hang out with Asian (9)
|
| Anagram of (out [with]) {HANG + ASIAN} | ||
| 2 | PRUNE |
Thin fruit (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | TOM SAWYER |
With tip-off, traces counsel for adventurous American boy (3,6)
|
| [A]TOMS (traces) + [L]AWYER (counsel), minus first letters (with tip off), with a hyphenation misdirection | ||
| 4 | CADET |
Trainee in updated accountancy (5)
|
| Hidden in (in) [DA]TED AC[COUNTANCY], inverted (up), with a spacing misdirection | ||
| 5 | NUTMEG-YEW |
Spice readers said is conifer (6-3)
|
| NUTMEG (spice) + homophone of (said) YOU (readers). I do not see this listed in Chambers. | ||
| 6 | LINES |
Strokes that players must not forget (5)
|
| Double definition, the first referring to penmanship, for example; the second referring to actors | ||
| 7 | TURKIC |
Disgracefully you finally trick Asian people (6)
|
| Anagram of (disgracefully) {last letter of (finally) [YO]U + TRICK} | ||
| 13 | LLANBERIS |
Address party climbing outside North Wales village (9)
|
| {SIRE ([form of] address) + BALL (party) around (outside) N (North)} all inverted (climbing) | ||
| 15 | CATATONIC |
Unaware that Siamese for example has no accent (9)
|
| CAT (Siamese for example) + ATONIC (has no accent) | ||
| 16 | MARRIAGES |
Damage India with rants about unions (9)
|
| MAR (damage) + {RAGES (rants) around (with . . . about) I (India)} | ||
| 18 | WRASSE |
Swimmer wears small badly (6)
|
| Anagram of (badly) {WEARS + S (small)} | ||
| 21 | AROMA |
Adding red orchids makes an original bouquet (5)
|
| First letters of (original) A[DDING] R[ED] O[RCHIDS] M[AKES] A[N] | ||
| 22 | GREAT |
Wonderful shred of sound (5)
|
| Homophone of (of sound) GRATE (shred) | ||
| 23 | NEWEL |
Post in flight (5)
|
| Cryptic definition, referring to a flight of stairs |