Hello everyone. Today’s offering is a grid from Bluejacket.
I have to say this was a very pleasurable grid to solve, with everything flowing nicely, (with the exception of a nho: AGNOLOTTI), plus a generous dollop of fun double definitions to top it all off. Lovely.
I might suggest a puzzle at this level of difficulty makes finding a stand-out clue a challenge, but I’m going with 4d if only because TITHES is not a word you see every day.
Thanks very much Bluejacket
Definitions are underlined.
ACROSS
Anag [“pants”] GERMAN WITHOUT
Rapper regularly [A P R] performing [ON]
The horse [THE NAG] is not tailless [AINT]
Medical officers [MOS] leave [QUIT] out at first [O]
American’s murder [ICE] case in Paris [PARIS] found near Belgium [B]
Double definition
Staggering, Herculean [anag = LERECHAUN] power [P] fills [inside]
Assassins essentially [S] promising to eliminate leader [AUSPICIOUS]
Kitchenware [PANS] on the counter [backwards]
Last letters of [“ultimately”] DOCTOR WHO LOST CALIFORNIA COURT CASE
God [ALLAH] can [LAV] set about [backwards]
French defeat almost [WATERLOO] stopped around] by wingers [first and last] in pro [P O]
Roadworthiness test [MOT] for defaced [FOR]
Hidden word [“screens”] NEWSCAST AFFORDS HI RES
DOWN
Anag [“reformed” ARMY MAN
Using leverage [PRISING] to infiltrate [inside] American [US]
Dog breed? [PUG] No [NAH], on reflection [backwards]
Article [AN] on parishioner taxes [TITHES] is [IS]
Homophone [“caught” FISH = IDE
I snooze [I NAP] in [IN] church [CH]
Pleased [GLAD] at cheque finally [E]
About [ON] supporting [below] educational establishments [UNIS]
Dreadful tour [TROU] spoiled [BAD] by this group’s [OUR]
Hidden word [“in”] backwards [“getting redirected”] TRANSIT TO LONG ASHTON
Very [V] graphic stripping [PICTORIAL]
Beginning from squiggly [S] stroke [CRAWL]
Couple [PAIR] that is [IE] broken up [around] by Romeo [R]
Anag [“dealt with”] HAS MET
Double definition
Double definition
Nho agnolotti, but it’s a widespread thing. [My Nanna made triangular ones with either meat or cheese in; what she called them sounded like cutlakhem] Cruisy puzzle, ta both.
Marvellous! Lots of ingenious clues. What a great start with 1a.
I had to google AGNOLOTTI as it wasn’t in the Chambers app. Guessed RENT but have no idea about the ‘musical’ bit and failed to get VICTORIA.
Another fan of “attractive German without pants”. MOUTH-WATERING. That’s my standout. Not taxing and a lot of fun. Thanks both.
Another nicely-put-together puzzle from Bluejacket, not a quibble in sight.
Re: UNISON, I can see that “agreement” is logical and probably cited in Chambers, but I think of it as “togetherness”, so, slightly different.
I slipped up on RENT, the musical based on La Boheme, and went for the classical, RING, which is a poor effort on my part.
AGNOLOTTI is a superbly spotted letter sequence, which I saw and entered, but I’ve never encountered.
I’ll steal two words from the blogger…pleasurable and lovely.
Great stuff, BJ & LC
Thanks both. Entertainingly varied. IN A PINCH was unfamiliar, as we say ‘at a pinch’. VICTORIA was my LOI, as my knowledge of the ‘former’ capital is not strong enough to know it as an underground hub. Along with THAMES and LOAF (I assume rhyming slang ‘loaf of bread’), not a puzzle quite conforming to the levelling-up agenda.