Well, this wasn’t much fun. I’m prepared to consider the possibility that my brain has been stultified by mince pies and sherry but in any case I found this a slog.
Gozo’s whimsical quest to squeeeeze as many Es into the grid as possible might have been fun for him, but it led to a lot of obscure vocab and some very dull solving. Still, no technical quibbles, and one or two gems. Thank-you, Gozo.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EYELET |
Small opening on ait, we’re told (6)
Sounds like islet [ait]
|
| 4 | GENEVESE |
Swiss having new English version, taken in by fools (8)
N [new] E [English] v [version] within geese [fools]
|
| 9 | ELEVEN |
French pupil’s name and number (6)
Eleve [French for ‘pupil’] n [name]
|
| 10 | ET CETERA |
Demolished tea-tree around college, and so forth (2,6)
C [college] within anaram of tea tree
|
| 12 | ENGINEER |
Designer rejecting green igneous contents (8)
Hidden in reversal of gREEN IGNEous
|
| 13 | EUGENE |
Onegin’s address to Harlow, we hear (6)
Sounds like you Jean, alluding to Jean Harlow
|
| 15 | TEES |
5 cycling to river (4)
Anagram of este [see 5dn.]
|
| 16 | SEVERED |
Cut hard diamonds (7)
Severe [hard] d [diamonds]
|
| 20 | LATE FEE |
Financial penalty for misspelling of tea-leef! (4,3)
Anaram of tea leef
|
| 21 | AXLE |
Wheel support from chopper left inside (4)
L [left] within axe [chopper]
|
| 25 | EVENLY |
9y – e, worked out in a regular way (6)
Anaram of eleven y minus e (see 9ac.)
|
| 26 | REDEEMED |
Thought about the possibilities again and exchanged tokens (8)
Double definition
|
| 28 | ONE METRE |
Distance from lemon-tree with top chopped off (3,5)
Anagram of (l)emon tree
|
| 29 | KEENER |
Funeral singer is more piercing (6)
Double definition
|
| 30 | EXEGESES |
Textual explanations showing expenses involving eviscerated birds (8)
Ge(e)se [birds] within exes [expenses]
|
| 31 | BREEZE |
Bit of a blow for the block-maker (6)
Double definition
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | ELEMENTS |
He is one of them (8)
Cryptic definition
|
| 2 | EPERGNES |
Centre-pieces record Green’s amendment (8)
EP [record] anagram of green
|
| 3 | ETERNE |
In the past, unchanging regular parts of the Bentley range (6)
Hidden in bEnTlEy RaNgE
|
| 5 | ESTE |
Illyrian fool topped at Italian house (4)
(F)este [fool from Twelfth Night, which is set in Illyria]; Este was the name of a noble house in Renaissance Italy
|
| 6 | EXECUTED |
Carried out – the sentence? (8)
Double definition
|
| 7 | EXETER |
City once cultivated tree (6)
Ex [once] anagram of tree
|
| 8 | ERASED |
Times editor deleted material (6)
Eras [times] ed [editor]
|
| 11 | REFEREE |
Female embraced by bird – and another. That’s official! (7)
F [female] within ree [bird (archaic name for a ruff)] ree [bird]
|
| 14 | LEVERET |
In French, the worm and young animal (7)
Le ver et [French for ‘the worm and’]
|
| 17 | EAGLE EYE |
Critical inspection of comic featuring Dan Dare and investigator (5,3)
Eagle [comic featuring Dan Dare] + eye [investigator]
|
| 18 | EXAMINEE |
GCSE entrant from Maine, floundered in river (8)
Anagram of maine within Exe [river]
|
| 19 | LEAD-FREE |
Van costing nothing – running green? (4-4)
Lead [van, front] free [costing nothing]
|
| 22 | EEYORE |
From Early English long ago, a donkey’s name (6)
EE [Early English] + yore [long ago]
|
| 23 | REVERE |
Highly respect the night rider to Lexington (6)
Double definition, alluding to the US revolutionary hero Paul Revere
|
| 24 | VENEER |
Outward respectability never altered swallowing Ecstasy (6)
E [ecstasy] within anagram of never
|
| 27 | ERNE |
Second bird of three (4)
Featured (after tern) in etERNE (see 3dn.)
|
Thanks, Ringo.
I found all the Es a bit off-putting too. Of 52 crossing letters in the grid, 36 of them were E. I can’t say that I enjoyed the solve very much.
Thanks Ringo (and to Gozo but maybe more to you). Indeed, there was some growing frustration with so many of the crossers being Es and I pretty much failed in the NW (and so could not parse EVENLY or ERNE). Quite pleased to have dredged EXEGESES up from somewhere.
Thanks again for working through it.
If you are going to do it, then do it. Having a few As as well is annoying.
Well I don’t know, I rather enjoyed it. I rashly filled in the bottom line crossers as all E’s – only to find one was oddly an R. Some nice varied cluing I thought.
Thanks Gozo and Ringo
Thanks Gozo and Ringo
Strange as it may seem, I didn’t get hung up on all of the E’s as some of you seem to have done. Found the top of the puzzle quite straightforward for some reason – probably a wavelength thing today.
Had a bit more trouble down the bottom with EXEGESES and ERNE the last couple in. Took a while to understand the logic of ERNE until I looked back at 3d and smiled – quite clever.
The ESTE dynasty and BREEZE BLOCKS were both new to me