A carte blanche puzzle for us this week.
Sometimes Carte Blanche puzzles require a lot of cold solving before the grid starts to fit together, but this one fell into place reasonably quickly as I was able to solve the first few acrosses and the two long downs sooner than I normally make progress on an Azed crossword.
For me, the acrosses solved more easily than the downs.
NAPPY RASH is given as two words in the dictionaries I looked at whilst blogging.
Solving this puzzle was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
The completed grid is shown below. Clue numbers are not necessary for submission.
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| Baby’s sore? Deployed hand spray, soft for child’s rear | Anagram of (deployed) HAND SPRAY with P (piano; soft) replacing (for) D (last letter of [rear] CHILD
NAPPY RASH* |
NAPPY RASH (an irritation of the skin on a baby’s buttocks; baby’s sore) | |
| Aid to east-west understanding I block before heading westwards | (I + JAM [block] + OR [archaic form of before]) all reversed (heading westwards)
(RO MAJ I)< |
ROMAJI (system for writing Japanese using the Roman alphabet; aid to East-West understanding) | |
| Jock’s cautious, with being written out of score | TWENTY (score) excluding (being written out of) W (with)
TENTY |
TENTY (Scottish [Jock’s] word for wary; cautious) | |
| Gypsy fellow with a young salmon hiding inside dense thicket | CHAL (Romany [gypsy] word for a person; gypsy fellow) containing (with a … hiding inside) (A + PARR [young salmon])
CH (A PARR) AL |
CHAPARRAL (thicket of dense tangled brushwood) | |
| Link to club’s head essential to those leaving | HOSEL (hidden word in [essential to] THOSE LEAVING)
HOSEL |
HOSEL (socket for the shaft in the head of a golf club; link to club’s head) | |
| Mammal of subgroup, meat on it only half cooked | Anagram of (cooked) MEAT ON and I (one of the two [half] letters in IT)
AMNIOTE* |
AMNIOTE (any vertebrates (reptiles, birds and mammals) possessing an amnion during development; mammal of subgroup) | |
| Artics having crashed, in hospital calling for church officer | Anagram of (having crashed) ARTICS contained in (in) SAN (sanatorium; hospital)
SA (CRISTA*) N or S (ACRIS*) AN |
SACRISTAN (officer in a church who has care of the sacred vessels and other movables) | |
| Carrion feeder, usually preferring gall to heart? | USU (usually) with RUB (gall can mean ‘hurt by ‘RUBbing’) replacing the existing central letter (preferring … to heart) S
U RUB U |
URUBU (South American vulture; a bird that feeds on carrion) | |
| Head over for jolly party | BEAN (head) + O (over)
BEAN O |
BEANO (rowdy jollification; jolly party) | |
| Little bony bits? I let on when it’s found in fine tobacco | (I + TELL [let on]) contained in (it’s found in) CAPA (fine Cuban tobacco for the outer layers of cigars)
CAP (I TELL) A |
CAPITELLA (heads or enlarged knob-like parts at the end of a long bone, eg a rib) | |
| Roy and Dennis maybe joined in secret palavers | HUDD (reference Roy HUDD [1936 – 2020], English comedian, actor etc) + LES (reference LES Dennis [born 1953], English television presenter, actor, comedian etc)
HUDD LES |
HUDDLES (secret conferences) | |
| Rag circulating in Port Talbot | BLATT (hidden word reversed in (circulating in) PORT TALBOT)
BLATT< |
BLATT (newspaper; rag) | |
| Parasitic worms, abundant, I detected in neat, poorly | (RICH [abundant] + I) contained in (detected in) an anagram of (poorly) NEAT
T (RICH I) NAE* |
TRICHINAE (members of the genus Trichina of nematode worms parasitic in rat, pig, and man, the adult in the small intestine, the larva encysted in muscle) | |
| Mixed drink driver refused – he was tight | SCREWDRIVER (cocktail; mixed drink) excluding (refused) DRIVER
SCREW |
SCREW (stingy person; one who was tight with money) | |
| I’ve supply of knitwear – heirs upset receiving nothing | Anagram of (upset) HEIRS containing (receiving) O (representation of zero; nothing)
H (O) SIER* |
HOSIER (person who deals in knitwear) | |
| What excavations may reveal, assorted bits of bison and hens? | Anagram (assorted bits of) BISON and HENS
SHINBONES* |
SHINBONES (types of BONE that may be discovered in excavations) | |
| Down | |||
| Grand lady unusually cussed about husband going after flighty char | Anagram of (flighty) CHAR + (an anagram of [unusually] CUSSED containing [about] H [husband])
ARCH* DUC (H) ESS* |
ARCHDUCHESS (titled lady; grand lady) | |
| Those at the rear in company do much to call for more effort | YO-HO (final letters of [those at the rear of] each of COMPANY, DO, MUCH and TO
YO-HO |
YOHO (sailors’ chant while hauling on ropes; call for more effort) | |
| Have a meal including something with sausages? It could mean the end of bangers | SUP (have a meal) containing (including) MASH (a potato dish that is often eaten with sausages)
S (MASH) UP |
SMASH UP (serious accident, which could happen in banger [old car] racing) | |
| Wheeze according to Sandy spattering end of hankie | JAP (Scottish [Sandy] word for spattering) + E (last letter of [end of] HANKIE)
JAP E |
JAPE (prank; wheeze) | |
| Ireland lacking tail winds, one borne aloft thereon noted | A (one) contained in (borne) an anagram of (winds) IRELAND excluding the final letter (lacking tail) D
AIRL (A) NE* |
AIRLANE (route normally taken by aircraft because of steady winds. – where one borne aloft will be seen) | |
| A people in plains adjusted according to theories of philosopher / physicist | (A + RACE [people]) contained in (in) an anagram of (adjusted) PLAINS
P (A RACE) LSIAN* |
PARACELSIAN (of or relating to the famous German Swiss philosopher and physician, Paracelsus [1493 – 1541], or resembling his theories or practice) | |
| Milkman’s handcart, lighter | PRAM (milkman’s hand cart)
PRAM |
PRAM (flat-bottomed Dutch or Baltic lighter) double definition | |
| Second proofs I read in form of verses | I contained in (read in) an anagram of (form of) VERSES
REV (I) SES* |
REVISES (proof sin which previous corrections have been incorporated , so at least a second proof) | |
| Chinese massage system? Grumble when parts are switched (2 words) | MOAN (grumble) with letters 1 and 2 (MO) switched with letters 3 and 4 (AN) to form ANMO
AN MO |
AN MO (Chinese remedial system in which massage of specific areas of the body affects corresponding internal organs) | |
| Some blast at antelopes with all feet on the ground | STATANT (hidden word in [some] BLAST AT ANTELOPES)
STATANT |
STATANT (standing on four feet; with all feet on the ground) | |
| Bees etc tamper with honey, flying around | Anagram of (flying around) TAMPER and HONEY
HYMENOPTERA* |
HYMENOPTERA (order of insects with four transparent wings eg ants, bees, wasps etc) | |
| Part of old tree artist’s shown in a group | RA (Royal Academician; artist) contained in (shown in) BUNCH (a group)
B (RA) UNCH |
BRAUNCH (old spelling of BRANCH [part of a tree]) | |
| Tolerated amount offered in port city | BID (offered) contained in (in) ADEN (port city in Yemen)
A (BID) DEN |
ABIDDEN (tolerated) | |
| No performance arrived at? Not quite start of lockdown introduced | L (first letter of [start of] LOCKDOWN) contained in (introduced) REACHED (arrived at) excluding the final letter (not quite) D
RE (L) ACHE |
RELACHE (relaxation; rest; no performance) | |
| Bloodsucker, a vampire maybe perched up on an old bird’s nest | (A + BAT [reference vampire bat]) all reversed (up) + NID (archaic [old] word for a pheasant’s nest)
(TAB A)< NID |
TABANID (member of the gadfly [bloodsucker] genus) | |
| S. Asian tree obscuring sun for grain crop | SUNDARI (East Indian sterculiaceous timber tree) excluding (obscuring) SUN
DARI |
DARI (Indian millet, a grass [Sorghum vulgare] related to sugarcane, much cultivated for grain in Asia and Africa) | |
| It follows that river I’ll cross | EGO (the I or self) containing (cross) R (river)
E (R) GO |
ERGO (therefore; it follows) | |
| Lass yields to pass is this – it makes miss sound like a legend! | L IS P (if L is replaced by P, LASS becomes PASS)
L IS P |
LISP (if the word MISS is spoken by someone with a LISP it may sound like MYTH [legend]) | |
| Pair of duck changing over to Scottish loch – something for oriental-style pan | TEAL with the two letters [pair] EA swapping over [changing] to form TAE [Scottish form of ‘to’} + L [loch])
TAE L |
TAEL (gold bullion measure used in China and the Far East; gold is a metal that can be found by panning) |
kenmac added this comment to comply with Gaufrid’s request to test the new mobile interface
Duncan replied to this comment to see how it displayed. Initially perplexed why there were no clue numbers in the blog before remembering it was a Carte Blanche where no clue numbers are given. Doing this on a mobile phone.