Today I was in better humour and had a go at NS's offering. Queen of the giant anagram gave a gentler puzzle this week even though it had one of my least favourite grid styles with no first letters for north-down or west-across clues.
I got through the top half very quickly then got hung up in the bottom. I put the wrong answer in for 19A (HARMLESS yes? "Had initially with "without weapons" being ARMLESS - makes total sense) and it blocked me for ages. Once I erased that and worked the other clues it was fine. It's hard to remove an answer that seems so right!
In the end I was left with 21A and 22D unsolved. I have knowledge gaps in a few clues that I'll list after the pic:
13A - They spin lubricants into ground surfaces (8)
Answer is TOPSOILS. I got the "lubricants" = OILS but why does "They spin" = TOPS? Or SPOT reversed? (Just got this in editing - the toys. Toy tops spin.)
23A - Principal ocean (4)
I figure this is a double definition and MAIN works fine for "principal" but why "ocean"?
Unsolved:
21A - The removal of anxiety. It stands out (6) R _ L _ _ _
22D - Tempt apprentice to drop out quietly in first part of April (6) _ _ T _ C _
I had thought "Tempt" was the definition and there was "ENTICE" snug at the end of "apprENTICE" but what's the point of the rest of the clue? It can't be that simple and excessively wordy. I think "quietly" gives a P and "first part" could be a P and "April" could be an A. Do I want a synonym of "apprentice" that has an OUT to be "dropped"? I'm not confident anywhere here.
Thanks to Paddy for the idea to share cross letters in clues. I'm looking forward to the DA where if there are tons of cross clues or squirrelly themes I'll decide my garden needs another thrashing.
Have a good night. I'm going to pour myself a Muscat - a drink that sounds like two animals. Well it does when I say it. Is it supposed to be like the gun?
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