That sinking feeling
Still revelling in the wide open spaces of the 15×15 grid, and with this particular pattern offering space for a couple of 15-letter answers, I began this puzzle with a challenge to myself, the old YELLOW SUBMARINE.
The wordplay wasn’t too hard to come up with: it had to yield a few good anagrams and sure enough the irresistable US mine layer soon appeared.
Crossword 756 solution
The tricky part was coming up with a non-obvious direct part of the clue – the definition that balances the wordplay. Simply saying “Beatles hit” was going to be too flat and perhaps too easy. “1960s song” too hard, “A lily-livered warship” is not ideal – it’s clunky if not completely inane – but at least it connects convincingly with the wordplay.
In hindsight it would have been nice to have somehow worked “hit” into it after the “blow”. Ah well. It’s the deadlines, you see. Sometimes they provoke creativity, other times they kill it. That’s my excuse, anyway.
| Across | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
| 1 | ACOLYTE | |
| Locate eccentric, yes, inside with an altar boy (7) | Anagram of LOCATE containing Y (yes). | |
| 5 | SUBSOIL | |
| Dirt might give us boils (7) | Anagram of US BOILS. | |
| 9 | IDEAL | |
| What I do after shuffling the cards is perfect (5) | Charade. | |
| 10 | TAXIDERMY | |
| Stuffing, an unknown quantity, I put in dry meat when cooked (9) | unknown quantity = X, I inside anagram of DRY MEAT (cooked = anagram indicator). | |
| 11 | SURROGATE | |
| A replacement certain to eat right – goat stew (9) | certain = SURE, to eat = containment indicator, R (right), anagram of GOAT, (stew = anagram indicator). | |
| 12 | NASAL | |
| Adenoidal astronauts take on student (5) | astronauts = NASA, student = L. | |
| 13 | DEAD SET | |
| Determined to have zombies prepared (4,3) | zombies = DEAD prepared = SET. | |
| 14 | TABLETS | |
| Battles played out with small computers (7) | Anagram of BATTLES. | |
| 16 | LAY A BET | |
| Gamble, getting non-professional to assist in some wrongdoing (3,1,3) | non-professional = LAY, assist in some wrongdoing = ABET. | |
| 18 | AVENUES | |
| A meeting place’s means of access (7) | meeting place’s = VENUES. | |
| 19 | RUMBA | |
| Dance with a queer graduate (5) | queer = RUM graduate = BA. | |
| 21 | CLOCKWISE | |
| What the horologist should be or turn to? (9) | Double definition. | |
| 23 | OFF-LIMITS | |
| Films of it may be out of bounds (3-6) | Anagram of FILMS OF IT. | |
| 24 | ADAGE | |
| American prosecutor in time exhibits a Maxim (5) | American prosecutor = DA in time = AGE. | |
| 25 | SIAMESE | |
| Tie, say, is same when knotted on engineer (7) | Homophone definition plus anagram of IS SAME + E (engineer). | |
| 26 | LETTERS. | |
| Communications from landlords? (7) | Cryptic definition.. | |
| Down | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
| 1 | ADIOS | |
| A do is arranged to farewell a Spaniard (5) | Anagram of A DO IS. | |
| 2 | OVEN-READY | |
| Day never goes wrong with duck on top prepared for roasting (4-5) | Anagram of DAY NEVER with duck = O (cricket). | |
| 3 | YELLOW SUBMARINE | |
| With US mine layer blow asunder a lily-livered warship we were all in in ’66 (6,9) | Anagram of US MINE LAYER BLOW. | |
| 4 | ENTRANT | |
| Newcomer managed getting into collapsing tent (7) | managed = RAN inside anagram of TENT. | |
| 5 | SEXIEST | |
| The most seductive male chauvinist has internal energy (7) | male chauvinist = SEXIST including energy = E. | |
| 6 | BED AND BREAKFAST | |
| Bad debts freak an organisation providing casual board (3,3,9) | Anagram of BAD DEBTS FREAK AN (organisation = anagram indicator). | |
| 7 | OGRES | |
| Threatening figures in progress (5) | Hidden word in prOGRESs. | |
| 8 | LOYALISTS | |
| Stalwarts love to lay back in rolls (9) | love = O, lay back = YAL, inside rolls = LISTS. | |
| 13 | DELIRIOUS | |
| Madly excited putting food shops around Brazilian city university (9) | food shops = DELIS, Brazilian city = RIO, university = U. | |
| 15 | ELUCIDATE | |
| Clarify a delicate arrangement handling uranium (9) | Anagram of DELICATE including uranium = U. | |
| 17 | TACTILE | |
| Tangible lattice-work (7) | Anagram of LATTICE. | |
| 18 | AROUSAL | |
| With parole cut short at both ends, take in America for some excitement (7) | parole cut short at both ends = AROL, take in = container indicator, America = USA. | |
| 20 | MAFIA | |
| Gangsters follow mother with an Italian car, but the car isn’t tailed (5) | mother = MA, Italian car = FIAT, isn’t tailed = deletion indicator | |
| 22 | EPEES. | |
| Notice physical exercise on the rise with fencing equipment (5) | Notice = SEE, physical exercise = PE, on the rise = reversal indicator.. |