Diversions & Puzzles
Puzzle No 1109
Clues across
1. Horrible thing: blunt weapon in disco (9) 6. Number squashed in a tea chest (11) 12. Very successful popular music – basic – reached its lowest point (3,4,6) 13. Apply a different brand name to all beer when drunk (7) 14. Stick with magic around steal structure in desert (9) 15. Actual monarchy initially, a kingdom perhaps here (5) 16. Still overly warm in post office (5) 17. Chaps’ pies cooked in container that’s out of this world (9) 20. Strange powdery rock finishes in a grab bag collection (4,3,4) 22. Mad man inside let out for the remainder (7) 24. The ideal mate showing great power when seizing luxury car … (2,5) 26. … went out with someone old-fashioned (5) 27. Sort of lowbred, dim characters, not especially intellectual (10) 29. Forerunners – before the computer mouse was invented? (10) 32. Quoted as having been seen with the ear (5) 33. Mother, rather formal, might be a bitch (7) 34. Gee, Lady Gaga gives a come-hither look (4,3) 35. Evocative little skirts are in – up to the minute (11) 38. Being undisciplined, teen grabs half-a-dozen back before Christmas Eve starts (9) 40. Southern African people survive with absolute zero interest initially (5) 41. Downright diaphanous (5) 42. Perverted stooge with illegal drug for degenerates (4,2,3) 45. A sort of Caruso wandering around university being rowdy (7) 46. I command a coot building digs (13) 47. Accompanying this letter in retrospective law means, … (11) 48. … fired up again, nerd liked getting organised (9)
Clues down
1. An emphatic denial of expertise I hear (5) 2. Was paid nothing by bishop’s office I’m told so join the navy (2,2,3) 3. Article contains oxygen, sulphur, this and that (5) 4. Enjoy a slug of whisky? At once (4,1,4) 5. Think moodily of some flipping doorbells (5) 6. Our father’s working late (5,5) 7. Give guns to musicians as a solution to some identity problem (7) 8. Worthless people embrace right to pack down (5) 9. With pile up inside, had a place for the chopper (7) 10. That is the question (2,2,2,3,2,2) 11. Name Oscar employed for the thick-skinned? (9) 17. Play the guitar in a way with spirit (5) 18. Given power when the middle of toenail haemorrhaged (7) 19. Grandiose English opus composed (7) 21. A ludicrous stunt, putting worker in charge (5) 23. Tailored especially like a yardstick? (4,2,7) 25. Inland revenue in faux pas makes a tall order of animal (7) 26. Inactive injunction encompasses Resource Management Act (7) 28. Politician into public transport reveals evidence of poor road maintenance (5) 30. Hide instituted legal proceedings over English (5) 31. Old with an uncanny coltish air (10) 32. Work team grabs cracked rocks as an opener (9) 34. Baden-Powell’s instructions to young ladies as published by Lonely Planet? (9) 36. Loathsome racket involving order of merit (7) 37. A hair one should never cut can be made to heal? Yes (7) 39. Make up a word for milk in Noumea and a play on words about a wedding (7) 41. A Japanese dish made partly by the missus historically (5) 42. More brave when more crippled (5) 43. Coach or coaches (5) 44. Tweaked an instrument for new beginning in novel duet (5)