idothei guest puzzle #5: American Classic
First published June 2020
Skirwingle

Here’s one from the archives. The ‘idothei’ blog reviews and discusses the crosswords published in the UK national newspaper, i (puzzles which, so far, are reprints of old ones from The Independent). The good folks running this blog have, on occasion, hosted puzzles of their own, generally written by some of us who contribute or comment.

Below is my second contribution to these – number 5 in the series overall.

The original publication date (June 2020) may be considered relevant.

This puzzle is dedicated to the memory of Al Jaffee (1921–2023).

Oh, and although there is the online solving app, I’d suggest printing out the PDF if you have facility to do so, and working that way, for reasons.


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Across

  •  1  President, reportedly a faithful fellow... (6)

  •  4  ...fellow (admirable Australian), last to play bagatelle (8)

  • 10 Expert democrat with muscle (3)

  • 11 Crucial contrivance with Conservative going round (11)

  • 12 In a crescent in France, the one with a Kennedy or Roosevelt? (7)

  • 13 Origin of hurling lies in extreme tickling (6)

  • 15 I tire easily, absorbed in reversing road cleaner? Quite the reverse! (7)

  • 17 White copper at key party (3,4)

  • 18 Round five-amp cells (3)

  • 19 Colourful Conservative wearing frames (7)

  • 21 Sort of image found upside-down later in reformation (7)

  • 23 Bullet idiot heard in Art of Noise samples? (6)

  • 25 Swimmer from ‘Red or Dead’ perhaps, with deep voice (3,4)

  • 29 Wife wearing tux before noon goes to French sea with small ships (11)

  • 30 Decline English books (3)

  • 31 Strangely biased about America, but free of wrong ideas (8)

  • 32 He loses weight more quickly (6)

    • Down

  •  1  Boy with sex appeal rising ... rising and falling (5)

  •  2  Proto-Batman villain resolving at first to be more refined (7)

  •  3  A Caledonian cravat (5)

  •  5  Get up or put up with application (5)

  •  6  Setting exercise about, say, Honiton chaps (9)

  •  7  Former London arts centre houses old books and weird objets d’art (7)

  •  8  Toy that’s had its ups and downs (2-2)

  •  9  Field taxmen working to support Greek papers (8)

  • 14 They run flights between Basel and Algiers (2,2)

  • 15 Little Richard’s dead? That’s repulsive! (4)

  • 16 Caper planned with help from within beds? I join up (6,3)

  • 17 Lovingly stroked vehicle, being Dutch (8)

  • 20 Animals scaled Asia – gnu, perhaps (7)

  • 22 Turkey and the Balkans, short of a best estimate (7)

  • 24 They quietly perform miracles in modern English setting – leading characters? (5)

  • 26 Lost in deep water (2,3)

  • 27 Very British queen’s unamused (5)

  • 28 Oustandling lines read out (4)

    • Created with Raphaël 2.3.0
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    PDF