Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Hi Minno,


19d - 2 letter "compared with" "eats" 5 letter "2" - definition is "fruit"

26a - 5 letter "Greek" + 3 letter "came first" but with the first letter "lines" moving to the front of the answer

rogissimo, the solution to 19 is fairly common in US. I buy them a few times a year. Though I agree the word occurs strangely often in cryptics!

Ah, yes. That fruit. Cropped up a few years ago. Excuse the pun. As for 26a, not sure of patterns. Patterned?

Or maybe I'm still being thick. Thanks all.

Hi Brendan

I'm still not over Covid and testing as positive. I was completely pole-axed by the experience, which I had not expected having been fully vaccinated. I understand I have a few more days to go before I become a symptomatic. I'm still low on energy; tying in the rose was a great achievement. And I keep falling asleep and coughing a lot. The heat hasn't helped. Our very elderly cat didn't eat for three days. Eventually we gave him cat milk, which he loves and now won't eat anything else!

Enough of my woes. I'm still not sure of the answer to 23ac. Is it a song by the Rolling Stones?
I can do a burden for 21d, but not a definition of throughout. I may just have found one.
25ac looks like football to me. I've had to guess at 13d and can't parse it though I think it is right.

I make lots of 2s, but it hasn't helped me get the answers.

Minno: yes, patterned, as "in grid-like patterns". The "lines" in wordplay handles the insertion. Clever misdirect by Paul.

Roof, yes, 23 is a Stones song. One of those lyrics that hasn't aged well and might not be recordable these days. ;-)

25 is a 3-letter word for "united" inside two single terminal letters of words in the clue. Defn. "European", also frequently clued in crosswords as a vegetable. Lots of tricky misdirections by Paul!

Actually I wrote in 26 after seeing the first 6 letters, but now I don't see where the last 2 letters come from. Is there a usage where they are attached to letters 2-5?

Sounds like you're having a rough old time of it Roof, hope you (and your cat), are feeling better soon.

23a - Yes, Stones song. 3 letter "2" goes around 3 letter "syrup" (cockney rhyming slang but a synonym of the actual word) which itself goes around 4 letter "has".

Complicated enough! 😂