Listen With Others

Delightful! As some of you will know I am a massive fan of Nutmeg’s clueing and normally point new setters towards her work as examples of how to write the very best cryptic clues.

So what have we here? Five types of clue, only one of which is normal. Eight words had to be identified – these turned out to be HOLE, ILLEGAL, GRASP, GOLD, LONG, ELDERLY, DELHI, YOUNG – where their end letters could be jumbled to provide a thematic word to be placed under the grid. Ah, HIGGLEDY-PIGGLEDY!

Other ‘thematic’ letters formed COCKTAIL and MIXED BAG. What with the Mince Pies of the title, this could make a good party … And that Title is far more likeable than some of the alternatives: SUPPLY PANTS, for example. Back to the plot …

The eight themed undefined words proved to be: MEDLEY, BLEND, MINGLE, STEW, OLIO, ASSORTMENT, MELANGE and MESS.

And there were more anagram_indicators besides, including HOTCH-POTCH and OBSCENE! Impressive!!

I hope you have all had a good Christmas and, for those that choose to, Round 3 with the turkey has gone to plan.

Cheers all,

Tim / Encota