Listen With Others

Thanks to Nutmeg for this enjoyable, educational puzzle. I hadn’t realised so many of the objects in the asteroid belt had names.

Several clues stood out for me

• 1ac      ACCIPITER: Hawk caught and beheaded songbird in maple tree – what a smooth surface reading
• 8 dn    RAKER: Profligate gambler’s term for croupier, perhaps– sneaky use of profligate gambler
• 9dn     TETRIS: Baselessly, head teacher raised game – I had TENNIS and PELOTA (not sure why now) at first
• 13dn   TEETER On reflection forward virtually weightless rock – this took me ages, such a clever clue

13dn held me up but the end game took me even longer. I was looking for an O but ASTEROID gave me M. It wasn’t until I spotted ASTEROID BELT on the diagonal and calculated the values of VESTA that I could prove I had the right letter. “Lies on” rather than “lies within” in the rubric would have helped I think. Lovely puzzle!