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Puzzle #51– August 2005  "Singularity"

Instructions: Guess the words defined by the cryptic clues (words vary in length from three to ten letters and include six proper names and one foreign word), then enter them in the grid one after another in the same order as their clues, starting in the upper left corner. Across words that don't end at the right margin continue on the next line; down words that don't end at the bottom margin continue in the next column. Five across words and five down words won't fit in the grid unless they are shortened in a certain way. Solvers must determine how that is to be done. As ever, I am indebted to Kevin Wald for help with the clues. (If you are having trouble printing these puzzles, you can download an Adobe Acrobat version of the puzzle and grid). [Want to see some hints?]

Across

  1. Referee takes time to think
  2. Stab a boy hurting ten in return
  3. Country left out of one count
  4. Consumed with urgency, started a fight
  5. Frog's heart found in river in Irish county
  6. Run in preliminary race showing courage
  7. Sound of angry fly
  8. Haiku really is about Honshu city
  9. Restoration holds back decay
  10. Cato's sister started seeing two alternatives
  11. Note gender reversal in combinations
  12. Harem mystery has won TV award
  13. Constituent's MP screwed none in bed
  14. Pierre's dream about expert rebuke
  15. Request actor to switch from left to right
  16. Have a ball-lifting device sent back
  17. Girl with large buttocks
  18. Endless twaddle gives energy
  19. Bard's tankard contains last of wine
  20. Brief verse put back in Lully's opera
  21. Father gets new warning signal
  22. Did business in ideal terms
  23. Sincere new entrant initiated into Legion
  24. News bureau's difficulties returned
  25. Investigator put ring in vertex

Down

  1. Woman holds counterfeit note of currency
  2. Improve service without initiating change
  3. Neophyte involved in petty romance
  4. Secret desire about end of war
  5. Recoiling child pierced by tip of dagger
  6. Introvert's ramble
  7. Minute pore impaired visceral lining
  8. Profits from juiced lemon
  9. About a hundred embracing state
  10. Made waves, being vexed about tuppence
  11. Evil influence of bachelor brew
  12. Let off the hook without a cost
  13. East yard has a place for pigs
  14. District gets new theater
  15. Starting slow walk in room
  16. Hoary ending of strange story
  17. Lonely river
  18. Davis has rouge improved
  19. Rent stars US composer
  20. My sin included being gay
  21. Give an edge to your first sweetheart
  22. Fate with a turn of humor
  23. Lying around is right for captive

© Copyright 2001-2005. John de Cuevas. All rights reserved.