Evening Standard Cryptic Crossword #1

Audience: Puzzlers

Getting good at cryptic crosswords is a process; here’s mine. These are rough notes — learning in progress. Mistakes allowed.

https://puzzles.standard.co.uk/games/cryptic-crossword-eveningstandard (12/06/2025)

New Indicator Words

Word in Clue	Idea/Word in Answer
‘advanced’	‘on’ (syn.)
‘church’	‘ch’ (abbr.)
‘direction’	Example indicator for a specific direction
‘outright’	Container indicator for the previous word around ‘r’
‘a bit of’	Letter selection indicator
‘about’	Container indicator
‘first class’	‘ai’ (abbr.)
‘return’	Reversal indicator
‘drunk’	Anagram indicator
phonetic alphabet word	Indicator for associated letter
‘good man’	‘rev’ (syn. – if you say so – then abbr.)
‘little’	Letter selection indicator
‘possibly’	Anagram indicator
‘maybe’	Anagram indicator
“she’s”	Girl’s name indicator
‘less than’	Hidden word indicator

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ACROSS Clues

4A: It’s growing dapper (6)

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7A: Where to buy drinks for the dance (4,4)

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8A: Willowy line in roses, perhaps (6)

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10A: Show a good man has little cruelty (5)

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Answer:Revue
Type: Charades
Working:
_ _ _ U _
This is where my brief stint in the musical theatre society comes in very helpful. I only performed in one show during my time in the society and it was called 'Revue: It's All Happening'. I performed in three musical numbers and found the structure interesting; a collection musical numbers from different popular musicals. I didn't know a revue was at the time or really until I encountered this clue.

- 'good man' is referring to a 'reverend' or 'rev'. I will be witholding my opinion on the accuracy of that descriptor.
- letter selection indicated by 'little'. Applied to the subsequent word 'cruelty' gives 'ue'

* click * I performed in a something called a 'revue'! It was a type of 'show'!

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13A: Sounds a cry of ‘Oh!’ when a chap gets out (4)

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14A: Still, a woman gets the point(4)

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15A: Great dance for everybody at Birkenhead(4)

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16A: Consumed in great expectation(3)

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Answer: Ate
Type: Hidden word
Working:
A little redherring-y since it's easy to go straight to 'eat' in grEAT but 'consumed' being given in past tense helps avoid that.

Consumed in greAT Expectation.

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17A: Where, in France, cavemen lost heart(4)

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_ A _ _

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19A: A giant, but getting progressively smaller?(4)

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21A: Caught and bowled? Definitely!(3,3,3)

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_ _ T _ _ _ _ _ _

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23A: A town to get clean out of?(4)

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Answer: Bath
Type:: Charades
Working:
I liked this one! 'Bath' is a town and it is also something that one (ideally) gets out of clean.

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24A: Island girl(4)

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26A: Has Oscar an outsize one?(3)

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_ A _

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27A: Direction of the asteroids?(4)

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Answer: East
Type: Hidden Word
Working: I expected the solution to this to be some kind of direction, e.g., north, south, left, right. From there it was straightforward to spot, especially given that the answer had four letters:

Direction of thE ASTeroids?

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29A: Possibly hear like an ostrich(4)

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Answer: Rhea
Type: Anagram Working:
_ _ E A
This is one of those clues where I had sussed out the word but didn't know the full reasoning, though I had a feeling. An anagram indicated by 'possibly'. Rearranging 'hear' results in 'rhea' which turns out is a type of South American ostrich; they are a distant relative of emus.

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32A: Move slowly in church(4)

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Answer: Inch
Type: Charades, Hidden Word
Working: I anticipated this being a definition for 'move slowly'. Then I noticed:

Move slowly IN CHurch.

However, I think 'church' might be an indicator for 'ch', so it could have been 'in' 'ch'.

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33A: Goodbye to a new idea for a uniform(5)

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Answer: Adieu
Type: Anagram + Charades Working:
_ _ _ _ U
I like this one. There are a couple of nice cryptic things here that I liked!

- anagram indicated by 'new'
for subsequent word 'idea'
- 'uniform' is the phonetic alphabet term for 'u'

Rearranging the letters in 'idea' followed by 'u' results in 'adieu', which is a synonym for goodbye.

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34A: Portion of chicken served with teas by old BR(6)

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Answer: Breast
Type: Charades
Working:
_ _ _ _ _ T
I am pretty sure I am right but am not totally sound on the reasoning with this one. This word is a 'portion of chicken', with 'BR' 'by' a rearrangement of 'teas' which leads to 'Breast' but I don't know what the indicator is for rearranging 'teas' is.

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35A: On tour, maybe, everyone can go farther(8)

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Answer:Outreach
Type: Charades + Anagram
Working:
O _ _ _ _ _ _ H
I feel a bit more tentative on this one, but here is my logic:

- rearrange 'tour', indicated by 'maybe', to 'outr'
- 'everyone' is semantically similar to but not exactly synonymous with 'each'

'each' on 'tour' rearranged -> 'outreach' which is semantically similar but not exactly synonymous with 'go farther'

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36A: Be close to making a lot of noise about a bit of a joke(6)

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Answer: Adjoin
Type: Charades
Working:
_ _ _ O _ N
I needed a bit of help with this one because I wasn't familiar with the word 'adin' which means 'a lot of noise'. 'Around a bit of' is an indicator to arrange the letters of 'adin' around 'jo' which is a bit of the word 'joke'!

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DOWN Clues

1D: The one place you are conscious of! (5)

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2D: Jack’s a rogue! (5)

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3D: Maybe he’s a Wimbledon champion(4)

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4D: Revolutionary film centre(5)

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5D: One dashed to get out of it(4)

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6D: His dog didn’t go hungry(6)

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9D: Where to get drinks for nothing in an arty place(6)

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11D: She’s less than elevating(3)

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Answer:Eva
Type: Hidden word
Working:
E _ _

- girl's name indicated by "she's".
- hidden word indicated by 'less than' (applied to next word)

She's less than elEVAting

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12D: Of a movie, the whole story(5)

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Answer:Uncut
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13D: Like a chap going round the New Inn for some grub(7)

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15D: She takes a mere trice to get finished(3)

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16D: The cunning a rat can show(3)

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18D: City managed by thanes?(6)

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Answer: Athens
Type: Anagram
Working:
_ _ _ E N S
As a half Greek woman, this answer was in my veins. This was helped by that I didn't know what a 'thane' was and so it registered as a weird word. If there is a weird word or idiosyncratic phrase, I've found that it's because the clue needs the letters so check if it's an anagram. From there, knowing I was looking for a city and having the last three letters made the answer immediately clear to me.

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20D: Watch how you pull up going round a bend(5)

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21D: Outboard propeller!(3)

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Answer:Oar
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22D: The point of a dowry(3)

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23D: Not allowed to be revealed outright(6)

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Answer: Barred
Type: Charades
Working:
_ _ _ R _ _
This is one of those clues that I simultaneously felt very clever for solving but irritated because it felt correct enough to be confident with a justification awkward enough that some doubt remains. Expected a definition here, something that meant 'not allowed'. 'Barred' immediately came to mind because of a few rapid fire realisations:

- 'bared' is a synonym of 'revealed'
- 'outright' as a rearrangement indicator, to arrange the preceding word, 'bared' around the outside for an 'r' as the word 'right' can be an abbreviated to 'r'.

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25D: A charge that makes you feel robbed?(3)

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Answer:Fee
Type: Hidden word
Working:
_ _ E
hidden/partial word indicated by 'robbed' applied to 'feel' and synonymous with 'a charge' leads to 'fee'.

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28D: Work advanced in West London(5)

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Answer: Acton
Type: Charades
Working:
A C _ _ _
To 'act' is a synonym for 'working' and 'on' is synonymous with 'advanced' as in to 'move on'. Putting 'act' and 'on' together gives 'acton' which is a town in West London.

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30D: He’s said to take on the workers(5)

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31D: Anything that gets a thug drunk(5)

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Answer: Aught
Type: Anagram
Working:
I needed to do a Google search to confirm this one.

- anagram indicated by 'drunk'
- aught is an anagram of 'a thug'
- aught is synonymous with 'anything

New Word: Aught, which apparently, is an archaic word meaning 'anything at all'.

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32D: Villain’s first class return on leave(4)

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Answer: Iago
Type: Charades
Working:
I _ _ _
I needed a bit of help with this as well. I vaguely remember Iago as a Villain from a Shakespearean play (turns out that it's Othello) but needed reminding of this.

- 'ai' as an abbreviation of 'first class'
- reversal indicated by 'return'
- 'go' is synonymous with 'leave'

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33D: Area of an Israeli city(4)

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