Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Thanks to Quisling & Buddy for the answer to my plea.

I'll see if this stirs my flagging brain cell.

Tough this week.

18a Bottle that's drunk on either side of Philadelphia (5)
Phial?

23d Old-fashioned way to contradict him upset 19th century president (8)
Harrison fits the two crossing letters I've got but can't see why apart from being a 19th century president.

16a Close-fisted, half-hearted boxing, in practice (7)
Sparing, but why the last two words in the clue, they don't seem needed.

I thought 18a was rather clever as you can make the anagram using either the first 5 or the last 5 letters of Phila de lphia.

I’ve not got to the other two.

Harrison is correct, it’s a reversal read from the bottom. ‘Sirrah’ being somewhat Shakespearean

Thank you.

We’d puzzled over PHIAL and HARRISON too, so thanks for the explanations.

Please can anyone explain 50d?

Proceeded with caution and replaced one’s diamonds (5)

The answer looks like NOSED, but I can’t fully see why.

Also, is it just me, or does anyone else think 48a contains a mistake? The clue reads:

Cook’s odd selections from statuettes (5).

The answer is SAUTÉ, being the odd-numbered letters of STATUETTES. In which case, isn’t the ‘s in COOK’S redundant? The clue would make much more sense without it.

50d nosed means (of a car) moved cautiously forward.
anag (replaced )ones d

Thanks jazzgirl.

Agree with you MadWoman about 48a. I wonder if there's also something wrong with 37a:

A free source of news and entertainment, so-called (6)

I think the answer is 'Auntie', as in the BBC - except that it isn't free, you pay for it through the licence fee.

A untie = A free?