Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Bit hard recollecting first year you had one? (8)

Dirty habit - ordered to quit it (for the present time) (8)

A wild Bacchanalian song miles away from this celebration (8)

Missed the comma
A wild.Bacchanalian song, miles away from this celebration (8)

Something Soloman Grundy never had (8)

Hybrid tea, if centrally pruned, blossoms annually like this (8)

Thanks, everyone, for taking part. As usual, a cornucopia of great clues, making my job very difficult.

From the start, ChrisE set the bar high with his @2 which was like one of those old riddles (Q. What gets wetter the more you dry? A. A towel). Then Pigale went for political misdirection @3/11, as did BBM2 @16.

I didn't think there was a huge scope for anagrams but, sure enough, PeterM, FJ @5, Paul @7, (with a beautiful "cod" Shakespearean "piece"), Ixion @18, and therogue and SteveA with excellent subtractive ones @22 and 26 respectively, came up with the goods.

Mattrom, as ever, was consistently inventive. Ariosto's @15 was hilarious. Thanks to the clever clues of Ginge @13 and FJ @24, I now know that "matrix" is an old word for "womb" and also what a "dithyramb" is.

In the end, just squeaking ahead of Ixion @21, is the lateral thinking of ab @6 with

Wicked blowout? (8)

Well done. Your prize, should you choose to accept it, (I went all "Mission Impossible" there), is the origin of the theme music from a well-known TV program set on a fictitious Irish island.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o05wDl7IJk

Enjoy! Best wishes, all

SW

Congrats AB and thanks SW (and for the mention).

You've picked the one I couldn't parse, though - any help?

Well done ab. Thanks skyew, for the competition and the mention (though I suspect you generously mentioned most, if not all, of us!)

Like Chrise, I'd appreciate the parse please.

Congratulations ab; cheers skyewalker.

@ chrise & stevea; wicked, having a wick as in candles.