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Huh 46

5 December, 2014

Sifting through some old UK puzzles last night and came across a few clues that still leave me grasping, even with the answers timidly entered. Maybe you can help shed some light and/or devise some alternative clues for the same answers. By all means!

1. Look to step on garden tool always wanting revenge at last its best served cold = GAZPACHO [Times 9784 - there's GAZE & HOE & cold soup...]

2. Topping one found after look round double edge of pizza? =  PEPPERONI [Same puzzle, similar anguish]

3. Redecorated skips one time in New York, say, most colourful = REDDEST  [Times 9808 - is 'time in New York' = Eastern Standard Time. Meh, and huh, all in one.]

4. Response from Brussels? = ECHO [Magwitch in the Tele - EC home perhaps? Pretty flimsy. When does HO = Home?]

5. Spring without the first sign of any precipitation? An unwelcome twist = SPRAIN  [Almost there with  9836 - but can't quite see the water for the rain.]

6. Dangerous driver squashes fox over area = TOAD [Mr Toad was a highway terror. And area = A, but then 9841 has me flailing.]

7. Soldier on exercise shot reserve = NONPAREIL [Same puzzle, but here the migraine's more acute. Got an Aspro?]

8. School without publicity pressing to change corpulence = PUDGINESS  [Origins unknown, and ditto for the wordplay's workings.]

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