A challenging puzzle in parts with some superb charade clues that inventively stitch together the component parts and at the same time have very good surfaces. One word was new to me and I had to check it, another clue hasn’t left me satisfied but I might be missing something.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | GAELIC FOOTBALL — (BALLETIC GOAL OF)* — I got this straight-off without reference to 23 and so got 23 instantly. |
| 10 | OATER — trurO A TERrible — a new one for me, apparently an oater is a Wild West film, a “horse opera”. |
| 11 | NISSEN HUT — (THUS ENNIS)* |
| 12 | COCTEAU — “cocked toe” — I assume Cocteau was notably gay as well as notably surreal. |
| 13 | TWO-INCH — O in T WINCH — excellent surface. |
| 14 | RUN ITSELF — R UNIT’S ELF |
| 17 | SWARM — S+WARM — this was very clever, between S+HOT and S+COLD! |
| 18 | OXFAM — OX+FAM(e) |
| 20 | PERONISTA — (AT SIN O’ REP)< — excellent reversal that I had to work hard to understand once only Peronista would fit. |
| 22 | ROYAL WE — W in RO(d)+YALE |
| 24 | AEROBIC — (CARB IE O)* — very nice &lit |
| 26 | SNOWDONIA — (WOODS IN AN)* — Snowdonia is one of the UK’s National Parks. It’s not quite a nature reserve but the definition is close enough without giving the game away too easily. |
| 27 | FLOCK — DD — this is a very clever double definition that took me a while to fully appreciate. I initially read it as a simple definition, then I realised that a flock of geese in flight is a skein. Flock is waste wool. |
| 28 | OPENCAST MINING — (ETC MAN’S)* in OPINING |
| Down | |
| 2 | ATTIC — (h)ATT(r)IC(k) — yet another excellent charade building a great (cricketing) surface. |
| 3 | LARGEST — LAG overlapping REST — and again! |
| 4 | CONJURE UP — JUR(y) in ONE in CUP — ref to film “Twelve Angry Men” = JURY, thus nine angry men = JUR. |
| 5 | ONSET — ON SET |
| 6 | THE TOPS — to get BEST one takes THE TOPS of the four words in the clue. Thanks to Niall for that one. |
| 7 | ATHENIANS — A(sk) THEN I ANS |
| 8 | LET THEM EAT CAKE — (L+TEETH)* MEATCAKE |
| 9 | CONCERTO GROSSO — ONCE in CR + ROSS in TOGO |
| 15 | NO-FLY ZONE — (FLOOZY)* for I in NINE — again, inventive wordplay providing a good surface. |
| 16 | FIRE ALARM — REAL A in FIRM |
| 19 | MELODIC — cinematiC IDOL EMerging < |
| 21 | NUROFEN — NUR+OF(t)EN — Nurofen is a brand of the anti-inflammatory drug Ibuprofen |
| 23 | ENNIS — (d)ENNIS — Dennis the Menace, UK comic strip character. Ennis is the county town of County Clare in Ireland. |
| 25 | BJORN — (JOB)* tuRNip |
THE TOPS Look at first letters. Thanks for SWARM. Magnificent, inventive, puzzle.
Nope, still none the wiser. I think you’ll have to spell it out in words of no more than one syllable.
Okay, it just dawned on me! Doh! Too clever by half.
One of the best puzzles I’ve solved in recent memory.
Good stuff as you’d expect. In 20, BA = Buenos Aires was new to me, but turns out to be in the Concise Oxford, so fair game. Fairly slow on the left-hand side until CONCERTO GROSSO dawned on me.