Neither fish nor fowl — can’t tell if there’s really a theme here or not: do fish and chips and grouse and chickens and pecking qualify? A couple of wordplays that I’m still struggling with… sometimes I manage to work them out as I write up my notes. If not… please have at them. Updates from comments below…
Across
| 1 | GR[eat],OUSE – it’s a bird and OUSE is a river but “eat from”? “Eat from river, as bird”. The river is GREAT OUSE from which “eat” is removed. |
| 4 | PA(RAF,F[og])IN – the RAF are collectively “airmen”. Good example of seeing the answer before I worked out the wordplay. |
| 9 | [e]NO,U,GAT – rev(tag=name, u, on[e]) where U=upper-class I suppose for “posh” |
| 11 | I DON’T MIND IF I DO – def is an idiom for “thanks” but wordplay? “So my resentment is not to be trusted? Thanks!” See Geoff’s interpretation below. |
| 13 | CHIC=smart,KEN,P,OX=steer – def is just the very nicely hidden “spots” with KEN starring as our “boy”. |
| 18 | IMPECCABLE=”impeckable” – Paul indicates that this isn’t really a word with the question-mark. |
| 21 | WIND RESISTANCE – (in car witnessed)*: your ability to withstand a blast (of air) would be your WIND RESISTANCE rating. |
| 24, 17 | FR(YING TON[g])IGHT – I guess the chip shop’s proprietor is back from his fishing trip. I actually recognized the Goon’s “Ying-Tong song” — which just goes to show what kind of education I received at home from my father. |
| 25 | NOT,A,T[h]ING – “BeetHoven’s fifth” is invariably H – and in this case, “love” is NOT A THING rather than NOTHING. Consensus is that it’s actually NOT [h]ATING, since love is the absence of hate presumably. |
Down
| 1, 7 | GONE FISHING – (sign of hinge)* – good surface with apposite fodder for the fish and chips shop surface. |
| 2 | OPUS DEI – (Oedipus)* — read “The Davinci Code” recently which helped. |
| 3 | S(EA SN)AKE – somewhat unusual wordplay: a hidden string inside of a container, where EASN is hidden in: “observE AS Natural” all inside SAKE our “drink” |
| 6 | ARM,PIT – Paul reveals that he doesn’t shave nor wax his armpits. |
| 12 | MAN,U,MISSION – not an everyday word for emancipation, MAN U’s our football team. |
| 13 | CHAR,W,OMAN – CHAR’s our fish and OMAN’s our nation. |
| 15 | I(C(E) AP)RON – double containment: it’s a “wedge-shaped structure which protects a bridge pier from floating ice” and IRON’s our metal. |
| 19 | BACKING – my fav, very Paulian, clue since troppus is BACKING(support). |
| 22 | EGGY – is this anything more than a cryptic definition? “Dressed in yellow and white?” |
1 ac: the river is the Great Ouse.
25 Ac: I thought it was “not hating” for love
Agree with Nematocera about 25ac – NOT (H)ATING
11ac: Definition is ‘Thanks!’ For the wordplay part, you have to read I DON’T MIND IF I DO as ‘I don’t mind if I DO mind’, from which it isn’t clear whether the speaker cares or not – and therefore ‘my resentment is not to be trusted’
And here I was thinking that Manumission was just a club in Ibiza. I’d no idea it was actually a word!
Another nice puzzle from Paul, who is fast becoming my favourite Guardian setter. He’s quite a fan of these new ‘backwards’ clues as well. Last Saturday’s prize puzzle was full of ’em.
Yes, another great Paul