Minimal blog crammed in between a busy work week and a holiday. That also means I’ll be unable to comment on comments so mistakes and omissions will go uncorrected.
I struggled initially as some of the misprints were well hidden. Eventually I got a few of the final down answers. COMDEN revealed itself and I then looked the name up in ODQ. After that I had all the misprints in a shot. Cheating? Maybe. The line, co-written by BETTY COMDEN, IT’S TIME TO CALL IT A DAY (hinted at by the tile), was from The Party’s Over. A glance at a couple of the answers to non-misprinted clues immediately suggested a word that could form a phrase with PARTY that could be written backwards and fit. One answer at 20 even went as far as having two parties. A nice simple them excellently worked out with some excellent clues.
(XY Z)* anagram
X[Y]Z insertion
X[y]Z deletion
ZYX< reversal
vwXYZab hidden word
“xyz” homophone
Correct letters in red, reversed parties in blue, correct definitions in brackets.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ESUOH SPARROW | (OUR PROWESS HAS)* | ||
| 11 | I | RECUR | raRE CURio | (mind) |
| 13 | T | ENOW | (W ONE)< | (at) |
| 14 | S | ITALA | IT A L(ed) A | (set) ITALA came up recently in an IQ, it’s a Latin translation of the books of the bible. |
| 15 | T | ROTATE | TAT in (E OR)< | (turn) OR = Other Ranks, men. |
| 16 | I | WREN | W [R] EN | (ship) EN = Enrolled Nurse. |
| 17 | GNIRIFS | FIR[ING]S | an ing is a meadow. Fairburn Ings is an excellent RSPB reserve just off the A1. | |
| 19 | M | CHAPLAINS | CHAP[LAIN]S | (men) |
| 21 | E | ASSAYS | AS SAYS | (tries) says are woollen fabrics. |
| 22 | NEHGES | ENG in SHE* | ||
| 24 | SSORC-CROSSLET | CROSS C ROSS LET | not come across this before but nicely clued avoiding using the repetition obvously. | |
| 26 | T | KOWTOW | KOW TOW | (to) kow = cow is Scots for a besom. tow = prepared fibres. |
| 27 | O | CHEVRE | CHE[V]RE | (food) I knew chere = dear but I didn’t realise it was also dear as in expensive. CHEVRE is a goat’s cheese, very nice with caramelised red onions on a pizza. |
| 30 | DRIHT BASE | (T BRIDE HAS)* | ||
| 32 | C | ELASTIN | LEAST* IN | (cells) |
| 35 | A | GOAL | G[O]AL | (aim) |
| 36 | L | STADDA | S TAD DA | (tool) a comb-maker’s handsaw! |
| 37 | L | CELEB | C L in BEE< | (lion) lion = celebrity, well a person of renown. |
| 38 | I | ANNA | ANN A | (coin) |
| 39 | T | INANE | I[NAN]E | (twit) |
| 40 | NEURAL NETKROW | (LEARNER UK TOWN)* | ||
| Down | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ENIW CASK | WIN CASE* K | to win is to open up a coal seam. There are old coal villages in County Durham such as Esh Winning reflecting this. | |
| 2 | A | URAEUS | UR[AE]US | (hat) a snake symbol on the head-dress of a Pharoah. |
| 3 | HCAOCY | CO[ACH[e]]Y | ache = aitch for Will S. | |
| 4 | D | SURAH | dd | (dress) |
| 5 | PROGATSLANDIN | (STING AND PORAL)* | ||
| 6 | AETN | TE[A]N | ||
| 7 | RETRAHCED | (TERRACED H)* | ||
| 8 | A | WOOF | W OOF | (bay) oof is slang for money, derived from Yiddish for “on the table”, oofy is also in Chambers, I’ll remember that one. |
| 9 | Y | SWISS | S(WIS)S | (yack) |
| 10 | B | STRESSOR | T in ROSSERS< | |
| 12 | E | HAILER | HAI[L E]R | (greeter) |
| 18 | T | EARTHSTAR | EAR THATS* R | (starred) a fungus a bit like a puffball, when it opens out to produce spores it forms a star-like shape. |
| 20 | NEERG AET | REEN in GATE* | ||
| 23 | T | STEELBOW | STEEL BO W | (stock) |
| 25 | Y | COTTAR | C OTT AR | (ryot) |
| 28 | C | HEP-CAT | HE[PC]AT | (cat) not fully happy with cat forming the definition here. Misprint potential may have limited the choice. |
| 29 | O | VIOLER | V I in ROLE* | (viola) |
| 30 | M | DEWAN | DE[W]AN | (minister) |
| 31 | D | SLANE | S[L]ANE | (spade) |
| 33 | E | LINE | dd | (rope) |
| 34 | E | IDOL | “idle” | (notion) |