For anyone surprised to find a Tees puzzle on a Phiday, please have a look at yesterday’s blog. Posa turns out to be Phi in disguise!!
This was an enjoyable solve, with several straightforward clues and a few that really had us thinking. As usual with Tees, all the clues were fair (although we have some qualms about ‘Mrs Swan’ in 17A), with good surface reading, some tricky wordplay and a sprinkling of unusual words. We particularly liked 19A, and we struggled with the parsing of 13A, although this was probably due to our limited knowledge of classic literature!
A great finish to a good week in the Indy!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Glob? | |
| WORLD WITHOUT END | Cryptic definition – Globe (WORLD) without last letter or WITHOUT END. Joyce really likes these short clues despite the fact that you often need a fair number of crossing letters before you can sort them out! | |
| 9 | Reason Robert Mark introduced rogue program | |
| LOGIC BOMB | LOGIC (reason) + BOB (Robert) with M (mark) inserted or ‘introduced’ | |
| 10 | United supporters coming over results in chaos, as usual | |
| SNAFU | Reversal or ‘coming over’ of U (United) + FANS (supporters). It’s only a word that we’ve ever come across in crosswords although that may be because it is derived from an American acronym. | |
| 11 | Ham is twice cooked – here’s something served raw | |
| SASHIMI | Anagram of HAM and IS IS (twice) (anagrind is ‘cooked’) | |
| 12 | Letters sent up first class complain about motorway | |
| AIRMAIL | AI (first class) + RAIL(complain) about M (motorway) | |
| 13 | Folk in Wells hiding old priest | |
| ELI | This one had us beat for a while, but a bit of research revealed that the ELoI are a human species in ‘The Time Machine’ by HG Wells – remove or ‘hide’ the O (old) for the priest who pops up in lots of crosswords! | |
| 14 | Salesman on ship requires silence | |
| REPRESS | REP (salesman) + RE (on) + SS (ship) | |
| 17 | Flower Mr Swan plants with Mrs Swan? | |
| COWHERB | This seems to be a play on COB (Mr Swan!) around (‘planting’) W (with) + HER (Mrs Swan?) | |
| 19 | Ultimate in self-catering holidays? | |
| EGO TRIP | Cryptic definition – which really made us smile! | |
| 22 | Girl in room for academics finds copier | |
| SCANNER | ANNE (girl) in SCR (Senior Common Room) | |
| 24 | Magic people from Nigeria brought to the West | |
| OBI | IBO (people from Nigeria) reversed or ‘brought to the West’) | |
| 25 | Co-worker boxing Orwell’s ears? This takes heat out of situation | |
| COOLANT | CO + ANT (worker) round or ‘boxing’ O |
|
| 26 | British stroll in countryside and gather berries | |
| BRAMBLE | B (British) + RAMBLE (walk in the countryside) | |
| 29 | R W Balfour sent cartload | |
|
28 |
BARROWFUL
ALICE |
Anagram of R W BALFOUR (anagrind is ‘sent’)
Wonderful girl perhaps divides one by fifty one ACE (one) inbetween or ‘divided by’ LI (fifty one). Thanks to Geebs for pointing out our omission! |
| 30 | Maybe do whatever halts an argument? | |
| HAVE THE LAST WORD | An excellent cryptic definition – anagram of DO WHATEVER HALTS (anagrind is ‘maybe’) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Rest in circulation, in money’s case accelerated sudden drop in prices | |
| WALL STREET CRASH | Anagram of REST (anagrind is ‘in circulation’) in WALLET (money’s case) + CRASH (accelerated as in a ‘crash course’) | |
| 2 | Mock English? Leader in Scotland speaks as Hitler! | |
| RAGES | RAG (mock) + E (English) + S (‘leader’ or first letter in Scotland) | |
| 3 | Politely refuse to perform grammatical exercise | |
| DECLINE | Double definition | |
| 4 | Welshman is to store energy in teeth | |
| IVORIES | IVOR (Welshman) + IS around or ‘storing’ E (energy) | |
| 5 | Goddess in charge grabs book from Israelites | |
| HEBRAIC | HERA (goddess) + IC (in charge) around or ‘grabbing’ B (book) | |
| 6 | Remove top American, bringing in new man | |
| UNSCREW | US (American) around or ‘bringing in’ N (new) + CREW (man) | |
| 7 | Weak girl almost snatches victory | |
| EL ALAMEIN | LAME (weak) in or ‘snatched by’ ELAIN |
|
| 8 | Such appellations as suit the dashing aristocrat? | |
| DOUBLE BARRELLED | Cryptic definition – aristocrats are renowned for their double-barrelled names, which are hyphenated or ‘dashed’ | |
| 15 | Composer orders pork, duck and five bananas | |
| PROKOFIEV | Anagram of PORK, O (duck) and FIVE (anagrind is ‘bananas’) | |
| 16 | Runner in his kit | |
| SKI | Hidden in hiS KIt | |
| 18 | Soldiers caught by fierce monster | |
| ORC | OR (soldiers) + C (caught) | |
| 20 | Governor ingests a chemical substance | |
| REAGENT | REGENT (governor) around or ‘ingesting’ A | |
| 21 | Scooped-out potato complements food fit to ingest | |
| POTABLE | P |
|
| 22 | Ibis are assembled in vast region | |
| SIBERIA | Anagram of IBIS ARE (anagrind is ‘assembled’) | |
| 23 | Half dead in Texan mission – redoubt evacuated | |
| ALAMORT | ALAMO (Texan mission) + R |
|
| 27 | Italian singer gets clown legless | |
| BUFFO | BUFFO |
|
Indeed, Tees falsely accused of setting yesterday’s puzzle. I trust the respective legal teams are already in contact.
Most enjoyable puzzle – you couldn’t say the grid wasn’t solver-friendly, could you? Mostly straightforward, but there were a few that held me up. I especially liked WORLD WITHOUT END, although you did need some crossing letters before it became clear what was going on. BRAMBLE was easy, but brought a smile, since folk round here have been scouring the hedgerows and helping themselves to one of the best crops for ages in recent weeks.
Well done for parsing ELI.
Thanks to B&J and Tees.
I too couldn’t parse 13a so thanks B&J. I also like the really short clues like 1a (but only if I can solve them) and this has to be my clue of the day.
I wonder if Tees might have had the phrase “her indoors” made famous by Arthur Daley in the TV series Minder when composing 17a. This could help allay the qualms expressed by B&J although I’m not sure how “plants” fits in then.
Thanks to Tees for another enjoyable puzzles and B&J for the blog.
I found this straightforward for a Tees puzzle, although SCANNER, my LOI, went in unparsed because I’d forgotten “SCR”, and I didn’t know ALAMORT but the wordplay couldn’t have been more helpful.
Count me as another who didn’t like “her” as Mrs Swan in 17ac. Having said that, there was plenty to enjoy in this puzzle, and the four long clues were very good.
I’d have been appealing for help on 13a if I’d been blogging so thanks for that B&J, Tees otherwise at his gentlest and a pretty quick solve.
@K’sD not really sure who is the injured party by my wrong guess of POSA’s identity, but really the non-Wagner classical music theme should have given it away.
B&J
You seem to have missed out 28ac.
Stared at this for a while before getting going, then as K’sD says, friendly grid got things spinning along. Thanks to Tees and Bertandjoyce.
10A there was an American film titled SNAFU (1945). The British title was Welcome Home (presumably because the expression was unknown in the UK or the terrible F word might have been impliedly revealed when explaining the meaning).
Thanks Geebs – blog amended!
Also Howard L @2, we weren’t too happy with the use of ‘planted’ as an insertion indicator. However it was a Tees puzzle so we checked the dictionary! Chambers includes the following definitions for plant as a transitive verb – to insert, to hide (informal), to implant and to introduce!
Flashling@4 – the parsing of ELI came to Bert at the last moment as he was about to post the blog!
We also forgot to thank Writinghawk for standing in for us last week!
Just the perfect level of difficulty for me. Had to think on a few at the end but got them without having to pull my hair out.
23dn raised a smile. Didn’t know the word, but I visited the Alamo just a few weeks ago.
Couldn’t parse 13ac, despite being something of a Wells fan, so thanks for that.
Certainly knew SNAFU outside of crosswords. In fact, I don’t recall seeing it in a crossword before. But I do recall seeing the Ken Campbell Illuminatus trilogy back in the seventies, the play that opened the Cottesloe theatre at the NT, and it had a song called Snafu. After all this time, I can still remember the chorus: This I say unto you, S-N-A-F-U, Situation normal…
An enjoyable puzzle, thanks to Tees and B&J.
Don’t often comment here but often view.
I need to add especial thanks to K’s Dad as he seems invariably to put my views, only clearer than I could.
thus today partcularly liked ‘world without end’ and got, but struggled to parse, ‘eli’.
So add a x2 on any future K’s Dad comment
Thanks again
Thanks 4across for the comment! It’s always good to see some new names and makes our job as bloggers so much more interesting.
We have to thank K’s D too – he encouraged us to ‘unlurk’ some time ago!
Please do feel free to add more comments in future even if someone else has already said it!
Good variety in this one, nice level for a Friday, and just one quibble which has been put in its place by B&J – the ‘Mrs Swan’ associated with it, I guess you can see why! That aside this is about as tight as a folk-singer’s fringe, as they used to say, hard to pick the clues about. Thanks to B, J, and Tees.
Many thanks to Bert and Joyce and to all who have commented.
Watching England now. Just waiting for Hart to goof up, and boy how this game could do with some entertainment.
I loaded the puzzle online and got Jambazi 8417. What’s going on?
He sends me cash every time that happens.
SNAFU was a very common term when I joined the army in 1971. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, the civilian (polite) version is Situation Normal, All Fouled Ip. I leave you to guess which word is different in the army version.
There is a distinct irony in the fact that I fouled up my comment on what SNAFU stands for. It should, of course, have said Situation Normal, All Fouled Up!