Due to the late appearance of this puzzle on-line we have a change to the scheduled blogger. I was rather surprised to see Tees on a Monday but also pleased, particularly as I knew that I was going to have to blog it.
There was quite a range of clue difficulty from the very easy to ones that were rather tricky to parse but overall this was a most enjoyable solve. I’m sure the theme must have been used before (by Punk/Paul/Mudd perhaps?) but maybe not as comprehensively as here. There were some good clues but the one that stood out for me was 20/19, despite my not knowing the series.
Across
1 Beginning to smoke joints causes outrage (6)
SHOCKS – S[moke] (beginning to smoke) HOCKS (joints)
5 Famed warrior pilots circling raised ground (8)
ACHILLES – ACES (pilots) around (circling) HILL (raised ground)
9 Ready to accept beer-covered crew and sailor (8)
AMENABLE – ALE (beer) around (-covered) MEN (crew) AB (sailor)
11 Onegin writer today heartily absorbs universal info (6)
EUGENE – [t]EE[s] (writer today heartily) around (absorbs) U (universal) GEN (info) – see here or here
13 Minoan is astir – the culprit? (8)
INSOMNIA – an anagram (astir) of MINOAN IS
15 Tees can’t help girl retired in unethical reshuffling (1,6,1,4)
I HAVEN’T A CLUE – EVA (girl) reversed (retired) in an anagram (reshuffling) of UNETHICAL
18 Narrow bit of fish? (7,5)
RAINBOW TROUT – reverse anagram – RAINBOWTR OUT gives ‘narrow bit’
21 Arts grad at Loach film with a Republican instigates conflict (5,3)
MAKES WAR – MA (arts grad) KES (Loach film) W (with) A R (Republican) : Edited – see comments 4 & 5
23 Spooner’s little song gives room for movement (6)
LEEWAY – a Spoonerism of ‘wee lay’ (little song)
24/2 What’s exemplified at 7 to rule him out when injured? (6,6)
TOILET HUMOUR – an anagram (when injured) of TO RULE HIM OUT
26 Man on island, having returned, told tale (8)
NARRATED – ARRAN (island) reversed (returned) TED (man)
28 Sure – soldiers on retreat understand about ugly things (8)
EYESORES – SEE (understand) reversed (on retreat) around (about) YES (sure) OR (soldiers)
29 Switch positions to host European event not to be repeated (3-3)
ONE-OFF – ON OFF (switch positions) around (to host) E (European)
Down
3 Voter against taking dash into port finds 7 (11)
CONVENIENCE – CON (voter against) EN (dash) in VENICE (port)
4 Boat black American capsized (3)
SUB – B (black) US (American) reversed (capsized)
5 Fish, almost the whole amount, I force into sheep (7)
ALEWIFE – AL[l] (almost the whole amount) I F (force) in EWE (sheep)
6 Cold enters dwelling that loses energy to take in (5)
HOCUS – C (cold) in (enters) HOUS[e] (dwelling that loses energy)
7 One 20 19? (3)
LOO – cryptic def. – Loo is a card game and ‘throne’ is a euphemism for toilet
8 Worth retained by last of three Indy setters honourably discharged (8)
EMERITUS – MERIT (worth) in (retained by) [thre]E (last of three) US (Indy setters)
12 Long time to find inspiration (5)
ERATO – ERA (long time) TO
14 Similar really, miller’s son’s as elevated in recurring image (4,3,4)
MUCH THE SAME – MUCH (miller’s son {in Robin Hood}) AS reversed (elevated) in THEME (recurring image)
16 Square wheel causes pain on line (5)
TROLL – T (square) ROLL (wheel)
17 Flyer installs a tank in 7 (8)
LAVATORY – LORY (flyer) around (installs) A VAT (a tank)
20/19 Catchy theme song for a TV series (4,2,7)
GAME OF THRONES – an anagram (catchy) of THEME SONG FOR A – not a series I’ve ever heard of but apparently there is one
22/10 Extremely awful wet sector might be 7 (5,6)
WATER CLOSET – an anagram (might be) of A[wfu]L WET SECTOR
25 Little man left first couple to escape (3)
LES – L (left) ES[cape] (first couple to escape)
27 City rebellion team’s leader avoided (3)
RIO – RIO[t] (rebellion team’s leader avoided)
Yes, a surprise to see Tees on a Monday, but it was a very entertaining puzzle. I struggled to see the theme for a while, but once I had my way into it (TOILET HUMOUR) the rest of the themed answers were much easier to get. GAME OF THRONES certainly raised a smile, and I loved the “pain on line” definition for TROLL, my LOI.
I confess that RAINBOW TROUT went in from definition and checkers, and I don’t think I’d have parsed it if I’d stared at it for another hour, so thanks for that Gaufrid.
Ah Gaufrid, it is quite often me who gets accused of being out of touch on this site, but I did know about Game of Thrones. My custom is to buy Radio Times each week for the radio cast lists and the credits, and even though I don’t have a television, even a cursory glance through recent numbers makes this odd sounding (to me at least) series almost ubiquitous.
Thanks, Gaufrid.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I was very impressed by 20/19, too [ I didn’t know the series, either].
Another favourite was 18ac and I even liked the Spoonerism!
Many thanks to Tees for the fun.
in 21a makes war – How do you parse the W?
Hi LesT
Sorry, I missed that when writing the post (but not when I parsed the clue originally). The W is the ‘with’ in the clue. I will edit my post accordingly.
Once again my views coincide with Eileen’s.
Looks like Mondays are turning into “who is it today?” occasions. But no complaints; I solved the anagram for 22/10 quite quickly which then gave me 7dn and the rest was fairly simple, although I couldn’t parse 18ac either.
Nothing to get bogged down on, then.
Thanks, Tees and Gaufrid.
20/19 made me laugh out loud when I finally got it, having got all the loo variants. One of my favourite shows. (Also a series of books I really must read. I’ve even met George R.R. Martin.) I agree that it must be hard to miss mentions of it, but that may just be the circles I move in. The Independent even gave as breaking news that King Joffrey had been killed – before I’d managed to watch that episode.
Definitely the theme made this crossword a fun solve.
Well, I’m glad everyone else sailed through it, because I found it really tough. Brain not engaged, perhaps.
Another one who would never have parsed RAINBOW TROUT in a million years, and the parsing of EMERITUS also passed me by, so thank you Gaufrid.
Some good clueing and humour from Tees. Thank you to him too. But this Monday turn and turn about stuff is doing my OCD no good whatsoever. Crucible will have had the heave-ho from this Wednesday next. Then I’ll be forced to tidy out my spice cupboard and put all the jars in alphabetical order.
Now there’s a coincidence. Only Connect had a toilet connection on the wall tonight.
Thanks, Dormouse, for ruining my future viewing of 20/19 with your spoiler.
More genuine thanks to Gaufrid for standing in – unfortunately, if the puzzle doesn’t get posted up on the website in advance I’ve no chance of blogging it since I can’t access the crossword from work.
I enjoyed this, but got bogged down for a long time with 18,14 and 20/19 – would never have guessed at “catchy” as an anagram indicator and the vital piece of knowledge that Much was the Miller’s son was missing for 14.
NealH@11: Did you see that news item a few months ago about the teacher in Belgium who had a ploy for dealing with unruly pupils. Turned out that all the pupils were GoT fans but he was a fan of the books as well, so when the pupils started misbehaving, he started writing on the board the names of the next characters to die, and how they meet their ends.
@Neal bogged down? One tees missed. Thanks Gaufrid and Tees for that. Game of Thrones anag inspired and water closet clever even if it gave the game away.
I didn’t find this easy to break into at all, but that might just be the sunstroke from sitting by the sea in Devon. And the scrumpy.
Happy holidays, flashling. Pity you didn’t choose Cornwall, because then you could have told us that you solved Tees’ offering sitting in Looe …
@k’sd flashette groans in your general direction. I note that John hasn’t commented 🙂
We only completed the puzzle this morning. The top half went in quite quickly and we then ground to a halt!
A very enjoyable and humorous start to the week – blog included!
We quite like not knowing who the setter may be so there’s no worries here about tidying spice jars!
Thanks to Gaufrid and Tees!
Very enjoyable. Thanks to Tees and Gaufrid. Did no-one else spot the “LOO” in second row of unches? Possibly just a ‘convenient’ coincidence or have we missed something?
Hi all
Many thanks for the kind comments, and great blog.
Sorry for the late show, but I did see the comments as they went up yesterday. Bit of a busy one at work, it was.
Cheers
PB
2018 too much for me, my brows are not high enough for this calibre of puzzle.