I found this a bit of a slog, but that could just be me.
Daedalus has created a Father’s Day puzzle where every clue has a reference to ‘father’ in it, either as a noun or a verb. Other setters might well comment that that’s an achievement, and no doubt it is; but it didn’t make for an enjoyable solve for me. It all appeared rather strained.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Father in lodgings decorated walls
PAPERED
An insertion of PÈRE for the French for ‘father’ in PAD.
5 Reckoned pop’s in a rush
REPUTED
An insertion of PUT in REED. ‘He is reputed/reckoned to be one of the best setters currently.’ ‘Pop/put the chicken in the oven, please.’
9 Starts to tire of pa’s irritatingly childish question
TOPIC
The first letters of Tire Of Pa’s Irritatingly Childish.
10 Fervent father thrashed English lieutenant
HEARTFELT
A charade of (FATHER)* and E LT.
11 Da and I are recently getting into claret
RELATED
An insertion of LATE in RED. I can’t equate ‘recently’ with LATE. LATELY, or OF LATE, sure; but not just LATE.
12 Father only protects bird
HERON
Hidden in fatHER ONly. Here’s the obligatory Pierre bird link. Fish should look away now.
14 Shock as pop falls oddly
APPAL
The odd letters of As PoP fAlLs.
16 During Question Time, retired father is a star!
ASTERISK
An insertion of T and SIRE reversed in ASK.
18 A quiet dad, maybe glaring
APPARENT
A charade of A, P and PARENT.
20 Call from father, travelling west, in Brazilian city
RADIO
An insertion of DA reversed in RIO.
22 Swindling foreign woman gets close to dad
FRAUD
A charade of FRAU and D for the last letter of ‘dad’.
23 So case closed – finally I discharge father’s killer
OEDIPUS
The last letters of sO casE and closeD followed by I and PUS for ‘discharge’.
26 May one fathered by Odin enter violently?
THORNTREE
THORNTREE is another term for ‘May’ in the bush sense, so it’s THOR plus (ENTER)*
27 I’ll take over after dad waves goodbye
ADDIO
Can’t say I’ve heard of this, but it’s obviously a corruption of ADIEU. A charade of (DAD)* with ‘waves’ as the anagrind, I and O for the cricket ‘over’.
28 After trial, is dad in contempt?
DISDAIN
I can only assume that the ‘trial’ is DIS, another word for Hades or Hell, which is followed by DA and IN.
29 We hear no father to boys is gloomy
SUNLESS
A homophone of SON LESS.
Down
1 A bird eaten by friend of father
PATERNAL
An insertion of A TERN in PAL.
2 Holy father’s secretary has to wash up
PAPAL
A charade of PA for ‘secretary’ and a reversal of LAP.
3 Rear one inside? It might make father more distant
RECITAL
An insertion of I in RECTAL gives you the answer. I think the setter is suggesting that if you put R in FATHER you get FARTHER, which is ‘more distant’, but how we get there, I’m afraid I can’t explain.
4 Daddy there is high and dry
DEHYDRATED
(DADDY THERE)* with ‘high’ as the anagrind.
5 Pick poppa up, having taken time out
REAP
PA[T]ER reversed.
6 Papa gets longer in jug
PITCHER
A charade of P for ‘Papa’ in the phonetic alphabet and ITCHER. This in my opinion is stretching the language a bit too far. If you long to do something, then at a stretch you could be described as a ‘longer’; ‘long’ and ITCH are synonyms, whence ITCHER, and it will be buried in a dictionary somewhere, no doubt.
7 Supposed the old man raised a boy
THEORISED
A charade of THE, O, SIR reversed and ED.
8 Father can start to go courting
DATING
A charade of DA, TIN for ‘can’ and G for the first letter of ‘go’.
13 Office suppliers‘ sire sat, not stirring
STATIONERS
(SIRE SAT NOT)*
15 Father takes Portuguese gents snack
PAPPADOMS
I think this is a charade of PAPPA and DOMS. A DOM is a Portuguese equivalent of DON, thus ‘gent’. I think this clue is unnecessarily complicated: PAPPADOMS can be spelled several different ways, because it’s transliterated; DOM for ‘Portuguese gent’ is rather obscure (it’s an alternative to DON); ‘gents’ in the surface reading needs an apostrophe for the surface to make sense; and I wouldn’t describe a PAPPADOM/PAPADUM/POPPADOM/POPPODAM/POPADOM etc as a ‘snack’ either: a snack is something you eat on its own, and I can’t imagine doing that with a PAPPADOM.
17 Firm dads keep quiet in police premises
COP SHOPS
A charade of CO and an insertion of SH in POPS.
19 Dada’s wrong about last epilogues
ADDENDA
An insertion of END in (DADAS)*
20 Two notes about e.g. child with adoptive father reviewed and edited
REDRAWN
The ‘two notes’ are RE for the second musical note of the tonic sol-fa, and N. You need to insert WARD reversed into those.
21 Inspectors of son’s father on TV
OFSTED
A charade of OF, S and TED for Father Ted, the TV series.
24 Father’s Day, touching for father
PADRE
A charade of PA, D and RE for on or ‘touching’.
25 Pop rang his mum
GRAN
(RANG)* with ‘pop’ as the anagrind.
Many thanks to Daedalus for this morning’s Sindy puzzle.
Harder than I thought it would be after first seeing all the ‘paternal’ references in the clues. I quite liked this though, with just about every possible meaning, synonym or clue device squeezed out of ‘father’ or ‘pop’. ASTERISK, OEDIPUS and RECITAL (I took the answer to be just a homophone indicator for ‘father’) were my favourites and OFSTED was unknown, but gettable.
Sorry, you probably know this but ADDIO is an Italian word for ‘goodbye’; no foreign word indicator, nor with PERE in 1a. I wasn’t too fussed with ITCHER for ‘longer’ or with the alternative spellings for POPPADOMS though take your point about ‘snack’. I think ‘After trial’ is an anagram indicator in 28a. I might be wrong, but for 11a, “John Smith, late of this parish…” = “John Smith, recently of this parish…”?
Thanks to Daedalus and Pierre (and thanks for the bird pic link)
Thanks, WordPlodder, for explaining LATE/RECENTLY. That makes sense.
Although I loved Daedalus’ previous crossword on Mother’s Day, I also found this a little strained in places. Some nice clues – so good rather than great IMO. Thanks to Wordplodder@1 for explaining RECITAL working as a homonym indicator. Quite like that answer now. I also learned the word ADDIO. I have no problem with itcher for longer in a cryptic part – can always split and take itch-er for long-er if you wish.
28 would be an anagram of IS DAD IN, with the anagrind being “After trial”. Thanks to Pierre and Daedalus and happy fathers day to all
After struggling with some crosswords this week, I happily worked through this. Nor did I find the theme a strain, just some smiley aha moments. Thanks Daedalus.
Engaging stuff as always from this setter. Tough and enjoyable solve for me in which I finally fell short by 5 or 6. Honours today go not to Pierre’s ‘getting father into every clue’, but to getting father into every clue and the wordplay of the clues without much (if any?) repetition. This made for very interesting and inventive stuff clue-wise and was a nice tribute to all the dear old dads out there. Many thanks to Daedalus for the puzzle and to Pierre for the enlightenment.
I smiled at the Father’s Day theme especially when I saw OEDIPUS.
wordplodder@1 – Addio and pere are both in chambers, which is an English dictionary, so they would appear to have been accepted as part of the English language. My view would be that language indicators might help here but are not essential – arguably they can be reserved for foreign words that are not in the dictionary as loan words.
A hard exercise finding so many variations of father, which is impressive. there was another puzzle recently that used ‘initially’in every clue (if I remember right) with different applications and meanings – also very clever. I do recognise though, in both these puzzles, that the apparent repetition in the clues can be a downside for the solver – similar comments appeared for the initially puzzle. I enjoyed this though. Can’t believe how Ioften I was stuck trying to enter pa instead of da, etc. And Oedipus made my Father’s Day. Many thank Daedalus, and thanks Pierre. And Oren@4 for disdain
Barbq later
Sorry, should thank wordplodder@1 for disdain, as well as recital
I rather liked this, although I thought some of the clues were a bit strained – but with 32 themed clues that’s hardly surprising. Plenty to like, including ASTERISK and REDRAWN – both of which took me ages to parse.
Wordplodder @1, and other solvers not familiar with UK institutions: OFSTED is an acronym for Office For Standards in Education (the actual title is a bit longer) whose duties include inspecting schools. In fact we have a number of regulatory bodies with OF as the start of their titles – OFWAT (for the water supply industry), OFCOM (communications) and several others. Perhaps 15squared ought to be renamed OFCROS (only joking!)
Thanks, Pierre – sorry you didn’t enjoy it all that much – and Daedalus.
I am another one – like the previous speaker – who quite liked this.
Actually, (a lot) more than the companion puzzle celebrating Mother’s Day.
I’ve noticed on a few occasions before that the combination Pierre and Daedalus is a bit of a miscast.
But remember Pierre, some Quiptics can be a lot worse! 🙂 [or 🙁 , if you prefer]
To be clear, I am also a solver who is not always on Daedalus’ wavelength.
At times he can write clues that I classify as ‘weird’, though others might use the words ‘highly original’.
Today’s 3d (RECITAL) was for me the only one in that category.
All in all, a very thoughtfully constructed crossword.
Certainly not middle of the road.
For some, perhaps, slightly moving towards the slip road.
I liked it!