A superb challenge from JULIUS , which did much to enliven my day. Several refreshingly innovative clues resulted in many a-ha moments both in solving and parsing. Thanks JULIUS!
FF: 10+ DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | FOB WATCH | One having time to observe Foreign Office up front, taking stock of Boris’s leadership (3,5) |
| FO (foreign office) B (Boris, first character) WATCH (observe) | ||
| 5 | SPIDER | Table support for web engineer (6) |
| double def; referring to snooker for the first def. | ||
| 10 | INTONER | Complain to Nero, bored by bloke with monotonous voice (7) |
| hidden in “..complaIN TO NERo..” | ||
| 11 | INNINGS | Knock pub sign off (7) |
| INN (pub) SIGN* | ||
| 12 | NOISINESS | Clamour for Tessa to get undressed, led by lust? (9) |
| NOISIN ( parsed as NO.1 SIN for lust) tESSa (undressed, without end characters) – clever clue !! | ||
| 13 | See 4 | |
| 15 | LOGIA | Record independent archive, primarily of Christ’s sayings (5) |
| LOG (record) IA (Independent Archive, primarily i.e. first characters) | ||
| 16 | SLEEPING | Unconscious, go back dressed with surgical support (8) |
| EEP (go = PEE, reversed) in SLING (surgical support) | ||
| 19 | HUNTSMAN | Homo sapiens taking DNA test, having odd characters missing 4, 13, 21 down probably (8) |
| HUMAN (homo sapiens) containing NTS (dNa TeSt, without odd letters) | ||
| 20 | ALDER | Tree pollarded, being thinner on top (5) |
| bALDER (thinner on top, without starting character – pollarded, learnt about the meaning of pollarded today) – another exceptional clue!! | ||
| 21 | GOT UP | Turned out, turned out, the doctor’s about (3,2) |
| OUT* in GP (doctor) | ||
| 23 | HAYSTACKS | Lots follow country dance in farm structures (9) |
| HAY (country dance) STACKS (lots) | ||
| 25 | ARBITER | Gunners rejected Luis Suarez, notoriously judgmental person (7) |
| AR (gunners = RA, royal artillery, reversed) BITER (luis suarez, footballer with an unenviable track record of biting his opponents) | ||
| 27 | CEILIDH | Giving a party, Lawrence replaced no-good section of inner roof (7) |
| CEILIng (section of inner roof, with NG – no good, being replaced by DH – lawrence) | ||
| 28 | TAGINE | Fancy eating some African food? (6) |
| EATING* | ||
| 29 | RAP SHEET | Record made by The Police is something covered by Eminem (3,5) |
| cryptic clue, and a brilliant one at that. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FRIENDLY | Avuncular cook, trousers tailored, lined (8) |
| FRY (cook) contains (trousers) LINED * | ||
| 2 | BATHING SUIT | Hot in Gabon wearing Adam West’s costume; it’s skintight! (7,4) |
| [ H (hot) IN G (gabon) ] in BAT SUIT (adam west’s costume) | ||
| 3 | ANNUITANT | A soldier about after dark in Paris; he’s getting a fixed income (9) |
| AN (a) [ NUIT (french for night) ANT (solider) ] | ||
| 4, 13, 21 down | CERNE ABBAS GIANT | He’s chalked up extraordinary recent gains hedging Swedish celebs (5,5,5) |
| RECENT GAINS* containing ABBA (swedish celebs) | ||
| 6 | PANDA | The first two appearances of Paddington Bear? (5) |
| first two letters of “PAddington” are P AND A | ||
| 7 | DAN | Desperate character of martial arts categorisation? (3) |
| double def | ||
| 8 | ROSES | For 21 across, special flowers (5) |
| ROSE (21 across is got up) S (special) | ||
| 9 | EINSTEIN | In Germany, one way one from Ulm exhibits genius (8) |
| EIN (german for 1) ST (way) EIN (german for 1) | ||
| 14 | BENEDICTINE | Niece in debt resorted to the drink! (11) |
| NIECE IN DEBT* | ||
| 16 | SAMPHIRE | County invites a politician to see coastal growth (8) |
| [A MP (politician) ] in SHIRE (county) – new word for me. | ||
| 17 | PLANTAINS | They grow on trees in Spooner’s brown flatlands (9) |
| spoonerism of TAN (brown) PLAINS (flatlands) | ||
| 18 | BRASS HAT | General disorder as Bart, Homer Simpson initially held up (5,3) |
| AS BART* containing SH ( Homer Simpson initially = HS, held up = contained in reversed) | ||
| 21 | See 4 | |
| 22 | PIT ON | Consequence of poor service for climbing/mountaineering equipment? (5) |
| reverse (clued by climbing) of NO TIP (consequence of poor service) | ||
| 24 | YUCCA | Something to put in a pot; your cocoa, occasionally? (5) |
| YoUr CoCoA (alternatie letters) – found out this is a herb | ||
| 26 | BIG | Large rock overturned (3) |
| rock = GIB (gibraltar), reversed | ||
*anagram
Excellent breakfast fodder. Thanks T. and J.
I really enjoyed this puzzle also. I note there is a theme to do with Giants as introduced by the composite clue 4,13, 21 down. Here are ones I found, but there may be more: 5ac, 16ac, 19ac, 20ac, 23ac, 27ac, 1d, 6d, 17d, 24d.
Cheers Julius and TL.
Brilliant puzzle and great blog – many thanks to both.
And revealed as even more brilliant by Steven’s comment – well spotted! [The wrestler immediately sprang to mind as I entered 23ac but I didn’t twig.]
I too spotted the giant theme. You mention 1d but I went with the combo of 26d+1d+21d. I didn’t know as many of the giants as you, Steven, but I will add 8d to the list.
As Eileen says – brilliant puzzle and great blog.
Thank you to Julius and Turbolegs too
thanks Julius, Turbolegs
SPIDER, INNINGS favourites
Nice spot, Steven. Some of them require linking: 26,1,5 & 21,19,5 (a smaller relative of which has recently been in the news: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/24/australia-giant-spider-mouse-carry-horrifying-impressive)
I wondered if tagine had a giant clue once
Thank you, dear Turbolegs, for your very generous review and thanks to those who have taken the trouble to comment.
@James
I thought about using the TAGINE fodder for GIANT but in the end couldn’t really think of anything snappy enough and I felt that the puzzle already had a few pretty long clues in it.
Nice weekend to all, regards Rob/Julius
A DNF for me – defeated by BRASS HAT and RAP SHEET… Very entertaining as always.
Thanks to Julius and Turbolegs
The cerne abbas giant ref completely new .. google helped
Many tanks to Juius and turbolegs.I had to guessed CERNE ABBAS GIANT from the wordplay(with a nudge from google.Knew it wasnt Jolly Green Giant!
Thanks Julius, a very clever and witty puzzle. Took me ages to get CERNE ABBAS GIANT, couldn’t remember the right name. NW was hardest for me. I think PANDA and TAGINE are really nice clues, but it’s all good stuff. Even though I had the chalk giant and BFG staring me in the face, I didn’t twig there was a giant theme (thanks Steven@2), makes it even more clever.
Many thanks Turbolegs for a great blog. I think of Yucca as a large pot plant, they used to be very popular.
Really enjoyed this, too many good ones to name a favourite. Thank you, Turbolegs and Julius/Rob and thanks to Steven for spotting the clever theme.
Thanks Julius and Turbolegs
After the battering taken from Io with the previous puzzle, this one seemed to solve so much easier. Having said that, it was a very entertaining crossword with a couple of new terms for me (including the curious chalked out figure at CERNE ABBAS) and SAMPHIRE and some lovely word plays (5a (my favourite), 12a (which I didn’t see the first part until coming here), 25a, 29a, 18d and 22d).
Didn’t see the giant theme – think the only thing that I was seeing, were stars … after that previous one.