Punk fills the Wednesday slot this week – and it’s nearly a year since we had the pleasure of blogging one of his puzzles.
This lived up to our expectations – with some good contemporary references (we especially liked 3d) and only one entry we’d not come across before (23ac). We also laughed at the definition in 8ac.
Despite there being two references to birds in the clues (16ac and 5d) there are no birds in any of the solutions. It looks like we don’t need to worry about Pierre’s legal team this week. What a pity.
| Across | ||
| 7 | Light texture’s back in flesh (6) | |
| BEACON | E (last letter or ‘back’ of ‘texture’) in BACON (flesh) | |
| 8 | Church joining party once worried, not enjoying it? (8) | |
| CELIBATE | CE (church) LIB (Liberals – ‘party once’) ATE (worried) | |
| 9 | Complaint, as leader punched by boy (6) | |
| MALADY | MAY (Theresa May – ‘leader’) round or ‘punched by’ LAD (boy) | |
| 10 | Legitimate rubbish written about French here (8) | |
| OFFICIAL | OFFAL (rubbish) ‘written’ round ICI (French for ‘here’) | |
| 12 | Covered in poo, water hardly in short supply to get hands cleaner? (8) | |
| MANICURE | MANURE (‘poo’) round or ‘covering’ IC |
|
| 13 | Scorer with 22 in game, we hear? (5) | |
| HAYDN | ‘Hide‘n’seek’ is the game, a homophone (‘we hear’) of HADYN Sikh (22d) | |
| 15 | Signed when joined, initial unnecessary (5) | |
| INKED | ||
| 16 | Young animal pulling tail from bird (3) | |
| KIT | KIT |
|
| 17 | Explosive stuff sent over, stronger tinderboxes? (5) | |
| NITRE | Hidden or ‘boxed’ and reversed or ‘sent over’ in ‘strongER TINder | |
| 19 | Ultimately, muscle behind lift (5) | |
| ELATE | E (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of ‘muscle’) LATE (behind) | |
| 21 | Famous singer Ice-T, artist making comeback (4,4) | |
| ROCK STAR | ROCKS (ice – both slang for diamonds) + T + RA (artist) reversed or ‘making comeback’ | |
| 23 | Metal instrument, one probing stomach (8) | |
| LUTETIUM | LUTE (instrument) + I (one) in or ‘probing’ TUM (stomach) | |
| 24 | So-called raw pepper (6) | |
| CHILLI | A homophone (‘so-called’) of CHILLY (raw – very cold) | |
| 25 | Creator questionably needing time to influence past events (8) | |
| RETROACT | An anagram of CREATOR – anagrind is ‘questionably’ + T (time) | |
| 26 | Clean tongue (6) | |
| POLISH | Double definition | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Not entirely accurate delivery to leave (8) | |
| BALLPARK | BALL (delivery – in cricket) PARK (leave) | |
| 2 | Group of players pitted wits on ice now, with odd skids (8,7) | |
| WOODWIND SECTION | An anagram of WITS ON ICE NOW and ODD – anagrind is ‘skids’ | |
| 3 | Help sought by narcissist leader in Trump, feckless individual I gathered (6,5) | |
| SELFIE STICK | T (first letter or ‘leader’ in Trump) in an anagram of FECKLESS I (individual) I – anagrind is ‘gathered’ | |
| 4 | Where behaviour refined on a trawler, say, having gathered in a lot of herring, perhaps? (9,6) | |
| FINISHING SCHOOL | FISHING (‘on a trawler, say’) round or ‘gathering’ IN + SCHOOL (‘a lot of herring, perhaps’) | |
| 5 | Correspondence bird-like, might you say? (6) | |
| PARITY | A homophone (‘might you say’) of PARROTY (‘bird-like’) | |
| 6 | After a write-up, stop screening programme – put to bed again? (9) | |
| REPLANTED | DETER (stop) reversed or ‘written up’ round or ‘screening’ PLAN (programme) | |
| 7 | Poor person’s head hit (4) | |
| BUMP | BUM (poor) P (first letter or ‘head’ of ‘person’) | |
| 11 | Unexpected blow, one doing otherwise with drink (6-5) | |
| SUCKER-PUNCH | A SUCKER would be doing the opposite of ‘blowing’ + PUNCH (drink) | |
| 14 | Fixed stocking material with a safety device (4,5) | |
| FIRE ALARM | FIRM (fixed) round or ‘stocking’ REAL (material) A | |
| 18 | Go without starter, standing to eat McDonald’s after bar snack (5,3) | |
| TRAIL MIX | ||
| 20 | Sharp as Old King Cole in the end (6) | |
| ASTUTE | AS + TUT (Tutankhamun – ‘old king’) E (last letter or ‘end’ of ‘Cole’) | |
| 22 | Indian Arab chief, not he (4) | |
| SIKH | S |
|
He seems to turn the heat up on his rare Punk gigs which is a nice change to his somewhat easy Prizes and Mudds.I was a bit puzzled on 16 which i thought would be ROO(K) but then I saw SUCKER PUNCH-perfectly fair but KIT for kitten i thought was a bit underarm.
I lived HAYDN SIKH-vintage Paul.LUTETIUM didnt bother me and I loved SELFIE STICK when I finally twigged it.
Thumbs up overall.
Thanks B&J and Punk.
Thanks for the comment copmus. We often judge the ‘fairness’ of clues by whether the definition is in Chambers. On this occasion it has kit as another word for kitten as well as the young of some small fur-bearing animals.
Really enjoyed this one. Struggled with several clues but got there in the end. I also thought of ROO(k) for 16a but, as has been mentioned in the past, JOEY is the term for a young kangaroo. KIT and LUTETIUM were new to me and wasn’t sure about PARK for leave – leave/park your car here, I guess.
Thanks, both, for blogging.
Puzzle of two halves, or two sides, for me. Tough overall, but made harder by the fact that there were so few links between right and left. The right went in finally, with barely a clue solved in the left. Didn’t help that I persuaded myself that 11dn must be something JUICE and that the metal was TITANIUM.
Didn’t much like ROCK STAR as a definition of ‘famous singer’ and M for ‘McDonalds’ didn’t float my boat either. So not my favourite Punk (although PARITY made me smile), but hey ho, tomorrow’s another day.
Hardest Wednesday ever or I have just gots the mid-week brain drain? Either or anyways, lots to like with my fave being 25a so thanks The Gobber for the puzzle and to B&J for the blog.
KD @4 – I’ll put try and put some ballast in yer boat and say McDonald’s was fine for me as a ubiquitous, but non-dictionary abbreviation, but each to their own and long may that sort of thing continue (PS, here’s a life jacket just in case).
Well, we needed wordfinder and/or anagram solver help for over 50% of this, and even then there were several we couldn’t parse. Makes us wonder if eimi slipped in Thursday’s puzzle by mistake.
Thanks, though, for the blog.
Well, I completed a puzzle for the first time this week, but it was quite a slog and I needed help, and there were many I couldn’t parse. I certainly wouldn’t have got 18dn without a word search.