A fairly tough Saturday workout from Punk this weekend…
…nothing obvious (to me) on the thematic/Nina front, but some complicated parsings and nice surface readings.
PORK SCRATCHINGS, GENE SIMMONS and LEAD SINGER among my favourites, with FATHER CHRISTMAS making a rather un-seasonal appearance, with a bizarre Thatcherite anagram. LOI was TAMARACK, which was clear from the wordplay, but needed a check on the definition. And WHOOPSIE brought back memories of Michael Crawford as Frank Spencer – ‘Oooh Betty, the cat’s done a WHOOPSIE’!…
Thanks to Punk – I hope I have it all explained below.
(NB. I am currently away on holiday in Australia, and out all day Saturday ‘at the races’ in Cairns, so due to time zones and alcoholic indulgence I may not be very prompt in replying to comments/feedback…but keep ’em coming!…)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | ABLOOM | Billions in cash for backing out (6) | out (as in flowering) / A_LOOM (moola, or cash, backing out) around B (billions) |
|
| 5A | HIGH LIFE | Good time to find biography on the top shelf? (4,4) | good time / A biography could be a LIFE, and if it was on the top shelf it might be a HIGH LIFE |
|
| 9A | PORK | /14 Ending in bar, various packs or bags – items containing little taste of crackling? (4,11) | &lit-ish/CD? / PORK SC_A (anag, i.e. various, of PACKS OR) around (bagging) R (end letter of baR), plus T_HINGS (items) around C (first letter, or a little taste, of Crackling) |
|
| 10A | CANON | Continue to preserve law (5) | law / If you wwanted to preserve something you might CAN it, and if you continued to do so you might CAN ON… |
|
| 11A | MITE | University education kicking off a little bit (4) | a little bit / MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, university) + E (first letter, or kicking off, of Education) |
|
| 12A | WHOOPSIE | Question I pose, awful mess of a setter, say? (8) | (dog) mess, (i.e.) of a setter, say? / WHO (question) + OPSIE (anag, or awful, of I POSE) |
|
| 15A | SINGER | See 24 (6) | See 24A / See 24A |
|
| 16A | GLIDER | Country not needing many to commandeer top aircraft (6) | aircraft / G_ER( |
|
| 17A | TAMARACK | Tree, a hawthorn almost blocking path (8) | tree / T_RACK (path) around (blocked by) A + MA( |
|
| 19A | ARGENTIC | Silvery dope hidden in lorry (8) | silvery / AR_TIC (articulated lorry) around (hiding) GEN (information, lowdown, dope) |
|
| 20A | ONWARD | Nothing pulled in reverse is going ahead (6) | going ahead / O (nothing) + NWARD (drawn, or pulled, in reverse) |
|
| 21A | DELISH | Design of shield appreciated for its good taste (6) | appreciated for its good taste / anag, i.e. design, of SHIELD |
|
| 23A | ESSAYIST | Writer heading for exit perhaps is in the way (8) | writer / E (heading, or first letter, of Exit) + S_T (street, way), around SAY (perhaps) + IS |
|
| 24A | LEAD | /15 6 possibly, one scorching metal? (4,6) | 15/6 (Gene Simmons, lead singer of KISS) possibly / If someone scorched, or SINGED some metal, or LEAD, then they might be a LEAD SINGER |
|
| 25A | NIGHT | See 27 Down (5) | See 27D / See 27D |
|
| 27A | HUMP | Carry first of parcels by drone (4) | carry / HUM (drone) + P (first of Parcels) |
|
| 28A | ASSESSEE | One’s checked date written by idiots (8) | one’s checked / ASSES (idiots) + SEE (date) |
|
| 29A | PUNISH | Crime on the rise, flipping hard to get discipline (6) | discipline / PUNIS (SIN, or crime, plus UP, or on the rise, all flipping) + H (hard) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | BROTHEL CREEPERS | Shoes initially licked, easily keeping bootlicker in order? (7,8) | shoes / BROTHE_RS (order, of monks) around L-CREEP-E (L & E – initial letters of Licked and Easily – around – keeping – CREEP – bootlicker) |
|
| 3D | OIK | Lout, attention-seeker and knucklehead (3) | lout / OI (attention seeking interjection) + K (first letter, or head, of Knuckle) |
|
| 4D | MAC | Kit for IT staff, mostly (3) | (Apple) kit for IT / MAC( |
|
| 5D | HANSEATIC LEAGUE | German traders once allied in northern constituency, one almost certain to be held by old Tory leader (9,6) | German traders, once allied / HA_GUE (old Tory leader) around N (northern) + SEAT (constituency) + I (one) + CLEA( |
|
| 6D | GENE SIMMONS | Kiss chap in embrace of Diogenes? I’m monstrous! (4,7) | KISS chap / hidden word in ‘dioGENES IM MONStrous’ |
|
| 7D | LEMON | Peel of lime and mango with new fruit (5) | fruit / LE + MO (peel, or outside letters of LimE and MangO) + N (new) |
|
| 8D | FATHER CHRISTMAS | Benevolent character in recollection of Mrs Thatcher? As if! (6,9) | benevolent character / anag, i.e. re-collection of, of MRS THATCHER AS IF |
|
| 13D | OLDIE | Pop Idol candidate’s bottom wrinkly? (5) | wrinkly / oldi (anag, i.e. pop, of IDOL) + E (bottom letter of candidatE) |
|
| 14D | SCRATCHINGS | See 9 Across (11) | See 9A / See 9A |
|
| 18D | ROWDY | Unruly mob lacking leadership, ending in disarray (5) | unruly / ( |
|
| 22D | INDIE | Type of music rockin’ without rock and roller (5) | type of music / ( |
|
| 26D | TIP | Clue mine (not down) (3) | clue / TIP = PIT, or mine, upwards, not downwards |
|
| 27D | HEN | /25 Drunk then welcomes approaching party for ladettes? (3,5) | party for ladettes? / HEN_T (anag, i.e. drunk, of THEN) around (welcoming) NIGH (approaching) |
|
It’s a Punk/Paul/Mudd Saturday today. Struggled to get started with ONWARD as my FOI. Didn’t know TAMARACK. Thought for awhile it was going to be TAMARISK (a tree I once had in my garden).
Ended up using a word fit to get ABLOOM and finished wit MAC. Didn’t parse the latter properly, so thanks for that. I parsed it as Mac(kintosh) for ‘kit’ as in garb then ‘for IT staff mostly’ as a cryptic definition, since not all IT staff would have a Mac. Your parsing is way better and undoubtedly correct.
Thanks to Punk and mc_rapper67.
Yes, my first of three from Punk/Mudd/Paul today and this was my favourite. Some complicated parsing eg PORK SCRATCHINGS, good surfaces eg for FATHER CHRISTMAS and fun answers such as BROTHEL CREEPERS and WHOOPSIE.
Didn’t know TAMARACK and although the clue was fine, ASSESSEE as a word isn’t!
Mightn’t sound very exciting but the ‘out’ def. for ABLOOM was my highlight.
Thanks to Punk – you’ve been busy – and to mc_rapper67 – enjoy your hols. in FNQ.
5dn was my FOI. It was one of those clues where “Germanic traders once” leapt out at me and I saw the answer immediately and then had to spend some time parsing it.
We found this mostly tough although PORK SCRATCHINGS and HANSEATIC LEAGUE were write-ins which we then took some time to parse. Like Hovis we needed a word fit to get ABLOOM and finished with MAC, although we did manage to parse the latter as in the blog. We didn’t like ASSESSEE either – not in Chambers (although of course ‘assessor’ is).
Thanks, though, to Punk – and to mc_rapper67.