The puzzle can be found here.
Hi everyone. I hope you’re having a good weekend.
Thanks to Tyrus for today’s puzzling fun. I was expecting a real challenge, but in the event, though it wasn’t exactly a quick or easy solve, neither did I find it too fearsome. Just right, in fact. I think my picks are LIME PIT and COMIC, but there are plenty of great clues to choose from. Which were your highlights?
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.
Across
1a & 5a Running pub is a vocation? He won’t say anything different (7,7)
CAPTAIN OBVIOUS
An anagram of (running) PUB IS A VOCATION
9a & 19d Play two pieces of music covered by singer – earlier spot rejected (5,7)
MAJOR BARBARA
BAR + BAR (two pieces of music) inside (covered by) ORA (Rita Ora, singer); earlier we have JAM (spot) reversed (rejected)
10a Good! An investigator spots what those without tickets may do (9)
GATECRASH
A charade of G (good), A TEC (an investigator), and RASH (spots)
11a I say, Farage’s on fire outside – hide in here! (4,3)
LIME PIT
I (from the clue) and MEP (say, Farage). LIT (on fire) surrounds this combination (’s outside)
12a Keys found here after fair old kerfuffle (7)
FLORIDA
FAIR OLD anagrammed (after … kerfuffle)
13a Take issue with apprentice’s first firing (5)
ARSON
R (take: recipe, Latin) and SON (issue), next to (with) Apprentice’s first letter
14a Son on Tyneside gets deceptively spacious accommodation without delay (9)
TARDINESS
S (son) after (on) NE (Tyneside), all of which is surrounded by (gets … without) TARDIS (deceptively spacious accommodation)
16a Briefly contact university in charity foundation (5,4)
TOUCH BASE
U (university) in TOCH (Toc H, charity), then BASE (foundation)
18a Lack of Tory turn-out is excellent (5)
NOBLE
NO BL[u]E (lack of Tory) without U (turn-out)
20a Strange wretch is holding out for the most part (7)
CURIOUS
CUR (wretch) plus IS (from the clue) containing (holding) all but the last letter of (… for the most part) OUt
21a Sixth wife in series is fighter (7)
SPARRER
PARR (sixth wife of the king famous for having had a sixth wife) goes in SER (series)
22a Give Romeo makeover! Trainspotting enthusiast perhaps? (9)
MOVIEGOER
GIVE ROMEO anagram (makeover)
23a Tradition for one retiring to country (5)
USAGE
EG (for one) going backwards in the direction of (retiring to) USA (country)
24a & 25a Assault on old Liberal leader – court names suspect (7,7)
COLONEL MUSTARD
Anagram of (assault on) OLD L (Liberal leader) with COURT NAMES
Down
1d Accommodating grievance I moved up slightly (9)
COMPLIANT
COMPLAINT (grievance) with the I moved up slightly
2d Dropping off gear (why at number 2?) (7)
PYJAMAS
A nice definition, and intriguing surface which has the solver wondering about the possible significance of the grid position. I thought the wordplay was simply an indication that Y was the second letter, but having looked it up, Y is actually spelled wye. So maybe I’m missing something. Enlightenment welcome!
3d American chaperone I’d not led astray? It won’t make much difference (1,4,2,3,5)
A DROP IN THE OCEAN
A CHAPERONE I’D NOT anagrammed (led astray)
4d It regularly falls close to town (5)
NIGHT
NIGH (close to) + T (town). I couldn’t find T for town in Chambers of Collins, so flagged down a passer-by with an ODE, and found it there. Apologies to the setter for suspecting the dreaded double duty!
5d ‘Away’ frequently – regret not going straight (3,2,4)
OUT OF TRUE
A charade of OUT (away), OFT (frequently), and RUE (regret)
6d Fellows can upset Sue breaking moral code 9’s predecessor admired (9,6)
VICTORIAN VALUES
VICTOR and IAN are our fellows and LAV is our can (toilet), which is reversed (upset), then SUE is anagrammed (breaking). The definition refers to John Major’s predecessor in Number 10, who advocated a return to Victorian values
7d Think about a latte to start with – that’s milky (7)
OPALINE
OPINE (think) around (about) A (from the clue) and the first letter of (… to begin with) Latte
8d Unstressed syllable was tricky, children admitted (5)
SCHWA
WAS, anagrammed (tricky), with CH inserted (admitted)
14d Dead through drink – see one’s leader keel over (is it poisonous?) (9)
TOADSTOOL
D (dead) inside (through; Chambers gives “among” as one meaning of through) TOAST, after which LO (see) and O (one’s leader) are reversed (keel over)
15d Van went fast to catch a flightless bird (9)
SPEARHEAD
SPED (went fast) containing (to catch) A (from the clue) + RHEA (flightless bird)
17d Decipher letter about musician (7)
UNRAVEL
NU (Greek letter) reversed (about) followed by RAVEL (musician)
20d Entertainer‘s huge ass finally gone (5)
COMIC
CO[s]MIC (huge) with the last letter of asS (ass finally) removed (gone)
21d Queen involved in con? Get outta here! (5)
SCRAM
R (Regina, queen) inside (involved in) SCAM (con)
Thanks to Tyrus & Kitty.
Blimey I haven’t heard of TocH for a good few years – interesting origin of the term.
I assumed that the “why at number 2” in 2d was to clear the amiguity between pajamas/pyjamas ?
ambiguity, even
Well, I found this very hard indeed. Took me around a couple of hours to solve, not helped by not knowing the phrase along the top. (In attempting the anagram, I originally guessed ‘octopus’ for the second word but the remaining letters made this unlikely.)
NOBLE was my LOI. Although I didn’t know the GBS play at 9/19, I did guess it so I guess I must have heard of it at some time.
With all the talk of cluedo recently, my first thought on reading 24/25 was COLONEL MUSTARD and, lo and behold, it parsed. Would not have gotten it so quickly otherwise.
One of my personal favourites was CURIOUS because of the novel way of clueing the IOUS at the end.
As for 2d, I think Y for “why” probably works for text speak. But clueing a word simply via its second letter (and, of course, the nicely cryptic definition) doesn’t sit well with me.
Thanks to Tyrus for the head-scratching and to Kitty for the ever-wonderful blog.
I’ve never come across Tyrus before, but I really enjoyed this apart from 6d which offers a double dose of one of my bugbears, the use of ill-defined forenames; and 20d with its American spelling.
Many thanks to Kitty for a lovely review (nice to see the cats and the sparring sparrows) and particularly for explaining the parsing of 9/19. I got the two bars but struggled with the rest. I can’t return the compliment and explain 2d as I too felt the spelling would need to be “wye” for it to make sense.
Many thanks to Tyrus for the challenge. It was a lot of fun.
Perhaps, I should add that I think if 2d had just said “dropping off gear”, it would work well as a cryptic definition clue. The last bit is then just an aid, so I shouldn’t be too negative about it.
Many thanks to Tyrus for another super puzzle and Kitty for an equally super blog.
I agree with your favourites, Kitty, with the addition of CAPTAIN OBVIOUS, GATECRASHER, TARDINESS [loved the estate agent- speak] – all for the surfaces – and CURIOUS, for the same reason as Hovis.
Not as difficult as I was expecting although it was a struggle to parse the 9/19 combo and 18a.
1a left me feeling slightly grumpy – sick and tired of those wretched TV adverts!
10 & 12a made the top two here.
Thanks to Tyrus and to Kitty for the very enjoyable blog. Loved the ‘audience’ reaction in the 21a clip!
Hadn’t thought of txt spk – thank U Hovis.
Thanks for explaining the ones I couldn’t parse including 9a/19d, 16a and 18a. A careless ‘complicit’ for 1d meant that I also missed ARSON. It sounds illogical, but despite failing comprehensively, I still found this on the gentle side for a Tyrus.
I liked the ‘officer’ nano-theme – CAPTAIN OBVIOUS, COLONEL MUSTARD (yet another Cluedo reference) and especially MAJOR BARBARA, for the reminder of the great Wendy Hiller.
Thanks to Kitty (including for the pics) and Tyrus
Thanks to Kitty for a very nice blog and to others who commented.