We’ve enjoyed Loglady’s previous puzzles, several of which were in the Independent on Sunday, but we haven’t had the pleasure of blogging a Loglady puzzle before, so this was an interesting first for us.
All good fun, with some mischievous misdirections along the way.
An anagram of MONK LEFt (without the last letter or ‘almost’) – anagrind is ‘devilish’
BED (lay) S (sister) round or ‘holding’ HOLy (pious) without the last letter or ‘not completely’
TOWEr (column) LETTEr (written correspondence) without the last letters or ‘deleting endings’
roMANIA (a state) without or ‘scrubbing’ R and O (alternate or ‘regular’ letters of ‘room’)
IN SUD (French for ‘south’) reversed or ‘flowing west’
MAKE (brand) SHIFT (repositioning)
KEY (crucial) SIGNATURE (name on contract)
U (universal) FACT (truth) in MANURE (crap) R (‘writing perhaps’ – one of the ‘3 Rs’)
An anagram of A THICK ROE – anagrind is ‘blended together’
HUNT (pack of dogs) round or ‘carrying’ A
I (one) ‘tucking into’ BRAN (fibrous food)
A homophone (‘shouted’) of BEVERAGE (drink)
lOYALTY (allegiance) with the first ‘l’ (left) ‘swapped’ to R (right – the other side)
SEC (moment) + an anagram of SEED – anagrind is ‘new’
METH (drug) INKS (makes writing bolder)
NO WAY (‘certainly not’) round AD (‘since the first Christmas’) + S (first letter of ‘Santa’)
An anagram of OLIves (half of the word) – anagrind is ‘made into’
MAN (guy) in or ‘coming aboard’ a homophone (‘say’) of CAT (catamaran – ‘boat’) DO (party)
Double definition
HOME (house) STRETCH (extension)
LENT (fast) ILl (sick) without the last letter or ‘nearly’
STY (inflammation) round or ‘containing’ CAN (discharge – apparently, in America, ‘can’ can mean to sack or ‘discharge’ from a job). We thought that the eye inflammation was spelt STYE, but Chambers has STY as well.
An anagram of SCALP IN (anagrind is ‘fractured’) + ANAL (particular)
TEAL (duck) + EAVES (roof edge) – Cockney rhyming slang for ‘thieves’
O (‘hole’) in an anagram of DRUG DEN – anagrind is ‘criminal’
Double definition although ‘up’ only seems to have been included for the surface reading.
CABER (log) round or ‘lying across’ M (motorway)
STEAl (pinch) without the last letter or ‘bottom’ + MY (‘Good gracious!’)
Homophones (‘to an auditor’) of OWE (accumulate debt) and BUOY (float)
COR (‘Good gracious’) reversed or ‘looking upward’
Phew! When did Loglady get this hard? For me, the hardest of his offerings so far.
Very enjoyable but needed a dictionary to check a few things such as STY for STYE, BLEAK as a fish and wasn’t sure whether FRITTERS could mean “giving up” or whether these were link words (seems to be the latter). Also needed to look up Beveridge.
Thanks to Loglady and Bertandjoyce.
Agree with Hovis. Simple yet devious, very good.
I liked METHINKS, HOME STRETCH, SPINAL CANAL, MAKESHIFT, MANUFACTURER, and wonder how a drink can shout (25a).
Thanks Loglady, B&J
I almost gave up on the NE corner but phoned an e-friend and managed to complete it. Very good. Thanks to setter and bloggers.
Thanks BertandJoyce and Hovis and James
I knew this one was a bit tougher, it’s an old one that never found an outlet elsewhere and I particularly liked it. Hope you enjoyed the challenge anyway.
I thought ‘giving up’ was a nice link, if a bit wordy – maybe better as *wordplay* giving up *definition* than a double def
Shouting someone a drink is simply paying for it, the man in question being one of very few politicians who might have had me emptying my own deep pockets
Thanks to Bertandjoyce and Loglady
Very good.
I had no problem with “giving up” in 17d – I read it as “yielding”. But I don’t agree “wastes away” = “fritters”, if anything “fritters away” = “wastes”.
Defeated me, I’m afraid, even after resorting to word searches as a final push.