[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
Apologies for the late appearance of this post. Due to the nature of this puzzle, the blogging utility that Grant uses to prepare his blogs would not work. He then had problems with his laptop and was unable to use it to produce a post manually.
I am not going to delay publication further by adding any commentary, other than to say many thanks Julius for a most enjoyable challenge.
Pothole? (5)
NAVEL – cryptic def.
Serious wonk brewing keg beer after university (8)
UBERGEEK – an anagram (brewing) of KEG BEER after U (university)
To spoil Julius, books therapy (9)
TREATMENT – TREAT (to spoil) ME (Julius) NT (books)
Tory at one time, being happy to take the whip? (9)
CONFORMER – CON (Tory) FORMER (at one time)
Increasingly headstrong, uninvited guest Charlie gets evicted (6)
RASHER – [c]RASHER (uninvited guest Charlie gets evicted)
Taking the mickey out of family runabout (6)
JOKING – KIN (family) in JOG (run about)
INXS; mum’s annual highlight! (4)
XMAS – MA (mum) in XS
French wine in good condition; pour without restraints! (5)
FITOU – FIT (in good condition) [p]OU[r] (poor without restraints)
Military senior officer reported (7)
MARTIAL – sounds like (reported) ‘marshal’ (senior officer)
Belt knocking over about 12 (6)
ZODIAC – CA (about) 1 DOZ (12) reversed (knocking over)
Broad appeal? (6)
HOWZAT – cryptic def. referring to the cricketer Stuart (or Chris) Broad
Forge silver coins of yesteryear (6)
LIVRES – an anagram (forge) of SILVER
Stony-faced leaders of Greece replaced investment managers (4)
GRIM – first letters of (leaders of) Greece Replaced Investment Managers
A tendency to appoint sleeping partners without gender discrimination (11)
BISEXUALITY – cryptic def.
Yankee at The Cross regularly rabbits on (7)
YATTERS – Y (Yankee) AT T[h]E [c]R[o]S[s] (The Cross regularly)
Salty water (about 100ml mark) (7)
BRINDLE – BRINE (salty water) around (about) DL (100ml)
Foster daughter I introduced to American soldier (5)
JODIE – D (daughter) I in (introduced to) JOE (American soldier)
Relaxed, being well lubricated after leaving King George (5)
EASED – [gr]EASED (well lubricated after leaving King George)
Sport with Casanova, a gentle soul (5,5)
PEACE LOVER – PE (sport) ACE LOVER (Casanova)
Friend, king for the day, trembled (6)
QUAKED – QUAKEr (friend) with D (day) replacing R (king)
Zero, zip in Paris art gallery to give direction (9)
ORIENTATE – O (zero) RIEN (zip in Paris) TATE (art gallery)
Baghdad hero’s work astonished Blair (6,3,6)
SINBAD THE SAILOR – an anagram (work) of ASTONISHED BLAIR
Basel ski resort with some gorgeous features (8)
KISSABLE – an anagram (resort) of BASEL SKI
I’d be overrun by rodents after unwrapping every pest killer (9)
VERMICIDE – I’D in (be overrun by) MICE (rodents) after [e]VER[y] (unwrapping every)
He’s bound to visit The Hague (3,8)
WAR CRIMINAL – cryptic def.
Getting more bitter about British Airways’ awful catering (10)
ACERBATING – an anagram (awful) of CATERING around (about) BA (British Airways)
Acting as my substitute, takin’ drugs, no.1 going round the inside track (8,7)
INFORMED OPINION – IN FOR ME (acting as my substitute) DOPIN[g] (takin’ drugs) NO 1 reversed (going round)
Reject visa forged in Germany over the beginning of Weihnachten (7)
DISAVOW – an anagram (forged) of VISA in D (Germany) O (over) W[eihnachten] (the beginning of Weihnachten)
Thank you, Gaufrid & Julius.
Merry Christmas.
Thanks once more to Gaufrid for saving the day. An unusual and fun challenge for Christmas, and I’m gutted that I couldn’t get the blog out.
Curiously, my first 2 into the grid were the crossing -LOVER and VERMICIDE, based on a guess that if ‘lover’ was right, then we had a (9) starting with V. But I couldn’t make PEACE mean ‘sport’ (because it doesn’t) until the very death, so that -LOVER was both my first and last in, if you see what I mean. Odd, as I say.
Thanks to Julius for the fun & Gaufrid once more and a very merry Christmas to all who had a go at this.
That was a great present. Thanks Julius and Gaufrid and Merry Christmas to all the team.
(I loved the short CDs like pothole and Broad appeal)
Lover was my first and last in too, and for the same reason. Can’t say I was as keen on howzat as copmus but this was overall a real treat and challenge. Thanks gaufrid and Julius.
I crossed out the letters of the alphabet as I went along, and finished up with H, L, and Z. Trying H for 1a with O and T in place gave me HOWZAT, got the Appeal bit, but Broad didn’t mean anything to me, not being a fan of cricket. The L followed easily enough, having previously tried to fit Ag into the solution. A super puzzle from RJ.
Superb. Just got around to this. Seemed to get nowhere until finally i could nail some grid entries. Many thanks Gaufrid and happy new year to you and Julius.
Thanks Julius and Gaufrid
Great alphabetical puzzle which took up a couple of hours of holiday time to get done. GRIM was the first one solved but had to get another 13 clues before SINBAD THE SAILOR allowed me to start filling in the grid. After that it was a steady procession of fitting in the ones that I’d got and working out the rest. Finally finished in the NW corner with HOWZAT, ZODIAC and BRINDLE (which had to wait to check here to see that DL – decilitre was correct).
Loved the cryptic definitions – NAVEL actually made me laugh out loud, BISEXUALITY raised a smile from the convoluted but very clever description and JODIE was a master class in misdirection. Enjoyed this a lot !