A tough but delectable workout today from WANDERER. Enjoyed the challenge. Needed help to get across the line for 6d.
Not sure why I couldnt change the color of the def in the tool – i usually like to use blue font for the def but for some reason the mac / app kept defaulting it to black.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FIBULA |
Flu jab initially gone wrong, with first of injections in part of wrong limb! (6)
|
| [ FLU jAB ( initially gone ) I ( first of Injections ) ]* – if the first wrong is an anagrind, what is the second wrong for? perhaps to mean the jab is usually in the arm and the fibula is in the leg? | ||
| 4 | SWELLING |
Small area of London showing growth (8)
|
| S ( small ) WELLING ( area of london ) | ||
| 9 | COUPON |
Firm well-informed about voucher (6)
|
| CO ( firm ) UP ON ( well-informed ) | ||
| 10 | SALVABLE |
Have balls repaired? Not hard, when can be recovered (8)
|
| [ hAVE BALLS ( not hard – without H ) ]* | ||
| 12, 13, 14 | LEFT RIGHT LEFT |
Regular elements of floral display as March begins? (4,5,4)
|
| cryptic def; expansion of the alternate letters of “..fLoRaL..” | ||
| 17 | SANDPAPERING |
Polishing Grandpa’s pine dresser (12)
|
| [ GRANDPA’S PINE ]* | ||
| 20 | UNDERACHIEVE |
Perform poorly in revue? Can hide away (12)
|
| [ REVUE CAN HIDE ]* | ||
| 23, 24, 25 | LIVE LIKE A LORD |
Be early, perhaps, to enjoy what our peers do? (4,4,1,4)
|
| cryptic def; early – read as pertaining to an earl | ||
| 28 | ANDROIDS |
Robots dispensing doch-an-doris? Och, no! (8)
|
| [ Doch-AN-DORIS (without OCH) ]* | ||
| 29 | HOLLOW |
Empty stretch at last – dog’s let off lead (6)
|
| H ( stretcH, last letter ) fOLLOW ( dog, without initial letter ) | ||
| 30 | SERENADE |
Work to play? Famous sister does, regularly (8)
|
| SERENA ( famous sister, tennis ) DoEs ( regularly ) | ||
| 31 | DEADLY |
Extremely boring delay, with first bit of day wasted (6)
|
| [ DELAY D ( first bit of Day ) ]* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FECKLESS |
Irresponsible fellow – rash, getting run out (8)
|
| F ( fellow ) rECKLESS ( rash, without R – run ) | ||
| 2 | BLUE FUNK |
After initial confusion, talk of “a virus bed” leads to state of panic (4,4)
|
| spoonerism ( initial confusion ) of FLU ( virus ) BUNK ( bed ) – needed to use a word fit to solve this as i didnt know the phrase and had convinced myself that the answer started with C ( initial Confusion ) | ||
| 3, 15, 26 | LOOK UP AND DOWN |
Search thoroughly for what’s hidden in hollow? (4,2,3,4)
|
| cryptic def; look = LO, referring to cluing hOL-LOw | ||
| 5 | WEATHER VANES |
Near the eaves, initially W not E winds around? So these might show! (7,5)
|
| W [ NEAR THE eAVES ( not E ) ]* | ||
| 6, 16, 27 | LOVE ON THE DOLE |
Film based on 1930s novel? That’s briefly in doubt (4,2,3,4)
|
| cryptic def; expansion of inner letters of “..dOUBt” – parsed as O – LOVE, UB – Unemployment |
||
| 7 | INBRED |
Native of fashionable Midlands city turning up shortly (6)
|
| IN ( fashionably ) [ reverse of DERBy ( midlands city, shortly i.e. without last letter ) ] | ||
| 8 | GHETTO |
Playing together without hesitation in deprived area? (6)
|
| [ TOGETHer ( without hesitation i.e. without ER ]* | ||
| 11 | SIMPLE-MINDED |
Mickey Mouse cared for Goofy (6-6)
|
| SIMPLE ( mickey mouse ) MINDED ( cared for ) – does goofy really mean this? | ||
| 15 |
See 3
|
|
| 16 |
See 6
|
|
| 18 | RECOILED |
Flinched, seeing wound again? (8)
|
| read as RE-COILED ( wound again ) | ||
| 19 | HELD SWAY |
Was in position of power when imprisoned on rock (4,4)
|
| HELD ( imprisoned ) ROCK ( sway ) | ||
| 21 | ALWAYS |
Yes, into breaking laws 24/7 (6)
|
| AY ( yes ) in [ LAWS ]* | ||
| 22 | EVADER |
Dodger raised in cedared avenue (6)
|
| hidden reversed in “..cedaRED AVEnue” | ||
| 26 |
See 3
|
|
| 27 |
See 6
|
|
Thanks Turbolegs
6,16,27 – You seem to have misread my email, UB is Unemployment Benefit (not Bureau).
didn’t share the delectableness for quite a few of these.. not helped by not having heard of either film or book for 6dn.. and the various interpretations for that, 12ac and 1ac definitely beyond my payscale..
thanks Wanderer n turbolegs
Enjoyed this, but never heard the phrase ‘Look up and down’ for ‘search thoroughly’. I do know ‘Search high and low’…
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs (and Gaufrid)
Ended up really enjoying this. There were periods were I thought I would have to give up but kept getting a bit of inspiration and managed to complete albeit using a word fit to get BLUE FUNK which I only vaguely knew and hadn’t equated it with a state of panic.
Enjoyed the cunning LEFT RIGHT LEFT, ON THE DOLE etc. I didn’t like “dresser” as an anagram indicator in 17a. Maybe somebody can explain. Come to think of it, sandpapering is something I would do prior to polishing.
A challenge, for sure, but a most enjoyable one
I loved FIBULA (I parsed the second ‘wrong’ as you suggest, Turbolegs), 17ac SANDPAPERING (although ‘dresser’ is a rather odd indicator, as Hovis suggests), 28ac ANDROIDS, both for the surface, SERENADE (‘work to play’) SIMPLE-MINDED, where I don’t agree with your quibble, Turbolegs ( Chambers gives ‘foolish’ for both), LOOK UP AND DOWN and LOVE ON THE DOLE, both for the construction.
Many thanks to Wanderer for the fun work-out and Turbolegs for the blog.
(Reading the blog, I was all set to challenge Gaufrid but by the time I’d finished he’d posted his comment. I should have known better. 😉 )
What a great puzzle to end the week! The triplet clues across and down were particularly good fun. The film at 6/16/27 was new to me with the ‘dole ‘ part needing a word fit. However, it was the tennis player at 30 which stood out for me today. About half way through, I considered an unparsed LEATHER PANTS for 5 but 4a across made me look closer at the wordplay and better sense prevailed.
Like Hovis, I wondered about ‘sandpapering’ as ‘polishing’ – couldn’t help thinking that sandpaper would rather remove the shine from a surface but it checked out in dictionary. I took ‘dresser’ in the sense of prepping a surface before polishing…
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Great puzzle especially as I managed to complete it fairly quickly.Full of admiration for the blog.
Thanks to Turbolegs and Gaufrid for parsing 6d for me, which I failed to do, although the solution was obvious enough. It all went in fine, though I was also not 100% happy with “look up and down”, which I have always understood to mean looking at someone to attempt to assess their character. Generally, though a good challenge admirably crafted. FIBULA a particular favourite – I agree with Turbolegs and Eileen@5 – along with LEFT RIGHT LEFT.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Excellent puzzle, which started slowly and then gathered pace.
I thought it was particularly neat that the triplets all began with L.
Very tricky in places but we got it all in the end, although the three triplet answers were got principally by guesswork from enumeration and crossing letters. We didn’t manage to parse some of the others, either but we thought some of the ones we did parse were superb – FIBULA, ANDROIDS, INBRED and HELD SWAY for example.
Thanks, Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Thanks Wanderer for a challenge that I completed more by lucky guessing than by teasing apart some of the intricate parsing. For that I’m grateful to Turbolegs. I thought LEFT RIGHT LEFT was pure genius and I loved the surface for SIMPLE-MINDED. Overall, a good end to the week.
Yes, an excellent puzzle which I found harder than the average Wanderer.
The setter’s trademark devices were there in abundance, eg in three of the four long ones.
I think his wordplay, actually in all his guises, has become more intricate over the years.
Not a hint of a cryptic definition in sight.
I agree with Simon S @9 about what he said in the last line of his comment.
For me, the whole thing was a bit, but not that much, spoiled by Wanderer’s use of ‘dresser’ as an anagram indicator in 17ac.
In the same category as Philistine’s ‘turner’ a while ago.
But I am not going to start the war again (as I seem to have lost it last time).
Thanks to Turbolegs & Wanderer.
A tough challenge that I enjoyed. I didn’t parse 6d – and having seen it explained I’m not surprised! It’s the first time I’ve come across wasted as an anagrind which I found in Bradford’s and that meant DEADLY was solved – up until then I’d been trying to come up with synonyms for drunk. And it was a dnf as having got _E_D SWAY the best I came up with was HEAD SWAY – clearly not the answer. Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Thanks all, for stopping by.
Gaufrid@1 : Yep, a bit careless of me to have got UB down wrong. Thanks for that, once again.
Eileen@5 : 11d was a learning for me. Had generally equated ‘simple-minded’ to ‘naive’ rather than foolish so that was new to me.
Should have mentioned this in my blog – like many others have observed, I really did like 12,13,14a – my pick of the clues.
Regards,
TL
Very late post. Fluked LOVE ON THE DOLE after considering the similarly unparsed ‘love on the move’; I wouldn’t have been able to correctly parse this in a month of Sundays. Really loved FIBULA, LEFT RIGHT LEFT and especially LOOK UP AND DOWN.
Thanks to Wanderer, Turbolegs and to Gaufrid, that ultimate “go to” authority.
I got there in the end, only missing Serenade. Fibula took a long time, and I remain confused by the second “wrong”. Several were unparsed. I knew of the book and film so that went in quickly, but it took three visits before I quit at Serenade.
Thanks Wanderer abd Turbolegs
Really difficult and held up for days with LOVE ON THE DOLE, severely hampered with having a careless SAVEABLE in at 10a. Eventually found DOLE in a word finder and googled that with ‘film’ to locate the unheard of movie. No way I could have found it from word play. Also didn’t see the clever twist with ‘early’ in 23, 24, 25.
Enjoyed all of the rest a lot and glad to get it finished at last.
I, too, was fooled for ages but ultimately delighted by “early” = like a lord. I couldn’t help thinking of Baldrick’s understanding of irony (goldy, bronzey) in Blackadder: of course I know what “early” means: it’s like “tardy” and “timely” only it’s made of earls