Tees provides today’s puzzle.
We found this fairly straightforward for a Saturday puzzle, with a certain amount of general knowledge required, and a surprising number of double definitions.
HERO (champion) DOT (scatter) US
O and O (two ducks) round or ‘circling’ S (southern) L (lake)
Double definition – the 2nd a reference to Stevie Nicks, singer with Fleetwood Mac. We used to follow Fleetwood Mac when it was Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. Joyce almost had a very close encounter with Mick Fleetwood’s cymbal in Leeds Students’ union when it fell over and she was sitting on the stage. Bert and another member of the audience caught it just in time.
IN A MO (soon) RAT (despicable person) O (over)
RIP (split) TORN (split again) – the American film actor. Joyce had never heard of him so was thankful she was not solving the puzzle on her own.
Double definition
IN SUB (‘aboard sinking boat’, as in submarine) OR (other ranks – ‘men’) ATE (worried) round DIN (commotion)
Cryptic definition – the ‘players’ in TABLE FOOTBALL are swung on bars across the table to score goals
An anagram (‘rough’) of SLEEP round ST (street) – pestles being used to grind or pound materials in mortars
Double definition
A clue-as-definition: an anagram (‘sort of’) of ROLL A-E ETC
Double definition – the 48th vice-president being Mike Pence
Yet another double definition
D (departs) ROME (city) + A (area) in DRY (subtle)
RAIL (protest) after or ‘led by’ HAND (worker)
R (right) + PACE (step) reversed or ‘up’
An anagram (‘characters differ’) of DO COMBUSTIBLE round A
THE (article) R (right) round INN (tavern)
An anagram (‘changed’) of HIS LAW + I (one)
An anagram (‘excited’) of APPEAR SO round O (nothing)
O (love) NONE (nobody) ‘S (has) round or ‘feeding’ SUPPER (meal)
CONSTANT (loyal) peOPLE (citizens) with IN replacing ‘pe’ (exercise)
A sort of reverse homophone (‘to speak’) of SEW (use a needle)
FLY (knowing) round ANNE R (last letter or ‘close’ to her)
ENSUE (result) round or ‘investing’ R (Republican) + D (Democrat)
THE L (Liberal) L (left) in two Os (Oscars – in the phonetic alphabet)
MANN (German writer – Thomas Mann) A (answer)
Thanks Tees and Bertandjoyce!
Could you please explain how HANGMAN is arrived at?
The game part is clear.
Drawn is only to bridge?
One-time master of suspense? A writer?
Decent start to weekend… some long words.. couldn’t see the whole of them on the small screen at required magnification.. 14ac does the “about” not mean “around” ? …rather than “after”? Parsing confusion rather than solving problem… favourite between 9dn n 26ac… had heard of RIP altho couldn’t name a film… played a lot of table football back in the day.. about same time as Joyce was avoiding injury by cymbal… nice anecdote..
Thanks Tees n Bertandjoyce
Kurukveera@1 “master of suspense” describes the act of “hanging someone by the neck until dead” .. a “hung” game is one in which the result is undecided ie drawn.. seemed to make sense at the time…
Kurukveera – ‘hangman’ as a game relies on drawing and a ‘hangman’ was historically someone who was skilled in ‘suspending’ or hanging those people who were sentenced to death. In our opinion it wasn’t a particularly good definition.
Undrell – we are not quite sure what you mean as ‘after’ does not appear in the clue or parsing.
Thanks Undrell and Bertandjoyce!
Undrell @ 2!
OR-ATE about DIN ….seems fine.
U probably mean ATE after DIN??
Thanks Kurukveera.. that is indeed the way I read it.. I felt DIN was definitely “after” ATE.. but OR ATE about DIN makes perfect sense.. cheers
This was good fun to brighten a wet miserable day in London. The playwright in 16d was the only thing I needed to look up. It seemed a bit of an odd clue but I imagine nothing else would fit.
I liked the alliteration in 10a and my top answers were RIP TORN, ELECTORAL, ON ONE’S UPPERS, SO TO SPEAK and OTHELLO.
Many thanks to Tees and to B&J.
Well, well. It is fairly common to have two identical answers in the day’s crosswords in different papers, but the same clue (apart from a single word)? Methinks Tees might have had a hand in today’s Times prize crossword.
Nice steady solve, despite needing some arcane GK.
Lovely crossword – thank you Tees
My particular favourites were 17a and 3d (such a splendid word)
Thanks also to B&J
Like Undrell, I couldn’t specify any film that RIP TORN has appeared in but he certainly has an unforgettable name! Unlike the playwright and the Greek, both of whom I did have to check on.
Top marks here went to HANGMAN & ON ONE’S UPPERS with a mention for DISOMBOBULATED simply because it’s a delicious-sounding word.
Thanks to Tees and to B&J for the review.
Liked this a lot and smiled at many clever definitions and constructions. IN SUB is excellent, the swinging table footballers, “game drawn” – brilliant, ELECTORAL – that’s an &lit for me and A-E, from recollection, is actually one of the subsections, the anagram for DISCOMBOBULATE (I know Tees sometimes clues words we’ve suggested here and I had a funny feeling he threatened to discombobulate us at some point but can’t find the reference), the construction of CONSTANTINOPLE and the cryptically clued SO TO SPEAK. And that still leaves room for a clue of the day – the splendid ON ONES SUPPERS.
RIP TORN – what a name for an actor! Copied from Wiki: Torn went into entertainment with a name that many assumed was a corny, ill-conceived stage name. For a while he carried his passport with him to show skeptics that his name really was Elmore Rual Torn Jr. and told them that Rip was a long-standing nickname for the men in his family.
Thanks Tees and B&J
re: 11a…
6d in today’s Times xword is “Lover soon having despicable person round”
How rum!
I thought at first that Tees was making a prediction in 25a, as Trump was the 45th US president. But of course there isn’t a one-to-one relationship between P and VP.
Thanks to Tees and B&J
Please could people not post spoilers about current puzzles in other papers.
Simon @15. Although I agree with the sentiment, I fail to see how this is a spoiler. Saying when the same solution appears but with different clueing – then yes. But with (essentially) the same clueing – I don’t see it. More of an issue, perhaps, is posting what somebody else has already posted. Something, I admit I have been guilty of in the past (and probably the future).
Hovis @ 16
I will be doing the Times puzzle this afternoon. Posting one of the clues/solutions here is spoiling.
Yes please do not post spoilers especially when having a go at Tees for recycling (shurely a good thing these days) his own clues. How rum.
Well, obvs I’ve just come off my double-definitions refresher course (oh what larks), but HANGMAN wasn’t intended to be one. And yet … maybe it’s a double cd … who knows? Who cares?
Many thanks BJ 🙂 and all.
Folks – what I thought I was doing was pointing out a coincidence, nothing more, nothing less. I’m not drawing back the curtain to reveal the arcane workings of setters and editors, just a coincidence. But consider my wrist slapped.
No, you’re quite right actually! I got the slap.
Thank you Hovis @16. It might have been a spoiler if I had said what the clue or, far worse, the answer actually was, but I deliberately refrained from doing so. I thought it an interesting and highly unusual enough phenomenon for comment.
So for anyone doing the Times crossword after this, if I have removed your serendipitous delight in finding two identical clues, then I humbly apologise.
And Tees: I certainly wouldn’t have the temerity to “have a go” at you – my admiration for your expertise is second to none.
You are too kind.
Not too much difficulty for a Saturday.
I remember Rip Torn from Men in Black – he was Zed – but he was also a regular on The Larry Sanders Show.