Click here for a PDF of the puzzle: Dalibor @ York 2021
Those who don’t do printing anymore nowadays can find an interactive version here.
There are two sets of five solutions each that have ‘something’ in common, as explained in the blog below.
They are highlighted (using two colours) in the completed grid at the very end of the blog.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CITY MANAGER |
Across the pond, Pep Guardiola might be mayor (4,7)
|
| In the United States, a CITY MANAGER (Pep Guardiola, manager of Man City) can be a city official, like e.g. a mayor | ||
| 7 | TIC |
Taiwan ignoring Chinese leaders causes nervous reaction (3)
|
| First letters of: Taiwan Ignoring Chinese The first of 5 solutions that can be preceded by ROMAN: Romantic |
||
| 9 | TEPEE |
Town having soft drugs lying around in basic accommodation (5)
|
| T (Town, uppercase, like in names of sports clubs) + {P (soft) surrounded by E,E,E (drugs)} | ||
| 10 | MYROBALAN |
Cherry plum belonging to me, pursued by two boys (9)
|
| MY (belonging to me), followed by ROB and ALAN (two boys) | ||
| 11 | OLIVE TREE |
Mediterranean native needs musical support (but with a little twist) (5,4)
|
| OLIVER (musical) TEE (support) gives OLIVERTEE – then change RT to TR | ||
| 12 | LENDL |
Former tennis player lost, close call ultimately (5)
|
| L (lost, as in football tables) + END (close) + [cal]L | ||
| 13 | INSTALL |
Position is unlikely to include any number (7)
|
| IS + TALL (unlikely), together around N (any number) | ||
| 15 | TAIL |
Detective story, say (4)
|
| Homophone [say] of: TALE (story) The first of 5 solutions that can have FOX in front of it: Foxtail |
||
| 18 | TROT |
Going in reverse: wrong to make pace (4)
|
| Reversal [going in reverse] of: TORT (wrong) The second FOX: Foxtrot |
||
| 20 | HUNTING |
Searching for Jeremy in Government? (7)
|
| HUNT (Jeremy, indeed: not Corbyn) + IN + G (Government) FOX number three: Foxhunting |
||
| 23 | OSSIA |
Oasis forced to offer an alternative version of the music (5)
|
| Anagram [forced] of: OASIS | ||
| 24 | RELOCATED |
Happy to declare: “Moved to a new place” (9)
|
| Anagram [happy] of: TO DECLARE | ||
| 26 | BLACKBIRD |
One flying in totally dark time (9)
|
| BLACK (totally dark) + BIRD (time, as in prison sentence) | ||
| 27 | GLOVE |
Labour leader impressed by Tory minister’s means of protection (5)
|
| L[abour] inside GOVE (Tory minister) Another FOX: Foxglove |
||
| 28 | NOD |
Agree, we have ABC, EFG etc but ___ (3)
|
| NO D | ||
| 29 | TARRY-BREEKS |
Barry Streek’s written about a Scottish sailor (5-6)
|
| Anagram [written about] of: BARRY STREEK (a real author, actually, South African) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CATHOLIC |
Bellyache after eating at home, I believe (8)
|
| COLIC (bellyache) around {AT + H (home, as in football tables)} The second solution that can be combined with ROMAN: Roman Catholic |
||
| 2 | TIPSIEST |
Happy as can be to topple over, having short nap (8)
|
| TIP (topple over) + SIEST[a] (nap, shortened) | ||
| 3 | MY EYE |
The The once inferior to M? Nonsense! (2,3)
|
| YE,YE (‘the’ once, twice) placed under M | ||
| 4 | NUMERAL |
1 or 2 perhaps finding me in Northern Europe’s third-longest river (7)
|
| ME inside {N (Northern) + URAL (Europe’s third-longest river)} Another ROMAN: Roman numeral |
||
| 5 | GARMENT |
Man carrying weapon provides cover (7)
|
| GENT (man) around ARM (weapon) | ||
| 6 | REBELLION |
Major protest after Brontë’s alter ego moved into area for good (9)
|
| BELL (Brontë’s alter ego, e.g. Emily Brontë = Ellis Bell) replacing G (good) in REGION (area) | ||
| 7 | TALENT |
Attractive young people can be explosive when drinking beer (6)
|
| TNT (explosive) around ALE (beer) | ||
| 8 | CANDLE |
Light source shows limitations of chemical energy (6)
|
| C AND L (first and last letters [limitations] of CHEMICAL) + E (energy) ROMAN #4: Roman candle |
||
| 14 | AIR-JACKET |
Broadcast film featuring Mr Lemmon and Mae West (3-6)
|
| AIR (broadcast) + ET (film), together around JACK (Mr Lemmon, Jack Lemmon, old actor) | ||
| 16 | FIFTY-ONE |
Gareth Southgate’s age? It’s revealed in 1dn (and three more) (5-3)
|
| LI (51, in Roman numerals) can be found in 1dn (and also in 11ac, 6n and 20dn) | ||
| 17 | AGEDNESS |
One using grease on and off claims to make fun of being old? (8)
|
| A (one), followed by G,E,S (the odd letters [on and off] of GREASE) around DNES (which is SEND UP (make fun of)) | ||
| 19 | TERRIER |
Woman’s ditching husband in German city for a dog (7)
|
| ER (which is HER (woman’s) minus H (husband)) inside TRIER (German city) The final FOX: Fox terrier |
||
| 20 | HOLIDAY |
Perhaps Billie Eilish in the end old-hat? Yes! (7)
|
| [Eilis]H + O (old) + LID (hat) + AY (yes) The last of the ROMANs: Roman holiday |
||
| 21/22 | ROBBEN ISLAND |
Notorious jailbirds involved with Lebanon? (6,6)
|
| Anagram [involved (with)] of: BIRDS + LEBANON – one of these Guardianisms that many solvers call ‘Lift and Separate’ | ||
| 25 | CIGAR |
Very sad, time flies, going up in smoke (5)
|
| TRAGIC (very sad) minus T (time), then reversed [going up]
|
Thanks to Dalibor for the special puzzle – sorry you weren’t able to make it to York on Saturday.
We enjoyed the puzzle, but had to come here for the parsing of 11ac – very crafty, and perfectly fair when explained.
We were totally stumped by the parsing of 17d, and are not really surprised now we have the explanation – too convoluted for us!
We also struggled with 21/22d as we had remembered the jail as ROBBIN ISLAND and tried to figure out the rest of the parsing around ROBINS as the birds – doh!
Thanks to Sil for the blog and the blogs of the other York S & B puzzles
Only just got round to this one, but enjoyed it – found it a little tricky in places but got there in the end.
Thanks Dalibor/Sil
This was the first of the three ‘York’ puzzles that I picked up, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I managed to parse 11a OLIVE OIL (very neat), but I failed to solve both 29a (because I didn’t know that name for a sailor) and 17d (because the parsing was beyond me, and I needed 29a first in order to solve it).
The theme was hidden, and I failed to find it. The name Fox and Roman was vaguely familiar, from seeing it mentioned on 15², but I couldn’t think of it. (In retrospect, knowing full well the setting for this puzzle, I should have looked up some of the information about the event and the place.)
Thanks to Dalibor and Sil (one and the same!).