It’s Paul back today, less than a week after his Saturday Prize puzzle.
I must admit to feeling not only exasperated at having to dot all over the grid, chasing Paul’s characteristic linked clues – half of them not in chronological order – but also rather short-changed, as the length and number of them meant that there were only twenty clues in total, compared with twenty seven on Monday, thirty on Tuesday and twenty eight yesterday, for example. I was left vaguely unsatisfied, as I found most of the clues pretty straightforward, although I did enjoy working out the anagrams at 17,11 and 8,6 and I liked the allusive surface of 15,23 and the misdirection at 19dn. Maybe I’m just not in the frame of mind for doing crosswords just now.
Thanks to Paul for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
4 Line nailed by author, only just (6)
HARDLY
L (line) in (nailed by) (Thomas) HARDY (writer)
9 Curious, Guardian’s questionable statement (6)
RUMOUR
RUM (curious) + OUR (Guardian’s)
10 State capital placed within a river (8)
ADELAIDE
LAID (placed) within A DEE (a river)
15,23 People united in hope helping to defend popular front, new adventure’s beginning (7,6)
RAINBOW NATION
RATION (helping) round (to defend) IN (popular) BOW (front) + N[ew] A[dventure’s]
RAINBOW NATION is a term coined by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu to describe post-apartheid South Africa, after South Africa’s first fully democratic election in 1994.
17,11 Probe into criminal intercepting personal ID (7,11)
GENETIC FINGERPRINT
FINGER (probe) in an anagram (criminal) of INTERCEPTING
18,1 Some words from junior sleigh rider in speech? (11,6)
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
Sounds (in speech) like SUBORDINATE CLAUS (junior sleigh rider?) – I’d have liked a bit more wordplay here and I thought the definition was rather loose
22 Model courted a master (8)
EDUCATOR
An anagram (model) of COURTED A
24 Soul, after treatment, indeed scratching no more? (8)
DELOUSED
An anagram (after treatment) of SOUL in DEED
25 Was a teaser scruffy? (6)
RAGGED
Double definition
Down
2 Twin having fallen from campanile? (4,6)
DEAD RINGER
Cryptic definition: a ringer who fell from a bell tower might well be dead
3 Lingo, tad barking? (3,5)
DOG LATIN
An anagram (barking, appropriately) of LINGO TAD
4,21 Charger available for flat, lead in bedroom plugged in (8,4)
HEREFORD BULL
HERE (available) + FOR + DULL (flat) round B[edroom]
5,20 R for Romeo? (8,4)
ROMANTIC LEAD
Double / cryptic definition? R is the leading letter of ROMANTIC and Romeo = R in the NATO alphabet
7 Bird in Brazil is scarlet, primarily (4)
IBIS
Initial letters of In Brazil Is Scarlet
8,6 Ultimately, due process a bit problematic — much huffing and puffing on the bench? (4,8)
STEP AEROBICS
An anagram (problematic) of [du]E PROCESS A BIT
12 Uncle, one prodding muscle of Spooner? (10)
PAWNBROKER
Brawn poker – for Spooner, one prodding muscle
Uncle is slang for pawnbroker: Brewer’s says it was in use as early as 1756, origin unknown
13 Hot crew filling pipe (8)
STEAMING
TEAM (crew) in SING (pipe)
14 Loose rocks over elevated cave shown (8)
SCREENED
SCREE (loose rocks) + a reversal (elevated) of DEN (cave)
16 Tight trousers splitting finally, vehicle held overhead — strain every sinew (4,1,3)
BUST A GUT
TAUT (tight) round (trousers) [splittin]G, with BUS (vehicle) held overhead, in a down clue
19 Back in Newquay, a pasty I served up, as it were (2,1,3)
IN A WAY
A reversal (up, in a down clue) of [newqua]Y A WAN (pasty, rhyming with hasty – not the meat and vegetable pie associated with (Newquay) Cornwall + I
I’m afraid I disagree Eileen. I thought this was a real treat. I quite enjoy the spread about clues. Am I in the minority here?
I laughed out loud when I got DELOUSED, loved the SUBORDINATE CLAUSE, the misleading definition for HEREFORD BULL, and enjoyed DEAD RINGER even though I tried to make it BELL RINGER for a while. Probably my favourite was ROMANTIC LEAD. I do like a concise clue.
It all fell into place quite quickly. I must be on the right wavelength today. BUST A GUT didn’t sit well as I was having breakfast at the time, but that’s fairly restrained for Paul. 😀
So, many thanks Paul, and Eileen for a different view on this.
Thanks Paul and Eileen
This looked impenetrable to start with, but once a few were in it went quite quickly, though I didn’t parse HEREFORD BULL or RAINBOW NATION. Favourite was ROMANTIC LEAD.
You’ve missed the leading A in ADELAIDE, Eileen.
I usually enjoy Paul I struggled with this and gave up in the end with most completed. Entering Lead instead of Hero didn’t help and I was of course unable to parse the clue.
Including a synonym in an inclusion clue seems rather unfair to me – it’s the first time I’ve seen this done where the solution is not included in the actual words used in the clue, especially since it is such a large part of the solution.
I enjoyed it! On the first pass I only had a couple of across clues and three downs and I was beginning to think I’d be stuck but then they started rolling in. So many lovely clues. GENETIC FINGERPRINT, IN A WAY, STEP AEROBICS (that took some finding!) and BUST A GUT, DOG LATIN (clever!) and my favourite RAINBOW NATION. Thanks to Paul and Eileen.
Thanks, muffin @2 – corrected now.
I like this. It was entertaining. I thought Romeo was a “romantic lead” in the acting sense. “Junior sleigh rider” was quite witty, I thought. Thanks to Paul and Eileen.
I found this a struggle. Even the obvious ones took me far too long. But I absolutely loved some of them, as Crossbar says, and my favourite was 2d.
But I couldn’t parse quite a few, thanks Eileen, and I still don’t understand the explanation for 19d.
Thanks to Paul too, like Crossbar I laughed out loud at several answers.
In many ways this was a classic Paul. Very few easy ways in but with persistence I managed to work everything out. (Except 19dn which I got but still can’t explain.) But like Eileen, I’m finding it hard to read the front of the newspaper and then concentrate on the crossword. Still, thank you to Paul and Eileen for providing some distraction from world events.
Liked PAWNBROKER and ROMANTIC LEAD a lot.
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE didn’t appeal. Agree with Eileen’s observation.
ravenrider@3 – did you mean t’other way round: you put “hero” instead of “lead?” SueB@6 – yes, that is part of the wordplay and wit: Romeo is indeed the romantic lead in a (or the) play as well as… etc. Eileen, I did not feel short-changed. Initially I lost confidence because of struggling with the double-barrelled clues and found myself not twigging the fairly obvious clues. Once I found my way (4/21 was my way in) I regained faith in myself and really enjoyed the struggle. There might have been fewer clues but there was a higher than usual level of difficulty. That, for me, made for a good cerebral exercise. Thanks all round.
I don’t understand the explanation of 19D either.
I agree with Eileen. Not enough clues! Very difficult.
Yes, I found it a struggle, especially with so many long ones although having said that DEAD RINGER was a favourite
I also find so many split solutions rather exasperating – too much scrolling up and down when solving on my smartphone. But I thought they were witty and I enjoyed the puzzle, which turned out (for me) not as tricky as it appeared.
I haven’t seen the ‘indeed’ trick for a while – for some this is a red rag to a (HEREFORD) BULL.
My own favourite was DEAD RINGER.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen
Steve69@11
The explanation provided by Eileen for 19D looks complete and clear. Could you say which part do you not understand?
A strange mixture for me – some easy ones and others I eventually got from crossers and aids but could not parse. And didn’t really enjoy it tho’ not sure why. Just not on the wavelength today.
Liked DEAD RINGER, ADELAIDE and DELOUSED
Thanks Paul and Eileen
Kicking myself for not seeing DEAD RINGER sooner, since last night I just finished rereading Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Nine Tailors for the umpteenth time.
I did enjoy this, although I take Eileen’s point about the definition for SUBORDINATE CLAUSE. ‘Some words’ doesn’t quite nail it down enough. Having said that it’s quite difficult to think of a definition for ‘subordinate clause’ that would fit in a crossword clue.
‘Sentence not completed by no. 2 house-breaker, we hear?’
I liked the pasty pasty (once I worked it out – not surprised it’s causing difficulties, although I thought Eileen’s explanation was spot on) and the &lit (I think) DOG LATIN.
Thanks Paul and Eileen.
Sorry about the confusion re 19dn. I’m struggling to find a way of explaining it more clearly. It’s a reversal (up) of the last letter (back) of newquaY (apologies for earlier error) + A (from the clue) + WAN (pasty – sick-looking) + I. Perhaps I complicated it by referring to Cornish pasties?
No wonder i couldnt parse IN A WAY
And I agree that the lay out of the double word clues was wearying to the eyes
Only a DEAD RINGER if there was no net.(Oh dear this is leading to Derek and Clive!)
Mostly OK
Thanks
Steve69@11, JerryG@8 Just to unpack Eileen’s parsing of 19d if needed: ‘Back in Newquay’ = last (‘back’) letter in ‘NewquaY’; a = A; ‘pasty’ = pale, WAN, (as in a complexion) as Eileen explains; finally, I = I; then all ‘served up’ = entered south to north in a down clue.
Do you mean Newquay, not Norway Eileen@19 or do you have the Nowegian Blue in your mind from the MP themed Brummie the other day?
The split clues have split the audience today, for sure. Very much a Paul trademark and I do find them distracting but generally manage to cope although, today, STEP AEROBICS defeated me – with E, O, I and E as the crossers in two interlinked words, a complex clue and a whimsical definition, it was all a bit much and I ran out of energy.
GENETIC FINGERPRINT is a clever anagram and I enjoyed the construction of HEREFORD BULL. ROMANTIC LEAD is first rate and I’m another who liked DEAD RINGER and the definition of DELOUSED. I wondered whether DOG LATIN is intended as an &lit? I see Eileen’s underlined ‘lingo’ as definition but that would make it play double duty surely?
Thanks Paul and Eileen
Tim C @22
Thanks: – of course I meant Newquay!
Like many I struggled to start then steadily solved.
Pet hate appeared with an answer crossing itself (STEP AEROBICS) but otherwise it was fun. Didn’t occur to me how few clues there were.
One question: is HEREFORD BULL being a “charger” simply a reference to bulls charging, or is there another meaning I missed?
Thank you Paul and Eileen.
I think there’s a case to be made for DOG LATIN to be &lit Postmark@23 especially given the use of barking as an anagrind.
PostMark @23 – I agree re 3dn: I did regard it as &lit but forgot to discuss it when writing the blog.
I have to go out now until after lunch, so I hope there will not be too many more queries. I realised I was probably putting the cat among the pigeons but I’m glad that most people enjoyed the puzzle more than I did.
Solving a puzzle with a lot of interlinked clues is quite daunting especially when you highlight one only to be diverted to another which isn’t visible on the screen of a phone at that moment…BUT what a lovely puzzle this turned out to be. There might have only been a few clues but they were all gems.
So this is a very very rare occasion when I find myself disagreeing with our brilliant blogger.
Thanks to her and of course Paul
Maybe I like the split clues more than others do because I usually do the crossword in the actual hardcopy paper. No bobbing around the smartphone screen required.
Tough puzzle. I found it hard to make a way in with so many linked clues. Not really my cup of tea. Like Eileen, I’m possibly not in the frame of mind for doing crosswords just now.
Did not parse 15/23 and 16d apart from BUS = vehicle .
I agree with Eileen about 18/1.
Thanks, both.
I am afraid RAINBOW NATION both surface and answer set me off on a long train of thought about how all that 1990’s optimism has turned to dust, which got in the way of enjoying what was probably a very good crossword.
Well I enjoyed it, and interesting that one of the comments above is that “Step Aerobics” was the one that defeated them – that was actually my second one in! With only “Ibis” written in, and everything else looking too hard, I decided I’d better just try to crack the anagram. Personally, I found the split clues a refreshing change from the norm, and loved “R for Romeo”! And, for once with Paul, no schoolboy toilet humour for me to complain about 🙂
A very tough solve but loved it. ROMANTIC LEAD is just brilliant. Sorry you didn’t have the same experience Eileen
Ta both.
I wonder if the view on split clues depends on whether you solve on paper or electronically. On my phone, I found it fine.
I was surprised how quickly I did this (I realise quick for me will be slow for others). The clues for RAINBOW NATION and IN A WAY were too convoluted for my ability but otherwise I enjoyed the steady solve.
On the state of mind, I empathise with Eileen and michelle. Yesterday morning I was on the way to the hospital to visit my sister who’d fallen the other day. I was hopeless doing Tramp. After I’d seen her (the prognosis was better than it seemed on Monday) my mind was clear enough to compete Tramp. Of course, geopolitics is not helping.
Thanks Paul and Eileen.
Well, not really my cup of tea. After the first pass I had IBIS and had to use a lot of word searches to complete, but then I’m not the world’s best solver.
I can’t find HEREFORD BULL in any dictionaries, and even Crossword Compiler, which is generally very tolerant, does not recognise it. I did enjoy STEP-AEROBICS and IN A WAY, which I eventually parsed.
Thanks Paul and Eileen.
I thought this a delight from start to finish. So much clever clueing and delightful surfaces!
Too many favourites to list them all, but RAINBOW NATION, GENETIC FINGERPRINT and HEREFORD BULL were my tops.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen
I’m in the “liked this” camp. Initially daunting to see those linked clues and hard to get going, with RAINBOW NATION being my way in. I liked DOG LATIN, which I thought qualified as an &lit, ROMANTIC LEAD and the DELOUSED def.
Thanks to Eileen and Paul
Robi @35: I don’t expect you would find FRIESIAN COW in any dictionary either, but it seems unreasonable to quibble about such a natural and unremarkable pairing of words.
Wonderfully witty and great fun – not easy but soluble – thanks Paul!
Re yours truly @38: However, thinking more about HEREFORD I am reminded, unpleasantly with current events, that the etymology of the place name is ‘army crossing’ (Old English).
Well I found it both very hard and very enjoyable. Thanks both.
Robi @35
HEREFORD BULL is definitely a thing. Herefords are a breed of cattle, and where there are cows there will also be bulls!
I think Pieface has said it all for me! Witty and satisfying.
I wonder whether there could be a simpler way of indicating split clues? Maybe putting both numbers by the first part. I think this used to be the case.
[Sorry Gervase. I didn’t refresh before posting.]
Thanks Eileen and SCF for explaining 19dn. Got it now. ( I could only see Pasty as the snack rather than the alternative pronunciation as a type of complexion!)
[muffin @44: No apology necessary – I like to have my opinions seconded]
The first 1/2 hour over coffee got me two clues, IBIS and DOG LATIN, and I was sore tempted to give up. But as I had my morning session at a school cancelled at the last minute I had time on my hands, and it gradually fell into place with plenty of aha moments. I didn’t know Uncle as slang for PAWNBROKER.
But what a strange grid – have we seen it before?
It’s always a good feeling to complete one of Paul’s puzzles.
I found this very, very tough to begin with – just the one answer (IBIS) and a couple of presumed letters. The several linked clues made it harder, as I was getting nowhere with them but had fewer other clues to get me going.
But one by one they fell into place, and I even parsed them all. IN A WAY was last to go in.
In the end, extremely satisfying, and lots of enjoyment, although also several ‘Blimey’ moments as I worked out what was going on. ‘Campanile’ was a new word for me, although I remembered ‘campanology’, which got me there.
Thanks Paul and Eileen.
Why is an indirect anagram frowned upon, but something like GENETIC FINGERPRINT, which asks you to find a synonym and then place it in an undefined position in a fairly long anagram, perfectly OK?
I don’t mind split clues as such, but I tend to leave them until I have done the ordinary ones, and today there were so many!
I enjoyed some of this (DELOUSED, SUBORDINATE CLAUSE, DEAD RINGER, ROMANTIC LEAD, DOG LATIN (yes, it’s an &lit). But I couldn’t do STEP AEROBICS (either physically or in the crossword), and I’m not sure why the “charger” means a HEREFORD BULL rather than any other kind. Took a long time to see pasty=wan, and to remember in what context bow=front. Too many having to be bunged in from def, with the parsing coming ages later or not at all.
Gervase @38, muffin @42; there are also plenty of red buses but I don’t think one would normally put red bus in a crossword.
[I imagine that most people here know this, but as Cornish pasties were (misleadingly!) mentioned: there’s a common misconception that they were rural food, but this wasn’t the case. They were made for tin-miners. Traditionally they had savoury at one end and sweet at the other. The miners held them by the pastry ridge, which was discarded when the pasty was finished, as it would have been contaminated by the mining detritus on their hands.]
Thanks both,
I very much enjoyed this. In 8,6 the anagram fodder has two ‘s’s but, because the lights cross, only one ‘s’ is entered in the grid. Would it still be a valid clue if the anagram fodder had only one ‘s’?
In solving the clue I found it helpful that ‘s’ had to be the crossing letter as only it and ‘e’ were repeated in the anagram fodder and the ‘e’ were used elsewhere.
Tyngewick @53 You need both S’s in the fodder, which is for the actual words STEP AEROBICS, regardless of how they fit in the grid, imo
As usual, I’m on Eileen’s side.
Tyngewick@53: I’ve never thought of that. Must remember it for future shared split anagram clues. Would probably have helped me get my LOI more quickly.
The split clues here were all quite long, so the benefit was that once you had solved one, you had more “juice” going forwards.
One thing Paul seems to do more than others is to, instead of wordplay+definition clues, use wordplay+description. Think about charger for bull or the huffing and puffing for aerobics. These are not either synonyms or class instances, like say bird and ibis. Nothing wrong, imo, but I think it’s what makes his puzzles a bit harder than they would otherwise be. And more pleasing when solved.
I found this very hard. All I had last night were IBIS, DOG LATIN, DELOUSED and SCREENED. Serious use of the check button this morning eventually got me through, but it was a slog.
It’s nice to see a state referred to that isn’t in the US. I’ve been looking for that, since Australia, India and Mexico all call their subdivisions states. Any settings for JALISCO or UTTAR PRADESH?
Valentine @58; anagrams, obviously, eg Juliett social and start-up heard.
[Robi @59
I see you have used the official NATO alphabet spelling of JULIETT. I was pondering earlier whether that was chosen over JULIET as Francophones might pronounce the latter “joo – lee – ay”?]
I have seen a printout with Juliet and Whisky – the fact that it is on eBay speaks volumes!
Generally I skip Paul because I hit a brick wall too often but I thought I’d give this one a go. I totally loved it due to clues like DELOUSED, the &lit DOG LATIN, the compact, clever ROMANTIC LEAD, and IN A WAY. I don’t know he can be so prolific — he just produced a gem in last Saturday’s FT in addition to his Guardian contributions. Thanks to both.
Got round to doing this over my lunch and enjoyed it with the usual moments of exasperation that Paul causes.
STEP AEROBICS- am still not sure what those are- wasn’t my last, though it took longest to unravel, but the anagram was clear and the double letter S and the impossibility of 3 E’s made placing the unchecked letters characters easier.
Double-barrelled entries are annoying but without them expressions with more than 15 letters would be impossible. I often wonder whether Azed might once in a while enlarge his grids, rather than, as in his recent Carte Blanche, tripping us up with a couple of 4-letters.
Unlike Eileen I am a fan of Paul’s work. I don’t have a problem with moving round the grid and don’t mind fewer, longer, clues if they are good ones; and these were. It was daunting at first – and required a break to do the shopping – but yielded in the end, with just a couple unparsed. Lots to love esp. ROMANTIC LEAD, GENETIC FINGERPRINTING and STEP AEROBICS. Thanks Paul.
Spot on Candymandad54 @64 I would also add RAINBOW NATION to the list of favourites. Thx to Paul for excellent puzzle.
CRETAN BULL yes, HEREFORD BULL no. Odd for such a good compiler to bung that one in, IMO. I agree with Eileen in general about this one, a rather ‘bitty’ experience, though several of the clues were very good.
I’m another who loved this, and laughed out loud at a couple of clues (Dead Ringer, Subordinate Clause).
Tony Santucci @ 62: One of the very first cryptics I solved was Paul’s and it was very much like this one. Very little on the first pass, and then a slow-steady unpicking, that was extremely satisfying. I recommend sticking with them. I trust him to deliver something that – even if it looks nigh-on impregnable at first – I can usually make a pretty good go of it by the end.
Couldn’t resist sharing this https://images.app.goo.gl/L8RPhg2hTmd6RVi27
….HEREFORD BULL
My only objection to linked clues is the final one that Eileen mentioned: we have fewer clues to complete the grid. To those of you griping about solving such clues on your phones: the setter can hardly be blamed if you’ve selected the wrong tool for the task; switch to a device with a larger screen, or to paper.
And appearances do not lie. The Hereford is considered a very placid breed of cattle, focused on getting down plenty of food and then sleeping it off. It’s unlikely to charge anyone, and Paul has maligned it. Now a Jersey Bull would be a different story…..
Thanks Eileen, while I struggled at first as you did with the linked entries scattered everywhere I think TerriBlislow has summed up my experience perfectly.
If anything I think the “for” in R for Romeo is not helpful and it can be shortened to R-Romeo? or even just Romeo? for a double defn by example, trickier though.
I am definitely a bit fuzzy headed today exemplified by my googling for a bird called a LISS before the fairly obvious clanging tea tray! And is DOG LATIN the same as Pig latin? I have heard the latter only but nice &Lit clue.
STEP AEROBICS my favourite, and with ADELAIDE this brought back happy memories to distract from the world outside, thanks Paul.
Crossbar @68, and here’s a red bus …
I thought this was Paul on great form. Loved the surface for the HERERFORD BULL. RAINBOW NATION and GENETIC FINGERPRINT were also very clever.
I saw ROMANTIC LEAD as a reverse-engineering clue: wordplay = R (the lead from Romantic) definition by example (hence the need for the ?) = Romeo.
Lots of fun,
Thanks, Paul and Eileen.
[MarkN @67: Based on this crossword I’ll remove Paul from my no-fly list. I always do his puzzles under his Mudd alias in the FT but they are consistently gentler and no less clever.]
Robi @73, in my London days the buses liked more like this
looked not liked. Sighs.
Robi @51 and others: I’m not sure I would object to RED BUS as an answer. A red bus is surely more of a “thing” than a red cardigan or a red teapot. What about BLACK CAB?
H’m, I’m in the “I liked it” camp. My favorites were ROMANTIC LEAD, DEAD RINGER (my foi) and SUBORDINATE CLAUSE. I do agree it was difficult, largely because of the limited number of clues, but nearly all of them elicited a smile or chuckle when the penny dropped. To me, that’s what makes a crossword enjoyable; there are some setters whose puzzles don’t elicit that smile, and I find those rather a slog.
Essex Boy @18 — I disagree on SUBORDINATE CLAUSE. While “in speech” is doing the work of a homophone instruction (turning Claus into CLAUSE) a “rider in speech”, using rider in the sense of a codicil to a legal document, could at the same time be a clause in a sentence that relies on the meaning of the rest of the spoken sentence, but is added to it in a subordinate fashion, as a codicil, as it were.
[Crossbar@1. Given this and your comment @17 yesterday, I fear for the frailty of your stomach. Or should I say Tummy?]
[Thank you for your concern, Podule @81 😉 Nothing to worry about. But please don’t say Tummy! ]
I was struggling until I wrote down the five remaining double word answers in the margin of my copy of the Guardian, and suddenly everything fell into shape – mostly from the crossers and the shape of the words. Last one in was STEP AEROBICS, partly because they’re not on my agenda, partly the unusual AE combination.
Andrew@80. I think ‘rider in speech’ is just fortuitous; I can’t imagine that Paul intended us to take a hint towards the definition from what is strictly a couple of bits of the wordplay.
If you Google “hereford bull charger” there are several hits for portable battery chargers with (different) pictures of cattle on them. I don’t know why this is so common.
One of Paul’s better puzzles, I thought. 5d was brilliant. His being so prolific makes his consistency unpredictable, but always requiring slow unravelling (which is nice, as someone once said). On the other hand, his use of ‘ultimately’, ‘primarily’, ‘firstly’, ‘initially’, etc, etc to indicate a single letter is predictable (but overdone IMHO).
Thanks to Paul and Eileen
I really enjoy Paul’s puzzles – including this one – but I’m surprised there have not been more complaints/comments about using a synonym as part of a hidden word in 19D. I wonder if folks are generally also happy with the idea of anagrams of synonyms.
@86 Gary: my impression is that anagrams of synonyms are verboten; reversals of synonyms (here WAN “served up”) are non-controversial. Hence the lack of complaints.
Lord Jim@78 – while I had no objection to HEREFORD BULL (I can picture one exactly from those words and could pick one out of a line-up so it is clearly a well-defined item even if not specifically in a dictionary, and could imagine a farmer describing a fine Hereford Bull that he bought at a market) I never in a decade or more heard anyone in London refer to a red bus – bendy, double-decker, routemaster all fine – probably because I don’t recall seeing buses of any other colour there. Maybe elsewhere it is different. Black cabs were called thus to distinguish them from minicabs in tales of one’s heroic journey home in the small hours so that is a valid adjective.
I have just completed this having done about 10% yesterday morning. Worried away at it yesterday, and managed about 75%. Then winkled out the last ones this morning, including parsing. Now that’s what I call a satisfying crossword. When I think I’ll never get it, but it succumbs to persistence.
I found this to be an extremely difficult puzzle. 18ac, 1dn impenetrable for me. Although zi solved everything else over days, I was somewhat shocked at the difficulty level. The anagrams at 8dn, 6ac and 15ac, 23ac were real testers.
A disappointment for me on Texas Independence Day.
Moth@89 agree entirely. My only problem is that I like to print puzzles out and this sometimes means they get lost forever in a semi-complete state.
BillinAustin@90 coincidentally just mentioned your fine city in today’s blog – some days you just have to admit defeat and crack open a Lone Star. Cheers!