Welcome to Grecian. This was a delightful debut.
It is Tuesday so we were on the lookout for a theme. It wasn’t until we had read and solved the first few that Bert noticed that all the words from the phonetic alphabet are included in the clues. There were a number of surfaces that raised a smile and quite a few that needed ‘teasing out’ with the parsing. Just the sort of puzzle that we like.
We wondered why Juliett had two ts and we presumed that Alfa was included instead of ALPHA because of the surface reading. A quick check on wiki however revealed that these were the correct spellings for the phonetic alphabet. You learn something everyday when solving crosswords, don’t you?
We have highlighted the alphabet in green.
More like this please.
DADA (papa) IS M (first letter or ‘leader’ of men)
Spoonerism of JOE’S (man’s) KNOB (penis)
A reversal or ‘going round’ of BRAG (show off)
ASS ASS (two muppets) IN S (first letter or ‘opening’ in show). We had to check the definition here as we had never heard of bravo being an assassin.
An anagram (‘up’) of ROSE after M (fifth letter in November)
A homophone (‘outspoken’) of FLOWER (bloom) after RYE (whiskey)
An anagram (‘distorted’) of ECHO. One of us spent far too long looking for an anagram of THE and L (line).
O (ring) inside or ‘captured by’ TEN (X) and R (first letter of ray)
CUT (nick) reversed or ‘coming back’ with K (kilo)
WISE (sensible) around or ’embracing’ O (love) MAN (island)
H (first letter or ‘beginning’ of Hugo) inside or ‘getting into’ CAMP (party)
An anagram (‘surprisingly’) of MR EVERTON
AM (morning) ID (papers)
C (Charlie) + a homophone (‘in audition’) of LUSTRE (sheen)
EDDIES (twirls) after T (final letter in foxtrot)
sHAKA (Zulu leader) missing first letter or ‘losing head’
J (Juliett) A MBE (gong) around or ‘touring’ ORE (rock)
This is almost a clue as definition. AS (like) oNeS (alternate or ‘regular’ letters) around IndiA (first and last letters only or ‘borders’) .
An anagram (‘tailored’ – 16 down) of RUE SIMON. Apologies to Tatrasman and Grecian – we didn’t notice the missing space when we wrote up the blog. The app we used to compile the blog ran the two words together.
EN (nurse) in an anagram (‘adjusted’) of LIMA
Last letters or ‘bottoms’ in lasT tangO iN pariS
ST and ST (two ‘dual’ streets or ‘carriageways’) round RANGE (sierra)
The speed MACH O (zero) would be motionless
UN (a in French) CAP (letter as in capital letter)
An anagram ‘variant’ of RIO DELTA
TEA (drink) CADDY (golf partner) – a place to store your tea bags
A (Alfa) R (Romeo) REST (battery recharge)
Hidden (‘from’) in osCAR PETerson
VIE (rival) around or ‘acquiring’ L (last letter of hotel)
Hidden in or ‘part of’ mIKE Ashley
Drat. Forgot it was theme day and missed seeing it. That despite knowing the Juliett and Alfa spellings. A nice debut. Like the idea of the dual carriageway in STRANGEST.
Is Grecian a new setter? I can’t recall the name before.
I did enjoy this apart from the man needed in 8d for the Spoonerism. It is either an Americanism or perhaps just a vague man’s name, either of which gets a thumbs down from me.
Like B&J, I wondered why the name in 2d had 2Ts? I found various references online to J in the NATO phonetic alphabet being either Juliet or Juliett, with the double T version apparently the official spelling. As its essential use is in verbal communication, it doesn’t matter if has got one or two Ts on the end, so why would anyone feel the need to spell It with 2Ts? The girl’s name is either Juliet or Juliette.
As an aside, it is called the NATO phonetic alphabet, so why has A been changed from Alpha to Alfa?
I didn’t understand why “letter” in 14d led to “cap”, so was grateful for the explanation in the review. I learnt a new meaning of “bravo”.
Thanks to Grecian and to B&J.
Lovely stuff. The theme whooshed past me even though the phonetic letters created the occasional ping. Note to self – don’t always look for theme in the grid. D’oh. Thanks to B&J and to Grecian. I look forward to more.
Rabbit Dave B&J call it a delightful debut so I guess it must be a first appearance for Grecian. 😉 The use of Alfa and Juliett might mean Grecian is a stickler for official terms. Time will tell. We’re watching you G.
JULIETT is spelled that way to avoid confusion for French speakers apparently. ALFA likewise, but for whoever might say ALPA. Pain in the ears for us lot, as neither is a word really.
Thanks very much to Grecian for an enjoyable themed crossword and to B&J for the equally enjoyable blog
I don’t know who Grecian is but I do hope he/she comes back soon
Got the theme early but it didn’t help with the solve. TEDDIES is new but they look the go on Google images. TUCK also. Now I realise why they called it the ‘tuck shop’ at school. I thought it was a diminutive of ‘tucker’. Got HAKA right off the bat – home turf – but ‘war dance’ is a lousy colonial translation for what the challenge represents. Very enjoyable blog and set.
Welcome to Grecian. I was looking for an answer related theme so the NATO alphabet in the clues passed me by. Hard now to see now how it could have!
I found it quite hard to get going with this and there were a few I couldn’t parse including HAKA and UNCAP. Not much consolation for missing the theme, but I was happy to have remembered the ASSASSINS meaning of ‘bravos’.
Loved the surface for TONS. Funnily enough the film was mentioned in a (repeat to the power six) episode of “Morse” I saw last week.
Thanks to Grecian and B&J
TEDDIES reminded me of when Susie Dent said to Nick Hewer on Countdown “Have you ever come across a teddy, Nick?”. Perhaps, I should have added @1 that I failed to get HAKA. I bunged in an unparsed “gala” for dance then came here for elucidation.
I thought this was very good and a very impressive idea well executed. Nice one Grecian, and thanks to Bert & Joyce
A DNF for me as I couldn’t see 8A at all, but obvious now. ‘Simonis’ at 4D seems a bit sneaky, I wonder if it was supposed to be one word or a typo as happened with several clues on Sunday. A theme in the clues is a very clever alternative to themed answers, so well done Grecian and thanks B&J.
This was very good, albeit rather difficult! I confess I entirely missed the theme, but a quick count shows only 3 clues that use the NATO terms for their actual letter, which makes it even more impressive.
Thanks & welcome Grecian, and thanks B&J.
Huge thanks to B&J for the lovely blog and to all who have taken the time to solve my puzzle and post nice things about it. The original had Alpha and Juliet, so the “stickler” award goes to my lovely editor! Chambers clearly hasn’t caught up yet. There is indeed a typo at 4D Tatrasman, rather than any sneakiness on my part. Thank you all again and I hope to see you again soon. G
We have added the missing space in 4d. Apologies.
Gosh that was good fun.
I should have known (but how would I since ‘theme Tuesday’ is news to this parvenu among Independent solvers) that there was something going on – something about the clues’ construction gave me that uncomfortable feeling that I associate with a theme-based puzzle. But for once the failure to spot the theme was no loss whatsoever since it was confined to the clues. Bravo.
Thanks both.
Absolutely no need to apologise B&J. The error was on the website.
We checked again. If you subscribe to the Indy, the clue for 4d is correct. However, if you have to use the Indy website instead, the clue does run the words together. Obviously the app we use for compiling the blog uses the website – we will keep an eye out for this on future blogs.
Didn’t register the theme until I reached the strange spelling of Juliett which I don’t think exists outside of the NATO alphabet.
Thought this was an excellent debut puzzle, well done Grecian. Hope you’ll be back soon with another one. Thanks also to B&J whose reviews are always most enjoyable.
Alphalpha @15. Have you considered a name change to Alfalfa in order to be NATO compliant?
A very skilful working of the theme into the clues. Terrific debut.
Juliett with two Ts seems plain silly to me. If it’s for the benefit of the French, why not Juliette? Isn’t the whole point of the NATO alphabet that it uses real words?
Thanks both. My understanding is that CHAKA is the Zulu, not SHAKA but happy to be corrected
Fantastic debut. Several lol moments (8A!). I needed Wikipedia for 1D but learned two new things in the process.
Very unusual puzzle – I saw the alphabet items early on and had been aware of the variant spellings, thinking that perhaps it was a US approach esp with F for PH in Alpha. Many excellent clues of which my favourite was WOMANISE – quite tricky in places. Many thanks to Grecian and B&J.
Late to comment today but, in case Grecian’s keeping an eye on the blog, wanted to add to the chorus of praise. Two fabulous puzzles in one day between this and Brendan in the G and I enjoyed each as much as the other. And that’s praise indeed. I spotted the theme very quickly and it was just 26 little hits of joy as I went through the clues. Very hard to signal anything out in a Uniformly high quality collection but I think one of the short clues – Echo to OCHE – gave me the biggest grin. … along with NOSE JOB and I’m more than happy for that to incorporate the average Joe (defined in my Chambers as A man, an ordinary fellow, esp (US) a soldier which seems good enough for me.)
Congrats on your debut, Grecian, and to B&J for the blog
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who has commented since my last post and especially to PostMark @24. I was cursing my luck, being alongside Brendan today. He is utterly brilliant and is on a rich vein of form, so to be compared favourably with him is probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my work! Humbled.
Last one in perhaps, but I’d like to add my thanks to others’ – nice job, Grecian. I enjoyed that. I did get beaten by HAKA, which I thought was a bit of a tough ask. Other than that, delightful.
Excellent debut, thank you Grecian.
“Alpha” would not have worked in 19 – the car manufacturer is Alfa Romeo.
Agreed this was a fine debut puzzle with some super clues. And what does it matter about the spelling for alfa/alpha and Juliet(t) – or whisk(e)y for that matter – so long as we know the pronunciation?
However, we do have an issue with 8ac. We don’t object to the occasional risqué surface, particularly if it’s subtle but there was nothing subtle about this clue; it was quite blatant (and we’ve had so much of that sort of thing from a certain other setter that we no longer bother solving his puzzles). But as for this clue, we can think of a number of alternatives, and it isn’t even as if the answer was the only word to fit the crossing letters; we’ve found at least 30 words or phrases to fit _o_e_o_
But we do hope to see more of this setter.
Thanks, Grecian and B&J.
I haven’t commented as yet as due to a misunderstanding here at 15 hq I also wrote a blog for this which had to be scrapped. So I’ll just add my thanks to G and B&J and see you for my return next Friday in a guest spot.
And the gold medal for Tristram-in-Chief goes to the continually Hoskins-obsessed Allan_C.
Someone needs to build the aforementioned treacle a wall so anyone who reminds him of what once rose in the morning and bathed him in a warm glow can be shot up against it. I will be first in line because it is all too much having to listen to folk like him and their solipsistic vomit. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck!
In other words, please ignore the prudes, Grecian. For every one of them there are legion who are adult and not yet superannuated sexually. Then again, if you want an audience like the Allan_C’s of this world to solve your puzzles then do make sure there are no references to sex, body parts, bodily functions, drugs or anything else that makes us the humans that some of us are and alienates those who are not and cannot fathom it.
Ps – I think having an opinion on things in crosswords is still OK for the Tristrams … but obviously only if it is an opinion that they happen to hold. Oh, and whatever you do, don’t try and write a clue that might create two separate and opposing opinions in the mind of a solver … last time I did that CrypticWho’s head blew up (though obviously I didn’t get any brains on me even though I was standing quite close to them).
Pass me the Viagra, over and out. 🙂
Belated thanks to BertandJoyce, especially whichever of you tried for “THE+L” anagrams – I did too! Also spent far too long staring at the letters of TAILORED, my brain clearly in go-slow mode lately. Echo Jim@12 on the way the theme terms were used creatively – bravo/a Grecian, thanks and congratulations. And thanks PostMark for suggesting this elsewhere, a very good idea.