Guardian Cryptic 28,738 by Tramp

102 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,738 by Tramp”

1. Thanks Tramp and manehi.
   Tough spotting the definitions.
   Saw the nina at the end…though theme of boxing was obvious didn’t know Fury until I Googled.
   6, 8, 10 and 12 favs.

2. It’s funny how both THERE (18a) and HERE can mean “present” – one of the quirks of English I suppose. It came up in a Fed puzzle earlier this month too – must be catching.

   Someone said that Wagner’s music is better than it sounds; well, despite a couple of constructions strange to my ear – “turn to corner” in 6a, “one’s that’s” in 10a – this puzzle is better than it looks.

3. This crossword was somewhat like sparring with someone half your age — tough but ultimately exhilarating — it took awhile to get started and I wasn’t sure I’d finish. The many good clues included THEREABOUT, THORAX, ROULETTE, ROCOCO, and THIRST. I failed at FLAMBEAU. Thanks Tramp for the fun and manehi for filling in my many parsing gaps.

4. [Rumpole, but he probably pinched it, Dr. Wh @2]
   Oblivious of theme, but enjoyed anyway, Vali my only dnk. Ta both.

5. Thanks for the great blog, manehi.

   Sorry for the “one’s” in 10a. I should have spotted that in the proof.

6. My favs: DRILL BIT, UNWRAP and BOXER SHORTS.

   Thanks, Tramp and manehi!

7. Struggled at half past midnight. Mostly sailed through at 7 this morning. Clearly the difference between the end of a frustrating day at work and the promise of several drinks with good friends this afternoon on my day off!

   Enjoyable, although missed the nina as always (I even set one with a nina recently but never spot others’). LOI was dog ear which is probably my fave.

8. I agree with Tony @3: This crossword was like sparring with someone half your age: doomed from the start;

   Thanks for the beating, Tramp. Thanks for the post-fight analysis, showing me where I went wrong, manehi.

   Ouch

9. Ah, the “one’s” explained. Thanks Tramp @5. I’ve been trying to decipher “one’s that’s” all afternoon. 🙂 I also wondered whether “jumper worn by short male” shouldn’t have given Corooc or Croooc rather than ROCOCO but I think I’ve convinced myself.
   I’d have liked a dialect indicator for “one” in UNWRAP if I were being pedantic.
   Favourites were DOG EAR for the subtle definition, BOXER SHORTS and THIRST.
   Thanks Tramp and manehi.

10. Top class from Tramp. Vali unknown to me but readily deduced from the clue.

11. Thanks Tramp and manehi. Very enjoyable. I know enough about the theme to be familiar with Tyson Fury but I completely missed the Nina – par for the course for me. Well spotted.

    Tramp @5 – I assumed it was a typo. There but for the grace etc.

12. That was the toughest this week, but enjoyable. I groaned when I read through and realised that there was a boxing theme, but some of the flips were lovely: BOXER SHORTS made me grin, as did YELLER, after I’d tried bawler/boiler, and DOG EAR when I parsed it as my LOI. And what a Nina!

13. Well beaten today by Tramp, even though I know who Tyson Fury is. DOG EAR, THORAX, FLAGELLA, THIRST and FLAWED my favourites for today. I didn’t see the Nina but it explains why Fury appeared twice in the clues which had surprised me. Normally, I wouldn’t expect to see that in a Tramp. YELLER feels just a little odd; the wordplay seems to lead to a noun – Perhaps a cockney chicken: But the blog parses it as an adjective – cowardly. Unless a YELLER is an East End scaredy-cat as well as a shouter. I wonder whether Tramp needed the ‘a’? Am I missing something?

    Thanks to Tramp and manehi

14. Thanks Tramp and manehi
    I found this very difficult. I had to check VALI (having tried GALI first), but it was the only unknown. I didn’t see the Nina, of course.
    I thought that there was going to be a different theme, and Googled to see what the names of the Furies were. It seems that they didn’t have individual names!

15. Great puzzle. Like DeeGee @7 my LOI was DOG-EAR. Spotted the nina for once – the grid somehow made it likely there was one round the outside. VALI was new; ONAGER rather familiar by now. Loved THORAX, TORERO and HAM-FISTEDLY. Thanks to Tramp for the fun and manehi for the blog.

16. PM @ 13

    I think Tramp neede the ‘a’, as “He’s a chicken’ would be synonymous with “He’s yellow / yeller”.

    Tim C @ 9

    I don’t think ‘un’ for ‘one’ is particulaly dialect: “He’s a wrong ‘un” could be said anywhere in the country, I’d have thought.

17. PM @13/muffin @14 – must be a wavelength thing – I found this a lot more accessible than yesterday’s Anto.

    By the way, muffin, you need to work on your Google technique – Virgil named them Alekto, Megaera and Tisiphone.

18. Thanks, manehi and Tramp. I had UNCLIP for 2d for ages, which slowed me up no end in the NW. Favourite was FLAGELLA. LOI was DOG-EAR, which made me grin, eventually.

19. Not for me I’m afraid.

    The whole thing had that shoe-horned feel off being crammed into a theme.

    Tramp usually has beautiful surfaces but, “Fury’s leader at an end: previously put on ass” is not one of them.

    Hey-ho, you can’t please ‘em all.

    Thanks both.

20. Simon S @16… In which case Chambers and the OED haven’t caught up with general usage as they mark it as dialect.

21. Always pleasing to see this setter, and this was a bout of two halves, the bottom completed but the top half more difficult. Like others, my LOI was DOG EAR but what a neat clue. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I spotted a comment on the Guardian thread, which suggested a nina so that helped with the cleverly misdirected, ROULETTE and OILSLICK. I thought YELLER and FLAWED we’re a bit meh but loved the rest. Favourites were HAM-FISTEDLY, BOXER SHORTS and PUERTO RICO. Nice to see ‘The Greatest’ in the grid. Just finished a fascinating eight-part series about his life and career.

    Ta Tramp & manehi

22. Fun xword, my only query would be 10a. Should it not be two words?

23. PostMark@13 I also had reservations about the parsing of “yeller.” I think the definition is a noun – one who shouts; the wordplay is a cockney pronunciation of a coward. Sorry if I seem to be quibbling, manehi – I just think your underlining is slightly askew. Thanks for the workout in the ring this morning, Tramp. I feel slightly battered but proudly unbowed.

24. Lots of groans and lots of grins here-I think that makes it a pretty fine puzzle.
    I like the way Tramp has a theme (surface?)going round without anyone having to know anything about it (apart from Ali who was surely the Miles Davis of boxing)
    Never heard of Tyson Fury (I have heard of Tisiphone-great vibes player)so I didnt go “fishing” like I do in say Serpent or Monk
    Thanks manehi and Tramp for a super Friday puzzle.

25. I tend to agree with Tony @3 and yesyes @8. ‘Enjoyable’ was not exactly the word for me today, since I have absolutely no interest in the theme but the puzzle was ultimately very satisfying to solve, with some great clues.

    As always, I admired the way Tramp managed to include references to his theme so comprehensively (characteristically, in the clues rather than the answers – in all but four, by my reckoning).

    I confess to having heard of Tyson Fury but could have wished for the other kind – helpful article here, muffin. And I did smile at the ‘rumble’ in 19dn. Unsurprisingly, I totally missed the Nina.

    I had ticks for DOG-EAR, PUERTO RICO, HAM-FISTEDLY, THORAX, FLAGELLA, ROCOCO and THIRST.

    Thanks to Tramp and manehi.

26. Some nice clues and a good challenge, but for me it was spoilt by the references to a barbaric sport.

27. Thanks, manehi. Well spotted. I know little, and care less, about boxing. But what’s the ’15/16 combo’ you refer to?

28. There were several clues I thought a bit dodgy, but I think they all turned out fair as explained by manehi, so thanks are due to him for the blog and to Tramp for the misleading cluing. I still think vali a little too obscure because a quick google didn’t bring up that definition. I should have pencilled it in as a guess because I needed the v to get lavender.
    I would have thought boxers wear “boxing shorts” and “boxer shorts” are underwear, but I am sure I will be corrected.

29. [Thanks Widdersbel and Eileen]

30. PM @13/Terri @23: Perhaps a PostMarkian “well beaten” is equivalent to a TerriBlislow-esque “slightly battered but proudly unbowed”. In other words, a ‘a’ doesn’t always have to be followed by a noun (or at least not one that’s normally recognised as a noun). A cockney ‘chicken’ = a cockney version of ‘chicken’ = yeller. (Or Frankie Howerd of course 😉 )

31. This was a clever puzzle, with the Nina (unspotted by me), making it even more so. After a slow start, I got the lot without help and managed to parse it all. That was pleasing, but I was rather disappointed overall because so many of the clues felt contrived and clever-clever.

    Thanks to Tramp and manehi.

32. 9a Onager Fury’s leader at the end: previously put on ass (6)

    I got this a totally different way!

    Fury’s leader = Manager (and MA)
    at the end: Drop MA
    previously put on – Add ON to the front

    ass (6) maybe me?

33. The boxing theme, which I recognised straight away, was a total turn-off for me.

34. Thanks Tramp for the clever, pugilistic theme and Nina (which I failed to spot).
    And thanks manehi for explaining YELLER. 21a was dnk but had to be VALI.

    Whips and Furies remind me of this extract from ‘Oedipus’ by John Dryden:
    “Wond’ring how your pains were eas’d
    And disdaining to be pleas’d
    ‘Till Alecto free the dead
    From their eternal bands,
    Till the snakes drop from her head,
    And the whips from out her hand”

35. Was I fairly floored, or was the puzzle FLAWED? I think my need for help from wordfinders and the Check button was down to my own rank amateur status. VALI was a JORUM for me.

36. 23a RENOWN

    My father served on RENOWN , a battle cruiser , and survived the war on her.
    He was Admiral’s runner , and served with Julia Somerville’s grandfather Admiral Somerville whom he admired greatly. Julia and I were born within a few weeks of each other.

    There was one occasion when the ship was left to do its own thing in a storm , and the Captain said the ship was in danger of breaking it’s back!
    Radar was new, and his action station was on Radar plot. They opened fire at the clouds at least once thinking they were aircraft.

    He was hospitalised in Cape Town after a 1 tonne shell slipped out of the ‘grab’ and smashed his ankle! The same shell was retrieved to be lowered into the hold and slipped again , killing the poor soul who was receiving it!

    He pleaded with a visiting senior officer that he be allowed back onboard and was promised he would be.
    He had a view of the port from the hospital, and on the day Renown sailed he saw tell-tale signs that she was leaving. He gave up hope of sailing with her, but they sent a launch for him and he felt like he being treated like royalty!

    I guess I owe my life to that ship? He definitely did.

37. SuperTramp, although I BIFD a number and parsed later. Clever cluing to include all the boxing references – you don’t have to like boxing to admire the puzzle.

    I forgot to look for a NINA, but that makes the crossword even more impressive, although the only VAL(l)I I know is Frankie.

    I liked FLAGELLA (known from bacteriology) for the misleading surface, HAM-FISTEDLY for a good anagram, ROULETTE for the better, and BOXER SHORTS for the surface. Ravenrider @28: Chambers definition: 1.Loose shorts as worn by boxers. Jack @22, I think most dictionaries agree that it is OIL SLICK.

    Thanks Tramp and manehi.

38. The boxing/fighting theme was quite a turn-off for me. I did not see the nina.

    Finished the lower half first.

    Did not parse 5d, 17d.
    2d – I wondered if it should it be ‘open up French one with sharp blow’? I forgot about words like wrong’un.

    New: VALI = Turkish provincail governor.

    Thanks, both.

39. Pretty much William@19’s sentiments. Felt slightly irritated by the theme as I struggled with each clue. Didn’t get much beyond Round 6, then threw in the towel. A technical K.O. Harrumph….

40. I wasn’t on the right wavelength for this one. After half an hour only had half a dozen solved, so gave up.

41. …best price offered by the online bookies for Tramp’s prediction for the outcome of the fight is 33-1 the K.O. in Round 2. Might have a lucky pound wager on that to make myself feel better about maligning his puzzle today. Having looked at the solutions to the ones I didn’t get round to solving, I realise now that it was in fact rather a tour de force. Me being too impatient by half…

42. Another very skilful puzzle from Tramp, with some excellent clueing – but some rather tortured surfaces (although these crosswords are great fun and really clever, I must admit I prefer his athematic ones, which allow him to use his imaginative constructions without having to shoehorn clues in). I missed the Nina (not something I ever look for)…

    Particular praise for BOXER SHORTS and HAM-FISTEDLY. VALI was a jorum (what an unlikely sentence 🙂 ).

    I don’t know how the normally astute muffin managed not to find the names of the Furies – and thanks to wynsum @34 for the Dryden quotation, which put me in mind of Purcell’s setting:

    https://youtu.be/ZYBliPhLAE0

    Thanks to Tramp and manehi

43. Hear, hear, Eileen! Touches on another one of life’s mysteries: how trying to hurt somebody can ever be regarded as a “sport”!

44. Never mind betting on Tyson Fury, I would have laid money on there being complaints from rhotic speakers about floored / FLAWED, but no! Is it possible that people have finally accepted that a homophone in a Guardian crossword means a homophone in Received Pronunciation (unless specified otherwise)?

    Clever use of theme. BOXER SHORTS was good with the double meaning of “clobber”.

    Thanks Tramp and manehi.

45. I was wondering why Ali was the only boxer referred to and so a bit of Googling turned up Asif VALI as former world champion boxer, Amir Khan’s manager. Amusingly, LAVENDER and ROCOCO are makes of BOXER SHORTS. It’s been a slow day…

46. …. and some would call a BOXER, man’s best friend.

47. FRIEND

48. Brilliant exploitation of a theme.

49. Pugilistastic!

    Thanks T&m.

50. Like Geoff Down Under @ 40 I gave up on this – beyond me

    Lord Jim @ 44 – I can’t see how floored = flawed at all and I am usually fairly relaxed about homophones. As I say the two words the vowel sound in each is quite different and there is an r in the former which is pronounced but not in the latter.

51. Thanks both.
    Why is part not doing double duty in 22a?

52. Tyngewick @ 51

    Because it’s not necessary for the definition.

53. Dr W@2 and grantinfreo Wagner Rumpole pinched it

    I really must brush up my knowledge of Ottoman Empire bureaucrats. VALI was beyond me as was Tyson Fury.

    Doesn’t “DOG-EAR” mean “turn corner” rather than “turn to corner”?

    Tyngewick@51 and Simon S@52 I agree with Tyngewick. DRILL BIT is a noun, so its definition has to be “part that’s boring,” not “boring.” That leaves “part” as a part of the definition but also needed in the worldplay to mean BIT.

    Thanks Tramp and manehi for the guidance. This puzzle was really hard, I needed a lot of check button this morning.

54. Fiona Anne @50 homophones are always controversial but if I try to pronounce the r in floored, I get something like “floor-ud” which I’m sure I’ve never heard.

55. Valentine @53: DOG-EAR can be a nounal as well as a verbal expression – the corner of a page which is folded over, so a ‘turn to corner’.

    Fiona Anne @50: Few ‘homophone’ clues are truly homophonic for all speakers of English. The rhotic problem is one difficulty, and we have recently had grumbles about the stress position being different in clue and solution. Many speakers south of the border pronounce maw/more/moor identically, whereas to Scots they are all distinct.

    I raised an eyebrow at this one but didn’t comment, as it gets pointed out almost every time. My own view is that such clues are best avoided if setters want to please everyone 🙂

56. No setter can please everyone

57. ravenrider @ 54 I find I pronounce the r in floored without having two separate syllables but I don’t know how to describe it.

    Gervase @ 55 of course – and I don’t generally bother commenting – but in this case the two words did seem to me to be not at all alike – not just the r but the vowel sound. In floored the sound is like flow but in flawed it is like awe. So I was just surprised.

58. Gervase @ 55 –

    and didn’t realise that many speakers pronounced these sounds identically

59. Even as a rhotic speaker, flawed and floored are very similar when I say them. There is a hint of an R sound in the latter, but the vowel is identical. I’m struggling to auralise (?) how Fiona Anne pronounces “floored” 🙂

60. I’m always surprised when people say of supposed homophones that that isn’t the way they pronounce them, as if that were the end of the matter and that they’d never heard other people pronounce those words differently.

61. Valentine @ 53

    What’s the difference between “That’s boring” and “The drill bit’s boring”?

62. muffin @59

    I just don’t get that the vowels are identical.

    I rhyme floored with flowed and flawed with awed. I don’t think flowed and awed sound at all the same. What am I missing?

63. Xjpotter@60

    Like I said I am fairly relaxed about homophones and fully accept that people pronounce things differently – as a Scot living in London I can’t help noticing that. But I would never have matched these two words.

64. Fiona Anne @62
    How do you pronounce “floor”? “Flow”?

65. I found this tough going from beginning to end. But then I looked back and wondered why. Maybe I just wasn’t on Tramp’s wavelength today.

    Brilliantly constructed though and love the Nina.

    Thanks Tramp and manehi

66. Tramp @56?

67. muffin @65

    I pronounce floor to rhyme with flow – but with an r at the end

    or to rhyme with door – maybe a better description

68. I wasn’t going to comment, but I have to back Fiona Anne up. To me it’s (almost exactly) like rhyming the vowel sounds in “hole” and “hall” – never mind the missing “r”. That doesn’t make it an unfair clue, but it does make it a much more difficult one, which is surely something the compiler should be considering.
    Otherwise a good crossword with a very helpful Nina. Thanks all.

69. Thanks Fiona Anne
    I must say that I’ve never heard that pronunciation. Generally floor rhymes with flaw, and door rhymes with daw. Do the two syllables of “floorboard” rhyme for you?

70. One of the great mysteries of cryptic is the different reactions they provoke. I really didn’t enjoy this one, and revealed my LOI DOG-EAR because I just couldn’t care any more. Why? I have no idea. A few too many “really?” moments but nothing outrageous. Don’t know, just not my cup of tea for some reason today.

71. muffin @ 69

    yes the two syllables do rhyme for me (although I must confess that having to say the words out loud so many times now I am getting confused….)

    Thanks

72. Clever rather than enjoyable puzzle which became a bit of a slog, but busy day indoors, that’s possibly why like Fiery Jack @70 we uncovered our last one in DOG-Ear and missed the nina. Good to see the Legend Ali referenced
    Thx to Tramp and manehi for the blog

73. I disagree with manehi’s definition of 10ac. It’s not craft in the main = vessel, but “run out of craft in the main”. I.e. the oilslick has run out of a ship.

74. Too hard for me today. I’m not sure I have seen Tramp before, so that’s my excuse.
    Thanks for the hints, perhaps if I had been a bit more switched on, I might have got further.

75. Interesting comments on here, more interesting for me than today’s crossword I’m afraid, disliked the theme from the outset and didn’t enjoy it at all, eventually giving up when about halfway in. Reading these comments has only confirmed my feelings about it.

76. Took a couple of standing counts, ended up on the ropes, was saved by the bell, but comprehensively lost on points. Great setting from Tramp, plus a helpful and colourful blog from manehi: this was a toughie.
    I missed the ringside NINA despite the clear pugilism theme in almost all the clues. FLAGELLA, VALI and ONAGER were new to me (though now I think about it, I believe I have come across the latter in a previous crossword; clearly the lesson was not learned). All fair clues though.
    HAM-FISTEDLY and BOXER SHORTS were my favourites: great clues and lots of helpful crossers!

    Back to the gym.

77. Excuse my ignorance but what does JORUM mean?

78. (Petert @35)

79. Pat @77
    The term was invented by our revered Eileen to mean an unlikely word that is made up from the wordplay, that turns out to be both real and correct. JORUM (a large jug used to serve punch) was the original example.

80. muffin@79 Aha, thank you!!

81. I don’t like clues which depend on a posh English pronunciation. Where I come from FLAWED can never sound like FLOORED.
    It’s just lazy and thoughtless.

82. Pat Wootton @77 (and muffin @79)
    Oh dear – the second time this week that JORUM has cropped up!
    I never intended to invent it as a term but commented on a blog of mine
    http://www.fifteensquared.net/2015/07/25/guardian-prize-26627-puck/, (unbelievably, I now see seven, years ago!) how satisfying it is to construct a word from the wordplay, check it and find out that it does exist. A regular contributor on this site posted: ‘Your comment on Jorum reminded me of my late mother who loved clues where you put together a word you had never heard of, and then looked it up to find it does indeed exist. I shall think of them as “Jorums” from now on’
    Over the years, other commenters have picked up the ball and run with it, which has been rather lovely for me but, inevitably, seemingly exclusive and difficult for less frequent or newer contributors to make sense of – which is the last thing we want here!

83. Having not read the blog thoroughly enough to spot this myself, I agree with Lizzy @73 regarding the definition of OILSLICK: it’s the pollution not the vessel.

    Regarding the homophone debate, could Xjpotter’s comment @60 be permanently carried forward to every blog on here when the quibbles crop up? If two words are pronounced similarly in some reasonably common dialects/accents, that should suffice, even if they aren’t pronounced similarly in every dialect. As for today’s homophone example, I am a Londoner, and pronounce FLAWED and floored the same.

84. Kormoran @ 81, Absolutely agree!! Homophones really should not be predicated on the on the pronunciation of our lexis by Brian Sewell.

85. S’s c @84: Brian Sewell speaks with a curious camp archaic RP – but it isn’t rhotic 🙂

86. HoofItYouDonkey @74 – I’m still playing catch-up after the habitual Friday soirée with my daughter and – as of last Saturday 🙂 – son-in-law.

    If this really is your first encounter with a Tramp puzzle, I beg you to persevere!

87. Epeolator @27 – I meant the left+right combo in the surfaces to 15+16

    Lizzy @73, I was a little lazy in blogging – the full definition is indicated by the underlining, and in the explanation I meant to write something more like: ‘within the definition, “craft in the main” is a cryptic way to refer to…’

    Thanks to all for the comments, and Tramp for the note on 10ac.

88. For me, Tramp always goes a step too far and spoils his best clues. For example, ROULETTE would have been a great clue if I’d not had to press the CHECK button because of the uncertainty about ROUTE = ROUND. The fact that I’m using the App at all (I take a daily paper Guardian) is indeed because it is Tramp and for me so very many clues are Guess and Check (and then think very hard). Which is not as fun.
    Perhaps Tramp should do more Prize Puzzles? No App there. But many thanks, Tramp and Manehi.
    PS Loved the Easter Maskarade!

89. But does Roz think it was too easy? That’s all I care about.

90. The “flawed” “floored” controversy is not only an issue about rhoticism, although that does come into it. For many non-rhotic speakers such as myself (born in Manchester), these vowels are completely different. It’s because there’s an extra vowel class in my accent, so that “horse” and “hoarse” do not rhyme. Similarly, “fork” does not rhyme with “pork”, “torch” with “porch”, “sawed” with “soared” and so on. That is not to say that we shouldn’t be aware of other speakers’ homophones for crossword purposes, but it can be quite difficult parsing this type of solution.

91. for 17d (FLAWED), I missed the “caught” = homophone, and so was unable to parse the answer, but it was a fair clue.

    It’s interesting that no one commented until Lord Jim @44. (It may have something to do with time zones?) Anyway, I interpret homophones in crosswords as “sounds similar”, not “sounds identical”.

    For the record, these are rhymes for me:
    FLAWED: awed, odd, cod, pawed (“aw” or “ah” vowel)
    FLOORED: board, bored, chord, ford (“oh” vowel, r pronounced)

    I hadn’t heard of rhotic/non-rhotic until it showed up in a crossword recently. Wikipedia has some detailed articles on various dialects — it’s amazing some of the words that can be pronounced the same in different dialects!

92. Simon S @61
    The rule is that the definition has to equate to the solution. ‘That’s boring’ does not equate to ‘drill bit’ in any sentence that I can construct. In your example ‘That’s boring’ equates to ‘The drill bit’s boring’ so even if we allowed ‘that’ to be the definition – which would be pretty poor – the article ‘the’ would still be missing.

93. Many thanks to northnorthwest @90 and to Calgal @91 for their clarifications.

    It’s always mind-expanding, and often good for the soul, to try and put oneself in others’ shoes, and occasionally also in their vocal tracts! 😉

    For anyone who would like more info on the horse-hoarse merger, referred to @90, it’s here. (It’s called a merger because, historically, all English speakers made a distinction between those two vowels – most of us have lost it, but Fiona Anne in common with most Scots, and some others, are keeping it alive.)

    Some English English speakers may be confused by Calgal’s listing of ‘odd’ and ‘awed’ as homophones, but this is a result of the cot-caught merger, very common in North America as well as for many Scots and Irish people. I sometimes wonder what the reaction would be here on 15² if a guest US setter tried to clue fox/hottie/knotty as homophones of Fawkes/haughty/naughty!

    [I remember when Kamala Harris was first elected VP and there was some uncertainty about how to pronounce her name, someone in the UK wrote an indignant letter to Newswatch, complaining that BBC journalists were failing to follow KH’s own guidance that the first syllable was to be pronounced like that in ‘comma’ – not realising that Americans say ‘comma’ quite differently from most (English) Brits.]

    Yes, poor Lord Jim. There he was @44, relieved at an uncharacteristic display of pragmatism/phlegmatism, little suspecting that his comment would trigger the biggest homophonic kerfuffle since Anna-kissed-gate… to which kerfuffle I have now contributed.

94. I really don’t like clues that don’t make any grammatical sense e.g. 10 across “Beat one’s that’s run out of craft in the main ” Eh ??

95. Old man @94… see the setter Tramp’s comment @5

96. The error has been corrected online. Once again, I apologise. I should have spotted it in the proof.

    Soneone above said:

    Fury’s leader at the end: previously put on ass

    is a poor surface. I disagree. Fury wins in the end after bering put on (his) ass.

    Admittedly, the two homophone clues are weak. Point noted.

    I’ve no more themed puzzles. This one has been sitting around since early 2021 waiting for Fury to fight Joshua: that probably won’t happen, so, I was glad to use it for this fight.

    Neil

97. Thanks for the post Tramp @96. I always appreciate a setter’s comments in a forum like this, and you can’t please everyone as you say.
    As far as homophones go, the word homophone (which would require the same sound) is never used in a clue. It’s indicated by phrases such as “caught by” (as in 17 down), “picked up”, “reported” etc. These are far looser terms. After living for 40 years in an environment (Australia) with pronunciations quite removed from RP and with a Lancashire background, I tend to adopt the Australian phrase in relation to ‘homophone’ clues which is “Near enough’s good enough”.

98. Tramp@96: Well I enjoyed it, so much thanks and also thanks to manehi. Wish it had been a prize as it deserved more time than I could give it this morning. (A narky hip kept me in bed yesterday with no interest in anything – thankfully today: hooray!)

99. This was a toughie. I failed at the NE corner, just didn’t spot the fodder for PUERTO RICO and DOG-EAR was also too much. Never mind. Hard to pick a fave: FLAMBEAU – a slightly obscure word but very good surface (I suppose if you’re a TF fan you’ll be hoping it doesn’t happen!)
    Oh and I didn’t even look for the Nina – I ought to have.
    A quibble over FLAWED – am I perhaps a victim of my own RP (‘Oxford English’) accent? I just can’t equate the homophones, too ‘estuary’ for my taste.

100. Laccaria – oh dear, we’ve had Kormoran @81 complaining that it’s too posh, and now yourself @99 saying it’s not posh enough 😉 . It works for me (I say /flɔ:d/ in both cases), and I think of myself as speaking with an RP accent… but then I am closer to the Estuary than you.

101. Thanks Michelle for explaining VALI. I don’t see anything cockney about YELLER… isn’t that used widely?
     Anyway thanks both.

102. Stupendous! Worth framing in my exceedingly humble opinion….

     (As for the flawed v floored candyfloss above, these are clues I enjoy and that make me smile; they possibly wouldn’t if they were exact homophones. Knowing the rhotophiles will be offended may even widen the smile! Not something to apologise for….)

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