Methuselah makes his roughly monthly appearance today – we’re in for a treat.
As expected, we enjoyed the challenge – plenty of crafty clues to exercise the old grey matter – though perhaps not quite as old as Methuselah?
We struggled with the parsing of 3d – our LOI – but the penny eventually dropped. We’re not convinced by the definition for 6d, but we suspect that there may have been a late alteration to the clue to accommodate the recent chaos in government caused by the Tory leadership contest.
An anagram (‘reinvented’) of A, THEM, US and TROPE
SORt (breed) without the last letter or ‘tailless’ in or ‘crossed with’ CURS (mongrels)
An anagram (‘exotic’) of STORES rounder ‘containing’ Y (unknown – in algebra)
A homophone (‘caught’) of F M (First Minister – Nicola Sturgeon) + lINe lATEr – both without the first and last letters or ‘skinned’
P (quiet) AT IO (at ten – ‘when the news comes on’)
TIM Burton (‘first’ letter only) U (certificate for a ‘film for kids’) round or ‘introducing’ UK (this country) T (first or ‘initial’ letter of to)
An anagram (‘around’) of bABy bOOMERs (both without the first and last letters or ‘naked’) and J (first letter or ‘start’ of jive) – a reference to champagne or ‘bubbly’ bottle sizes
AM (American) in or ‘circumvented by’ an anagram (‘somehow’) of MADE A MINISTER
AUDIo (sound) without the ‘o’ (wheel)
The definition is hidden in disreSPECT RAdiohead’s – not the other way round or ‘on the contrary’
A reversal (‘gotten over’) of LOB (fling) + SHIEs (flings again) without the last letter or ‘short’
SCOuT (‘recon specialist’) without or ‘ditching’ the ‘u’ (uniform in the phonetic alphabet) + LANYARD (ID holder) round or ‘outside’ D (Germany)
Hidden (‘pieces of’) and reversed (‘around’) in epheMERA Heaped
A sort of cryptic / double definition – the MOON (I) never ‘shows’ its ‘backside’ (the dark side) to the earth
UN (‘the’ – article – in French, as would be printed in Le Monde) + first letters or ‘leads’ to Secret Agents Feeling Extremely
An anagram (‘to mingle’) of CEO TRIES
IRISH (European people) with the first ‘i’ (current) moved from front to back or ‘brought down’ – is Sunak a ‘wise guy’?
REP (salesperson) in or ‘breaking’ a homophone (‘verbal’) of PACT (contract)
CAT (pussy) SPY (agent) JAMeS (James Bond) with the last but one letter changed from ‘e’ to A (‘changed a bit right before the end’)
I’VE (‘your setter’s’) after (‘not above’ – in a down clue) an anagram (‘rejigging’) of PAST CLUE
CO- (joint, as a prefix) MB (doctor)
TARDIS (time machine, as in Dr Who) round or ‘pulling in’ N E and S (north, east and south – ‘three directions’)
Double definition – the second referring to the BUMP ‘showing’ that a baby is on the way
H (first letter or ‘beginning’ of heir) AIR (song) BALL (dance) – the ‘Queen’ is a female cat
CAR (vehicle) BONnet (cap) with the last three letters missing or ‘50% cut’
S E (last letters or ‘finalists’ in lawless melee) + reversal (‘recalled’) of OTT (over the top – ‘extreme’)
HER (a woman) after MethUSelah (middle letters or ‘heart’ of our setter)
TIME (period) and PLAY (drama) swapped over or ‘in the wrong order’
A lovely crafty challenge indeed
Thanks very much to Methuselah and B&J
Rishi is a Hindu sage.
Thanks KVa – we are happier now. We didn’t bother to check Chambers.
In reference to 3d, I remember once trying (and failing) to explain that the dark side of the moon gets the sun just as much as the side facing us (ignoring the reflected light from the earth). I believe it was a reference to being radio dark on the Apollo missions but could well be wrong on that.
Not entriely comfortable with her=a woman (more usually clued that woman for good reason) and thought 8D was a bit clumsy but loved the rest.
18 was my favourite whilst solving but now I’ve seen the parsing for MOON that might just pip it.
Thanks to B&J and the ancient one.
What an excellent puzzle! Loved it from start to finish so thanks Methuselah and B&J.
All the more enjoyable for not being too fiendish, but still too good for me with a “bomb” not a BUMP for 17d. My favourites both fell into the solved first, parsed later category: the ‘though I never do’ bit of MOON and the misleading use of our setter’s moniker in the def for JEROBOAM.
Thanks to B&J and Methuselah
Challenging, but solved without help, although we couldn’t parse everything – we just couldn’t understand 12ac at all not having encountered the abbreviation FM in that context; we’ve never seen it in print and on the radio Ms Sturgeon’s title is always given in full. We didn’t fully understand the ‘recon specialist’ in 29ac till we checked ‘recon’ in Chambers to find it described as ‘US military slang’ -there’s no indication of American usage in the clue.
But some great clues, such as for JEROBOAM, MOON and TIMBUKTU.
Thanks, Methuselah and B&J.
Superb puzzle but having just heard the very sad news, I’ll leave it at thanking Methuselah and Bertandjoyce for the top-notch entertainment.
Thoroughly enjoyed this, thank you Methuselah and Bertandjoyce. Particularly liked the sneaky use of the setter’s handle.