One of Hippogryph’s bi-monthly appearances fills the first Wednesday slot of 2023 – Happy New Year!
This was an enjoyable solve with some lovely surfaces and a solver-friendly grid. For some reason, we had difficulty with 22d – our last one in, and wondered why as soon as the penny dropped!
We have a minor quibble with the homophone at 15ac, but loved the surface and ingenuity of 28d.
Hidden (‘clothed in’) and reversed (‘retrospective’) in shOT A REcording
The speed of former F1 driver Alain Prost could be described as the PROST RATE
THANK (show appreciation) round or ‘entertaining’ an anagram (‘tight’) of KNIT
A homophone (‘picked up’) of GILLED (‘like a pike’ – or any other fish for that matter)
Double definition
A homophone (‘we’re told’) of DRAUGHTY (with cool air) – not an ideal homophone in our opinion – the emphasis is on the latter syllable in ‘draftee’, on the first in ‘draughty’
L (left) in B (black) and an anagram (‘resort’) of SEA
eYES (observes) without the first ‘e’ (east – ‘point’)
wINEs without the first and last letters or ‘dropping case’ + PT (port)
An anagram (‘sacked’) of prOSTRATE (10 across) without or ‘avoiding’ ‘pr’ (publicity)
Double definition
An anagram (‘jumping’) of BAIL + I (Hippogryph – the setter)
IT (object) RAGE (anger) after a reversal (‘backs’) of BRA (‘supporter’)
An anagram (‘dancing’) of GENT (1 down) and ALLEY
First letters or ‘starts’ of Rattle After Initially Smooth Elevation
aGENT (spy) without the first letter or ‘topped’ – the ‘short’ in the definition indicating (rather unnecessarily in our opinion) an abbreviation of gentleman
An anagram (‘excited’) of ALIBI’S (25 ac’s) + CA (approximately – ‘about’)
SO UK (‘terribly British’)
U (united) PLY (perform steadily) round or ‘securing’ WARD (local division – in a District or Borough Council)
fLOCK (group of animals) without the first letter or ‘heading off’ + hErD (alternate or ‘occasional’ letters)
STAG (deer) NATION (country)
MAT (carpet) round or ‘laid outside’ mOvIeS (alternate or ‘regular’ letters)
A cemetery could (rather disrespectfully) be described as a CENTRE for the DEAD
Hidden (‘in’) and reversed (‘revolutionary’) in PortugueSE TARTS BUSiness
THE A (acceleration) + C (first or ‘initial’ letter of Concorde) in TRIAL (test)
An anagram (‘sports’) of BASIC SKY
A reversal (‘turns up’) of A I (current) NAME (celebrity) round or ‘filled with’ GO (success)
AMID (in the middle of) E (Spain) S (Siemens – SI unit of electrical inductance)
An anagram (‘played’) of TAILOR
A double homophone (‘orally’) of TAUT (tense) and TAUGHT (instructed)
Middle or ‘essential’ letters of carEful driVers chEck mirRors
This was great fun with inventive clueing and smooth surfaces throughout. I agree with B&J about “short” in 1d and the dodgy homophone in 15a.
Many thanks to Hippogryph and to B&J.
Liked GUILD and TORT quite a bit. Also liked SOUK.
DRAFTEE: I think most here will agree with your view, B&J! Having said that, these homophone discussions are always fascinating.
Thanks to H and BJ!
Ran out of steam towards the end, failing on GUILD which I did not interpret as a club. ‘Gilled’ is one of those definitions perfectly fair when backparsing but where the likelihood of getting it direct from the def is very low. AMIDES also beat me. And what a cunning job the setter made of disguising references to other clues.
DRAFTEE may not be a strict equivalent but it was close enough for me to solve – I’ve seen far worse and I’m happy to cut the setter some slack on that one.
My faves are closely grouped amidst the downs – STAGNATION, MAOIST, THEATRICAL and SICK BAYS.
Thanks Hippogryph and B&J
I was also beaten by AMIDES for which I couldn’t get beyond thinking of ‘In the middle of’ as indicating the middle letters of the following words; I would have needed a brain re-set to be able to get that one.
I liked the GUILD and especially the double TORT homophones (maybe not quite as big a fan of DRAFTEE) as well as the reverse hidden SUBSTRATES. ARBITRAGE goes into the new words file; even if I don’t really understand what it means, it sounds dodgy.
Thanks to Hippogryph and to B&J
A fun puzzle that evolved gradually for me as it should. I knew that TORT had to be the answer, but being an American the homophone was completely lost on me as in our version of your language that word sounds nothing like the other two. Thanks to Hippogryph for a lovely workout and to B&J for the blog.
I agree with Wordplodder about TORT and PostMark about GUILD.
The 15a homophone made me laugh – as Postmark said, we’ve seen far worse. SICK BAYS also raised a smile – one of my daughters had a penchant for languishing there when she didn’t care for whatever was on the school timetable that day!
Slow to sort out both the AMIDES and the parsing of UPWARDLY – ‘ply’ didn’t occur to me – but very much enjoyed the solve.
Thanks to Hippogryph and to B&J for the review.
Thanks both. I guessed AMIDES for mainly the wrong reasons having started with the middle letters of Spain and Siemens and will add ‘sports’ to the almost unending list of anagrinds under the heading ‘maybe but unconvinced’ though the temptation to use it to achieve SICK BAYS was probably irresistible
Thanks TFO. We thought ‘sports’ was OK as Chambers has it down as ‘to trifle with’ and ‘to frolic’.
Thanks again B&J…I noted such in my dictionary, but I guess it is just that you have to first translate to a less conventional meaning of the word before it invites the anagram, as sports is more commonly an insertion indicator
Thanks to B&J for the excellent blog and to everyone who has commented so far. I thought the DRAFTEE homophone was close enough to get away with but they are always “in the ear of the beholder”….so to speak.
And TFO@8, you are exactly correct that the temptation to use ‘sports’ after sky did overcome my reservations over it’s anagrind credentials.
Thanks again, I’m glad that you enjoyed the challenge and Happy New Year to you all
Thanks, Hippogryph & B&J. Spot on assessment – an enjoyable solve indeed. I liked the anagrams using other solutions as fodder- neat trick. Had similar problems with AMIDES.