Thank you to Philistine. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. 1 in 7 is not happy (6)
GRUMPY : Double defn: 1st: One of the seven dwarves(1 in 7) in the fairy tale “Snow White”.
Guess which one:
4. Bad luck? Slap this on your head (8)
SKULLCAP : Anagram of(Bad) LUCK? SLAP.
Defn: You could wear this by slapping it on your head…
as worn by jockeys:
9, 20. We stay on plan to protect green growth — no turning back here (3-3,6)
ONE-WAY STREET : Anagram of(… plan) WE STAY ON containing(to protect) TREE(a green growth).
Defn: …, if you’re driving a vehicle.
10. Monster like Radovan Karadžic sounding certain to make a comeback (8)
CERBERUS : Homophone of(… sounding) “Serb”(an ethnic group of which war criminal Radovan Karadžic is an example/like) + reversal of(… to make a comeback) SURE(certain/definite).
Defn: … in Greek mythology.
11. So take a breath and pay? (7,3,4)
THROUGH THE NOSE : Double defn: How you would/so 1st: …, and 2nd: ….
13. See 1 down
14. See 16
16, 14. Allow mother to have a turn first, being cooperative (8)
AMENABLE : ENABLE(to allow/to give the authority to do something) placed after(… first) reversal of(… to have a turn) MA(informal term for one’s mother).
18. Other set wins fight in court? (7,3)
WITNESS BOX : Anagram of(Other) SET WINS + BOX(to fight by throwing punches).
Defn: A fixture …, a court of law, that is.
21. Perhaps Austin’s plant is not good enough (14)
UNSATISFACTORY : Anagram of(Perhaps) AUSTIN’S + FACTORY(a plant/a building or buildings where goods are manufactured).
23. Excellent foot soldiers manoeuvring without loss (2,3,3)
TO DIE FOR : Anagram of(… manoeuvring) “foot soldiers” minus(without) “loss“.
24. Game of golf hosted by newlywed (6)
BRIDGE : G(letter represented by “golf” in the phonetic alphabet) contained in(hosted by) BRIDE(the female newlywed).
25. Elected president starts probing work assistants (8)
DEPUTIES : 1st letters, respectively, of(… starts) “Elected president” contained in(probing) DUTIES(work/tasks that are required to be performed as part of one’s job).
26. Troublemakers temporarily live on board (6)
SCAMPS : CAMP(to temporarily live in, say, a tent) contained in(on board) SS(abbrev. for “steamship”).
Down
1, 22, 13 across. My muck sends off courteous setter (8,8,2)
GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME : GOO(muck/slimy substance) + anagram of(… off) SENDS + GRACIOUS(courteous/well-mannered) + ME(self-referential pronoun for the setter of this crossword).
Defn: An exclamation of surprise or awe like …!
2. Channel says you are heartbroken (7)
URETHRA : Homophone of(says) “you are” + anagram of(…broken) HEART.
Defn: …/duct through which urine is passed.
3. This philosophy gives patriarchal extremists a boost (8)
PLATONIC : 1st and last letters of(… extremists) “patriarchal” + A + TONIC(a boost/something that invigorates).
Defn: …/that of Plato, Greek philosopher.
5. Need to take things like a man? Opt out! (11)
KLEPTOMANIA : Anagram of(… out) LIKE A MAN? OPT.
Defn: …/uncontrollable urge to steal items.
6. Unclaimed billions brought up to frame politician (3-3)
LIB-DEM : Hidden in(… to frame) reversal of(… brought up, in a down clue) “Unclaimed billions“.
Defn: …, one of Liberal Democrats of the UK.
7. Underwear turned up in search for explosive (3,4)
CAR BOMB : Reversal of(… turned up, in a down clue) BRA(short for “brassiere”, an item of feminine underwear) contained in(in) COMB(to search carefully/scour).
8. Dance when 17, confused about debutante’s first kiss (3,2,4)
PAS DE DEUX : [ Anagram of(…, confused) EASED UP/answer to 17 down containing(about) 1st letter of(…’s first) “debutante” ] + X(letter in text representing a kiss).
Defn: … for two performers.
12. Burn smog, OK with energy (2,2,2,5)
GO UP IN SMOKE : A reverse clue: Reversal of( … UP, in a down clue) GO contained in(IN) SMOK plus(with) E(abbrev. for “energy” in physics) = “smog, OK with energy“.
13. Progressive finished university (9)
GRADUATED : Double defn: 1st: …/proceeding in degrees; and 2nd: … with a degree.
15. Fancy stereo discs occasionally used for the select few (8)
ESOTERIC : Anagram of(Fancy) STEREO + 2nd and 4th letters of(… occasionally used) “discs“.
Defn: Intended …
17. After 50% increase, party slackened (5,2)
EASED UP : Last 4 letters out of 8 of(50%) “increase” plus(After … ,) DUP(abbrev. for the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland). A surface that could apply to politics.
19. During time of economic prosperity, socialist having little to do? (7)
BOREDOM : BOOM(a period of time of economic prosperity or growth) containing(During …) RED(a socialist/one to the left in the political spectrum).
Defn: The state of ….
20. See 9
22. See 1
Good fun, plenty of smiles. Wasn’t sure of DUP or Lib-Dem. I’m not a fan of words being split over two grid places. The result here is shorter words, which may be offered as an excuse, but these are unrelated and unclued.
Couldn’t parse 12d and after seeing this blog my head’s still spinning.
Thanks Philistine & scchua.
Slow start, but straightforward after that.
Thanks to Philistine and scchua.
thanks sschua. there is an error i think in your explanation of 17d. i thought it was 50% of increase, ie ‘ease’ plus DUP. i really liked 12d. thanks to philistine
Really liked this one. Thanks to Philistine and sccchua. Like Geoff Down Under@1, I couldn’t parse 12d GO UP IN SMOKE properly, so I really needed the blog. Lots of ticks: 10a CERBERUS (my LOI), 11a THROUGH THE NOSE, 21a UNSATISFACTORY, 23a TO DIE FOR, 1d etc GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME (where I didn’t mind the word split), 2d URETHRA (always glad to find Philistine’s signature – something to do with medicine or the body), 5d KLEPTOMANIA and 19d BOREDOM (the latter certainly wasn’t my problem in solving this grid!) Though sorry to be a bit tiresome: maybe I should have just said “Too many favourites to list”!
Thanks ngaiolaurenson for pointing out my numerical confusion. Blog corrected.
Thanks, Philistine for the enjoyable puzzle and scchua for the beautiful blog (illustrated as always)!
A (very minor) personal milestone for me: first time I’ve done a Friday cryptic in one sitting with no external aids. Maybe I got tuned into the right wavelength early on. As ever, I needed to come here to check a couple of parsings that passed me by. I’m also not a fan of single words separated across the grid but that’s a personal preference. Today’s that’s a strange anagrind award goes to ‘plan’ in ONE-WAY STREET.
Thanks both
On Friday I brace myself, expecting something difficult, but I found this went in pretty smoothly. Odd how sometimes one gets on the setter’s wavelength, while other puzzles, which may not be more complex, seem unyielding.
A gentle stroll from the Phil today. Parsed eased up like ngaio @3, and did 12d the lazy bife way, as in e for enumeration. Thought yarmulke for skullcap, dnk the rider one. Cute dwarves scchua, ta.
Very gentle today. Also very helpful after the bottle of wine last night. Loved 12D.
Pretty straightforward solve and all parsed satisfactorily. I loved GO UP IN SMOKE, a stroke of genius and GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME, reminding me of the funny 90s BBC South Asian sitcom of the same name.
Ta Philistine & scchua.
Liked this a lot and JinA @4 (in her very un-tiresome post!) has summed up my feelings and favourites very well. I did manage to parse GO UP IN SMOKE and it remains my favourite clue.
I’d be interested to know others’ views on whether or not the letters removed in a subtractive anagram need to be, themselves, anagrammed. I encounter both schools of thought and suspect it is a subjective thing; no-one has mentioned it today so blogger and early posters are clearly happy with the letters not being anagrammed. (I am referring, of course, to the ‘loss’ removed from ‘foot soldiers’ in TO DIE FOR.)
Thanks Philistine and scchua
PM @12 — my take is that if the wordplay instruction is subtractive, it’s irrelevant in which order one subtracts the letters as you still end up with the same answer. With an instruction to add letters, on the other hand, the order of letters is definitely important 🙂
Thanks Philistine and scchua
Well that was quite remarkable. It must have been a wavelength thing, but it was as near to being a complete write-in as I’ve ever had – and it was a Philistine! The only one that gave me pause was TO DIE FOR.
GRUMPY FOI, which immediately gave 1,22,13, and plain sailing from there.
Sorry if this offends anyone!
I forgot to respond that I’ve no problem with split words as long as the grid entries are words in their own right (as they were today).
Don’t often rattle off a Philistine in one go, but this one fairly poured in.
Failed to properly parse PAS DE DEUX but I see it now.
Many thanks for the colourful blog, sschua.
RobT@7 had the same experience as me for a Friday first! On first pass I couldn’t see a route in but then 19d sprang to mind and I was off and running. Loved Goodness Gracious Me (check please!) and 12d. Thanks Philistine for an enjoyable romp and scchua for the lovely blog.
Solid good stuff from Philistine. Julie@4 you’re not tiresome – if people don’t want to know your opinion on the clues they don’t have to read them: I’m happy to.
Also nice touch that the split words in GOODNESS and AMENABLE are words in their own right.
There again I suppose it would look strange if they weren’t. I withdraw my Dopey (bedding) comment.
Grrr (geddit).
AlanC @19 — for me more of a prerequisite than a nice touch 🙂 … I’m not a massive fan of word-splitting anyway but if they’re real words then I can suppress my eyebrow. But when words are split into nonsense fragments, that’s a no-no for me.
Like AlanC and JerryG I enjoyed the reminder of Goodness Gracious Me, Skipinder the Punjabi Kangaroo, and of course it wouldn’t be a Friday if we didn’t Go for an English. We almost had SCAMPi in the bottom right corner, but maybe that would have been just too bland. 🙂
When Flea comes along later I’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t provide a link to either ‘boom boody boom boody boom boody boom’, or (for 8d) ‘I saw her standing there’.
Lots of fun, thanks P &s.
Found this very AMENABLE so didn’t get GRUMPY. GRADUATED without BOREDOM and rated it a puzzle TO DIE FOR.
12d GO UP IN SMOKE was remarkable !
The longest solution reminded me of this Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren duet from The Millionairess, especially after the recent Indian theme. That man excelled at caricatures !
https://youtu.be/03DKl3lOY4k
Thank you Philistine and scchua.
EB @23 : I genuinely didn’t see your comment + , in a bona fide way, we crossed. There must be some ESP afoot this morning !
eb @23: excellent.
It was very tough for me to get started on this having solved only 6 clues on my first pass. Clearly not on this setter’s wavelength.
I could not parse 23ac, 25ac, 12d.
Thanks, both.
Can’t decide whether the clue for 12d would be refined / improved / augmented / completed with either an exclamation mark or a question mark or whether it’s just right as given.
Thanks to Philistine and scchua (and JinA – never tiresome).
EB@23 : I’ll post your other request although, this time, there is no telekinesis. We sit 5 days before the 60th anniversary of the album “Please Please Me” and I detect another but personal, link to 17. At the last day of the Autumn term and coming up to the Xmas of my 17th year, the music teacher ( of usually classical, classical genres all the way ) let us bring our copies of that Beatles 1st album in, and we had a thorough analysis of influences, derivations and vibes generated within those 14 tracks.
https://youtu.be/oxwAB3SECtc
A gesture truly appreciated by all of us SCAMPS.
Julie @4, sometimes I wish I could be more prolix like you. Your posts are a joy to read.
PostMark @12 I don’t mind the omission of a second anagram indicator a la 23d, although Jonathan Crowther I think would raise an eyebrow. Most is fair in love and crosswords.
muffin @14… why would anyone be offended at your post?
AlanC @21… have you tried turning off the fascist autocomplete/autocorrect thingummy useless technology?
This went smoothly for me. Favourites were URETHRA and (apparently with everyone else) GO UP IN SMOKE.
Flea@24: you beat me to today’s earworm (I suspect the TV series was named after it). Philistine seems to have found the heap of left over split clues that Paul didn’t use yesterday. No, I don’t much like split words, either – and would it be too much to ask the Guardian to make it clear that the order of the answer is 1,22,13 instead of leaving us to work it out?
Yours , GRUMPY.
(Actually, I always enjoy a Philistine, and today was no exception. )
For some reason I couldn’t see THROUGH THE NOSE (but you can’t can you) The comedy series GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME alerted me to the stereotypical nature of the Peter Sellers song, making me feel slightly guilty about having enjoyed it in my youth.
Took me while to get into this then spotted the two anagrams in NE and PLATONIC which helped a lot.
Loved CERBERUS, WITNESS BOX, BRIDGE.
Managed to get and parse GO UP IN SMOKE – not often that I manage a reverse clue.
Thanks Philistine and scchua
Am I alone in disliking the splitting of words e.g. GOOD NESS, AMEN ABLE?
Many thanks Flea @24/29, (half) spooky or what? “Well my heart went boom, when I crossed that room” – not normally an exact rhyme in RP of course (unless you’re Basil Brush).
manhattan @34, you are not alone (see GDU @1, Rob T @7/22), but I think we’ve already reached our earworm quota 😉
manhattan @34 – judging by a number of previous comments, apparently not! I can’t see the sudden objection to them: they’re a staple of cryptic crosswords and I’ve always thought they were rather clever. I don’t remember ever seeing a case where the two parts were not words in their own right, which would be nonsensical.
gladys @31 – you suspect correctly: have a listen to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOtLBeo1yXQ
Sorry, eb, I’ve just ‘refreshed’ and see we’ve crossed – but I’m going to leave this earworm for gladys.
Tim C @30
We sometimes see complaints when someone has posted that they found it easy, when the responder hasn’t!
man hat tan @34 definitely not – I felt dizzy from all the jumping around
That said, I thought this was fab nad wish we got more Philistine
Cheers S&P
I should have added that despite my moaning I thought it was an excellent crossword!
Eileen @36 (and me @22) — I do recall once last year seeing a puzzle where the setter split a word and the two parts weren’t words themselves, and it made my eyebrows hit the ceiling BUT! I now think it may have been an amateur grid on MyCrossword and not a professionally published one 🙂
manhattan @34: see Geoff Down Under @1 and gladys @31. I also find the splitting a bit inelegant, but I guess it adds to the colour/range of techniques for solvers to know about.
Post Mark @12: I generally prefer the subtracted letters to be separately anagrammed, if only because it makes the clue easier. TO DIE FOR’s parsing eluded me today!
Thanks to Philistine and scchua.
I agree with others; a remarkably straightforward solve. But still replete with this compiler’s typical light touch sleight of clueing. A joy (albeit brief and a little chestnutty in parts)
Many thanks to Philistine for his mastery and to scchua for his artistry
muffin @37, Ah, I see. I actually find those comments useful, especially as you get to know the various people on here. When I see a lot of “that was easy” type comments from people who normally find a particular setter on the difficult side and I have found it a bit of a struggle, then I know it’s me who’s just having a bad day. 🙂
RobT @40. I’m sure that wasn’t one of mine. I don’t think I’ve ever split a word (although I’ve split many an infinitive). Struggling with my latest effort on there, so I’m off to bed.
[Tim C @43
Ihere’s nothing at all wrong with splitting infinitives. The proscription is from 18th century (?) grammarians who opposed it simply because it can’t be done…in Latin!]
Thanks scchua, I am aligned with the many today, though it took me a good few minutes to come up with 11A at the end, having been confused by the “So”.
PostMark@12 I don’t think the extra anagram indication is needed – you can justify it in this case by “foot soldiers” manoeuvring into “Loss TO DIE FOR” and then the removal, for example. But if you could add a second without harming the surface then I’d have no problem with that either.
Congratulations RobT and JerryG (and anyone else). Also, solving on paper I don’t mind the split word entries but they are much more awkward on a phone, I agree.
After the earworms, as a ‘brainworm’ I recommend “The Fifth Head of CERBERUS” by Gene Wolfe.
Thanks Philistine!
Eileen @36: I totally agree – I thought AMENABLE was great. This sort of clue requires an extra degree of cleverness from the setter because as well as coming up with logical wordplay that makes a meaningful surface, they also have to produce an answer that comprises two different words in their own right. And it’s fair because the enumeration makes it clear to the solver that the indicated answer is one word.
One query – is “in court” an adequate definition for WITNESS BOX? People sometimes complain when, for example, Naples is defined as “in Italy”, arguing that it should more properly be “Italian city” or similar.
As someone who solves on a phone (in the wee small hours, so no light on) I was slow getting AMENABLE and GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME as I was trying to fit solutions in the wrong order (ableamen and goodgraciousnessme) so those were my last ones in. But when I spotted my error, those answers sailed in. If I’d been solving on paper I’d have put them in the right order.
I really loved this, thanks to scchua and Philistine.
Rob T @22: after my comment @19, I thought but nonsensical words would never appear in a grid but your comments @40 vindicate me slightly. Thanks.
This all felt pretty straightforward until I came here and saw the discussion about 12D. I still can’t parse it, even having read and re-read the comments here (it was a write-in when I solved the crossword and I didn’t give parsing a thought before coming here.
Re the split words debate, this seems to be commonplace in The Guardian and I find it tolerable though I wouldn’t call myself a fan. I’ve never seen this in the other crosswords I regularly look at (mostly The Times, occasionally the FT or Telegraph).
Thanks, as ever, to our blogger and setter.
Thank you scchua for your detailed and beautifully illustrated blog. I really appreciate the effort you put in and the extra entertainment. We are so fortunate for the double pleasure of you and Philistine.
Bignorm it took me a while to see 12 . You have to look at Smog so go is reversed which in a down clue means up so go up within meaning in smok and then add e for energy.
What an extremely elegant setter Philistine is. Thought this simply wonderful. Though at first I struggled to get a toe hold, with several clues split around the grid. However, the excellent KLEPTOMANIA was the foi, and thereafter the collection of clues grew, with ticks for UNSATISFACTORY and TO DIE FOR to name but two. Last one in was GRUMPY, certainly the opposite of my mood at the finish…
Another entertaining puzzle from the Levanter, which I didn’t find too troublesome, but less of a walk in the park than it seems to have been for most of us.
Lots of great clues: KLEPTOMANIAC and TO DIE FOR were my particular favourites but there are many other worthy ones.
I don’t have any objection to the splitting of words provided that the fragments are bona fide words in their own right, but I wouldn’t like to see it done too often! Like Shanne @47 I solve on a smartphone and split entries become awkward because the order of the words is not easy to see. [phitonelly yesterday pointed out that some of Araucaria’s cleverest clues were split entry – but these were extremely ingenious extended &lit anagrams. My favourite was: Roundhead: ‘Thy sire flew on a Tuesday?’ (3,4,3,3,4,3,4,6)]
Thanks to S&B
Not too tricky for a Friday.
I could not parse 13d, which was my loi, but I bunged the obvious answer in anyway.
Thanks both…
Good, entertaining crossword; like Eileen @36 I don’t understand all the negative comments about split entries. As long as each is a proper word, it’s kosher!
I liked the Radovan monster, TO DIE FOR (there are some editors who insist on two anagrinds if the letters to be removed are out-of-order, but I agree with Gazzh @45 that as long as the word is anagrammed first, there is no need for a second anagrind), KLEPTOMANIA for a good anagram spot, and the gold medal to GO UP IN SMOKE – very neat! Lord Jim @46, no, I don’t think that ‘in court’ is a valid definition (‘that’s in court’ would be OK), but a small flaw in an otherwise excellent crossword.
Thanks Philistine and to scchua for the glorious, coloured blog.
The clue for GO UP IN SMOKE is wonderfully constructed but let down for me by an incoherent surface.
Like other commenters I found this remarkably kind for a Friday. I suspect the weekend Prize crossword will correct any hubris on my part.
Even with the the blog’s explanation I still don’t understand where the UP IN comes from in 12D, although I wrote it in anyway in a “that must be it” kind of way. Could some kind soul please spell it out more explicitly?
“Smog OK with energy” becomes SmogOKe or SMOGOKE. Since this is a down clue, picture these seven letters in a vertical column with S at the top and E it’s base. It is then as plain as the very nose on your no doubt beautiful face that this column of letters is none other than “go up in smoke”! I do hope this has helped….
Jacob at 57: smOG ok + e
In this section of the clue, the GO is reversed (up) within the word smoke. Hence, go up in smoke. The smoke is made up of sm (from smog) + ok + e for energy. As schuua said, it’s a reverse clue – i.e. the answer is almost like the wordplay part of a clue.
Jacob @57: Because the ‘go’ in SMOG OK E has to be reversed to give the solution. As it is a down clue, ‘up’ represents the reversal.
My first completion for weeks after some health problems but I have to admit to much guesswork and intuition. Still, good to be back.
Jacob I will give it a go though I am not sure of being able to improve on what’s already been said.
Ok so the first thing to make sure one has anchored in the back of one’s mind is that this is a down clue. That means that if you change the direction of something it will be going up instead of down. In an across clue changing direction means heading ‘west’ (right to left) rather than ‘east’ but that wouldn’t help us here. It’s a down clue.
Ok so what changes direction are the letters ‘og’ in ‘smog’. If you spin them round that gives you ‘go’ but because this is a down clue the instruction to spin them round would be ‘go up’.
I think one needs to imagine ‘SM OG OK E’ written vertically. If the clue were ‘Go up in smoke’ that ugly concatenation of letters would be the answer. But with a little leap one can say that the ‘clue’ suggested by the ugly concatenation can itself be the answer.
Not sure I’ve done anything beyond muddying the waters and confusing even myself. And I thought I’d got it! Oh well sorry.
Hadn’t realised this clue was so good before coming here so tx to the blog.
Also a rare in-one-sitting, no aids used completion for me today.
With regard to the split word solutions, in 30 or so years of doing Guardian puzzles I have never encountered an instance where the parts (always 2?, always 4,4?) were not words in their own right. I actually find it helpful – just the way my mind works.
I also thought that regarding 1a, it could be said just as accurately that “6 in 7 are not happy”, but I concede this would not point to a unique solution!
Thanks to Philistine and scchua for his/her blog which is, as always, literally a work of art.
A fine and entertaining puzzle, although at the gentler end of the spectrum.
GO UP IN SMOKE, KLEPTOMANIA and TO DIE FOR were particular favourites.
Thanks Philistine and scchua
Jacob @57 ‘eg assam’ from yesterday was similar. Clue invites you to put
a compiler’s hat on and find an answer that could in fact clue the clue letters themselves! (Slightly less prolix contribution.)
Didn’t parse TO DIE FOR or GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME …lazy…nor see the well hidden LIB DEM but the rest slid in entertainingly.
Thanks to Philistine and scchua.
Not a rattle-off for me, I had twelve words left to fill in this morning.
scchua@11ac I think that the definition for THROUGH THE NOSE includes “so,” meaning “take a breath like this.” Otherwise parts of speech don’t match, since THROUGH THE NOSE is an adverb phrase and “take a breath” is a verb phrase. Gazzh@45 you might not have been confused by the “So” if it had been included in the definition.
I got stuck at 1ac thinking that the definition was “is not happy.” That required “grumps,” which may be a verb. Since the last letter had no checker, it had to wait till I hit “reveal all.”
Great puzzle, thanks Philistine and scchua,
Valentine@67. Re 11 across, in my parsing “Double defn: How you would/so 1st: …, and 2nd: ….”, I meant the “How …/so” part to apply to both the 1st (“take a breath”) and 2nd (“pay”) definitions. Though I admit maybe I should have underlined (or double underlined) the “so” in the clue to make it clearer.
I thought this was a classic: full of wit and invention. Thanks both.
Similar experience to most other solvers, so nothing much to add, except to say that Philistine makes clue-writing seem so effortless in clues like 24, which has such a natural surface and yet works perfectly in the cryptic reading. Brilliant!
Thanks, Phil, and scchua.
Philistine and Matilda (the dream couple) in the same week – thank you, Guardian.
MikeC and phitonelly @69&70 have said it all. Thanks P & s for the immeasurable fun.
Many clever, funny – and rather Philistinic – clues. Loved it.
Thanks Philistine and scchua.
Thanks for the blog , I found it very bitty solving the clues in order , lots of ” see …” .Once I had looked at them all and put in what I had it fell into place nicely. WITNESS BOX very neat and I liked the 50% for EASED UP, not keen on THROUGH THE NOSE.
MrPostMark@12 and others , subtraction depends on the clue order. Here we have the anagram first – footsoldiers all mixed up – so osls can come out in any order and it is fine . “foot soldiers without loss manoeuvring” is a different matter.
[ AlanC – what is the difference between the KPR goalkeeper and a black taxi cab ? ]
Personally I think its a shame the word GO can be read both ways in the clue for 12 Down, and I guess that’s why Philistine Capitalised the OK?
[ Roz @ 73: emotional intelligence? ]
I thought this was a very good puzzle, and certainly not the breeze that some solvers evidently found it to be. I welcomed the (double) use of the not-often-seen device whereby answer-words are split across two entries, given that the obvious rule was obeyed (the entries were real words).
I had several favourites, coinciding with several mentioned already, and all of them included in Julie’s list @4.
Thanks to Philistine and scchua.
A slow start for me. A glass of wine helped a bit… But a great puzzle. Took me a while to understand the “go up in smoke”, but got there in the end
Thanks Philistine. I got to this late but I wanted to register my vote of approval. Philistine never disappoints; AMENABLE, SCAMPS, URETHRA, and CAR BOMB were among my favourites. Thanks scchua for the blog.
Quick scroll through the comments and I didn’t spot anyone else tempted to put COTERIES – which parses at about 90% – instead of Esoteric for select few.
[Roz@73. Your question to AlanC . Apologies for eavesdropping but am intrigued by the difference between the KPR goalkeeper and the black taxi cab. Is Alan C right? EI/EQ? Serves me right if I’ve barged in, have looked at all sorts of possibilities, would love to know the answer.]
[ AlanC and PDM , I am very sorry , it is a football joke from my students , now has a very delayed punchline. Will still mean nothing to you PDM .
Answer – the taxi only lets five in ]
Roz @81
I get the joke, but what is KPR?
Google suggests Kew Park Rangers?
Thank you @Nick in 62 for explaining how Go up in Smoke is derived.
I don’t understand the discussion about anagramming or not the removed letters (loss) in 23a and would be grateful to have that explained.
Ellie @84, the letters in ‘loss’ do not appear in order in ‘foot soldiers’, so some might suggest that ‘loss’ should have its own anagram indicator. However, as Gazzh @45 pointed out, if the anagram of ‘foot soldiers’ is done first, it could resolve to ‘lossTODIEFOR’. Then the ‘loss’ can simply be removed. I hope that makes sense to you. 🙂
muffin@83: I think Roz and AlanC have a little in-joke about QPR now being KPR?
Sorry Muffin just seen this , Alphalpha is right. Also AlanC a big fan of KPR and this week they let in 6 goals at Blackpool .
thanks for the explanations!
[Ah! This colonial now gets the joke too! Thanks everyone for letting me in on it.]
Had to leave this on Friday with three undone, thinking it was a jolly good effort for a Friday. Came back to it after the weekend and immediately wrote them in!
@85 Robi thank you! That makes sense now.