As IO goes, this was relatively gentle.
A highly creative challenge with some fabulous clues – I really enjoyed this. Many thanks to IO.
Overcoming IF (condition): MA (mum) + NEST (home)
O[ne]’s (first) + LIVER (Scouse bird)
The liver bird is a mythical creature that represents the city of Liverpool; Scouse being a general term for Liverpudlians.
Oliver is the Dickens character who famously asks for more food in the orphanage.
(WHO THEY HADN’T)* (*doctor); HEW (cut) for screening
SR (sister) inspiring (PLOT (grave) by CH (church) + I.E. (that is))
H[on]OUR (respect, missing ON)
Cryptic definition
Could someone elaborate on this solution please?
DELI[very] (supply, VERY short)
(TV (small screen) ARIA (song)) + [d]ANCE (sacking D (director)) about
(PI TELLS involving TIGER THE)* (*novel)
For more info from Wikipedia on the children’s story, click here
P[ickpocke]T (the case of) smuggling ASTI (something sparkling)
OK (sanction) controlling (U (Uranium) + TB (consumption) + RE (about) A (America))
CUP (concave shape) when gathering ASH (dust)
(THIS C (conservative) MP WON’T)* (*worry) drinking LIME (cordial)
[t]WO EM[ployees]< (accepting, <on counter)
“Meow” can be said in response to a catty/spiteful comment
Cryptic definition
A + (THUR[sday] (a half day) on R (run)) after having PORT (left)
Double/cryptic definition
HE (man) + NO USE (hopeless) securing H (husband)
C[olleague] (initially) + HI (welcome) + NAP LATE (stay in bed)
(DOVE + RHEA) two birds, cycling
The rhea is a flightless bird, hence ‘only one’ being able to fly overhead
(CAN (is allowed to) + GO (leave) + C (college))< (<soaring)
Cryptic definition
Biblically, in the book of Genesis, Lot’s wife is unnamed, and simply referred to as “Lot’s wife”
In 14a, the 21 refers to 21a, I think. Can’t explain the rest.
And the 7 refers to 7d? Still doesn’t make sense…
Thanks, Io and Oriel!
NO SPRING CHICKEN (my take)
HENHOUSE being=CHICKEN, out of bounds=NO SPRING
CHICKEN out of bounds=NO SPRING CHICKEN
Found some connections:
THE HOW AND THE WHY : By CYNTHIA HAND.
NO SPRING CHICKEN: BOUNDLESS by HAND.
Give HAND a big HAND:
WITH COMPLIMENTS
STANDING OVATION (A HAND getting up)
LIKE THE CLAPPERS
OVERHEAD: HALLOWED (UNEARTHLY) by HAND
Hmm…OVER THE HILL, NO SPRING CHICKEN, PAST IT are all synonymous, so far so good. If you’re an old chook, you’re no longer an asset to the henhouse because you don’t lay eggs?
NO SPRING CHICKEN: PAST IT: over the hill.
OVERHEAD
Should the def be just ‘high’?
(only one can fly: you have mentioned it already)
Crossed with you KVa.
Whatever it is, I liked it, along with OLIVER and so many more.
Thanks Io and Oriel.
Got to hand it to you, KVa, that’s a good spot!
Diane@4
It could be a CD as you suggest.
I saw a wordplay.
As Oriel says this is a gentle offering from Io!
Thoroughly enjoyed it.
16A was clearly DELIVERY but I contemplated SPAR(SE) for a while.
My attempt at this was embarrassingly bad. Just couldn’t get into it at all. In desperation, I asked my cat if he could help me with 3d and he replied “Me! ‘ow?”.
Gentle for an Io but still an excellent workout for the cryptic grey matter
Thanks to Io and Oriel
I got stuck before the halfway mark and a pal dropped round for a beer and a chat.
Came back to it and immediately saw STANDING OVATION great
The rest followed that-great fun
Thanks JH and Oriel
I was happy to do half of it. I’d never have got the other half in a million years . . .
Thanks for the blog, always good to see IO , perhaps a little friendlier than usual, some of the long entries easy to get and providing many helpful letters. I am surprised he did not have some sort of link between 4D and 6D . THE HOW AND THE WHY and THREE LITTLE PIGS were both very clever constructions.
For OLIVER the Scouse bird could be Sandra or Beryl.
I don’t usually do Io/Enigmatist puzzles, as I never seem to be on the setter’s wavelength, but thought I’d give this a go having seen the opening comments in the blog. Hmm – after about three hours I had three of the long answers, and five others. And then I gave up.
‘No spring chicken’ is a phrase often used by my late parents to describe a person (often a woman) who was past her prime, i.e., old not fresh or young.
Puzzle was on the whole quite hard for me!
Tom_I @ 15, that’s about as far as I got. Io is in my “don’t attempt” list with the added remark “a shocker”. He’s the setter I always avoid. I must have been feeling masochistic today, but at least I confirmed his inclusion in said list.
That said, I attempted and completed one a few months ago. Don’t know what happened …
We took this on for the challenge, with wordfinder at the ready – and we needed it. But with that and a little patience we teased everything out, enjoying quite q few penny-drop moments. Favourite was OVERHEAD and LOI was CASH UP.
Thanks, Io and Oriel.
Very difficult. If this is easier than average for this setter, I’d hate to try a harder one.
Thanks Io and Oriel
I think it’s a shame that people who find a particular setter difficult just brush them aside, and don’t see them as an opportunity to improve their solving skills.
I used to think the same about Araucaria, but am glad I persevered.
Just my 0.02
Io is always worth persevering with, the rewards are well worth the effort. OLIVER made me laugh out loud. Thanks, Io and Oriel.
KVa@3
14. The 7 being out of bounds: one’s gone 21 (2,6,7)
NO SPRING CHICKEN
“The 7(HENHOUSE) being” is CHICKEN
“out of bounds” is NO SPRINGS
“one’s gone” is “one ‘S’ gone” giving NO SPRING
The def is “21” – ie PAST IT
Hovis@10 🙂
I agree with the perseverance comments, when I was learning to do cryptics Bunthorne was a fearsome setter in the Guardian. For a Saturday Prize I would cut it out and carry it round for a week, sporadic attempts and not get many. The answers 9 days later would help me to learn a lot and appreciate the skill of the setter.
These blogs are a great resource but I do think they encourage people to give up too easily, I am always surprised when people say they did not finish.
FrankieG@22
NO SPRING CHICKEN
Your parsing is perfect.
A lame excuse for my flawed parsing…
I was misled by this dictionary definition of N S C:-
‘someone who is no longer young’.
The phrase is always used as an adjectival phrase but
somehow thought it should well be a nounal phrase as
the dictionary said so.
Then justified to myself that no sping and no springs
meant the same.
🙂
Thanks Io and Oriel
14ac (NO SPRING CHICKEN): I think Frankie@22 has the components of the answer, but wonder whether “one’s gone” could indicate removing the last letter from NO SPRINGS, rather than specifically telling us to remove an S. I am not sure that Io would expect us to convert “one’s” into “one S” – other setters certainly might. With regard to KVa’s parsing @3, I think “out of bounds” could clue NO SPRING, but the parsing does not account for the “one’s gone”.
Late but thanks Oriel for 1D as I failed with a tentative WASH UP, thinking the Def just Do , with U concave enough on its own, and a punt on WP as word processing being books somehow. Just ran out of stieam really! Favourites 15d and 12d, thanks Io.
I agree with Henri @19.
This was a horrible crossword. I usually complete FT crosswords, but I couldn’t get anywhere close with this.
I don’t consider this setter to be worth persevering with at all.
Apologies as late to solve and late to comment, coming here to check for a theme having solved this, slowly; mostly parsed, I’m commenting to agree with Roz @24, I couldn’t ever solve Bunthorne completely, but I’d peg away and eventually could make some headway with his clues. But it’s the only way I learned to solve puzzles.
I didn’t think much further than CHICKEN = HENHOUSE being
OVER THE HILL = NO SPRING CHICKEN
my bad
(I tend to save FT crosswords to solve with my daughter while we’re on the tube, partly teaching her cryptic crosswords, but we are stuck at home as home contact for a Guide camp, so aren’t travelling.)
Thank you to Io and Oriel.