It’s Joyce again – two days in a row. This time with a Tyrus so I’ll have my work cut out for me.
The grid screamed NINA especially as it was Tyrus. As I was struggling, I was really hoping that I could spot a nina if there was one, for some support. The only problem was that the RHS was fairly blank and I had RWTFOB up the right hand column. It wasn’t until I had almost filled the grid that I realised that it was about a person on Johnson’s honour list – read THIS if you don’t remember.
Thanks Tyrus. Will your next one be about the OBE for Carrie’s dog-walker?
MORAl not l (left) but replaced by R (right) VIA (passing through)
Hidden or ‘sheltered’ in the clue brYAN QUIckly. I hadn’t come across this word before so had to check in Chambers.
I think this is BAN (refuse admission) and a homophone (‘loud’) of SHES (women) although banshees are women screamers but then I can’t see where the SHES come from. Can someone help please?
AM (American) ENDS (aims)
V (five) and an anagram (‘foolishly’) of US IN ROOM without f (female)
Another homophone (‘speaking’) – this time it sounds like HEIRS as in ‘heirs apparent’
An anagram (‘annoyed’) of E (last letter of Labuschagne or ‘finally’) and CHEERED OFF POMS. I had to check, but Labuschagne is an Australian cricketer – hence the ‘Poms annoyed’.
Hidden in the clue (‘from’) ReichsTAG Speech
An anagram (after ‘ploughing’) of RaId ThAt (alternate letters only or ‘occasionally’) and FARMER. I took ages to solve this one and that was only after I had all the crossing letters.
W (women) EASEL (support)
D (Dutch) ISRAELI (national)
RUN (series) ON (being shown) around Y (unknown). With the crossing letters, I thought it could be Bunyan but then realised that he wasn’t American so I ended up searching online.
PUcE (purple) with c (about) leaving IRE RILE (anger) Thanks KVa
Cryptic definition
On S (Sunday or Sabbath) RISK (chance) inside or ‘intervening’ in FINES (punishments)
O (love) VIE (rival) DO (party) – I spent too long trying to work out why the answer was TOLEDO.
A reversal or ‘upset’ of STAR (celebrity)
PASS (permit) inside or ‘wearing’ BYE (extra) S (small)
bONCE (head) without B (first letter of boy)
D (director) inside or ‘stopping’ RUDER (not so civil)
O (nothing) DOUR (serious)
ACE (top) CID (cops) around or ‘keeping’ IT (reversed or ‘up’) and CA (about). Why did it take me so long to work this one out?
An anagram (‘confused’) of TRANS LOO. I was confused too – new feathered friends as far as I was concerned.
A ‘slight twist’ in the middle of COMPILER (Tyrus)
AVE (hello) NUdE (streaker) ‘dropping’ d (dead)
A (are as in the metric measure) at the beginning or ‘originally’ NSWE (points) R (right)
StAYS (lodges) with T (troy) ‘kicked out’
DO PE (take exercise)
PUERILE
I think it’s a typo-
It should be RILE (anger) instead of IRE.
BANSHEES
I parsed it as you. Took the def as just screamers.
DOPE
I thought
take=DO in the sense of ‘cheat’.
Thanks KVa – will amend the blog.
Joyce! I too Tried to justify TOLEDO for quite a while…and YANKEE wouldn’t just fit in place of YANQUI… 🙂
Thanks for the wonderful blog.
Thanks to Tyrus for the lovely puzzle.
Not sure about your parse of MORAVIA, Joyce. You have ‘right’ doing double duty but it’s not needed. Right = MORA(l) not left (delete the L) passing through = VIA = MORA VIA.
More unknown-to-me GK than I normally expect from this setter (MORAVIA, RUNYON, OVIEDO, YANQUIS) but that’s not a complaint. Managed to finish without cheating but had to check the aforementioned words after parsing. Personally, I would have preferred ‘oddly’ in place of ‘occasionally’ in 20a as I needed a few more crossers before knowing whether the even or odd letters were needed. Just my opinion of course – I’m sure others will differ.
AIRS was my last one to parse. Great crossword from a top notch setter.
This feels a bit like Groundhog Day: I come to the blog to find Joyce has had exactly the same issues as me. YANQUI, TERRA FIRMA, ACETIC ACID, Bunyan/RUNYON, Toldeo/OVIEDO, Labuschagne etc. I agree with you on BANSHEES. ORTOLANS, I did know however – possibly because it’s the name of a restaurant I’ve visited.
A fairly tough Tyrus but I did get through this one which is always nice with this compiler. Faves include TERRA FIRMA, WEASEL, PUERILE, EMBALMER, BYPASSES, COMPLIER and AVENUE.
Thanks Tyrus and Joyce
KVa @2: I’m not sure that’s necessary. If you take the two word phrase ‘Take exercise’, it translates to ‘Do PE’.
I agree with you PostMark@8.
DOPE
I was under the wrong impression that ‘do exercise’ was not idiomatic. I stand corrected. Thanks.
The alternative parsing seems fine too (as you say it may not be necessary).
Thanks PostMark – blog amended. I obviously needed others to check things through. Glad that I will have Bert around when I blog the next one!
PostMark@8 & KVa@9 on DOPE – me too.
The musical Guys and Dolls(1950/1955) is based on short stories by Damon RUNYON. Highlight:
‘Take back your mink | Take back your poyls | What made you think | That I was one of those goyls?’
Took ages to parse COMPLIER – Yes, Tyrus, you are “a bit twisted”. Here’s an ORTOLAN:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortolan_bunting#/media/File:Ortolan_bunting_in_Sierra_de_Guara,_Aragon,_Spain.jpg
Thanks T & J of (B&J)
Thanks Tyrus and (Bn)J
Yet another superb puzzle from JT: CotD has to go to 1D!
ORTOLANS – François Mitterand (sic) committing a crime and a sin involving these tiny birds.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Citations:ortolan#English
Thanks Tyrus and Bertandjoyce.
The nina spotted towards the end helped with a couple.
Some things need to be said!
Generally I avoid Tyrus/Vlad because I never get very far. I was on train travel today and I had extra time so I gave this a shot. I was pleasantly surprised and nearly completed this gem, needing a word finder only for ANSWER and COMPLIER. Thanks to all.
Thanks to Joyce for the blog and to others for their comments.
Top stuff.