Serpent gives us today’s challenge.
This was well up to the standard we have come to expect from Serpent. As we worked our way through the grid, the Nina we had expected to appear in the perimeter unches became apparent – a significant milestone for Serpent and a real pleasure for us to be blogging it.
Here’s to the next 150!
Hidden (‘partly responsible for’) in enginEER IN ESSex
BLUSH (show embarrassment) round I (author)
PUNY (feeble) round or ‘hosting’ an anagram (‘up’) of LIVE IT
BurEAU (office) with ‘u r’ (you are) removed
A reversal (‘brought back’) of A (American) JAR (vessel)
I (one) M (million) POSITION (standing)
An anagram (‘affected’) of CognatE (first and last letters or ‘limits’) and SENSE
COUP (takeover) LED (started by)
SET (determined) round or ‘catching’ an anagram (‘cuckoo’) of GREY after NOW (immediately)
A homophone (‘broadcast’) of PER (for each)
YEs (Prog rock band) missing or ‘wanting’ the ‘s’ (second) + LP (album)
An anagram (‘badly’) of I (first letter or ‘beginning’ of interest) and OR DEFAULT
TIP (inside information) TO E (last letter or ‘finish’ of crime)
Cryptic definition
An anagram (‘whisked’) of ALBUmEN with the ‘m’ (mass) missing or ‘removed’
TIT (‘flyer’) + IE (that is) round VAT (tax)
S (small) CIRCLE (group) round or ‘receiving’ EMI (former record company)
A clue-as-definition: BE in or ‘controlled by’ ObediencY (first and last letters or ‘veneer’)
NUMB (paralysed) + alternate or ‘regular’ letters of AnTs – a new word for us
ESCAPE (leak) round or ‘outside’ LoO (toilet) missing the middle letter or ’empty’
A homophone (‘in auditorium’) of STEP (stage)
SHORT (lacking) BREAD (money)
An anagram (‘liberal’) of FAIRNESS
PIP (high-pitched sound) E (English) DOWN (swallow)
CR (King Charles) OUCH (that hurt)
WAIT (delay) I (one) round or ‘seizing’ P (power) – the ‘does’ being female deer
RETAIN (keep) with ‘in’ moving forward
F (female) chIEF (leader) with ‘ch’ (children) missing or ‘leaving’
Caught up with the anniversary in the perimeter just in time for it to be very useful. Congratulations to Serpent. My favourite clue is TIP TO E. Excellent blog and puzzle. Thanks.
Congratulations and thanks Serpent! I struggled in the SW corner until I saw the nina then it fell into place. At 7A I toyed with ‘sexiness’ (which could be interpreted as disturbing nature) but the nina put that right. Thanks also to B&J for the blog.
The usual brilliance I expect from this setter. I particularly liked TIPTOE & RETINA. NUMBAT was new to me. According to my Chambers, it eats termites. Are termites classes as ants? Somebody here is bound to know.
Thanks SERPENT (Congrats: 150!!!) and B&J!
COUPLED
I thought ‘Started=LED’. LED by/next to COUP.
Liked TIPTOE, OBEY and RETINA.
Hovis – From what I can see, termites and ants are two different insect species. (Joyce)
Happy sesquicentennial. L2i TIPTOE & FIEF – Don’t know if I’d’ve got them without the Nina I’d been trying to avoid seeing. Thanks S & B&J.
Great fun! Congrats Serpent. Stay wily! Thanks also to B and J
Always a joy to see Serpent. A rare case where I figured out the Nina early on and it was a big help in filling the grid. Plus some musical allusions. Thanks.
I’ve looked at the wikipedia entry for numbat. It states that its diet is almost entirely termites. Its digestive system is very basic presumably because termites are easier to digest than ants. Given this info, I can’t see it being described as an “Ant-eater” I’m afraid. Having said that, termites are sometimes referred to as ‘white ants’, so it is a white-ant-eater but even so…
Great puzzle! I underestimated the milestone at first which led to a lot of head-scratching in the SW. Congratulations to Serpent and thanks to B and J.
Many thanks to Bertandjoyce for the usual excellent blog. And thanks to everyone who has taken the time to comment on this and previous puzzles of mine. I do enjoy reading the comments.
Apologies, I don’t know my ants from my termites! I assumed they were pretty much the same thing.
Congratulations to Serpent and thank you to him for this and all the other crosswords. Thanks to B&J for the blog
Thanks Bertandjoyce and Serpent.
Excellent, and Congratulations to Serpent!
Keep them coming!
Thanks both. Very tricky for me but of a standard befitting the occasion, the Nina for which helped quite a bit . SANSERIF was unknown but I guess a variant spelling and FIEF nearly frustrated me with just a letter missing as I was determined to justify a synonym for children without its first letter
Thanks Serpent and congratulations on the milestone. The nina helped me with a number of answers but I still needed a word finder for the clever TIPTOE. My top picks included COUPLED, SNOWY EGRET, PURR, YELP, OBEY, SHORTBREAD, and RETINA. Thanks B&J for the blog.
If Serpent was using Collins or ODE he’d have found that the alternative name for a numbat is banded ant-eater. probably so named by someone noting that it had stripes and was eating ant-like thingies…
Congratulations on the milestone, Serpent, and thanks for yet another excellent puzzle to add to the collection. Thanks also to B&J.
TFO @14 – I really, really struggled with this for some reason. Lots of checking and revealing to get to the end.
I’m not sure why, as when I eventually got it all filled in there weren’t too many gaps in my parsings. Sometimes you just have to admit defeat I suppose.
I was dejected enough with my performance to not even bother looking for the message in the perimeter. Congratulations to Serpent on your milestone and what turned out to be a pretty splendid puzzle.
Thanks to B&J for the blog and holding my hand through the darkness.