Tees provides our Saturday challenge today.
We found this to be a fairly straightforward puzzle, with a mini-theme recognising the Hairy Bikers and commemorating the recent passing of Dave Myers (27ac/5d). We had expected that there might be more thematic entries in the grid, but we can only come up with rather tenuous food and drink references at 17ac, 15d and 23d, which we don’t really consider to constitute a theme.
However, we have never been close followers of the chefs’ adventures on TV, so maybe we have missed something?
UNCLE (pawnbroker) S (succeeded) A M (million)
SING (grass – as in ‘inform on’) round I (one) K (kilo)
USD (US dollars – ‘greenbacks’) round or ‘touring’ E (Spain)
A reversal (‘returning’) of HARE (animal) PO (river – ‘flower’) + OUSE (another river or ‘flower’)
D (duke) INNER (private)
An anagram (‘needs breaking’) of SURE HOLD
An anagram (‘playing’) of C, D, D, D (‘three times’) and GUITAR
Hidden (‘sandwiched by’) in contenT OF Uneaten
SWEET (sugary) HEART (centre)
MID (centre) round or ‘introducing’ SHEAR (cut)
AB (able seaman – ‘sailor’) + C (caught) in JET (fast plane)
PM (Prime Minister – ‘Sunak’) round or ‘bridling’ AT RIOT (disorder) IS
An anagram (‘distraught’) of ME VERY SAD
An anagram (‘vandalised’) of NY OUTFIELD
KALI (‘devouring goddess’) round or ‘devouring’ sAHARa (desert) missing the first and last letters or ‘boundless’
ASTI (wine) in or ‘consumed by’ NERo (‘Roman fiddler’ – Emperor Nero, who is reputed to have fiddled while Rome burned) missing the last letter or ‘endless’
LA (Los Angeles – ‘Californian city’) DEN (retreat)
Double definition
PORe (opening) missing the last letter or ‘finally concealed’ in SEAT (chair) – a reference to the Adriatic city in Croatia
A reversal (‘climbing’) of WONK (policy expert) + LEDGE (rock shelf)
N (new) ASCENT (progressive movement)
GAUCHo (cowboy – in S America) missing ‘o’ (love) or ‘lovelorn’ + ERIE (one of the Great Lakes)
Alternate letters (‘regularly ignored’) in kItChEn
A reversal (‘backed’) of GIRO (banking system) + AMI (French for friend – ‘mate in Paris’)
ShE with ‘h’ (hotel) missing or ‘leaving’ + A + a reversal (‘rising’) of FLOW (tide)
TRAiL (drag) with the ‘i’ (one) replaced by or ‘yielding to’ MME (Madame)
R R (Rolls Royce) round E (eastern) COVE (bight)
D (500 in Roman numerals) RINK (frozen arena – ice rink)
JUDo (self-defence system) missing the last letter or ‘incomplete’ + AH (what a shame!)
Thanks B&J. Needed your explanation for KALAHARI. I wrote it in from just the K, then took it out because I was nowhere near parsing it. Only put it back in when it really had to be the answer.
I liked LADEN and GAUCHERIE.
A pretty gentle puzzle today on the whole.
On the possible theme I suppose you could have had a SHOULDER of lamb for DINNER?
Thanks also to Tees.
Thanks Tees and B&J!
Very good puzzle. Super blog!
We have some more eatables and eating/drinking-related words. Not sure if that’s the theme.
DINNER, SWEET(HEART), ASTI, SEAWOLF (and (to) WOLF separately), 4 corners have U G L I.
DOPE, DRUG and grass should be excluded. We have quite some devouring in KALAHARI, consumes, Split…
KALAHARI
KALI (a Hindu goddess who is the representation of time and beyond. At the dissolution of the universe, she devours even time). KALI devours AHAR.
Interestingly, in many Indian languages, AHAR means food.
Liked DRUG ADDICT (Strangely, this one doesn’t use E), Liked LINE OF DUTY (the show as well), KALAHARI (Despite involving two deserts, this is an oasis), GAUCHERIE (for the lovelorn) and TRAMMEL (enjoyable WP; no old track or scent!).
Entertaining puzzle. Liked the ‘lovelorn cowboy’ in GAUCHERIE, the ‘boundless one’ in KALAHARI and the misdirection (for me) of ‘opening finally’ in SEAPORT. Thanks B&J and Tees.
Very nice and straightforward puzzle. Favourite was Drug addict which I thought was excellent. Not so keen on Seaport. Thought Gaucherie was very clever indeed
Thanks Tees, Bert, and Joyce
GAUCHERIE and KALAHARI were great clues. TRAMMEL took some working out as I only vaguely remembered the word. Thanks, all.
Quite touching to find the reference to the late Dave Myers. A lovely clue. The Hairy Bikers made a lovely cheerful duo and DM was clearly struggling in the most recent series which made it hard to watch. Thanks to Tees for the gentle but powerful tribute.
We are rapidly honing in on the standout clues: GAUCHERIE, KALAHARI, DRUG ADDICT. I also enjoyed the surfaces for SHOULDER, ABJECT and JUDAH and the cunning defs for KNOWLEDGE and DRINK. I found this a very gentle puzzle by Tees’ standards – but I am definitely not complaining. All very elegantly done.
Thanks Tees and B&J (how fortunate that your occasional visits to these shores coincide with some super puzzles 😀 )
A straightforward but nice tribute to Dave Myers
Many thanks to Tees and B&J
Nice puzzle – I needed to look up the bikers’ names but a touching tribute. I liked ‘Split for one’ and ‘lovelorn cowboy’ and the hidden tofu. OPERA HOUSE was clearly indicated but took some time to parse fully. Needed the blog to explain ‘trammel’. Thanks to Tees and to B&J.
I’m aware, as most people must be due to the constant advertising on the telly for their shows, of THB and the two guys involved, but I hadn’t actually seen them in action until a re-run popped up the other day while I was laid up with a bug. The show wasn’t a thriller, though it featured some potentially lethal chocolate brownies, and so at least I knew who and what was being referred to in this puzzle. I was also grateful that the ‘theme’ wasn’t really a theme at all. We could have been hit with beards and motorbikes. Merciful compiling in my opinion.
Clues accurate all round as ever, and the Dave Myers clue was a nice touch.
Thanks Tees, B and J
Very enjoyable and nothing too stressful for the weekend 🙂
For those alert to coincidences, we met Uncle Sam in the Times yesterday
Liked GAUCHO and DAVE MYERS.
Must be difficult for those in the public eye when they are dying, but Dave managed it with great dignity.
Hello B&J & all, thanks for your stuff.
I knew the poor old bloke was in bother, so I thought a nod was in order now that he has gone to the great angel cake in the sky. I put his mate in to keep him company, but that was it: no theme.
An interesting angle on cookery, being a hairy biker, for sure. Not quite up to Derek & Clive’s topless darts from Roehampton, or Celebrity Blow Your Tits Up, but certainly getting there. RIP.
Cheers
Tees
KVa @2
Relished your parsing of KALAHARI …
(More evidence of your expert knowledge of things Indian; your comment regarding Deva in a recent Picaroon puzzle in the other place)