It’s Joyce again. As time was against us, I did not solve the puzzle before blogging so I cannot comment on how difficult or easy the puzzle was. There were a couple of words that I didn’t know – one of which I would have struggled to solve from the clue.
Click HERE for a pdf of the puzzle.
Fez lists the films starring Peter Sellers that he has managed to include in the grid…….
Ten of (arguably) the best Peter Sellers films are referenced in the grid: DoctoR STRANGE/LOVE; WHAT’S NEW, PUSSYCAT?; MURDER by DEATH; There’s a [BAT]GIRL in my SOUP; The PARTY; The World of HENRY ORIENT; LOLITA; BEING THERE; The MOUSE[r] That ROARED; and, The PINK PANTHER.
There were smooth surfaces which I always enjoy but there were also a couple of ‘two-stage’ parsings which felt a bit clunky compared with the rest of the puzzle.
However, that’s an impressive grid fill. Well done Fez.
Reveal grid
ROT (German for red) with first and last letters or ‘sides’ swapping on DOC (one of the seven dwarfs).
W (with) and an anagram (‘cooking’) of THE SWAN
An anagram ‘awfully’ RUDE MR
A reversal or ‘in retrospect’ of TA (you shouldn’t have) inside or ‘shoved into’ GB and IRL (Ireland)
First letters or ‘to begin with’ of System Optimises Uber Profits
A homophone ‘for auditors’ of ROUTE (course)
First letters or ‘originally’ of You Try RAP (to hit) all reversed or ‘back’
An anagram (‘storm’) of DUST FAR (for miles) and M (miles)
RIEN (nothing in French) inside with OT NT (books) outside or ‘about’ Thanks Jugular
LESS (not so) kEEn (missing first and last letters or ‘removing clothing’
S S (last letters or ‘terms of hiS outrageouS) inside or ‘accepted by’ an anagram (‘terribly’) of PAY CUT
Double definition – it’s strange how different trade names end up replacing the actual item – in this case a vacuum cleaner
KN (knots) U R (a homophone ‘told’ of ‘you are’)
BE (remain) ‘inside’ AD (trailer)’
INN (local) inside or ‘eaten’ by FISH (shark)
LOL (appreciation of online joke) IT (appeal) A
Cryptic definition
First and last letters or ‘extremely’ of LatE alternate letters of NiGhT or ‘regularly spent’ H (hotel)
Last letters or ‘in the end’ of earneD yoU M (money) PS (and there’s more)
COR (that’s great) F (first letter of Fun or ‘at first’) U (for everyone)
O (old) PEN (writer)
WE with M (start to Mull) replacing N (name) in an anagram (‘weird’) of BROWNn. A bit convoluted maybe with ‘over’ as the ‘replacement indicator’. A smooth surface though!
Middle letter of trespAssers or ‘essentially’ and last letters of burN aT thE or ‘ultimately’
A two stage solution again – first you remove SUN from RISHI sunAK – you then form an anagram ‘relaxes’. Not a word that I had ever heard of – Chambers has it as Anglo-Indian
Alternate letters or ‘occasionally consumed’ of cErEaL
Without the first letter or ‘head’ in Explain DOPe (information) reversed or ‘about’
ARE (inside or ‘welcomed’ by ROD (staff)
Hidden in the clue ‘a little’ shorT ON GAs
An anagram (‘scurrying around) of SOME bUg (first and last letters only or ‘discovered’ R (initial letter in Rang)
THEE (old form of you) with R (last letter of pacemakeR) inside or ‘implanted’
ST (street) RANGE (food may be prepared here)
PAN (god) THE R (first letter or ‘focus’ of reverence)
Three quarters of a year is 9 months which could give you YEAr
BEG (sponge) around or ‘accepting’ IN (funky)
An anagram (overthrown’) of THE roAD (missing or ‘banishing’ OR)
P (power) INK (tattoo)
Hidden in the clue (‘taking part in’) and reversed or ‘counter’ in rEVOLution
Double definition
As someone who’s theme blind, I’m still impressed by the number of Sellers’ films you managed to squeeze in there Fez. I was defeated by the parsing of DOCTOR and DEATH and had to do a word search for SHIKARI. The CD for STREAKER was everything a CD should be, and there were a heap of great surfaces with some great misdirections. I always find it satisfying when I can work common words into wordplay which is one form of misdirection. Some good examples here were ‘the’ as part of the anagram fodder for WHAT’S NEW, ‘Do’ as the definition for PARTY and ‘the’ as part of the charade for PANTHER.
MURDER has a different clue in the pdf compared to the blog and needed the crossers to resolve it so I suspect it was a last minute change.
For the blog for ORIENT, NT(books) should be OT(books).
Nicely done Fez.
Many thanks for the lovely blog, Joyce. Parsing of 27d DEATH has the ‘overthrown’ OR ‘banished’ with anagram indicated by ‘possibly’ … which I guess counts amongst the more convoluted ones, sorry! 29d LOVE is thematic as part of my personal favourite DR STRANGELOVE (though BEING THERE runs it close … and THE LADYKILLERS wouldn’t fit!) The clue for 8a MURDER was indeed a late change – it originally used “National hero…” but a few tweaks brought in BATGIRL needing “hero”, and the initial change to “star” just didn’t do enough to compensate for the resulting chestnutty clue. (Those changes got rid of a CASINO ROYALE reference, which probably doesn’t belong in a “best of”, and gave a nicer round ‘top 10’ with exactly half the entries (19/38) contributing thematically.) Thanks to all who solved in York and of course to jugular for commenting here, much appreciated 🙂