The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29774.
That was a tussle, and I am left with one clue, 25A INNER unparsed.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | NIL DESPERANDUM |
Keep hoping undraped women at the end smile mischievously (3,11)
|
| An anagram (‘mischievously’) of ‘undraped’ plus N (‘womeN at the end’) plus ‘smile’. | ||
| 9 | TIT FOR TAT |
Getting back in time, keep at it inside (3,3,3)
|
| An envelope (‘inside’) of ‘it’ in T (‘time’) plus FORT (‘keep’) plus ‘at’. | ||
| 10 | ILIAC |
One purple heart taken affecting pelvic area (5)
|
| A charade of I (‘one’) plus LI[l]AC (‘purple’) minus its middle letter (‘heart taken’). | ||
| 11 | EYING |
Watching what vandal’s doing to car which won’t start (5)
|
| [k]EYING (‘what vandal’s doing to car’ – scratching the paintwork with a key) minus the first letter (‘which won’t start’). | ||
| 12 | PEPPERONI |
Go for a working dinner, only the second offering meat (9)
|
| A charade of PEP (‘go’) plus PER (‘a’) plus ON (‘working’) plus I (‘dInner only the second’). | ||
| 13 | ROGATION |
Begging Iran and Togo to settle (8)
|
| An anagram (‘to settle’) of ‘Iran’ plus ‘Togo’. | ||
| 14 | CANNON |
Clergyman heard shot at table (6)
|
| Sounds like (‘heard’) CANON (‘clergyman’); with reference to a billiards ‘table’. | ||
| 17 | NODOSE |
Done so badly, it’s lumpy (6)
|
| An anagram (‘badly’) of ‘done so’. | ||
| 19 | SOMERSET |
Not all right, scenery in one part of England (8)
|
| A charade of SOME (‘not all’) plus R (‘right’) plus SET (‘scenery’e.g. for a film). | ||
| 22 | APPREHEND |
Pick up contents of nappy by river! To what purpose? (9)
|
| A charade of APP (‘contents of nAPPy’) plus R (‘river’) plus EH (‘what’) plus END (‘purpose’). | ||
| 24 | INSET |
One son in clear – it’s not the full picture (5)
|
| A charade of I (‘one’) plus NSET, an envelope (‘in’) of S (‘son’) in NET (‘clear’). | ||
| 25 | INNER |
Bashir’s odds slashed? Mental! (5)
|
| I cannot see the wordplay. All suggestions welcome (but please read previous posts before submitting your version, to see if it has not been put foreward before). | ||
| 26 | SAN MARINO |
An elite fighter shortly entering very small country (3,6)
|
| An envelope (‘entering’) of ‘an’ plus MARIN[e] (‘elite fighter’) minus the last letter (‘shortly’) in SO (‘very’). | ||
| 27 | LOLLIPOP LADIES |
Idle, so I applied to perform with those I might come across (8,6)
|
| A charade of LOLL (‘idle’, verb) plus IPOPLADIES, an anagram (‘to perform’) of ‘so I applied’, for female crossing guards. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | NOT WEARING A TIE |
Negotiate in war shamefully showing disrespect? (3,7,1,3)
|
| An anagram (‘shamefully’) of ‘negotiate in war’. | ||
| 2 | LETTING |
What am I doing, increase in size permitting? (7)
|
| SETTING (‘what am I doing’) with the S replaced by L (small by large, ‘increase in size’, or if you are so inclined, shilling by pound). | ||
| 3 | ELONGATES |
Increases confusion involving the very rich (9)
|
| ELON GATES (‘the very rich’). I suppose the ‘confusion’ is supplying the wrong surname for the forename, or vice versa. | ||
| 4 | PUT-UP JOB |
Mate with sweetheart in bar – it’s been arranged beforehand (3-2,3)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of TUP (‘mate with’) plus JO (‘sweetheart’) in PUB (‘bar’). | ||
| 5 | RETYPE |
Again put down Romeo’s iconic car (6)
|
| A charade of R (‘Romeo’, NATO alphabet) plus E-TYPE (Jaguar, ‘iconic car’). | ||
| 6 | NOISE |
Balls left by top seed – and racket (5)
|
| A charade of NO I (number one, ‘top’) plus ‘se[ed]’ minus ED (‘Balls’, son of Michael Balls). | ||
| 7 | UNICORN |
Horny individual in college with my name (7)
|
| A charade of UNI (university, ‘college’) plus COR (‘my’) plus N (‘name’). | ||
| 8 | ACTION STATIONS |
One visiting London’s North, South, East and West (amongst others) in readiness for combat (6,8)
|
| An envelope (‘visiting’) of I (‘one’) in ACTON STATIONS (‘London’s North, South, East and West’ – four tube stations). | ||
| 15 | AMERICANA |
Culture represented by apple pie, baseball, roots music and er- a maniac maybe? (9)
|
| An anagram (‘maybe’) of ‘er a maniac’. Any resemblance to an actual person is purely intentional. | ||
| 16 | COLD SNAP |
Criticises GP over accepting 50 and change in conditions (4,4)
|
| A reversal (‘over’) of an envelope (‘accepting’) of L (’50’, Roman numeral) in PANS DOC (‘criticises GP’). | ||
| 18 | DIP INTO |
Selectively read point I’d made (3,4)
|
| An anagram (‘made’) of ‘point I’d’. | ||
| 20 | SASHIMI |
Is being sent back – like that bloke maintained it’s not cooked (7)
|
| An envelope (‘maintained’) os AS HIM (‘like that bloke’) in SI, a reversal (‘sent back’) of ‘is’. | ||
| 21 | FESS UP |
Make a mistake transitioning and come clean (4,2)
|
| MESS UP (‘make a mistake’) with M changed to F (‘transitioning’). | ||
| 23 | ENROL |
Councillor never showing up to register (5)
|
| A hidden (‘showing’) reversed (‘up’ in a down light) answer in ‘councilLOR NEver’. |
Bashir=Spinner
Odds=SP
sp removed from spINNER=INNER
(for those not familiar with cricket
wiki:
Shoaib Bashir (born 13 October 2003) is an English cricketer who plays for Somerset and England. He is a right-handed batter and a right-arm off-break bowler)
Talking of Latin (1a) … I knew ROGATION because rogare was one of the 1st conjugation verbs we learned in our first year of Latin, centuries ago, and I used to make a point of trying to find a corresponding English word for every Latin word we were taught. This made no noticeable impact on my Latin learning, but boy did it improve my English.
The transitioning in FESS UP and increase in size in LETTING are kind of the same trick – was this intentional to help solvers?
Never did figure out the wordplay for INNER, so tx to KVa@1.
Thank you Peter O and Kva for the in-depth explanations.
Little fun for me as I could parse about 30% of this.
Funnily enough INNER was one of the few I could parse, though Bashir was perhaps a bit obscure, maybe WARNE would have been fairer?
Looking forward to the enlightenment.
Thanks both.
Of course (SP)INNER
Thanks KVa and Peter O
Super puzzle
INNER was also my one unparsed clue despite having watched Bashir in action at Headingley recently; but SP (Starting Price) for ‘odds’ didn’t come to mind which did for me. A very enjoyable puzzle overall and I especially liked the long borders. Thanks Vlad, PeterO and KVa.
[To say Shoaib Bashir “plays” for Somerset is interesting. He can’t get into their first XI, England’s former no 1 spinner Jack Leach being preferred by them]
Thanks Vlad & PeterO (and KVa for INNER enlightenment).
I loved it all, especially the maniac, ‘to what purpose’ in APPREHEND, ‘my name’ in UNICORN and the surface for SASHIMI.
I needed to search around online to help with a few clues, and some were unparsed until I looked through above. None of which I’m saying as a negative because I really enjoyed this, finding it challenging but doable in equal measure.
When I tackled Brummie’s offering yesterday, it’s how I initially thought that puzzle was going to go but I was disappointed to have to give up about 1/3 of the way in. So it’s a satisfying (and, for me, surprising) end to the week to have solved a Vlad puzzle to completion.
Oh and I think my only raised eyebrow was for EYING. The clueing clearly pointed to that but I’ve only ever been aware of the spelling as EYEING.
Lovely puzzle, found this not as difficult as Vlad can sometimes be. The last two in were EYING and that old chestnut -surprised that I didn’t spot it earlier in the solve – ELONGATES. Things not too drawn out this morning, however. Many thanks Vlad and PeterO…
I liked the Zelensky reference in the &littish 1 down and the dig at Trump in AMERICANA. I have a feeling there are other topical references I’ve missed.
The only Bashir I’ve heard of is Martin so didn’t parse INNER, nor NOISE although I’d worked out it was something to do with dropping ED – would have probably popped into my head later with coffee.
Apart from the above I found this not too troublesome for Vlad, very helpful to have the long anagrams.
Roz might have described this as Vlad the Impala but an enjoyable solve nonetheless
I remembered NIL DESPERANDUM from a Fry & Laurie advert – no idea what they were plugging though
Gates & Musk (coincidentally a rat and a smell) the gift that keeps on giving for setters
I thought there might be more to the definition for LOLLIPOP LADIES but it seems not
Cheers V&P
Thanks Vlad and PeterO
A few not fully parsed, but very enjoyable. At one stage I thought I was going to have a rant at the “homophone” PASTOR for 14a.
[In Michael Green’s The art of coarse rugby he suggests how to increase the possibility of the opposition having fewer numbers by sending ambiguous directions. One suggested was “by rail to Acton”.]
Such fun – and thanks to KVa for parsing the one I couldn’t explain at all. The long anagrams were very good – esp NIL DESPERANDUM and NOT WEARING A TIE. Other faves inc TIT FOR TAT, SOMERSET, APPREHEND, PUT UP JOB, UNICORN, AMERICANA and FESS UP.
Dr W @2: I’d agree that the substitutions are essentially the same trick – but then so are the anagrams?
Thanks Vlad and PeterO
Re my comment @9 – Brockwell, not Brummie. No wonder I didn’t get far yesterday if I can’t even get the setter’s name right.
V pleased to have filled the grid (a first for me with Vlad) even if several remained unparsed. INNER was impossible for me since I don’t know what a spinner is so would never have made the connection. NOISE similarly – nho Ed Balls. Also never heard of TUP = mate with (to do with sheep breeding apparently) and JO = sweetheart? How?
1d made me smile- very clever topical reference. Also the word play for FESS UP. Thanks Vlad and PeterO.
Excellent end to the week with a lot of nice clues.
I think Ed Balls is an ex MP who is the husband of Yvette Cooper the Home Secretary. He lost his seat in 2019 and now does a lot of media work.
To add to 8d, Acton has some additional stations beyond the four points of the compass, e.g. Acton Town and Acton Main Line, hence the otherwise superfluous “amongst others”
Scraggs @10 I think you mean cluing ;). According to Oxford this is the traditional spelling in both AmE and BrE, while ‘clueing’ has ‘mysteriously swelled in popularity since about 1980’. Perhaps the same is true of eying …
Delightful! Somehow managed to parse all but spINNER. One of my wife’s colleagues was from San Marino. He sometimes had problems at borders because of the handwritten passport (this was many years ago).
@21 Redrodney – fair point, too. But yes I try and make sure I frame it as ‘what I know/don’t know’ as opposed to ‘what’s right/wrong’, unless there’s a clear and incontrovertible error of some sort.
A welcome return of the Impaler after a far too long absence (and a fairly mild impalement as well, I thought).
INNER was my only unparsed one. The only ‘Bashir’ I’ve heard of is Martin, the journalist. I found online that there is also a cricketer of that name, but why exactly does ‘sp’ mean ‘odds’?
AiD@24 – take it from a bookie’s son, SP means ‘starting price’, the odds on a horse/dog/whatever at the start of a race.
MuddyThinking @18 – I believe jo is a Scottish term for a sweetheart. Here’s Eddi Reader singing a Burns poem, John Anderson My Jo.
MOH@25 – thanks. That is a new one for me.
Nice puzzle. I don’t quite like NOISE though, the sense seems wrong to me. “Balls left top seed”, sure, but “Balls left *by* top seed” seems to have the leaving the wrong way round?
MuddyThinking @18 – For a notable instance of TUP (“to do with sheep breeding”), see Iago’s warning to Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, in the first scene of Othello: “Even now … an old black ram is tupping your white ewe.”
Wow, very difficult!
I could not parse 14ac (I got hom of canon but did not understand the table bit, knowing zilch about billiards), 25ac (thanks, KVA), 2d, 8d, 21d.
New for me: ROGATION = begging; NODOSE, ILIAC.
I was surprised at the def for 1d although I know that in certain places men must wear a tie.
Thanks, PeterO.
Pleased to admit I didn’t parse INNER although maybe Vlad was giving us a clue with the earlier SOMERSET. I thought NIL DESPERANDUM and NOT WEARING A TIE were inspired. Great end to another colourful week with so many different styles on show.
Ta Vlad & PeterO.
After almost a week away from crosswords, it was good (and a nice surprise) to have a Vlad challenge to come back to.
I enjoyed teasing out the long anagrams and was amused by the characteristic topical references. Other ticks were for SOMERSET, APPREHEND, UNICORN and SAN MARINO.
Like others, I was beaten by the parsing of INNER, which I didn’t feel too badly about – otherwise, all ultimately straightforward.
Thanks to Vlad and PeterO.
Yes, I found this more straightforward than some of Vlad’s previous tortures.
The long anagrams were good and I liked the wordplays for TIT FOR TAT, PEPPERONI, COLD SNAP, and FESS UP. Michelle @29, as well as a rule in some posh restaurants, Petert @12 pointed to the possible reference to Zelensky not wearing a tie in the infamous dust-up with Trump in the White House (‘negotiate in war’). My Bashir was also Martin.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO.
MoH@25 and Balfour @28: thanks for the references. Will try to remember but probably won’t! Nice to see sweetheart used for something other than the letter ‘e’ though. Wrt INNER – even if you found Mr. Bashir in Google there is no mention of the word spinner in his Wikipedia entry. It would take a fairly good understanding of cricket to make the leap. I have seen odds for SP before, though that was no help to me here. But I still think this was a great puzzle.
I’d like to register a grumble about the definition of 1d. Ties are a wholly overrated and obsolete item of apparel that should be targeted by all right-thinking woke people as an archaic symbol of the patriarchy.
MT @33; there are 6 references to ‘spinner’ in the Wiki entry. The first being: The decision to select him as one of the frontline spinners for the tour raised eyebrows of many as it ended up as a surprising choice given Bashir only played six first class matches at that time when he received the callup.
Andy@24: sp (usually SP) = Starting Price, i.e, the current odds at the start of a horserace.
I simply didn’t know enough about cricket for INNER, so it joined the other unparsed ones, TIT FOR TAT, PEPPERONI, NOISE and ACTION STATIONS (good grief! there’s even an ACTON CENTRAL as well – I’ve lived within ten miles of all of them all my life and never knew that). I did finally sort out the LOLLIPOP LADIES after wrestling in vain with a full anagram of “idle so I applied”, as no doubt I was meant to: I see I wasn’t alone in getting impaled by that.
But it’s good to have Vlad back. I enjoyed the American maniac and the rather sordid surface of APPREHEND, and the mixed-up plutocrats in ELONGATES.
John W @34 [with apologies, as I may have posted the same comment before] The only justification I can see for those particular garments in today’s world is that they enable you to tell the story about the bloke who goes to a posh restaurant with a Frenchman, a Pole, an Aussie, an Indian, a Canadian, a Peruvian, an Eskimo, (…spin it out for as long as you dare, trying to fit people from all continents in…) and the bouncer says “I’m sorry sir, but you can’t come in without a Thai.”
Blaise @38. A fair point, well made.
[The Rolling Stones, in their 60s heyday, used to cultivate their notoriety by deliberately turning up at a swanky restaurant NOT WEARING A TIE and getting themselves refused entry. Lots of lovely publicity.]
Amazed I managed to complete this. Not sure why anyone would think one visiting London’s North, South etc would be Acton Stations. Only solveable from the definition in my view
Hands-up any non-zoologists who knew that Ed Balls’ father is called Michael!
Blaise@38
Noddy Holder goes to a tailor to get new stage gear.
“Loon pants, sir”
Great, Thanks.
“Shiny shirt with huge lapels?”
That’ll do nicely.
“Top hat with mirrors?”
Works for me.
“Kipper tie?”
Ta very much, I’m parched!
ayeaye@43 🤣
Got all the answers, but as a Yank, I definitely needed parsing help with quite a few of these. Even with the explanation of “INNER” I had to look up SP to see why it means odds. This was a chewy puzzle indeed.
Fiery@20, exactly so. Acton has a total of seven stations. Acton Main Line, Acton Central, South Acton, Acton Town, East Acton, North Acton and West Acton. At one time there was also Action Green, though this was renamed Chiswick Park, which is fair as it is actually in Chiswick.
[Fulham Broadway tube used to be called Waltham Green and Spoons has recently opened a pub under that name in the Grade II listed ticket hall with the old ticket desks as part of the bar. Well worth a look-see if you’re passing but I would avoid when Chelsea are at home].
Crabbers @42
I certainly did not. In the blog I wanted to make it clear that the clue to 6D NOISE was talking about a certain Mr. Balls, without giving a potted biography or wiki link; so I looked up his father’s name.
I completed this in aeroplane mode on a holiday flight and it passed the time well. Despite also doing some cricket quizzes with my son, the Bashir parsing never crossed my mind (I was thinking maybe Martin or Omar-Al) it seemed too obscure, even though I’m well aware of him. I wouldn’t have parsed PEPPERONI or NOISE either so thanks Peter.
Anyway, good to have a Friday puzzle. I liked ELONGATES, LOLLIPOP LADIES and COLD SNAP. Now I’d love for my cases to appear.
Thanks Vlad, thanks all.
[ AlanC@47, thanks for the recommendation. Spoons are also opening a new pub next month at London Bridge in what was previously the London Dungeon. The Crosse Keys, a Grade II listed banking hall, just over the river from London Bridge also worth a look. ]
I’d seen the spelling EYING (as opposed to EYEING) before (probably in a crossword!) so it didn’t hold me up. KEYING is certainly something I’ve been tempted to do to some idiot in a metal cage who’s passed me too close on my bike – but fear not, vandalism isn’t my thing!
I missed the parsing on INNER (was thinking of Bashir the journalist rather than Bashir the bowler). Also failed to parse NOISE. All the rest went in fine: liked NIL DESPERANDUM (once I had the N and L of NIL it was clear we were looking at something Latin). Also liked LETTING, ELONGATES, RETYPE, LOLLIPOP LADIES (tried for ages to put IDLE into the fodder but that was misdirection); COLD SNAP; FESS UP; TIT FOR TAT; UNICORN.
It’s Vlad, so it’s always a treat especially when I manage to avoid being impaled (not to belittle the other setters!).
Thanks to Vlad and Peter.
Jay @50 – I was in the Crosse Keys last week for a working breakfast.
The ‘Spoons in Tunbridge Wells is an old theatre, mighty impressive it is too.
Second crossword this week that I’ve absolutely loved. I could not have done it on my own, but my husband and I made a good team today: all finished and parsed. It took us quite a while and two sittings … which means the whole thing was perfect! Fun but challenging.
I hadn’t spotted 1d is probably a Zelenskyy reference (petert@13, thank you)- that made it brilliant and it is now my favourite clue today.
[Thanks Jay @50. I cycle past London Bridge sometimes, so might have to stop off in this hot weather 😉 ]
Another “idle” anagram attempter.
I didn’t now about “cannon” in billiards. Knew but didn’t think of keying a car, and forgot that “cor” = “my.” Haven’t seen NIL DESPERANDUM before, but with N-L to start with it wasn’t hard going.
Thanks, Vlad and PeterO.
Fashions in crosswords – cor/my has turned up several times in the last few weeks, but was more or less unheard of previously.
I’m another for whom INNER went unparsed (thank you Peter). I knew the snooker/billiards CANNON but couldn’t bring it to mind, so that went unparsed as well. Otherwise, I agree with those who thought this wasn’t at Vlad’s tough end. I enjoyed all the clues, but my clear favourite today was AMERICANA.
[For those still uninitiated, a CANNON in snooker or billiards means that the cue ball hits two or more object balls in succession. In English billiards this is a scoring shot; in snooker it is more likely that a good player attempts to pot a colour and with the same shot send the cue ball CANNONing into the reds to split them up.
P.S. I’ve tried both games but am an absolute rabbit!]
A close dnf for me as I impatiently wrote in RETAPE at 5d as my last one in, which works for the definition but obviously not for the wordplay. Very pleased to be able to parse (sp)INNER though, and to recreate SASHIMI from the wordplay, as it was missing when I checked my MEMORY. I thought the clue for 8d was amusing, having visited one or two of those Acton stations. This all goes to show that a Vlad can be amusing and enjoyable without needing to tear your hair out.
Thanks to the Impaler and to Peter.
It would never occur to me that not wearing a tie is disrespectful so needed assistance from my husband on that anagram – he worked in that bastion of archaic pretension ‘the City’.
Fine puzzle. AMERICANA was the standout clue by far. Same problems here as other commenters. I did laugh at PUT-UP JOB where every synonym I thought of for the constituents was wrong! I had PAL, E (sweetheart) and INN and it turned out I needed TUP, JO and PUB. I find this very amusing, I’m not sure why.
Thanks, Vlad and Peter. Great to see this setter back. Now, if only Arachne could be persuaded to return…
A great workout from Vlad. Thanks to PeterO for the parsing help. For all those like me who loved 15, here’s Moe Bandy with a tune penned by the great Nashville songwriter Rich Fagan. Beautiful, despite the jingoistic overtones.
Robi @35: I stand corrected. But in my defence you’d have to read well over half the entry to get to the first mention. And if you don’t know that spinner is even a term cricket well…life’s too short. Maybe, working backwards from the solution (having already made the odds = SP connection) one might get get there. But it’s really obscure as the many people who failed to parse it will attest.
I was amazed I managed to get through this one, I needed to come here to get several explanations. I thought INNER was needlessly obscure – like many others I only knew Martin.
I was confused by TITFORTAT, the elements in the clue seemed to be in the wrong order. But as no-one else has mentioned it, perhaps I’m missing something!
NWAT is in fact a very specific reference – I believe it was Vance who openly accused Zelensky of being disrespectful for not wearing a tie when he met Trump.
Janet Cant @60: I think the surface works best in the context of the Zelensky Whitehouse visit. I would suggest that when one steps out of Donald in Wonderland into the normal
world, not wearing a tie is only very rarely disrespectful. Spoken as one who almost never wears one.
Re NWAT. Mr Zelensky doesn’t wear a tie in the Ukraine either. It’s his “costume” as a former actor and comedian, and, more recently, military-looking gear to signal that they’re at war.
Trump should have felt honoured, not disrespected. He should understand the value. He wears oversized ties and suits to make himself look more imposing and to hide his belly.
Down here in the land of Oz no-one cares about ties any more. It’s the footwear that venues used to police. Once it was ‘must wear shoes’. Then ‘no thongs (flip-flops) allowed’. But they’ve given up on that too in a lot of places.
Late to the party but with only a few off this morning I thought I would revisit this evening. It’s very rare I complete this setter (second only to Enigmatist in failed attempt percentage) so was determined to end the week on a high. Glad to have polished this off with no cheating.
Liked the silliness of ACTION STATIONS
As with the blogger and many posters couldn’t parse the Bashir clue, my best guess being INNER contained some of the letters of Martin.
Cheers PeterO and Vlad. Nice to have survived the impaling.
I agree with the notion that 1D refers to Zelenskyy’s now infamous unwarranted White House humiliation, but I thought that the Vance criticism was that he wasn’t wearing a suit.
Many thanks to Vlad (good to see you again, hope all is well) and PeterO
Thanks to Peter for the blog and to others for their comments.
Simon@68. You’re right – apologies for misremembering. Still very unstatesmanlike, as I’m sure we all agree.
I knew the Acton stations from having to get late night trains to inconvenient ones for wherever my digs were when working in That London, followed by a longish walk.
I had INNER unparsed too, and guessed that there must be a Bashir of note other than the journo.
Down at the zoo Vlad The Impala probably has Ivan The Terrapin, William The Conger Eel, and Alexander The Drake for company…
Bye all.
Hey, Jim @ 69, no problem!
It’s the thought that counts, and it was great to see you back.
Please don’t say to me
NIL DESPERANDUM
Etu@70: You forgot your coat 😉
[Speaking of which and whatever, is Roz on holidays?]
Only just completed this morning after giving up last night (and still was not able to parse a couple until I came here for enlightenment). But I’m very pleased to at least filled the grid of a Vlad offering for the first time, not to mention finishing all this week’s puzzles (and last Saturday’s prize!). Onward & upward!
Thanks Vlad, PeterO & KVa
Alphalpha 73
Yes, didn’t have time to pick it up.
I very much hope that Roz is on holiday, but at her word, I think that her friends set up a device for her to access this site, so if anything’s happened to that then she might go MIA for a time?
Absolutely loved the reference to Ed Balls – well known to swathes of the population (but, by implication, not Crossword solvers) as politician, blogger, media personality and “Strictly” performer – as “son of Michael Balls” – well known to. . . . . . shall we say, a somewhat smaller subset. (No disrespect intended to Balls senior. The next time I see Balls in a Crossword clue, I’ll be looking for a “Michael” reference.)
Didn’t get too far with this one — just two thirds. I recognized several anagrams but frustratingly couldn’t assemble them. Some very clever clues
The past couple of weeks the Guardian seems to have returned to Monday to Friday graded puzzles, easier to more difficult. Hopefully that trend will continue
All this talk of Acton reminds me of the Goon Show, and the school for announcers:
BLOODNOK: Never mind these naughty “winds light to variable”. What about some earthquakes in East Acton?
SEAGOON: What about earthquakes in East Acton?
BLOODNOK: I’ve been training at this school for six years to say “earthquakes in East Acton.”
SEAGOON: So what?
BLOODNOK: Well, they’ve never had one!
SEAGOON: Ahh! Ah yes! But at the slightest tremor, I’ll write to the BBC. I will indeed! Now then, keep up your morale man. Say after me – “earthquakes in East Acton.”
BLOODNOK: “Earthquakes in East Acton.”
SEAGOON: There you are. How about that, eh?
BLOODNOK: I feel better already.