It has been a little while, Io!
Glad to see Io back in the Wednesday slot. I started off well and confident, and ended up getting stuck on a few of the trickier constructions. If you saw something differently to me, do share your thoughts in the comments. Otherwise thanks to Io for a challenging but enjoyable puzzle.
ATE (took) in WRY (bitter)
SKIVER (truant)’s bagged YD (3ft, yard)
HEP (knowing) cracking TAR (distillate) + ROTS (decays) + KETCH (sailing boat)
This sketch is from Monty Python – you can read more here
[h]ONEST EP[itaph] (inherently)
LO[ud]-MOU[t]H[e]D* (*grating; DUET shown the way out)
THEN (again); with EP (record) breaking + NINES (baseball teams)
Cryptic definition
‘Tis’ is an abbreviation of ‘It is’ (I can confirm) used poetically
AB (rating) + C (clubs)
FR (father); I[s] (half taken in) by MA (mother) + MENTAL (of psyche)
LORE (learning) + LEI (Romanian ready)
‘Ready’ meaning currency here, the plural of the Romanian LEU is LEI
SET (deposit) on A TAD< (a little, <return of)
Cryptic definition
Missing I: N. ACT[i]ON
“WHY’S GUISE” (questions form, “hearing”)
“VERSES” (poetry, “recital of”)
Cryptic/double definition
FENCER (sportsman) arrested; HE DE[t]ESTS (he hates, raising T (temperature))
BOAST (claim) + REEF (bank) swaps tips
(ITCH (long) + EN GARDE (ready to fight, fencing)) for core of KIN (family)
K (king); OK’ED< (agreed, to go round, <northern)
‘Dekko’ is British army slang for ‘look’; a butcher’s (butcher’s hook) is rhyming slang for the same
STATIST in ITALICS (politician, cryptically) after V (very)
My interpretation here is that a STATIST is a RIGHT-LEANING politician, hence ‘in italics’
R (right) on AH (I get this)
PRISON* (*apoplectic) + [office]R (OFFICE (employment) leaves) + TINGLY (prickling)
SUM< (amount, <raised) by C (college) + LET (check) + ONES (my)
(ACCEPTS + L[ord]E (at fringe))* (*perversely)
Double definition
ME (Io, the setter of this puzzle) + W
My faves: THE PARROT SKETCH, MIA, T D RESTS, K GARDEN, RIPSNORTINGLY and V STATISTICS.
K GARDEN
ITCH EN GARDE in place of I (core) in KIN (maybe that’s what Oriel meant).
V STATISTICS
I took STATIST as any politician. The WP seems to work all right without
having to assume it’s a right-winger.
Thanks Io and Oriel.
Not just a “did not finish”, a “barely even started”. From the blog. I don’t think I’d finish in a month of Sundays. Respect to Oriel. I will avoid Io in future. A huge of difficulty in the ft.
James P @2. Good choice. I decided a few puzzles back that Io was too much of a trial to even attempt. I like chewy puzzles when they’re witty (cf. his alter ego Enigmatist in The Guardian, although even he’s sometimes a dnf) but I get no pleasure from clever-clever clueing that I can’t see through, although I still look at the blog to see what I have(n’t) missed…….
Chef d’oeuvre!
I have to confess to writing in AVERSE 24(in pencil) then thinking “thats to easy” especially leaving 15 ending in a V. He is cunning!
I too had “averse” at first before spotting the unlikely “v” ending and confirming it was unlikely to be a Russian novelist! Well done Oriel on all the parsing – 7D had me totally baffled. All the clues did what they said but often in ways that hid the structure (what goes inside what, and where?) and used odd synonyms – certainly not the first to come to mind in most cases.
Tricky but ultimately fair – thank you IO and Oriel. James P and Vannucci – I sympathise and I think I got lucky with enough crossers to feel I was always making a bit of progress, or I might have been in the same position.
Well, I got over the finish line eventually and, like Copster, I pondered ‘averse’ initially but it wasn’t my finest hour in the parsing department! Among those I could fathom, THE PARROT SKETCH, KITCHEN GARDEN and SKYDIVER were favourites.
All very clever but Io is always likely to be at the tough end of the spectrum for me.
Thanks, Io, for the challenge and to Oriel who acquitted himself adeptly.
Like James P@2 I wouldn’t have finished this however long I stared at it and, even when reading the blog, I had to work to understand the parsing of several. That’s OK, though, horses for courses and all that.
I’ll still look at IO puzzles, but maybe be ready to give up more quickly and come here for enlightenment.
Thanks IO and thanks, Oriel, for the much-needed assistance.
I always dread getting Io (or Enigmatist) when I cover blogs because although I finished this I needed the blog to parse a few, including VITAL STATISTICS.
Thank you Oriel and Io for the work out.