It’s a Saturday Prize puzzle, and it’s a Brockwell…so there MAY be a theme or Nina…
…although this bear of little brain failed to spot it until almost the last minute!…
I solved and submitted this last weekend, quite blithely ignorant of any sort of linkage or theme, and it was only when I started to write up the blog and create a grid that I saw – in plain sight – KENTUCKY, FRIED and CHICKEN! Then JERK, KORMA and NUGGET…WOODSTOCK, DEBONE, SOUP…gahhh…how could I have missed all that?!
I had to look up COCKSHY as I wasn’t familiar with the word or definition – bit Cyclops-ean? – and the chicken references kept on coming – WIRE, CAPON, EGG…
I’ve probably missed a couple in the animation below – LEG HORN, cockSPURS – but I think you get the picture…
What an EGG-cellent puzzle – my brain was obviously ‘scrambled’ when I first solved it, but it didn’t ‘tikka’ much to ‘crack’ the theme and even your ‘hard-boiled’ correspondent had to ‘(ome)let’ a wry grin and an eyebrow raise cheer up his usually grumpy countenance…the ‘yolk’ was on me!
My thanks to Brockwell, and I trust all is clear below.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 7A | MAHARISHI | Joint rolled by a Tory guru (9)
MAH (ham, joint, rolled over) + A + RISHI (Tory, remember him?…no, me neither!) |
| 8A | KORMA | Nothing stopping wacky Mark Curry (5)
K_RMA (anag, i.e. wacky, of MARK) around (stopped by) O (zero, nothing) |
| 9A | WOODSTOCK | Festival has Rolling Stone fronting The Animals (9)
WOOD (Keith Wood, Rolling Stone) + STOCK (animals) |
| 10A | SPURS | Urges on team (5)
double defn. – to SPUR is to urge on; and SPURS is the nickname of Tottenham Hotspur (a football team, m’lud) |
| 12A | DEBONE | Finished eating skinned sea bass fillet (6)
D_ONE (finished0 around (eating) ( |
| 13A | EXIT POLL | Former pilot confused about line in survey (4,4)
EX (former) + IT_PO_L (anag, i.e. confused, of PILOT) around L (line) |
| 16A | COCKSHY | Cast member at first is an object of ridicule (7)
COCK (male member) before SHY (cast, throw) |
| 19A | JERKING | Waistcoat good for pulling? (7)
JERKIN (waistcoat, sleveless jacket) + G (good) |
| 22A | ACENTRIC | Eric Cantona missing last three starts for lacking focus? (8)
subtractive anag, i.e. starts, or is surprised, of ERIC CANT( |
| 25A | GINGER | Annoyance after opener getting dropped by Joe Root (6)
GI (GI Joe, American serviceman) + ( |
| 27A | TWIGS | Gets syrup in this on vacation (5)
T( |
| 28A | IRON LUNGS | Training run is long for life-savers (4,5)
anag, i.e. training, of RUN IS LONG |
| 29A | FRIED | Cooked drug in two days (5)
FRI (Friday, a day) + D (day), so two days, around E (ecstasy tablet, drug) |
| 30A | ONLOOKERS | Witnesses in the matter of king and queen breaking thrones (9)
ON (in the matter of) + LOO_S (toilets, or thrones) around (broken by) K (king) + ER (Elizabeth Regina, queen) |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | CAPONE | Don Corleone ultimately plugged by new gangster (6)
CAPO (mafia don) + N (new) + E (ultimate letter of corleonE) |
| 2D | HANDBOOK | Manual worker is on top of work (8)
HAND (worker) + BOOK (work) |
| 3D | LITTLE | Young darts player scratching bottom (6)
LITTLE( |
| 4D | CHICKEN | Stylish dolly bird (7)
CHIC (stylish) + KEN (dolly, friend of Barbie!) |
| 5D | SOUP UP | Give a boost to Stokes with three overs (4,2)
S (stokes, physics) + O (over, cricket notation) + UP (over, as in the game’s up) + UP (a third ‘over’!) |
| 6D | AMORAL | Unprincipled monk about to pick up men (6)
AM_AL (lama, or Tibetan monk, about, or reversed) around (picking up) OR (Other Ranks, men, as opposed to officers) |
| 11D | WIRE | Telegraph and Guardian setters probed by the taxman some time ago (4)
W_E (Guardian setters, of which Brockwell is one, wo ‘we’ from his perspective) around (probed by) IR (the Inland Revenue, former name, i.e. some time ago, of HMRC, the taxman) |
| 14D | OBI | Fetish of British industry leaders (3)
leading letters of ‘Of British Industry’ |
| 15D | LEG | On stage (3)
double defn. – the ‘on’ side is the LEG side, in cricket; and a stage can be a LEG |
| 16D | CHA | Bloke doesn’t finish drink (3)
CHA( |
| 17D | CUE | Rod and line picked up (3)
homophone, i.e. picked up – CUE (rod) can sound like QUEUE, a line of people |
| 18D | HORN | Romeo consumed by love for the hard stuff? (4)
HO_N (honey, love – term of affection) around (consuming) R (Romeo, phonetic alphabet) |
| 20D | KENTUCKY | National food introduced to island state (8)
KE_Y (island) around (introducing) N (national) + TUCK (food, grub!) |
| 21D | A CORUNA | Carmen welcoming business career in Spanish city (1,6)
A_A (the Automobile Association, so car men – and women) around (welcoming) CO (company, business) + RUN (career, race) |
| 23D | COWARD | Playwright is 4 (6)
double defn. – Noel COWARD was a playwright; and 4D ‘chicken’ can mean COWARD |
| 24D | NUGGET | Putting the boot into No.10 raised lump (6)
N_ET (number TEN, raised) around UGG (a brand of boot) |
| 25D | GUN DOG | Piece on track for setter? (3,3)
GUN (piece, firearm) + DOG (track, follow) |
| 26D | EGGARS | Moths helping to make flipping clothes ragged (6)
reversed hidden word, i.e. ‘helping to make’ and ‘flipping’, in ‘clotheS RAGGEd’ |
I also saw: Chicken Little, Chicken Run, Ginger Chicken. Not the easiest puzzle, but spotting the theme helped a lot.
The blog is as witty as the puzzle! Enjoyed both. Thanks!
Just the right level of difficulty – took a few sittings. I especially liked WIRE and EXITPOLL, mainly for the surprise that popped out on doing the wordplay.
I couldn’t figure out a complete justification for SOUP UP. For me that’s a DNF (but I’m a bit picky).