It’s Tuesday and we have a Deri puzzle to blog.
We thought there must be more to the theme than the four entries that we had found. PATSY CLINE recorded CRAZY which featured on the SHOWCASE album. We had a look on Wiki as we only recognised the singer and the track which features in the grid. At the last minute we realised that there is a nina: SENTIMENTALLY YOURS – another Patsy Cline album. Perhaps others who are more familiar with the theme will be able to find others?
We found quite a few of the definitions and some of the wordplay to be a touch too tricksy, but hopefully other solvers will have enjoyed the puzzle more than we did! We blogged Deri’s first puzzle in January 2024 and another one last January, both of which we really enjoyed so we will still look forward to another one – January 2027 perhaps?
Alternate or ‘regular’ letters in sUsS oUt and ALLY (band together)
A (answer) in CHE (Guevara- ‘red’) PEN (biro)
cOPED (dealt with) missing ‘c’ or ‘rejecting first piece (letter) of copy’
SIDE (district) W (with) ALL (everyone) and S (first letter or ‘beginning’ to steal)
PASTY (pale) with the ‘s’ and ‘t’ (a ‘couple’ of letters) swapped around
C (first letter or ‘principal’ in country) LASS (girl) + AT around or ‘welcoming’ C (clubs)
Y (Yankee) hARD (tough) with ‘h’ (hotel) leaving
Hidden (‘to some extent’) in the clue taxonomiC LINEage – but it’s also a clue as definition
First and last letters or ‘tips’ to AsiaN TandoorI
An anagram (‘curious’) of SURELY around O (first letter of one) + F (female)
A homophone (‘loudly’) of KRAY (London gangster) + Z Y (two unknown characters)
ELON MUSK (world’s richest man) ‘cycling’ by M (first letter or ‘front’ of market)
A reversal (‘withdrawing’) of MADE (took home)
We are being asked to think of tiddly as being little so something that is ‘more tiddly’ could be LITTLER
An anagram (‘cooked’) of SO EAT IT
A cryptic defintion
SLY (conniving) round or ‘bored by’ US (American) H (husband)
An anagram (‘harry’) of OWES CASH
hEELS (wedges) without or ‘binning’ ‘h’ (hospital)
AUDI (motor) TED (teddy boy – ‘slick lad in drainpipes’)
A (advance) + a reversal (‘sent up’) of SALT (laconic wit)
An anagram (‘new’) of CLUE, F (following) and EDIT
ALP (mountain) reversed or ‘turning’ + TO (closed)
CUT (sent to Coventry) EY (middle or ‘central’ letters of Merseyside)
CREATE (found) around or ‘cupping’ M (minute) + A
An anagram (‘out of control’) of AS A bLAZE without or ‘saving’ ‘b’ (book)
RE (on) SIT (plonk)
COT (bed) around or ‘captivating’ ANN (woman)
A reversal (‘flipping’) of LIAM – who seems to dislike his brother NOEL (Gallagher)
pArK sIgNs (even letters only)
I’d agree there was some trickier cluing in here but it is what we expect of Deri. I see from a note on social media that the puzzle was written in 2023! Which explains the antipathy referred to in 21d! I have heard of but do/did not follow PATSY CLINE so spotted none of the references, I’m afraid – the clue for her surname is very clever and makes my podium alongside DECEITFUL and YOURSELF.
Thanks Deri and B&J
As often happens PostMark has picked my favourites. Missed the Nina, even though the grid is an obviously Nina friendly one.
Thanks both. A rare thing that I readily spotted everything going on, and the Nina assisted quick completion. That said, its association with PATSY CLINE was not in my GK as I knew only of CRAZY which I see was one of only two single hits in the UK. I further read she died in a plane crash before I was born (1963).
I’m more familiar with PATSY CLINE’S (sadly brief) oeuvre than most people here, but I don’t see anything that the blogger missed.
[No one could sing a torch song quite like she could. Besides CRAZY, see also I Fall to Pieces, Walkin’ After Midnight, Always, etc. If she hadn’t died, she would probably have become much better known abroad–there’s nothing “country” about her work in those last two years except the fact that it was recorded in Nashville instead of New York, she was beginning to cross over into the pop chart, and…well, what a great instrument she had. And yes, I was born a decade after her death.]
I should have spotted this, when the words PATSY and CLINE went in.
I didn’t, though I still sing her songs, when drunk, karaoke-style.
Mr. P… I was born long before her death.
Excellent puzzle and blog and posts.
I shall now slink off to a dark corner and sing CRAZY.
PS Deri, muskmelon is properly (9) , and that would have made the answer more nicely elusive.
I shall now fall to pieces.
Finally! An occasion to post my favorite Patsy Cline song. Bravo Deri — just brilliant. Expert elucidation as always from Bertandjoyce.
I completed this, even spotted the Nina, not that it meant anything to me. Didn’t even spot Patsy Cline in the answers. Not someone I know anything about.
Yeah I struggled really to get a hold on this and the theme/Nina meant nothing to me. Thanks Deri, you beat me today and B&J
Comment #9
Thank you all, especially Bert and Joyce for the review.
This wasn’t meant to be an overt theme, so it’s to be expected that most solvers wouldn’t notice anything. I just wanted to include the titles of the only three albums Patsy Cline got to make before she lost her life so tragically early at the age of 30.
It’s nice to see some memories of her here.