It’s less than three weeks since the last Qaos puzzle, but I’m always glad to see his name. Thanks to him for this one.
I’m afraid I’ve been unable to identify today’s theme, so I hope someone can help. I wonder if it’s to do with something that STARTS TOMORROW.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | BREATH | Soldiers infiltrating abbey get life (6) RE (Royal Engineers) in BATH |
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| 4 | STATIC | Noise on the radio still (6) Double definition |
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| 9 | WIND | Perhaps North’s to achieve success with diamonds (4) WIN + D |
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| 10 | ON ONE’S GAME | Man goes wild securing ace when playing well (2,4,4) ONE (ace) in (MAN GOES)* |
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| 11 | STARTS | Begins with small puddings (6) S + TARTS |
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| 12 | TOMORROW | Also, stealing money not a pointer to the future (8) M[oney] in TOO + ARROW (pointere) less A |
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| 13 | CLERGYMEN | They provide regular services for the masses (9) Cryptic definition, with masses in the religious sense |
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| 15 | ROLE | Part of quiche Lorraine slice sent back (4) Hidden in reverse of quichE LORraine |
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| 16 | DUMP | Party accepts 1,000,000 deposit (4) M (million) in DUP (political party in Northern Ireland) |
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| 17 | SPIKEFISH | US swimmer oversleeps if he’s shattered (9) Reverse (“over”) of KIPS (sleep) + (IF HE’S)* |
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| 21 | OBLIVION | Black cat chases ball catching 6 in limbo (8) O (ball) +VI (6) in B[lack] LION |
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| 22 | SPEARS | Weapons and fruit onboard (6) PEAR in SS – i.e. “on board” a Steam Ship; this is an old trick but I don’t remember seeing it recently |
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| 24 | STRIPOGRAM | Messenger’s very good memory about outing (10) TRIP (outing) in SO G[ood] RAM (computer memory) |
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| 25 | FALL | In New York, season top of fajitas with everything (4) F[ajitas] + ALL |
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| 26 | DAGGER | Blade of green grass, damp after early rain, initially flourished (6) Anagram (flourished) of first letters of Green Grass, Damp After Early Rain |
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| 27 | ARENAS | Article describes hesitation in retreat, like in scenes of conflict (6) Reverse of ER (hesitation) in AN (article) + AS (like) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | BRISTOL | Side of ribeye smothered in gravy – starter for lunch in City? (7) R[ibeye] in BISTO (gravy) + L[unch] |
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| 2 | ELDER | Senior wife divorced by one forming bond (5) WELDER (one who forms a bond) less W[ife] |
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| 3 | TROTSKY | Hiding in ancient city – not a task for revolutionary (7) TASK less A in TROY |
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| 5 | THERMS | The Royal Marines: the ultimate in peerless British units (6) THE RM + [peerles]S – the Therm is a unit of heat energy, familiar to some from domestic gas bills |
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| 6 | TIGER WOLF | Chasing rabbit’s tail, biting foot of hare, I growl savagely and loudly (5,4) [rabbi]T + [har]E in (I GROWL)* + F (forte, loudly) – presumably intended as an &lit, though I don’t know how accurate this description is |
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| 7 | COMPOSE | Conservative politician wearing glasses has scheme on vacation to make notes (7) C[onsrvative] + MP (politician) in O O (glasses) + S[chem]E, with the notes being of the musical kind |
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| 8 | BOTTLE‑OPENERS | They remove caps from batsmen to sustain courage (6-7) BOTTLE (courage) “sustained” (i.e. held up) by OPENERS (opening batsmen) |
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| 14 | REMAINING | Left Italy in German translation (9) Anagram of I[taly] IN GERMAN |
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| 16 | DEBATED | Argued about backing Democrat plot to imprison separatists once (7) Reverse of ETA (Basque separatists) in D BED |
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| 18 | KASHMIR | Making his mark in disputed region (7) (HIS MARK)* |
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| 19 | SCROLLS | Documents civil service retiring with expensive cars (7) Reverse of C[ivil] S[ervice] + ROLLS. A Rolls [Royce] is already an expensive car, so the singular might have been better here |
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| 20 | RIMOSE | Building is more cracked (6) (IS MORE)* – sneakily, “cracked” is the definition, not an anagram indicator |
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| 23 | ELFIN | Delicate flower picked up by female? On the contrary (5) F[emale] in reverse of NILE (river, flower) |
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(Should be “Troy” in 3 down)
One thing that STARTS TOMORROW is that 28th Feb is apparently Open That Bottle Night, where we are encouraged to try new wines with family and friends. Struggling to see too many themed answers though, beyond BOTTLE OPENERS and possibly OBLIVION.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew
Never heard of TIGER WOLF or RIMOSE, so needed help with those.
I don’t think I’ve seen a clue like 26a before. My first thought was “first letters, but they are in the wrong order”. I didn’t spot flourishing as an anagram indicator.
Favourite OBLIVION.
I imagine Paul might have clued BRISTOL differently.
This seemed an odd mix of straightforward and obscure. NHO tiger wolf, spikefish or rimose. Should there have been some indication that tiger wolf is extinct and antipodean? Spikefish is not particular to the USA according to Wikipedia. The answers were possible to work out, though and I enjoyed it,
Fiery Jack @2 And just maybe FALL?
But stretching it a bit
Wikipedia tells me there’s an action ROLE GAME called The ELDER SCROLLS, which has editions called ARENA, DAGGERFALL, (TO)MORROW(W)IND, OBLIVION, (TROT)SKYRIM(OSE) and Blades (SPEARS and DAGGER?).
Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.
The first time in my life that I have ever thought “Ah, Bisto”. With TOMORROW and DAGGER I was looking for a MacBeth theme to no avail.
Nho Bristo gravy, or rimose. Thought Tiger Wolf might be a type of game with chasing as the def. The fish was unknown too bit din’ madder none. No idea of theme, but all good, thx both.
I googled scrolls elfin dagger elder (they felt like they might be in a computer game) but the result didn’t click with me, so I missed the theme.
Thanks Q and A for the questions and answers
SPIKEFISH was easy to work out, but RIMOSE had too many variables for such an obscure word. That makes it unfair, imho. Otherwise not- too-taxing and pleasant puzzle to end the week. Thanks both.
Thanks DuncT, that looks very plausible, if obscure.
I like DuncT’s find – ELDER SCROLLS, which also features a TIGER, a WOLF, and various Dragons named one sort of BREATH or another.
tsk.
Skyrim is one of the most culturally significant video games of all time, and Bethesda, one of the most celebrated developers.
Is Game of Thrones obscure? Is The Lord of the Rings?
I agree with ozof @13 that Skyrim is culturally significant and not obscure, not that that helped me any more than Game of Thrones would have, as I know almost nothing about them.
I got through this quite quickly. Many of the clues were simpler than they first appeared. I agree with Muffin @3 that the DAGGER setup was a bit unusual, but I knew I was right; I could see all the first letters. I didn’t think 13A (CLERGYMEN) was the vaguest bit cryptic and proactively avoided all things ecclesiastical (a habit of a lifetime) on the basis that that was the misdirection. A few moments were also wasted trying to turn IT and German into emigrated (yes, I know it doesn’t work, it was early!).
Thanks Qaos and Andrew
my working theory is that qaos was playing Skyrim when he set this (ON ONES GAME) and had decided, for the lols, to play the Companions of Jorrvaskr questline as a Khajiit! (TIGER WOLF)
très amusant
A tamer end to the week then we have become accustomed to. I did get lucky with last one in RIMOSE with every combination of the letters seemingly plausible.
Good to see my home city get a mention.
Liked STRIPOGRAM. Always forget the message part of their role. Rarely hear that word anymore I guess society has thankfully moved on from it.
Thanks QAOS and Andrew
Entertaining puzzle with clues of widely varying difficulty (at least for me). I didn’t know TIGER WOLF or SPIKEFISH, but the parsing was straightforward, unlike that for the unfamiliar RIMOSE – were we supposed to find a synonym for ‘building’ or ‘cracked’?
DAGGER is pleasingly unusual, I liked the gravy insertion, and the clue for OBLIVION (though I don’t quite equate this with ‘limbo’)
ozof @13: You’re right that Skyrim is not objectively ‘obscure’ but I suspect that few Guardian solvers – at least those who contribute here – are video gamers
Thanks to Qaos and Andrew
@ozof
Someone here once opined that The MCU in general and The Avengers in particular were “a bit obscure”.
After Paul yesterday I over-thought this puzzle to begin with. Actually it was mostly straightforward. I agree with Oofyprosser@10 about RIMOSE. I needed to trawl the dictionary for anagrams of more is. I didn’t like TIGER WOLF but worked it out. Agree with SueB@4 that Spikefish is not a US fish but again easy to work out. Liked BRISTOL.
RIMOSE was new, and I googled RISOME first; likewise, nho SPIKEFISH and checked SPANEFISH as my first option – I was just pleased to have spotted the fission trick on “oversleeps”.
All else went in fairly easily, which was a pleasant change from yesterday.
Many thanks to Qaos and Andrew.
First of all – or rather last of all – I had to guess what the small matter of the 6 letter anagram at 20d could possibly be. With all its crossers in place. Guessed incorrectly, so strictly a dnf. Also struggled with the interlocking SPIKEFISH and TIGER WOLF, managing to solve them from their cryptic components, but not having come across either of those before.
The STRIPOGRAM took a lot of time of putting together too, rather the reverse of what he or she does in delivery. Some excellent clues, didn’t bide my time looking for a theme, but enjoyed the solve today…
I’ve Googled TIGER WOLF and discovered that it’s the extinct thylacine, which I had heard of – also it’s referred to as “Tasmanian tiger” and “Tasmanian wolf”, but the “tiger wolf” combination seem much less common.
SureB@4: the term TIGER WOLF for the Thylacine, aka the Tasmanian Tiger, probably died out before the Tassie Tiger itself did. Indeed, until I read your comment, I didn’t even think of the Thylacine in relation to that answer. No chance of me spotting this theme, even though I tried. But I enjoyed the crossie. Thanks, Qaos and Andrew.
I got stripogram from the clue, but have never seen it spelled that way before, usually strippergram, sometimes strippagram, always with double p.
Disappointed not to spot the theme, as that is so much a feature of Qaos puzzles, but this one is not something I’m familiar with so it was unlikely. I am keen to watch Game of Thrones as I have heard great things, but Mrs 1961Blanchflower remains sceptical.
The nice thing about Qaos themes is that they are not essential to solving the puzzle, and this was a fun and reasonably straightforward crossword, with lots of interesting constructions.
SPIKE FISH and TIGER WOLF were new to me, though both were fairly clued, and join the ever-lengthening list of things I have learned from crosswords, one of which I believe was RIMOSE, though I have no idea when.
Thanks to Q&A.
As one of the small intersection between 225ers and video game players I appreciate the theme, although missed it entirely during the solving of what I thought was quite a gentle crossword for a Friday (I’m still chipping away at yesterday’s). Then again I’m more on the Nintendo end of the spectrum. I’ll mention it to my PC-gaming partner who I suspect will be… well ambivalent if I’m honest.
Thanks to Andrew, and to Qaos for helping to validate my nerdery. May all three of us live to see the release of TES6.
[Ignore the reference to Game of Thrones in my comment above @25: I misread an earlier point made by ozof about cultural significances.
As for gameplaying, I’m afraid I never got beyond Tetris on the Gameboy, but I accept there are millions who did, so yes, the big games are indeed significant and Qaos-theme-worthy.]
For me this felt like a gentler Qaos offering (especially after yesterday’s from Paul). I was unfamiliar with “kips” for sleep in 17A, and a few others were bung and parse. I actually knew RIMOSE, but seem to be in the minority. The theme eluded me entirely. Thanks Qaos and Andrew.
Count me among those who have never heard of Skyrim, although I do not doubt its importance within the world of video games. Fortunately it was not necessary to solving the puzzle, which is what a good theme should be. Compare also the Pet Shop Boys theme from a few weeks ago.
I had the same NHOs as several others, including Tiger Wolf, Spikefish, and Rimose. I had also not heard of a Nile flower, because the world of botany is a closed book to me.
[The last computer game I played was Elite on the BBC B. I got to “Deadly”, but not “Elite”!]
Didn’t know the theme but enjoyed the puzzle.
Doesn’t ELFIN need a second “on the contrary”? Sorry, not caffeinated yet, and can’t get the reversals to work.
My computer game career (admittedly looking over my then 15 year old daughter’s shoulder in a disengaged fashion most of the time) never got much further than Bustamove. And as for Lara Croft whizzing down those canals in Venice, well, I left LC to my daughter…
I don’t know if the Elder Scrolls games are obscure or not – anything’s obscure if you don’t know anything about it (even if you ought to). I followed a hint on the Guardian comments and looked for trotSKY RIMose, which showed me what I was missing and accounted for the presence of RIMOSE. (But not for TIGER WOLF or SPIKEFISH.)
I agree with SueB@4: many surprisingly straightforward clues (for Qaos) interspersed with a few really twisty ones, and to my mind this could have done with fewer thematic shenanigans, even if you didn’t need to know anything about either video games or Bottle-opening Night to solve the puzzle. I did like the two-stage clue for DAGGER.
Yes, the theme is the ELDER SCROLLS series of ROLE-playing GAMEs – much to my surprise and delight, OBLIVION being one of my all-time favourite video games. I’ve played quite a bit of SKYRIM too. Not something I expected to be a theme for a crossword but there we go!
DrWatson@31: I think the reversal of NILE is from “picked up” (in a down clue).
Very nice puzzle, thanks Qaos and Andrew! Nice theme too. On the subject of the theme, I think Blades is not quite a mainline entry in the Elder Scrolls series, accounting for its absence. (An RPG player would probably not accept “Spears” for blades as they’re a polearm!)
I could not see what the theme was. Haha, Mitz@18 – I agree with the person who once opined that The MCU in general and The Avengers in particular were “a bit obscure”. Ditto Skyrim 😉
New for me: TIGER WOLF; RIMOSE, BISTO gravy; SPIKEFISH.
Favourite: OBLIVION.
Phew…. Made it.
LOI was CLERGYMEN: I don’t know why as it was one of the more straightforward clues in retrospect, but I stared at it for ages before it clicked into place.
I liked BRISTOL (I’m old enough to remember “Ah, Bisto! “) and BOTTLE OPENERS.
I’ve dabbled with one of the Elder Scrolls games, but didn’t see the theme. It might have helped with the very obscure RIMOSE, where I had to guess variations.
Like TanTrumPet@20, I dabbled with SPANEFISH before hitting on the right one… another small addition to my mental zoo of crosswordland fauna.
Thanks both!
This is why I rarely bother any more to look for Qaos’s themes. I’ve never played a computer game and don’t know anything about them, so this theme is even more obscure than many of
Qaos’s that I don’t get, which are at least film titles I could have heard about
nho spikefish or Bisto
The ACE = ONE trick eluded me, so I bf’d in the phrase without understanding why.
.
As someone said, though, you don’t have to catch the theme to solve the clues, so this puzzle was fun. Thanks, Qaos and Andrew.
That one was a bit weird but fun. Completed the right hand side very fast, then took quite a while to get into the left hand side – and even longer to finish it.
Didn’t spot the theme, but qaos is a good setter so they make sure that it doesn’t matter.
Last one in was ON ONES GAME: completely failing to get the « on » or understand what to do with the « ace », even though I’d realised it was « ones game » for ages!
I seem to be very typical in my thoughts on this. Quite easy for a Friday, nho TIGER WOLF, SPIKEFISH or RIMOSE, also nho Skyrim so missed theme (which I didn’t look for anyway).
Qaos seems to have reduced the frequency and complexity of his arithmetical clues (here only M in DUMP and VI in OBLIVION) which I personally think a bit of a pity.
Nevertheless, enjoyable.
Lucas@29 – as noted by Andrew, NILE is a ‘flower’ in the sense of something that flows i.e. a river. This is very common in crosswords to the extent that when you see the word ‘flower’ it’s more likely to mean a river than a bloom.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew.
Seconding Sue@4, on the mix of very straightforward (eg STARTS) to quite obscure. The latter had me overthinking several of the former. Like others SPIKEFISH, TIGER WOLF, and RIMOSE were new to me, though relatively gettable from the word play (though I searched most combos of ISMORE* before I got a hit.) It’s a puzzle heavy on somewhat arcane mechanics as well (on board for in SS, wearing glasses for in OO), which made me feel experienced, anyway. I would not give this puzzle to a new solver:) Also a bit heavy on GK I didn’t have (DUP, ETA…maybe a non-European problem). I needed help with the parsing of TROTSKY – I got very stuck on the idea “hiding” was a misdirection for its “beating” meaning.
Anyway, thanks much Qaos and Andrew!
Nice challenge from Qaos. SW gave the most trouble, and loi 20d took a while. For a long time, presumably like Andrew, I was trying to make “building” the definition. Like PhilB@19 I went through all the permutations alphabetically, from MIROSE to SIROME, checking Chambers, and still didn’t see it. Turns out RISOME doesn’t have its own entry but is hidden away under “rima”
16a ROLE was a good hide. I liked the unusual two-step process for 26a DAGGER. I also enjoyed putting 27a ARENAS together — it evolved gradually, in order of reading
24a STRIPOGRAM, has anyone here ever received one?
Dr. WhatsOn@31, Re 23d ELFIN, I initially thought the same thing, but then figured “picked” was the container, and “up” was the reversal
I, too, looked for a theme and didn’t see it. I’ve never found the theme in a Qaos
Thank you both!
*RIMOSE
We even had a “Chinese flower” (YELLOW RIVER) in the Quick this week.
Was it by I P Daley, gladys?
I’m pretty early in getting to grips with cryptics so I was pleasantly surprised to get quite a lot of this one, rare for a Friday but Qaos seems so far to be one of the setters I get on with. Really liked DAGGER and even managed to muddle through some of the charades which I generally struggle with.
Didn’t spot the theme despite having played hundreds of hours of elder scrolls games!
Thanks Andrew. i agree about the singular ROLLS. Documents leading civil servant retiring with expensive car? Good stuff from Qaos. I wonder if there’s a trend among setters toward meta-encryption. Here we have DAGGER with encrypted anagram fodder. Recently we had this from Anto:
Occasionally forgot duo’s name for this little character (6) [HOBBIT] — definition by encrypted example. Word-gamers reaching the next “level”?
I think people get round the singular/plural problem (which also occurred to me) by referring to the cars (plural) as “rollers”.
(gif @ 45. Brings back memories from 60 years ago when, as a schoolchild, I had a long list of book titles like that. Very naughty we thought. Tee hee.
The only other one I can remember now is Ride Across the Desert by Major Bumsore. )
Re 21a, With the crossers in place, and seeing the O as the first letter, I confidently entered OBSIDIAN (black) without looking more closely at the clue. Shame on me.
I’m another who didn’t know RIMOSE at 20d, a clue whose obscurity was a direct result of the Skyrim theme which meant nothing to this computer game ignoramus. I too just tried all the combinations of R, M, and S until one appeared in the dictionary.
Qaos is good at crafting puzzles that you can solve with no knowledge of the theme, and this was another of these. Thanks Q&A for the interrogatory fun.
Mig @42, that seems a bit of a stretch to me re: ELFIN. I agree with Dr WhatsOn – needs another indicator.
A bit tougher than the average Qaos, I thought. Liked KASHMIR the best.
SueB @4, I found that TIGER WOLF is another name for the spotted hyena, so the clue seems ok as is.
Thanks, Q&A.
Managed to solve/parse this without the theme or RIMROSE, which was sneaky as Andrew says. Either ”building” or ”cracked” could have been the anagrind/ definition.
Enjoyed it. Only quibble was CLERGYMEN. I guessed it was a cryptic definition. It’s correct, but not only MEN? Where’s Arachne when you need her?
[paddymelon@49: I remember ‘Death in the stairwell’ by Eileen Dover…]
Re 25ac When Vernon Duke wrote his song about the season in New York he called it Autumn.
Mig @24 Years ago I was at a 40th birthday party when a strippergram(sic) turned up, paid for by the teenage daughter of the recipient’s partner. She’d saved for weeks. He refused to cooperate with some of the lady’s more embarrassing demands and she stormed out in a temper. Chaos ensued.
Zoot@56 Wow!
Thanks both and I now have RIMOSE to intrude into a conversation. Interesting that the theme (obscure for many) has flushed out a phalanx of unfamiliar (to me) contributors.
I had a small quibble with CLERGYMEN in that with an L in place I revealed, expecting ‘altarboys’ which makes more sense imho.
I agree with those who find ELFIN to be deficient in a reversal indicator. The clue solves as ‘nifle’ – female picked up by flower – and there is no way to get from there to the required result.
Aah would that these were our only problems in life. (Two funerals this week. 2d(!) ELDER was appropriate – one was 103! the other not far behind.)
Mig @42 Sorry Mig. Got your number the wrong way round.
Re ELFIN, at the risk of backing a losing horse, Chambers has, among others, “pick” = “gather by single small movements” (as in picking/gathering flowers). Could we say F picked (gathered) up (reversed) by NILE <– ELIN = ELFIN?
Knew there must be a theme, being Qaos, but as a non-player of computer games, not a chance that I’d see it. Enjoyed this nonetheless, and I’ll refer my game-playing cryptic crossword relative newbie to this one. Right up his street…
Despite a gallant effort from Mig@60, no one can convince me that the clue for ELFIN actually works, though obviously we can all see what Qaos intended.
I guessed right with RIMOSE, either because I’ve seen the word before or just got lucky. I’ve groused many times about this sort of clue for obscure words, but the setters are obviously just shrugging and going, “Obscure? I eat breakfast every morning from a table with a RIMOSE surface. It’s my first thought every single day.”
Thanks anyway, Qaos. After getting only a third of the answers to Paul’s puzzle yesterday I was determined to finish this, and made it with half an hour to spare.
And thanks to Andrew too. Well done for not getting the theme!
(Alphalpha@ 54. Yes, Eileen Dover was another one. Good to know I still have some memory left.
@ 58. Sorry to hear that. My condolences to you and loved ones. )
Zoot 56,
That’s yet another excellent argument against birthday parties for anyone over ten years old, or under a hundred.
I found this quite tough, at Friday’s customary level. CLERGYMEN verged on non-cryptic, I thought.
Cheers all.
Really struggled with this, didn’t help that I had TIGER ROAR in for 6 down early doors. Eventually spotted my error and saw the anagram although never heard of TIGER WOLF. Meh.
I enjoyed this a lot, and I’m sad to be late to the party! I’m very fond of games (video-, roleplaying- and word-) as a medium, and I’ve spent a fair bit of time around the Imperial City and Whiterun… but as usual, I failed to look for a theme until the end. It’s Qaos, I should know better by now! Still, delighted to have my obscure, har har, interest in the spotlight this week 🙂
Rimose is of course a NHO for me, but a beautiful word that goes into the collection.
Thanks to Qaos and Andrew!
Lucas@29 the Nile is from geography , not botany; it’s something that flows.