A quick trawl through my posts confirms this is the first time I have blogged a Fed puzzle…a.k.a. Bluth in the Indy and the comedian Dave Gorman in real life (not that crossword-setting isn’t real life!…)
And a rare Fed solve as well – given that I only usually solve the Saturday Prize Puzzles, and it seems this only his 2nd or 3rd outing in the slot.
Anyway, back to the puzzle in hand, or on the iPad in the hand…I seemed to get on Fed’s wavelength reasonably quickly, with the first four Across solutions going in one after the other, before I started my usual flitting around.
The two sets of entries down the left- and right-hand columns had me wondering about a theme-ette/Nina, but all I was left with was a Cyndi Lauper ‘Time after time‘ earworm, which lasted several days…and has just been triggered again while writing up the blog!
There were some nice surface reads – several potential newspaper headlines:
- Eco-friendly facts about drilling (12A)
- Bird’s thigh bone discovered (18A)
- Group left in trouble in retirement (3D)
…and 9A struck a melancholy chord, as my golfing scorecards never seem to feature ‘regular birdies’ or, even less likely, ‘occasional eagles’ (;+<)
I enjoyed the Spoonerism for YOLK SAC/SOAK YAK, and also the ‘powerless’ monkey leading to a circus lion TAMER.
All in all, a fairly gentle Prize puzzle I thought, but no less enjoyable for that – and my thanks to Fed for a pleasant diversion. And if I have missed anything more subtle in terms of theme/Nina, I am sure it will be expounded upon below.
(Actually, a further check of the archives reminds me that I did blog a couple of Bluths in 2022, when I was on the Indy Saturday roster – and revisiting those suggests that Bluths may generally be a bit harder than Feds, but maybe I am looking at too small a sample to be representative…)
[I will be out on my usual Saturday morning less than 9A IDEAL hack around the golf course tomorrow – will keep a watching brief on any comments, but may not be able to respond to anything until later in the day…feel free to talk amongst yourselves in the meantime!…]
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 9A | IDEAL | Regularly birdie and occasionally eagle – perfect (5)
IDE (regular letters from bIrDiE) + Al (occasional letters from eAgLe) [if only my golf scorecard was like that!] |
| 10A | INDOLENCE | Laziness in Céline Dion cast – one is dropped (9)
subtractive anagram, i.e. cast, of CELINE D( |
| 11A | ESPERANTO | Language from mum, say, when A&E switch over tablets at the outset (9)
ES (Es, ecstasy tablets) + PERANT (parent, or mum, say, switching A and E) + O (over) |
| 12A | GREEN | Eco-friendly facts about drilling (5)
G_EN (information, facts) around (drilled into by) RE (about, regarding) |
| 13A | ARCHAIC | Antique sabre – every now and then American cuts with it (7)
AR (alternate letters, so every now and then, from sAbRe) + CH_IC (with it, stylish) around (cut by) A (American) |
| 15A | YOLK SAC | Spooner’s drunk talk – it could confirm pregnancy (4,3)
the Rev. Spooner might have said SOAK (drunk) + YAK (talk) instead of YOLK SAC |
| 17A | TASTE | Liking a street in middle of Cheltenham (5)
T_E (the middle two letters of chelTEnham) around A + ST (street) |
| 18A | EMU | Bird’s thigh bone discovered (3)
( |
| 20A | ADD TO | Trouble with Daily Telegraph’s leaders stopping supplement (3,2)
AD_O (trouble) around (stopped by) D_T (leading letters of Daily Telegraph) |
| 22A | RESCIND | Cancel theatre’s Cinderella following cuts (7)
hidden word in, or outer letters cut from, ‘theatRES CINDerella’ |
| 25A | SCENTED | Tense during drama initially directed like some soaps? (7)
SCEN_E (drama) around T (tense), plus D (initial letter of Directed) |
| 26A | TAMER | Powerless monkey – one seen in a circus? (5)
TAM( |
| 27A | ADULATION | Modern day translation of Latin essentially Your Worship (9)
AD (Anno Domini, modern day) + ULATION (anag, i.e. translation, of LATIN + (Y)OU(R) (the centre, or essence, of yOUr) |
| 30A | MILK TOOTH | Kind to insect assuming one might be found under a pillow? (4,5)
M_OTH (insect) around (assuming, taking in) ILK (kind) + TO |
| 31A | MOURN | Keen – having second go after wasting first (5)
MO (moment, second) + ( |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | TIME (AFTER TIME) | /13/26 Repeatedly stretch point? (4,5,4)
a point (in TIME) AFTER a stretch (prison sentence, TIME) ?! |
| 2D | RESPECTS | When empty, rule 1 is to fill glasses for salutations (8)
RE (RulE, when empty of its inner letters) + SPEC_S (glasses) filled by T (time, answer to 1D) |
| 3D | BLUR | Group left in trouble in retirement (4)
RU_B (difficulty, trouble) around L (left), all retired to give BLUR |
| 4D | PINNACLE | News account breaking down summit (8)
PI_LE (fine hair, down) around (broken by) NN (new, plural) + AC (account) |
| 5D | IDIOCY | Folly of international firm returning self-assembly boxes (6)
I (international) + DI_Y (self-assembly) around (boxing) OC (co, company, firm, returning) |
| 6D | FLAGELLATE | Thrash a legal case for trial out – it’s iron-clad (10)
F_E (Fe, iron) around (cladding) LAGELLAT (anag, i.e. out, of A LEGAL + TL – case, or outer letters, of TriaL) |
| 7D | UNLESS | If not, French articles succeeded (6)
UN + LES (a and the, French, indefinite and definite articles) + S (succeeded – in genealogy?) |
| 8D | BE ON (CLOUD NINE) | /16/29 Model bounced online to experience ecstasy (2,2,5,4)
anag, i.e. model, of BOUNCED ONLINE |
| 13D | AFTER | See 1 (5)
see 1D |
| 14D | AMELIORATE | Better speak with a married priest first (10)
A + M (married, genealogy, again) + ELI (priest) + ORATE (speak) |
| 16D | CLOUD | See 8 (5)
see 8D |
| 19D | UNSOUGHT | Shout with gun going off – it’s not called for (8)
anag, i.e. going off, of SHOUT with GUN |
| 21D | DETRITUS | Remains when Oscar leaves largest city in Michigan, America (8)
DETR( |
| 23D | SAMPLE | Enough to support son, 17 (6)
S (son, genealogy again) supported by, in a Down clue, AMPLE (enough) [17A being TASTE] |
| 24D | DRAGON | Perhaps Deborah Meaden’s doctor detailed extreme suffering (6)
DR (doctor) + AGON( [referring to Deborah Meaden in her role on TV’s ‘Dragons’ Den’ – I’m sure she is perfectly nice in real life…] |
| 26D | TIME | See 1 (4)
see 1D |
| 28D | ALMS | Distributing small – not large – handouts (4)
subtractive anagram, i.e. distributing, of SMAL( |
| 29D | NINE | See 8 (4)
see 8D |
Got MILK TOOTH straight away from looking at the clue – but couldn’t parse it.
Favourites: ARCHAIC, SCENTED, PINNACLE, FLAGELLATE, UNLESS, DETRITUS
Thanks Fed and mc_rapper67
Nice and straightforward for a prize puzzle. Only TIME AFTER TIME is puzzling me how it quite parses. Repeatedly could be the definition, but a repeated stretch could be wordplay for TIME AFTER TIME. I can’ t see the point of the ‘point’. Any enlightenment?
Thanks for the challenge and the explanation.
Thanks mc_rapper67. Pleasant and enjoyable, yes, but I had to work at it and I wouldn’t call it fairly gentle. Never heard of the Blur group so that held me up and still not sure about ‘point’ in 1d unless it has something to do with pub closing hour!