Flirt by Schadenfreude
Solvers must complete the grid and highlight seven titles, a phrase common to each appearing only once. The wordplay yielded by each clue leads to the entered answer plus an additional letter. These letters spell out thematic material.
On a scale of Schaden to Freude, I found this to be at the Freude end, which was fortuitous as I need to finish the blog before heading off for a week of winter sun in Tenerife.
I got off to a flying start which is often a bad sign. However, that wasn’t the case here. 38a was the first to fall, followed by 26d. Very soon, virtually the whole of the bottom half was complete and I hadn’t been near the top half.
I was struggling a little with the top half until I sneaked up on 1a which wasn’t as daunting as it first appeared.
By now, I had enough of the extra letters to try forming words and I found COWBOY and the makings of COLOMBIA and managed to convince myself that they were both represented by CO. That thought was shortlived though as the last few letters wanted to be BEHIND. Right then, serendipity, as both elmac and I said out loud, “aha! COWBOY, COLUMBUS, BEHIND ,,, CARRY ON movies.” Now it became pretty much plain sailing to the end.
The extra letters spelled out SERGEANT TEACHER CONSTABLE COWBOY COLUMBUS BEHIND – all CARRY ONs.
The only minor hiccup was not quite knowing what to put in the barred off cells. CARRY ON looked a likely candidate but which way? Then it struck me that filling it in SW-NE allowed seven more CARRY ON titles to be filled. These being (from bottom to top) CLEO, ABROAD, MATRON, NURSE, CABBY, DOCTOR, HENRY.
Presumably the title refers to flirt = carry on.
So, there we have it. Not the most taxing IQ ever. Certainly not one of Schadenfreude’s toughest but just as much fun as ever. Thanks Schadenfreude for giving me light duties leading up to my week in the sun, even though I’ll be back before this blog’s publication date.
| Across |
|||
| Clue |
Entry |
Extra letter |
Wordplay |
| 1 Uninitiated dancer with legs flying performing acrobatically (12) |
CARTWHEELING | S |
[d]ANCER (uninitiated)+WITH+LEGS anag: flying |
| 10 Doves regularly circling beech wood (6) |
OBECHE | E |
[d]O[v]E[s] (regularly) containing BEECH |
| 11 Salt chicken to be eaten by father (7) |
PHENATE | R |
PATER (father) containing HEN (chicken) |
| 13 Witch departs wearing coloured Arabian veil (6) |
CHADAR | G |
HAG (witch)+Departs inside Coloured ARabian |
| 15 Locally cover and bind part of a shoe (7) |
HEELTAP | E |
HEEL (cover)+TAPE (bind) |
| 16 Vineyard worried about small bottle (5) |
CRUET | A |
CRU (vineyard)+ATE (worried; rev: about) |
| 17 Fighting spread over months (4) |
ARMS | N |
RAN (spread; rev: over)+MS (months) |
| 18 Wealthy people with close-cut hair going to The Bahamas (4) |
NOBS | T |
NOT (close cut hair)+BS (Bahamas) |
| 19 Border line covered by moulding (4) |
ORLE | T |
TORE (moulding) containing Line |
| 22 Keys for Morag to push? Yes! (4) |
CAYS | E |
CA (push; Scottish: Morag)+YES |
| 23 Nancy’s soul to rouse regressive values (6) |
MERITS | A |
ÂME (soul; French: Nancy)+STIR (rouse; rev: regressive) |
| 24 Cloak your lack of passion (6) |
APATHY | C |
CAPA (cloak)+THY (your) |
| 27 Once again arrange her flipping party (4) |
REDO | H |
HER (rev: flipping)+DO (party) |
| 31 Identification aid that is put in once again (4) |
E-FIT | E |
EFT (again; obsolete: old) containing IE (that is) |
| 32 Profligate Romeo with old practice following start of orgy (4) |
ROUÉ | R |
Romeo+Orgy (start of)+URE (practice; obsolete: old) |
| 33 Have news of cleaning lady touring Spain (4) |
HEAR | C |
CHAR (cleaning lady) containing E (Spain) |
| 36 Victoria’s noisy ferry totally empty (5) |
RORTY (Australian: Victoria) |
O |
RO–RO (ferry)+T[otall]Y (empty) |
| 37 Huntsman to drive across narrow valley (7) |
BEAGLER | N |
BEAR (drive) containing GLEN (narrow valley) |
| 38 Talk about a field event (6) | DISCUS | S |
DISCUSS (talk about) |
| 39 Perhaps eight sailors amongst eleven husbands (7) |
OARSMEN | T |
O (eleven: medieval Roman number)+TARS (sailors)+MEN (husbands) |
| 40 Well-born fellow returned fit before evening of poetry (6) |
EUGENE (Eugene means well-born according to Chambers index of first names) |
A |
AGUE (fit; rev: returned+ENE (evening poetically) |
| 41 Fliers excitedly love leaving sombre home port (12, 2 words) |
EMPEROR MOTHS | B |
S[o]MBRE HOME PORT minus O (love) anag: excitedly |
| Down |
|||
| 1 Chapters covering old name of a bacterium (6) |
COCCAL | L |
Old inside CC (chapters)+CALL |
| 2 French physicist engineers a uniform wall for William (7) |
REAUMUR René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur |
E |
RE (engineers)+A+Uniform+MURE (wall; Shakespeare: William) |
| 3 Talk in town’s hammered some nondescript articles (8) |
WHATNOTS | C |
CHAT (talk) inside TOWNS (anag: hammered) |
| 4 Plunder stored in ramshackle house abounding with plants (7) |
HERBOUS | O |
ROB (plunder) inside HOUSE (anag: ramshackle) |
| 5 Young Greek nephew beheaded live (6) |
EPHEBE | W |
[n]EPHEW (beheaded)+BE (live) |
| 6 Tom interrupting plot expressed slight surprise (4) |
EHED | B |
HE (Tom) inside BED (plot) |
| 7 The worst part glue covers evenly (4) |
LEES | O |
[g]L[u]E [c]O[v]E[r]S (even letters) |
| 8 Rome’s kind aunt cooked fish (6) |
NATURA | Y |
AUNT (anag: cooked)+RAY (fish) This one caused me a bit of brain overload since “aunt” and “fish” together normally indicate “TUNA” |
| 9 Tents etc manufactured by Jimmy Stokes (6) |
TEPEES | C |
ETC (anag: manufactured)+PEE (jimmy [riddle])+Stokes |
| 12 Horse-drawn vehicle for carrying metal hydrant (7) |
TALLY-HO | O |
TO (for) containing ALLOY (metal)+Hydrant |
| 14 Indian politician deals crookedly with Italy (5) |
DESAI Morarji Desai |
L |
DEALS (anag: crookedly)+Italy |
| 20 Beverage made by lover nursing bad feet (7, 2 words) |
BEEF TEA | U |
BEAU (lover) containing FEET (anag: bad) |
| 21 Bare patch extremity bitten by a troublesome fly (8) |
APTERIUM | M |
A+PIUM (troublesome fly) containing TERM (extremity) I don’t know about the fly but, for me, this was the most troublesome clue |
| 24 Muscles falling short separately (7) |
ASUNDER | B |
ABS (muscles)+UNDER (falling short) |
| 25 Writer’s incomplete second swordsman (5) |
ATHOS Athos |
U |
AUTHO[r] (writer; incomplete)+Second |
| 26 Part of a poem tenor recites discordantly (7) |
TIERCET | S |
Tenor+RECITES (anag: discordantly) |
| 27 An antelope about to fall? Certainly! (6) |
REEBOK | B |
RE (about)+EBB (fall)+OK (certainly) |
| 28 Placate marine found in mostly unlit room (6) |
DISARM | E |
DI[m] (unlit; mostly)+SEA (marine)+RM (room) |
| 29 John’s crazy about our columnist (6) |
JOURNO | H |
JOHN (anag: crazy) containing OUR |
| 30 Prey is scattering before seven blasts on the horn (according to Walter) (6) |
PRYSES Walter Scott |
I |
PREY IS (anag: scattering)+Seven |
| 34 A dancer, liberal in reputation (4) |
ALME | N |
NAME (reputation) containing Liberal |
| 35 Paisley’s bore raised a buck? (4) |
DEER | D |
DREED (bore: Scottish: Paisley) rev: raised |
As you say, on the easy side for the Inquisitor, but lots of fun, and just what the doctor ordered after last week. Hope you had a good holiday. 🙂
Agreed at all points. An unusually quick solve which I don’t expect from Schadenfreude, but suitably chucklesome, and it was a neat touch (or hint) that SERGEANT — the first film — was also first to be spelt out in clue order.
Thanks as always to Schadenfreude and Kenmac.
I agree; it was nice, having found the answer, to be able to enter it.
Thanks to Schadnfreude and Kenmac
Very enjoyable, and a welcome relief following last week’s monster. I needed help from Mr Wikipedia to find the Carry On films.
Coincidentally we had watched Carry On up the Khyber with our two kids a few days previously. They were a bit bemused by the film. I think they failed to spot nearly all of the toilet references, too dated for them to recognise.
Yes, a relatively simple one this time. Fun though. My solving experience was different from yours, kenmac. I started at the top and worked down, but the letters I had from sergeant and teacher didn’t let me guess the theme until I got to the bottom half! Thanks to setter and blogger. I hope our esteemed editor isn’t building up to 1530 (my blog) as another horror like 1526!
Yes, it was on the easier side for an IQ but still lots of fun. We needed a google search though to connect some of the words we guessed from the extra letters.
Once the grid was filled we were pleasantly surprised to see how the extra “Carry on” films were connected – very neat!
Thanks to Schadenfreude and Kenmac.
Nice. A calming experience. Do we think the theme was deliberately chosen as a message to those thinking of abandoning the IQ after the pain of the previous week’s solve?