A good, fun crossword from a setter not usually seen on Fridays. Thanks Goliath, for a challenge replete with witty cluing and unusual surfaces.
FF: 10 DD: 8
I got held up on the parsing for 6d and 23d.
| Across | ||
| 1, 4 | AND ALL THAT JAZZ | Anne dallying, then atop Jack, half cut, then snoring etc . . . (3,3,4,4) |
| ANne DALLying THen ATop JAck (half cut) ZZ (snoring) | ||
| 9 | UNUSED | Fresh sun due to come out (6) |
| SUN DUE* | ||
| 10 | PACIFIST | Contract will cover as long as one’s not 21 (8) |
| PACT (contract) covering [ IF (as long as) IS (one’s) ] | ||
| 12 | HOGMANAY | Time to bring in the new, distressed mahogany (8) |
| MAHOGANY* | ||
| 13 | ACCRUE | Build up a team, say (6) |
| sounds like A CREW (team) | ||
| 15, 16 | BIRDWATCHER | Birthday card we made, taking day off for 6 (11) |
| BIRTHday CARD WE* (without DAY) ; clue for 6d reads “..one with binoculars” | ||
| 20, 21 | SPARROWHAWK | Bird fights bird (11) |
| SPAR ROW (fights) HAWK (bird) | ||
| 25 | OEUVRE | Edges of one rectangle framing a sort of light work (6) |
| OnE RectanglE (edges of ) around UV (sort of light) | ||
| 26 | VERY WELL | Precise water source in a good condition (4,4) |
| VERY (precise) WELL (water source) | ||
| 28 | TRIMARAN | Cut a managed vessel (8) |
| TRIM (cut) A RAN (managed) | ||
| 29 | JET LAG | Travel sickness in Spooner’s rental car (3,3) |
| spoonerism of LET (rental) JAG (car, jaguar) | ||
| 30, 31 | WORTH THE EFFORT | Keep following rejected loud argument about article in itself justifiable (5,3,6) |
| FORT (keep) after [ WOR (loud arugument = ROW, reversed) { THE (article) in THE (~in itself) } ] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ABU DHABI | A half-hearted religious leader seeking men and women in the capital (3,5) |
| A BUDdHA (religious leader, half hearted, i.e. without one of its central two characters) BI (seeking men and women) | ||
| 2 | DRUDGERY | Barnaby in dull and tedious chores (8) |
| RUDGE (barnaby, from the charles dickens novel of the same name) in DRY (dull) | ||
| 3 | LEEWAY | Room to manoeuvre small rising input (6) |
| EEW (small = WEE, reversed) in LAY (put) | ||
| 5, 27 | HEAT RASH | The man with a rubbish skin problem (4,4) |
| HE (the man) A TRASH (rubbish) | ||
| 6 | TWITCHER | Busybody by curtain is one with binoculars (8) |
| Double def. | ||
| 7 | AVIARY | Where one might see high flyers having some caviar? Yes! (6) |
| hidden in “..cAVIAR Yes” | ||
| 8 | ZITHER | Spot the girl’s instrument (6) |
| ZIT (spot) HER (the girl’s) | ||
| 11 | MACABRE | Ghastly bra came undone (7) |
| BRA CAME* | ||
| 14 | SCOOTER | Vehicle is only the second Ford Escort to crash (7) |
| fOrd (second of) ESCORT* | ||
| 17 | APPROACH | Expert in most of native American advance (8) |
| PRO (expert) in APACHe (native american, most of) | ||
| 18 | WATERLOO | Battle station (8) |
| double def | ||
| 19 | SKYLIGHT | Delicate jelly seen inside window (8) |
| KY (jelly) inside SLIGHT (delicate) | ||
| 22 | KOWTOW | Flip pan, draw and suck up (6) |
| KOW (pan = WOK, reversed) TOW (draw) | ||
| 23 | JUNIOR | Youngster last to turn into journalist (6) |
| JUNIOR+last can be anagrammatized to produce (to turn into) ‘journalist’ | ||
| 24 | MYSELF | Goliath may sample loaf crusts (6) |
| MaY SamplE LoaF (crusts, referring to end characters for each words) | ||
| 27 | See 5 | |
*anagram
Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs
I think 15/16 is referring to the solution of 6, in that ‘twitcher’ is a slang term for a birdwatcher.
Nice puzzle.
A pleasant solve from our cardiac surgeon-cum-humanitarian-cum-author-cum-cryptic crossword setter. Phew! I didn’t know ‘curtain TWITCHER’ as a term for ‘ Busybody’ (I agree with Simon S @1 about 15,16) but the parsing of the rest was pretty clear.
Favourites were the surface for SPARROWHAWK and MACABRE and the ‘article in itself’ bit of wordplay for 30,31a, which itself was a good description of the puzzle. I identified with 14d, though I doubt if my old Ford Escort was the first, second or even third to crash!
Thanks to Goliath and Turbolegs
Thanks to Goliath and Turbolegs. I got off to a very slow start and had trouble parsing JUNIOR and several others but did finish and much enjoyed the process.
Many thanks to both for another great puzzle and blog.
I thought 1,4 was ingenious and I smiled at 11dn. I enjoyed the BIRDWATCHER / TWITCHER combination, too.
A most gratifying challenge — AND ALL THAT JAZZ was brilliant! It took me some effort to get WORTH THE EFFORT and I did not fully understand the intricate parsing until Turbolegs enlightened me. HOGMANAY was new to me — sounds like a reason to visit Scotland. Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs.
Great puzzle.
I still can’t quite get the parsing of 30/31. There’s a double F, so one must come from “loud”. And there’s “rejected” and “about”, so I’m not sure which is acting to reverse the ROW and then what the other one is doing.
(And I don’t get pacifist = not 21. Can anyone explain; not an easy one to google.)
#21 is HAWK; supporters of an aggressive military are called hawks; opponents are called doves. Not a hawk would be a dove, or a pacifist. These terms were popular in the US during the Vietnam era and are still in use.
George@6. Yes, I didn’t spot that error in blog. “Rejected” is the reversal indicator, so F + ROW for loud argument is reversed and about means it goes around TH(THE)E giving WOR TH THE EF. Finally FORT for keep is tagged on.
Thank you both for very helpful answers
Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs
A catch up puzzle and what a beauty !
Was able to solve and parse all of the clues under average time although it never felt like easy going at any stage. Like others, I thought ABU DHABI and AND ALL THAT JAZZ were cracking clues.
First one in was DRUDGERY (with the giveaway ‘Barnaby’) and last one was JUNIOR (one of his trademark subtraction anagrams).