A slow solve with some neat cluing and quite a few tricky parsings. Favourites were 6ac, 9ac, 12ac, 3dn, 7dn, and 20dn. Thanks to Anto for the puzzle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BACKSLIDE |
Lose ground as learner crashes into rear end (9)
|
| L (learner) inside BACKSIDE=”rear end” | ||
| 6 | HABIT |
Wag’s partner has Italian dress (5)
|
| HAB + IT (Italian)
Wag=singular of WAGs (Wives and Girlfriends), partners of HABs (Husbands and Boyfriends) |
||
| 9 | INDIA |
Country I represented in Nato communications (5)
|
| double definition: second def referring to the letter I spoken aloud as India in the Nato phonetic alphabet | ||
| 10 | OVERNIGHT |
Open and close inside short period (9)
|
| OVERT=”Open” with NIGH=”close” inside | ||
| 11 | GUN |
Parent of boy who’s a rascal? (3)
|
| Edit: Hovis has a better explanation – the parent of a ‘son of a gun’=”rascal”, with ‘son’ more directly justifying the use of “Parent” and “boy” cryptic def: a ‘young gun’ as a “boy who’s a rascal”, and their parent would be a [grown] GUN |
||
| 12 | EGALITARIAN |
Bespoke Italian gear for everyone (11)
|
| anagram/”Bespoke” of (Italian gear)* | ||
| 14 | PRAIRIE |
Broadcast that is going after voting system — that’s plain (7)
|
| AIR=”Broadcast” + I.E.=id est=”that is”; after PR (Proportional Representation, “voting system”) | ||
| 15 | SCHISMS |
His involvement in heartless frauds creates divisions (7)
|
| HIS inside heartless SC-a-MS=”frauds” | ||
| 16 | ENGAGED |
Hired to provide evidence that ladies are being used (7)
|
| double definition: the second def referring to ‘ENGAGED’ signs/displays that indicate that a toilet (e.g. the “ladies”) is in use | ||
| 19 | PROBLEM |
Muse endlessly about this, for example (7)
|
| definition referring to the clue or the crossword as a problem to solve
MUS-e endlessly gives MUS, about/”reversed” gives SUM = PROBLEM |
||
| 22 | A POSTERIORI |
Seat must have top class cover — a logical way to think (1,10)
|
| definition referring to reasoning based on observed facts
POSTERIOR=”Seat”, inside / covered by: AI=A1=”top class” |
||
| 23 | NIL |
Nothing is held back in … (3)
|
| hidden and reversed/”held back” in skinf-LIN-t, with the “…” linking into the next clue/solution | ||
| 24 | SKINFLINT |
… film by old striker who keeps things tight (9)
|
| SKIN=surface layer=”film” + FLINT=”old striker” referring to the historic use of flint and steel to create sparks/flames | ||
| 26 | IPADS |
Tablets regularly shown in display desk (5)
|
| regular letters taken from d-I-s-P-l-A-y D-e-S-k | ||
| 27 | DUSTY |
Half of duo’s styles are somewhat shabby (5)
|
| Half of the words DU-o’s and STY-les | ||
| 28 | DIRT CHEAP |
Tired chap worried for nothing really (4,5)
|
| anagram/”worried” of (Tired chap)* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BRING UP |
Introduce faction in local rising (5,2)
|
| RING=”faction” in PUB=”local” reversed upwards/”rising” | ||
| 2 | CADENZA |
Untrustworthy type reportedly calls off a solo passage (7)
|
| definition: a musical passage for a soloist
CAD=”Untrustworthy type” + ENZ sounds like ‘ends’=”reportedly calls off” + A |
||
| 3 | STAGE FRIGHT |
Fellow in house left causing actor to stop performing (5,6)
|
| F (Fellow) in STAGE RIGHT=”house left” i.e. to the left, from the audience’s point of view | ||
| 4 | ISOLATE |
Cut off is suspended once leaders get delayed (7)
|
| leading letters from I-s S-uspended O-nce; plus LATE=”delayed” | ||
| 5 | EYELIDS |
Seedily manipulated protection for viewers (7)
|
| anagram/”manipulated” of (Seedily)* | ||
| 6 | HEN |
Finishes off with single green layer (3)
|
| end letters/”Finishes” taken from/”off”: wit-H singl-E gree-N | ||
| 7 | BAGGINS |
Capture spirits of family in the shire (7)
|
| definition: the family of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, who live in the Shire in Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
BAG=”Capture” + GINS=alcoholic “spirits” |
||
| 8 | TETANUS |
Offensive ass may transmit it through biting (7)
|
| TET referring to the T?t Offensive in the Vietnam War; plus ANUS=”ass” | ||
| 13 | APHRODISIAC |
Aid ship orca damaged, which arouses those chasing it (11)
|
| anagram/”damaged” of (Aid ship orca)* | ||
| 16 | ELAPSED |
Section of quaysides Palermo erected are out of date (7)
|
| Hidden in/”Section of” quaysi-DES PALE-rmo, and reversed upwards/”erected” | ||
| 17 | GOOLIES |
They need protection perhaps, taking on good deliveries (7)
|
| definition: slang for testicles
taking on G (good) would make GOO-G-LIES=a type of cricket “deliveries” |
||
| 18 | DIRTIED |
Radio’s airtime schedule essentially gets fouled up (7)
|
| central letters of/”essentially”: ra-DI-o’s ai-RTI-me sch-ED-ule | ||
| 19 | PROCTOR |
Spin doctor lacking degree becomes university official (7)
|
| PR (Public Relations, “Spin”) + d-OCTOR minus d for “degree” | ||
| 20 | LINEAGE |
Descent described by eagle? (7)
|
| described by eagle => eag-L-e => ‘L’ in ‘eage’ => L IN EAGE | ||
| 21 | MILKSOP |
Mummy’s boy switching tops on delicate fabric cleaner (7)
|
| SILK=”delicate fabric” + MOP=”cleaner”, with the top/first letters switched | ||
| 25 | FLY |
Intelligent dash display (3)
|
| triple definition: FLY=knowing=”Intelligent”; FLY=move quickly=”dash”; FLY e.g. a flag=”display” a flag |
I took 11a as a play on “son of a gun”.
I admit to having had an (unjustified) prejudice against Anto, whose early offerings often left me flat, but today I really enjoyed some excellent clues, until I got to the ones I couldn’t parse: HABit, GUN, PROBLEM, LINEAGE. My prejudice reared its ugly head again… “What’s he on about?” Now that they’re explained I think they’re brilliant, especially HABIT. So apologies and thanks to Anto, and thanks to manehi for putting me right.
Same as Hovis on GUN – though it was LOI with the penny dropping about 15 minutes after everything else. A hard one to get onto Anto’s wavelength today but got there in the end. Some delightful cheek – GOOLIES and APHRODISIAC (slightly clumsy anagram fodder but worth it). HEN misled for ages and is very neat. LINEAGE gets COTD, though. Breathtaking when I parsed it.
Thanks Anto and manehi
BTW: is Shire one of those situations where the S probably shouldn’t have been decapitalised? Though that might have made it a bit of a giveaway for those familiar with Tolkien.
GUNs ablaze! — I couldn’t come up with anything sensible to explain of – but I do like the son of a … explanation.
Yep, this Anto took a bit of pondering, with a lazy unparsed biff or two. Hadn’t ever seen the hab acronym, tho obvs; thought gun, loi, was a bit weird, and didn’t get the house left/stage right thing [once did a season as casual mechanist for Opera Australia, which was great fun but many decades ago]. [Even more decades ago, saw Isaac Stern doing the Beethoven; his cadenza was breathtaking]. Nice puzzle, nice memories, thanks both.
Exactly what Blaise@2 said; and I agree with PostMark@6 about the S. Also I apparently don’t know my ass from my anus: I always thought it was just buttocks.
Thanks maheni and Anto
Hm, … Rather a lot of bottoms, I noted, not that I am objecting: BACKSIDE/rear end in 1A; ANUS/ass in 8D; POSTERIOR/seat in 22A. Thankfully, PROCTORs do not practise proctology, but I cannot help wondering if the word was consciously or subconsciously suggested by Anto’s tour of the nether regions. GOOLIES were also, so to speak, rather below the belt.
postmark@4, not 6
I too had son of a gun. Slow start but this turned out to be top class, with no ‘bum’ clues, (well there were three at least). Agree with PM @3 that LINEAGE was great and I also ticked the super EGALITARIAN, PROBLEM, STAGE FRIGHT, MILKSOP, PROCTOR and the funny GOOLIES. I needed HABIT parsed.
Ta Anto & manehi
Also read 11a as ‘son of a gun’. Agree with PostMark@4 re the capitalisation of Shire. The way to disguise it would be to make it the first word.
Nice puzzle, thanks Anto and manehi
I took lineage as in inside eagle*, with the ? as anagrind.
Thanks Anto and manehi
I didn’t find this too difficult, though I didn’t parse GOOLIES – I thought the G at the start was the Good, so had no idea on “Ooolies”. I didn’t parse PROBLEM either.
Ellipses meaningful in 23/24 – that’s unusual!
I don’t see why “through biting” in 8d. Tetanus is usually contracted through scratches and cuts.
Favourite BACKSLIDE, but there were several other grins too.
SC @8: I had the same thought with PROCTOR and googled it to see if it had an alternative meaning in line with your thinking 🙂
Yes, son of a gun and in inside eagle for me too.
Thanks Anto and Manehi!
11 AC: Rascal is a son of a gun. Thus…..
I feel so
Sorry. I didn’t notice that it’s already edited.
I assumed the son of a gun explanation. But then there’s only one clue. Maybe The Shire is a shire. Thanks to all.
I had same as grantinfreo@12 for lineage but am now persuaded your parsing, manehi, is the right one and far superior. As others, I had initially assumed this would be a fairly straightforward crossie but soon had to rethink that. I spotted the bum theme (yes, pun is intended) fairly early on. Grateful to setter and blogger for the good fun.
New: GOOLIES, HAB
Did not parse LINEAGE apart from *eagle, STAGE FRIGHT, NIL, DIRTIED, PROBLEM.
Liked BACKSLIDE, BAGGINS, OVERNIGHT.
Thanks, both
I wonder if anybody from a non-cricket nation (or even background) got GOOLIES (even that term is Pommy slang, isn’t it?). I parsed it a bit differently, as a cryptic definition: you need a box to protect your goolies from good bowling – even though I had considered googlies, I didn’t see how g+ooglies would work. Count me as another in the “son of a gun” camp. BAGGINS was excellent when I finally saw it, even though I had considered the Shire as from Tolkien before and dismissed it. Also liked HABIT – but again, WAG is a Pommy thing, isn’t it? – one I fortunately know from time spent there. Like several others, I was very slow to get started here. Thanks for the parsing of NIL, manehi – sometimes, the ellipses do actually mean the clues are linked. Thanks to Anto too.
What blaise said.
TT @21, you’re clearly not up with important Oz cultural events like The Brownlowe, where the Habs are in black tie and the Wags doll up very, er, eyecatchingly.
… oops, Brownlow has no ‘e’…
[Something that always amuses me. The googly is also called the “wrong ‘un”. Subcontinental cricket commentators, whose English and diction is often better than ours, can’t bring themselves to say this, so always say “wrong one”. It always sounds odd.
On a further trivia note, it is also called a “bosie”, after its inventor, Bernard Bosanquet, father of Reginald, the TV presenter.]
[Out of curiosity, and avoiding any spoilers, did anyone else find a certain four letter word popping into their mind when they solved ENGAGED? 😀 ]
Today the smartphone version which I solved didn’t give the name of the setter – I did think it might be Paul, as it was distinctly fundamental, though it didn’t seem to have his clueing style.
Lots of ingenious clues though; I particularly liked STAGE FRIGHT, OVERNIGHT, EGALITARIAN and MILKSOP, which cleverly avoided having to call for the assistance of the Rev Spooner.
I note that nobody so far has objected to BAGGINS, after the Elrond controversy last week….
Thanks to Anto and manehi.
Same as Blaise @2; after a shaky start in the Quiptic Anto is now producing good crosswords.
I think shire should have been capitalised; as Jay @11 suggested, something like: Shire family capture spirits would have got around the problem. I didn’t parse GUN, but accept the explanation of Hovis @1.
I liked HABIT, OVERNIGHT, STAGE FRIGHT and LINEAGE among others.
Thanks Anto and manehi.
[ginf @23 – I care who wins the Brownlow, but I don’t care to watch the nonsense… and in any case, I strongly suspect the term was pinched from the UK gutter press.]
Thanks to Anto and manehi.
Could have stared at LINEAGE all day and never parsed it.
Thanks manehi for parsing PROBLEM. I could only think that Erato & Co must have had a sister called Melborpo.
I’m with Gervase @27 in appreciating the Spoonerism that dare not speak its name.
Very enjoyable, ta A & m
An absolute delight, with great surfaces and excellent clueing. Thank you Anto and manehi although for once I managed to parse everything, and also thought that if a rascal is a son of a gun then the parent is….
Excellent puzzle and blog – I couldn’t parse PROBLEM or LINEAGE (the latter is excellent!).
As well as all the bottoms, I couldn’t help noticing DIRTIED, DIRT CHEAP and DUSTY.
Also we seem to have STAG(efright) and HEN, OVERNIGHT with APHRODISIAC.
Coincidence? probably!
A bum puzzle. Right up my alley. Thanks s&b.
I love clues like LINEAGE, very clever and with a nice surface. With the crosser PROBLEM, which was very indirect and which I never parsed (I even spent some time reading about the Greek Muses), that corner was the last to fall.
GUN was a nice Aha! too.
I thought my justification for GOOLIES was slightly ridiculous, so was a bit surprised to find that it is apparently the intended parsing. The wordplay still seems a bit strange.
I read the “perhaps” as part of the wordplay, “perhaps taking on good [comma] deliveries”, i.e. it’s something that would become GOOGLIES if G were added.
Thanks very much mahehi for explaining LINEAGE (don’t like it much as EAGE is obscure in the extreme) and GOOGLIES (I went down the same route as muffin@13, I would have preferred “deliveries no good at heart” or similar as an alt def, it is a bit unclear to me why we would need to reverse construct the last word from the solution). In fact agree with all of muffin’s points and with improvements suggested to BAGGINS, very succinct Robi@28. But a lot of very good and devious clues here, enjoyed HABIT and the lovely OVERNIGHT, MILKSOP (a lesser clue might have shoehorned the rev into that one), also agree with PostMark’s remark on 13D, and a nice nod to the modern(ish) world in IPADS, thanks Anto.
Anto is getting really good. I loved SON OF GUN. A POSTERIORI and GOO(G)LIES
I liked it all so thanks Anto and manehi
last week we had ‘dia’ for dire, today we have ‘ens’ for end. Watt is the wareld comng tu?
As for other participants, I didn’t feel confident about getting on Anto’s wavelength when I began, but I did enjoy solving this offering, so thank you to Anto as today’s setter. Several intersections with manehi’s favourites as well as others mentioned above; just wanted to add 5d EYELIDS. Thanks to manehi for a couple of parses I didn’t quite get.
This was top notch, with some very clever devices. Loved 6a (for the nicely conceived WAG’s partner), 10a, 16a, 20d and many others. Lots of tricky parsing which seemed impenetrable until the penny dropped, and which was well worth the effort.
Thanks Anto and manehi.
Note to setters (again):
SUM is not equal to PROBLEM.
I can recall my primary-school arithmetic lessons.
Doing sums was easier than doing problems; for the former, the calculations were specified; for the latter, what to calculate had to be deduced.
Took me a while to solve 1ac, even though the great Methodist preacher
John Wesley was forever going on about BACKSLIDErs in his voluminous journals which I have recently ploughed through. As with a fairly newish setter on here, it’s taking me a while to get onto Anto’s wavelength. But I agree that there were some excellent clues, particularly liked ENGAGED. Not quite sure what Postmark@26 is suggesting. The term “four letter word” is often taken to mean something rather mischievous or naughty, however…
Excellent crossword. Didn’t parse GOOLIES. Favourites in line with others’ comments, especially LINEAGE and APHRODISIAC. I didn’t mind the uncapitalised Shire in the hobbit clue – I know that’s supposed to be against “the rules”, but I don’t really see why. A DNF as I failed on PROBLEM: I looked up a list of Muses and two of them (Melpomene and Polyhymnia) included all the crossers, but that didn’t help much; having seen the answer, I think it’s the weakest clue.
Thanks Anto and manehi.
[Ronald @42: you were on yesterday’s blog, methinks. It had come up a dozen times before your post @32… And I would never post anything mischievous or naughty 😉 ]
Agree with previous posters’ commendations – but at 8d am not happy about use of ‘offensive’ alone to define TET, which is rather like defining Easter as ‘uprising’. ?
[peterM @45: If you’ll allow me a slight modification, what about Time to rise in Jerusalem or Dublin (6)? ]
I put in HABIT without having heard of WAGs and HABs (the terms don’t seem to have crossed the pond), so after finishing looked them up. Apparently, there are other acronyms of the same kind: CHAPs, MAGs, SADs and SWAGs (see here).
An ingenious mixture of new ideas (‘wag’s partner’=HAB, L-in-EAGE, ‘switching tops’ without invoking Spooner), some old chestnuts (‘sum’=PROBLEM, ‘offensive’=TET) and some borderline unfairness (‘shire’ without its capital, ‘half of duo’s styles’ with no indication that both words have to be halved) – not to mention some borrowings from another setter’s fixation on the nether regions.
Clue of the day was 11a GUN: totally impenetrable at first, but utterly convincing once solved. I also liked the way NIL was hidden in the next answer (which helped me with both). And I enjoyed the image of an unidentified wrong ‘un crashing into the batsman’s unprotected GOOLIES!
Thanks to Anto, and to manehi – especially for the parsing of LINEAGE, which had escaped me.
Never heard of HAB or WAG, though the latter sounds dimly familiar. Biffed it in. Now that I know it I doubt I’ll use it, though I may recognize it.
In 12a “bespoke” is a new and original anagram indicator, I like it..
I think “out of date” is LAPSED. ELAPSED just means “passed.”
Well, googly is one of the many words I know have something to do with cricket but not what. I thought, “Okay, I’ll look up this one and at least know what one term refers to.” Google (!) gave me “an offbreak in cricket with a leg-break action.” Okay, I give up. But there was also a definition referring to bulgy eyes, which reminded me of the ’40s song (sung by the Andrews Sisters, I now know) “Barney Google, with the Goo-goo-googly Eyes.”
LINEAGE = L in EAGE! Oy!! I’d never have worked that out.
SPIN DOCTOR is another neat separation of two words that go together. I enjoyed it once I discovered the “provost” wasn’t going to work.
Gervase@27 I think it’s because Bilbo and Frodo Baggins are much better known than Elrond, whom I for one had completely forgotten.
Lots of fun, Anto, thank you. And than you manehi for unsnarling the un-unsnarlable. Some of those were really beyond me.
A Posteriori was a write in for me thanks to the second line of Jake Thackray’s classic On Again , On Again.
I suspect he would have been good at these crosswords given his extensive vocabulary
Excellent.
Top was fine, bottom pretty much a mystery. As ever, once I can’t solve a clue, that seems to be it.
Thanks for a number of parsings and the solutions, and Anto.
We had cobblers in the FT yesterday and GOOLIES today, both words I think popularised by Albert Steptoe.
Beaulieu @43 – I had 19a as PRONOUN by convincing myself that MUSE = PRONOUNCE shortened to PRONOUN (endlessly) = THIS, FOR EXAMPLE.
Apparent why I struggle with cryptic crosswords!
HoofIt @51: today was not a day for bottoms to be a mystery to you!
HoofItYouDonkey @53. PRONOUN did make it onto my shortlist for a moment, but MILKSOP came to my rescue. Like you, I found the bottom half much harder than the top, which may have been appropriate given the theme, or then again (as Mark points out @54) possibly not.
When a clue can’t be solved at first, as you mention @51, it can be counterproductive to keep plugging away at it. I sometimes find it helpful to just go away and do something else, then come back later. It’s surprising how often this approach pays off – it seems to unblock the brain and opens up thoughts that would never have cropped up before, like the G in GOOLIES to make GOOGLIES, which I didn’t get until after doing the Killer Sudoku.
I actually finished this on the day after a spell of unaccustomed business. I’m another who thought ‘son of a’ GUN. Didn’t know HAB and couldn’t parse TETANUS. Went for BIGWIGS at 7d, never heard of BAGGINS. Nearly gave up at SE corner then MILKSOP dawned and I finshed. Thanks to all
Late to solve but that was very quick for me today.
Really enjoyed that as well, especially 17d which was a giggle.
Thanks Anto and manehi!
My FOI was STAGE FRIGHT which I thought was a brilliant clue. Then came INDIA, another gem. OVERNIGHT, HEN, TETANUS, and APHRODISIAC also struck me as very good. I got GUN and NIL but really didn’t “get” them so thanks manehi for explaining. I had no chance with HABIT or GOOLIES and I think PROBLEM was the only suspect clue in the bunch. Thanks Anto for the fun.
Found this seriously tough going today, but I’m putting that down to lack of sleep… Some went in very easily (INDIA, A POSTERIORI, APHRODISIAC) but even having the crossing letters didn’t provide much help for several clues today. Plenty to admire in the construction of this puzzle though, so thanks Anto. And thanks manehi for unravelling it all.
I agree with Sheffield hatter @48 on GUN – “totally impenetrable at first, but utterly convincing once solved”. The essence of good cryptic clueing.
No-one has attempted an explanation of “through biting” for TETANUS, It’s a disease that is very rarely (if ever) transmitted by bites; it’s a bacterium found in soil, poo etc. that gets in through cuts in the skin.
Never read any Tolkien, but the word play could only yield BAGGINS and I have at least heard of the character although the shire stuff meant nothing to me. Not sure I’ve ever come across ‘essentially’ as used in 18D which I filled in as nothing else seemed to fit. Enjoyed the crossword though, and had a smile at GOOLIES: I generally attack The Times crossword before The Guardian, and we don’t use words like that over there, you know. 🙂
Muffin @60 maybe dog bites can lead to tetanus ? Perhaps they carry the bacillus in saliva. Pretty sure people get a tetanus jab after a dog bite.
[Roz @62: I thought the same as you. This from no less an authority than the NHS:
People and animals have a lot of bacteria in their mouths, which can cause an infection if a bite breaks the skin.
These infections are rarely serious if treated quickly, but occasionally they can spread to the blood or other parts of the body.
Serious infections such as tetanus and rabies are extremely rare in the UK, but it’s important to get serious bites looked at as treatment to prevent these infections may be recommended. ]
TassieTim@21: “I wonder if anybody from a non-cricket nation (or even background) got GOOLIES…?”
Not me, that’s for sure! A few too many recondite parsings for my taste here, but I like “switch tops” for spoonerisms and hope we can see some more ways of cluing these without using the Rev.’s name explicitly! Hmm… “Spooner’s mixed-up way of saying ‘verse only'” (2, 5)
Thanks Anto and manehi for the much-needed blog!
matt w @64. Nice one, but is the answer a standard phrase? I think that might rule it out.
[ MrPostMark@63 thanks for the info and NO LINK. I was only surmising but your NHS advice seems to give the setter enough cover here. ]
matt w @64: I like the idea.
Spooner’s mixed up, showing no love for primate (6) ?
(one of the worst clues never posted by The Guardian 😉 )
[ do you mean no love ONCE ? Need to be careful . ]
[Roz: mea culpa. How about ‘lacking love’ = lacking (one) zero?]
I think we have seen Couto before, telling us how awful the crossword was, but not staying long enough to tell us in what way it didn’t meet the standard they have set. It would help us if they would point out exactly how misplaced our appreciation of Anto’s efforts was. Not holding my breath though.
[ Still ambiguous really , it could mean lacking o totally. Good idea for a clue though. ]
[Alternatively, Morse might appreciate this one:
Spooner’s mixed up… missing primate? (6) ]
[ Perfect . Once a month the Azed has a prize crossword but you need to send in a clue for a specified grid entry. I am hopeless, no imagination . ]
OOPS – even more mea culpa – should be —. Sorry Gaufrid for clogging up the blog
[ Of course should be dash dash dash , think again ]
OK, so tetanus can be transmitted by a bite, but at least 99 times out of a hundred it isn’t. It’s still an off-centre definition.
Couto, could you be more specific? If you think that this is one of the worst crosswords posted by the Guardian, you obviously didn’t see Anto’s early Quiptics. This was far better – in fact, very enjoyable.
Roz and essexboy, I have no idea what the two of you are on about.
Couto = Troll
[Valentine @78
They are trying to refine a “dummy Spooner” clue for PERSON. I saw a dummy Spooner clue in a published puzzle a few months ago – sadly I can’t recall it.]
I’d love to see a puzzle in which all the cliches like “Spooner’s” appeared but none of them meant what they usually mean.
The closest I can remember is a Guardian puzzle while months ago by Brendan in which he worked “initially” or phrases similar to it into many clues, almost never in the usual cryptic sense. And then a load of people didn’t seem to get it and complained about the repetitive clues…
Love what you did there Couto – emphasising your disdain by posting one of the most inane comments on this forum. ever. chapeau
DS @ 81: There was a puzzle a few years back where (if I’ve remembered this in the right order) the clue included ‘Spooner’ and the solution related to someone who spoons.
I don’t understand how “in” gets into lineage. Can someone please explain?
Lorna @84: doubt if you’ll pop back now but, in case you do, hope this helps. Descent is, of course, the definition and described by eagle gets us there by literally ‘describing’ what we see when we look at the five letter word eagle: an L within the four letter group EAGE. L in EAGE. LINEAGE.
For anybody who actually likes Spoonerisms there was an Azed special about a month ago. Half the clues had a Spoonerism in the definition which had to be resolved before solving the clue, The other half , we had to enter a Spoonerism of the actual solution. Of course we were not told which clues were which type.
I can never understand the connection between donkeys and bums 😉
tony smith @87
You would have to be American.
Years ago I was doing a crossword – an Everyman, I think – and I had
UP TO HIS ???? IN IT
It was an anagram, and the remaining letters were A R S E.
It was “ears”!
LOIs: PROBLEM and LINEAGE both of which I had to pattern match in the Chambers app. The ENZA in CADENZA sounds like ENDS A, as it’s from Italian.
muffin@88: chuckle
Thanks to all who have picked up on my attempt to give the tongue-twisted Reverend a twist! essexboy@68, I take your point about the set phrase; I was looking for something with a two-word answer so as to make it look like a Spoonerism… let’s try this:
Bad Spooner! No, no self-representing! (3, 2)
Good effort, matt! Not an expression I knew, but Google tells me that your definition is precisely correct.