Rodriguez sets the Saturday challenge this week.
We found this tricky in parts, but there were some pretty straightforward clues to compensate.
The first two clues suggest that there might be a political theme, but we can’t see anything else to confirm it, or any other possible thematic entries for that matter – perhaps we’re missing something?
We don’t normally like long anagrams, but 1ac and 28ac are excellent, with great surfaces. As we have come to expect of Rodriguez, surfaces throughout are very smooth and there are a lot of crafty synonyms in the definitions and wordplay.
An anagram (‘possibly’) of PRITI PATEL ONE and NotablY (without the middle letters or ‘heartless’)
C (Conservative) LEAVER (Brexiteer)
OUR (possessed by us) after MANE (hair) reversed or ‘receding’
SAT (Saturday – 24 hours) YR (year – there are 8,760 hours in a 365-day year)
SNAP (see red) SHOT (drop of alcohol)
AVERS (states) in or ‘cutting through’ TRAiL (path) with the ‘i’ (one) omitted or ‘left’
E (logarithmic base) + an anagram (‘broken’) of RULE
Hidden or ‘caught’ in muskET HOSpitalised
AUDI (car) O (wheel) BOOK (caution)
SEDITION (rabble-rousing) with the S (first letter or ‘leader’) moved to the back or ‘delayed’
OFFA (old king) L (first letter of Lear)
C (cold) HIP (hot) PIE (dish)
IT (‘the thing’) in or ‘eaten by’ WHINGe (carp) without the last letter or ‘most of’
An anagram (‘wild’) of CHEERING MET MAN U
PACE (with respect) SETTER (me)
ART (skill) CELEb (star) without the last letter or ‘almost’, all reversed or ‘elevated’
IN (voguish) VERNE’S (French writer’s) S (southern)
mORRIS (dancing style) without the first letter or ‘topless’
A homophone (‘it’s said’) of I (Rodriguez, the setter) BALD (after a close shave)
SMART (able) reversed or ‘returning’
An anagram (‘to swim’) of TOO LAX + L (lake)
Y OR E (first and last letters or ‘tips’ of Yuletide)
BLIGHT (plague) round RAKE (libertine)
An anagram (‘new’) of PROPOSE round or ‘packaging’ A (area) + A
ECO (green) NOSE (bouquet) round or ‘crossing’ MI (big road)
Saying ADRIAN (Mole maybe) with aspiration would add an H at the front
OFF (unacceptable) SIDE (TV channel)
OP (work) in or ‘penned by’ TIC (jerk)
Double definition
MACS (coats) reversed or ‘from the south’ (in a down clue)
PACESETTER
DNK pace meant “with due respect to”
Found a good example online: I have not, pace my detractors, entered into any secret negotiations.
Liked WHITING (good deception! no carp!), HADRIAN (Something different from those Eastender clues-maybe there are some aspiring West-enders) and SEWER (darn deception again).
Liked. Clever but with helpful entry points and friendly anagrams. ‘Satyr’, ‘enamour’ and ‘economise’ among the favourites. I guess these are clues with ‘smooth’ surfaces. The blog clarified the parsing for 19a (where I live, to caution is to warn, to book is to fine), 21a, 2d, and 20d (‘side’ is a TV channel?). Thanks.
Rodriguez on top form!
A brilliant start with the stunning 1ac – dare I call it one of ‘those’ clues? And, as B&J say, 28ac is excellent, too.
There’s not a dud clue anywhere – I loved all the ‘crafty synonyms’ – but special mention for SATYR, EDITIONS, PACESETTER, INVERNESS, EYEBALLED, AXOLOTL, , ECONOMISE and HADRIAN.
rookie @2 – in the olden days, when we had only two channels, BBC and ITV, we would talk of switching over to the other side.
Many thanks to Rodriguez for a real Saturday treat and to B&J for a great blog.
No-one will be at all surprised to see me type ‘What Eileen said’!
Thanks to Rodriguez for a splendid crossed – I found it on the friendly side for one of your crosswords – and to B&J for an equally splendid blog
Me @ 4 – crossword even!
The excellent anagrams at 1A and 28A went in quickly and got me off to a good start. It was slow progress thereafter for some reason, but I got there in the end with a tiny bit of word searching. I winced at 25D, having just succumbed to one, to my shame.
Thanks Rodriguez and B&J.
Thank you to KVa for an example of the use of PACE, I was rather lost with the parsing of that.
Hope that my newfound knowledge of how many hours there are in a year comes in useful sometime although I have my doubts!
Favourite was definitely HADRIAN with a nod to SEWER.
Thanks to Rodriguez and to B&J for the review.
Agree with Eileen @ #3. Very good. Well done rodri g/q uez.
The usual brilliance from Rodriguez. I wondered for a moment whether humour about Manchester United with Munich in the punchline was appropriate, but decided I was being oversensitive.
Thanks both. Failed to parse HADRIAN but it is very clever. For me, OFFSIDE is an offence in sport, not a foul, but a higher authority may well contradict that view
Exactly what Eileen said (and I got my wish even though it was Rodriguez in the Indy rather than buccaneer in the FT)!
Thanks all.
Aha so must be Picaroon then. Many a puzzle from him about at the moment.
gsolphotog @ 11
Yes, I thought of you – I hope you enjoyed Alberich’s super FT puzzle, too!
Agree with TFO, btw, that OFFSIDE is not a ‘foul’.
Just beaten by ORRIS – never heard of & missed the wordplay. PACE meaning new to me too. Thank heavens the Mexican lake dweller was an anagram. Super crossword with stacks of great clues. Nothing better than the surface read at 1a which made me chuckle. Thanks to Rodriguez & B&J
Returning to this late, I didn’t finish and 1dn was one I couldn’t get, but having seen the answer I realise I did know that meaning of PACE. It’s from the Latin for peace and nobody has mentioned yet that it’s two syllables. I usually pronounce it PA-CHAY but Chambers gives two other pronunciations as well.
I solved this yesterday but did not have time to comment. I thought this was brilliant, a lot of fun at the easier end of Rodriguez’s spectrum.
My only qualm is that 20d is not a foul.
My top three were PLENIPOTENTIARY, HADRIAN and EYEBALLED.
Many thanks to Rodriguez and to B&J.
When I checked this for publication I too was convinced that an offside wasn’t a foul but all three main dictionaries seem to support Rodriguez’s clue:
noun
14 (Sport)
a violation of the rules (Collins)
any breach of the rules in games or contests (Chambers)
noun (in sport) an unfair or invalid stroke or piece of play (COED)