Tees sets the Saturday challenge this week.
A family fairly straightforward run through today, although we had to rack our brains a bit to recall the character at 13ac. We also checked the spelling of the philosopher at 15d although this was not necessary given the parsing.
CHAR IS (cleaner’s) MA (mother)
DODGE (avoid) M (marks)
A homophone (say) of SILLY (senseless) + CON (crook) + E (last letter or ‘close’ of treasure)
A homophone (articulated) of TENOR (Caruso perhaps)
Alternate or ‘regular’ letters ‘picked’ from gArDeN are A, D OR N
An anagram (‘transformation’) of HAIR-TO-RUG
AD (plug) VENT (hole) in M1 (motorway) SURE (certain)
An anagram (‘explosively’) of HEIR ENDS DATE
An anagram (‘all over the place’) of MOANS RAIN
ZEAl (enthusiasm) without the last letter or ‘much’ round BR (brother)
vERa (without the first and last letters or ‘coat’) MINE (by Tees)
DEE (river) reversed or ‘ebbing’ round DUCAT (old coin)
SecuritY without the middle letters or ’emptied’ STEM (trunk)
FLY (insect) round or ‘devouring’ an anagram (‘distressed’) of DINER
COSTARd (a variety of cooking apple) without the ‘d’ (daughter)
A (answer) BLOOM (Joycean protagonist – Leopold Bloom from ‘Ulysses’)
vINCENT (man) without the first letter or ‘topless’ + gIVEn without the first and last letters or ‘peeled’. There may well be comments from solvers who don’t like the use of ‘man’ to identify a random name. We are not keen on this device.
A cryptic definition – an anagram (‘entanglement’) of AMOS GENE and RITA – three characters in an entanglement?
Alternate or ‘regular’ letters in zOmBiE oAtH
An anagram (‘corrupt’) of SURGEON round or ‘smuggling in’ E (ecstasy)
MARTIN (swallow) + alternate or ‘regular’ letters of mEaT
STEER (direct) round VIEW (idea) ON D (first letter or ‘start’ of Detroit)
An anagram (‘troubled’) of Z (final character) IN SET + CHE (revolutionary)
O (old) DEUS (Latin for God) round or ‘guarding’ Y (unknown) SS (ship)
TA (cheers) round or ‘welcoming’ SUN (star) + MISt (film) without the last letter or ‘unfinished’
AB (sailor) ATE (worried) D (died)
An anagram (‘moving’) of HYDRA round or ‘across’ L (lake)
sARNIE (sandwich) without the ‘s’ (seconds)
Good to see you got the family involved in this one, B&J 😉
I haven’t commented on Tees for a while, though I’ve continued to enjoy the ever-accurate clueing. Gems scattered throughout this one. Two things really clicked amongst all the other quality: MISADVENTURE is delightful. Eight words covering four distinct elements and a definition – lovely. The other is right at the smallest end of the scale – the simple inclusion of ‘by’ in ERMINE that makes all the difference. Over and above those two, a couple of other standouts (excuse pun): SILICONE which made me laugh and the clever disguise of the definition for TSUNAMIS.
Thanks Tees and B&J
Easy Tees. Completed mistake-free. I liked INCENTIVE. I understood the indicators and it is a typically economical Tees clue. Ditto ABATED because worried=ate was here a few days ago. Drew a blank trying to parse STEVIE WONDER but like the spin doctor (Googled) once crossers became available, the answers did likewise. I half-parsed NIETZSCHE. Thanks to the blog I now know what ‘final character’ means in a clue. I’ve seen ‘sarnie’ elsewhere. It took a while to rise from the depth even though ARNIE was staring me in the face. I think it’s a ‘sammie’ here. Unappetizing words. Thanks both, or all.
Hmm. The regular picks in 12 would be A D AND N. A singluar regular pick could be A D OR N.
And what’s a GUTO HARRI?
Ian SW3 @3: it’s a Downing Street Director of Communications. Not sure if that means trying to control what comes out or what stays in?
This was good fun as usual with two notable exceptions. It was obvious that 13a was an anagram of HAIR-TO-RUG but, even with all the checking letters in place, no combination of the remaining letters made any sense at all – a definite grid filler; and Ian @3 is correct about 12a.
Many thanks to Tees and to B&J.
Well – thanks to Postmark for spotting the predictive text error. Both of us missed this.
Also, we have been debating Ian SW3’s comment. Joyce completely agrees with him, especially as the clue has ‘picks’. Bert is sitting on the fence at this point.
Guto Harri is the Director of Communications at Downing Street – obviously very good at promoting himself!
Thanks once again to Tees for a splendid crossword and to B&J for an equally splendid blog
Hear hear
I feel I should add my agreement to Ian SW3 and Rabbit Dave. I guess the guy at 13a should be better known but I certainly didn’t waste time going through all the equally unlikely anagrams. If he turns up again, there’s a chance I may remember.
Once again, what crypticsue said.
Thanks Tees, as always, for such precise clueing and readable surfaces. I cheated to get GUTO HARRI and I couldn’t parse ARNIE but all else fell into place at a civilised pace. I liked the &littish MENAGE A TROIS as well as ODYSSEUS and MISADVENTURE, the latter for reasons explained by PostMark @1. Thanks B & J for the blog.