Bluth provides the Wednesday challenge this week.
As we have come to expect from Bluth, the puzzle includes some innovative definitions and a good range of clues with a variety of levels of difficulty – just what we like in a weekday cryptic!
Alternate or ‘occasional’ letters of mAgNeT bEiNg NeAr
CAN (may) + a reversal (‘invert’) of AV (audiovisual) + first and last letters (‘in extremis’) of SignalS
ON (touching) AIR (song)
Double definition – first as a noun, second as a verb
A homophone (‘told’) of BEAK (magistrate, as in ‘up before the beak’) + EE (phone company) + a reversal (‘on the counter’) of REP (salesman)
begINNER (learner) without or ‘wanting’ ‘beg’ (pray)
A reversal (‘back’) of RUB (massage) round or ‘squeezing’ L (large)
A (third letter or ‘feature’ of Shanks’s) in or ‘stopping’ LURE (stool) + AT E (first letter or ‘opening’ of enamel) – a reference to Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate
BoGART (Humphrey Bogart) with the ‘o’ (ordinary) replaced by RAG (jazz style)
A homophone (‘speaker’s) of TAUGHT (educated)
A reversal (‘rejected’) of AN E (English) YH (Youth Hostel)
An anagram (‘circulating’) of E TABLET I’M
Double defintion
N (last letter or ‘back’ of peloton) + ARSE (behind) with the ‘e’ moved to the front or ‘cycling’
ELY (see – as in bishopric) after A GIrL (lass) with the ‘r’ (run) omitted or ‘away’
MOOT (dispute) round a reversal (‘returning’) of kILN (oven) without the first letter or ‘non-starting’
An anagram (‘abandoned’) of E (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of Michelle) and OBAMA
TELLER (narrator) round or ‘describing’ RAVe (party) without the last letter or ‘short’
NEVER (not) with the ‘R’ (Republican) moved forward or ‘raised’ in a down clue
An anagram (‘dancing’) of A PLACE and LAP
Hidden (‘somewhat’) and reversed (‘in hindsight’) in regRET A Contract
An anagram (‘flying’) of L G T (alternate or ‘odd’ letters of LiGhT) and ENGINE
AGA (oven) IN (hot)
SP (Starting Price – ‘information’) HERE (at this point)
RIG (tackle) + ROLE (part) after or ‘supporting’ MA (graduate)
U (universal) + an anagram (‘revolutionary’) of TAMIL T (first letter or ‘leader’ of Tigers) + UM (hesitation)
An anagram (‘upset’) of BLUTH and MAIN
CHinA (friend) without or ‘missing’ ‘in’ + CHA (tea)
An anagram (‘direct’) of DEBITS – Bert wasn’t sure about ‘direct’ as an anagrind to start off with. Joyce was happy as she saw it as ‘directing’ or ‘organising’ a film or play. A quick check in Chambers revealed definition 5. To order under transitive verb.
Hidden (‘displayed’) in drunkEN NUIsance
AD (plug, as in advertisement) in TOY
In the phonetic alphabet, TANGO (T) comes after India (I) to make ‘it’
Another very enjoyable Bluth crossword. Had a chuckle over the surface for NEARS. LAUREATE was very clever. I dare say some might dislike the toilet humour. Didn’t parse MOONLIT (but should have) and couldn’t for the life of me think of a word to fit A?I?E?Y for 28a. Kicked myself after a word fit.
Superb. Lots to learn – ‘aga’ for oven, SP for information, ‘ee’ is a phone company and lure as in a stool pigeon. Liked CHA CHA and AUTOGRAPH but there wasn’t a clue I didn’t like. For 27a I thought rear but it wouldn’t parse. Never thought otherwise. Thanks muchly to Bluth and the bloggers for the comprehensive debrief.
Very entertaining but I found this quite tough and in the end I failed on BRAGGART; fooled by the wordplay and I couldn’t get “Lyttelton” out of my head for ‘Humphrey’, even though I’m not a jazz fan. I didn’t know who the ‘Armitage’ in 15a was, meaning I had to semi-guess LAUREATE via the (difficult) wordplay.
Once I saw how it worked, my favourite was the clever TANGO.
Thanks to Bluth and B&J
I also took a while to twig the correct Humphrey, with Yes Minister confusing my thoughts as well as the late, great, deadpan host of ISIHAC. I too enjoyed TANGO and loved the simple but brilliant clue for AUTOGRAPH.
A very minor point: I read ‘circulating’ in 24Ac not as a simple anagrind but as a cycling of the last three letters of E TABLET I’M to the front. Not that it really matters.
Thanks, Bluth, for the usual fun-filled challenge.
On the tricky end of the Bluth spectrum but I did enjoy the challenge
Thanks to him and B&J
Thanks both. Agree about the mixture of difficulty, and the cleverness of AUTOGRAPH, with SP for ‘information’ my only small question mark, as it feels loose, and implausible that anyone would read ‘information’ and ever think of SP as a synonym- e.g. ‘field information’ may have been more enlightening
I do enjoy Bluth’s puzzles, but a combination of not seeing past the excellent misdirections and just plain being thick (eg taking far too long to notice 19A was a homophone) I found this one tough going. Lots to admire having now seen the parsings.
Very good, though I, too, was cleverly misled by a few clues. TFO@6 I think the expression “What’s the SP?” can be used for any kind of information, so SP seems fair enough. (Though it fooled me for a while as I tried to make ADHERE work)
Thanks Bluth, that was satisfying. I must admit I bunged in more than a few from the definitions and crossings without fully understanding the parsings. Beak, EE, lure, moot, and aga were all unfamiliar as used in the clues so I guessed I learned a few things. BRAGGART was my top choice. Thanks Bertandjoyce for the much needed blog.
Thanks Bertandjoyce, and thanks all.
Quizzy_Bob @4 – you’re right that it doesn’t really matter but for what it’s worth, that was my intended meaning of ‘circulating’.
Late to the party as we didn’t get chance to tackle this till today. Agreed that it was tricky in places but a satisfying solve. We liked the subtle humour in LAUREATE (although we had to check in Chambers for ‘lure’ as a meaning of ‘stool’). AUTOGRAPH, BEEKEEPER, RIGMAROLE and THUMBNAIL were among our favourites.
Thanks, Bluth and B&J.