I liked this a lot, with nice surfaces and some chewy parsing to work through. My favourites were 8ac, 9ac, 14ac, 5dn, and 18dn. Thanks to Fed for the puzzle
(Having seen the reversed T R I A L trick in the grid for 18dn, I scanned the grid for other words and saw LIAR, LIE, TSAR, and FOAL, but don’t think there’s a further connection.)
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | PARLANCE |
Introduction to Pointless, with tips from Alexander Armstrong, maybe identifying idiom (8)
|
| first letter (Introduction) to P-ointless, with the outer letters (tips) from A-lexande-R, plus LANCE (cyclist Lance Armstrong [wiki], maybe) | ||
| 9 | RELIEF |
Help whistleblower to frame story (6)
|
| REF (who might blow a whistle to stop play in e.g. football); around LIE=”story” | ||
| 10 | GATEAU |
Total number who’ve paid in gold to get cake (6)
|
| GATE=number of spectators at a sports event=”Total number who’ve paid [in]”; plus AU (chemical symbol for gold) | ||
| 12 | INNOCENT |
Not guilty — meaning prisoner returned for the first time (8)
|
| IN-T-ENT=”meaning”, with CON=”prisoner” reversed/”returned”, substituted for the first T (short for time) | ||
| 13 | COT |
Bed and breakfast’s closing after business (3)
|
| closing letter to breakfas-T, after CO (company, “business”) | ||
| 14 | BOXSET |
Two TVs and a collection of DVDs? (3,3)
|
| BOX and SET are two words for a television, or “Two TVs” | ||
| 16 | AFFORDED |
Had enough — county town’s wanting street theatre banned conclusively (8)
|
| definition: Had enough [to pay for]
ST–AFFORD (county town of Staffordshire), without/”wanting” ST (street); plus theatr-E banne-D (“conclusively” i.e. take the end letters) |
||
| 17 | ATTEMPT |
Shy Matt emptied pockets (7)
|
| definition: Shy as a noun meaning a shot/attempt at something (or a verb meaning to take a shot)
hidden inside (pocketed by): [M]-ATT EMPT-[ied] |
||
| 20 | OXIDISE |
New side, after old team get rusty (7)
|
| anagram/”New” of (side)*, after O (old) + XI (eleven, “team” in e.g. football) | ||
| 23 | DISGUISE |
I guess I’d supply camouflage (8)
|
| anagram, with “supply” as a form of ‘supple’, of (I guess I’d)* | ||
| 24 | AMORAL |
American — nearly 21, say — ultimately still lacking principles (6)
|
| A (American) + MORA-y + last/ultimate letter from stil-L
MORA-y: 21dn is EEL, and a moray is a type of eel; “nearly” indicates the omission of the final letter |
||
| 26 | NAP |
Rest pot on the counter (3)
|
| PAN=”pot” reversed (“counter” in the sense of taking an opposite direction) | ||
| 27 | FLANNELS |
Sewers using fine line for edges of cloth trousers (8)
|
| CH–ANNELS=”Sewers”, using F (fine) plus L (line) in place of the edge letters of C-lot-H | ||
| 28 | PRIEST |
Father‘s shaking up Sprite (6)
|
| anagram/”shaking up” of (Sprite)* | ||
| 31 | EUREKA |
A brilliant discovery! Brussels are amazingly full of potassium (6)
|
| EU=”Brussels” + anagram/”amazingly” of (are)* around K (chemical symbol for potassium) | ||
| 32 | A LA CARTE |
One has several options as a muscle car’s punctured tyre at the finish (1,2,5)
|
| A (taken from surface) + LAT (a back muscle) punctured by CAR + end letter/finish of tyr-E | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LAVA |
Somewhere to go over adult ‘hot stuff‘ (4)
|
| LAV=”Somewhere to go [to the toilet]” + A (adult) | ||
| 2 | ALOE |
Succulent drink gets round in (4)
|
| ALE=”drink” with O=”round” inside | ||
| 3 | INDUCT |
Admit in court, taking drug occasionally (6)
|
| IN + CT (court), taking inside occasional letters from D-r-U-g | ||
| 4 | RECITAL |
Type of thermometer I inserted for show (7)
|
| RECTAL=”Type of thermometer”, with I inserted inside | ||
| 5 | TRANSFIX |
Managed small repair after using last bit of Pritt Stick (8)
|
| RAN=”Managed” + S (small) + FIX=”repair”; all after last letter of [Prit]-T | ||
| 6 | CLOCK RADIO |
Doctor, I croak with cold — one’s often seen at the bedside (5,5)
|
| anagram/”Doctor” of (I croak cold)* “Doctor” as a verb meaning ‘falsify’ or ‘tamper with’ |
||
| 7 | MEANDERS |
Covering for Morecambe and Wise after finally opening for star turns (8)
|
| outer letters/”Covering” for M-orecamb-E + AND (taken from surface) + final letters of [Wis]-E [afte]-R + opening letter of S-[tar] | ||
| 11 | TAX |
Every now and then Manx cat’s tail begins to stretch (3)
|
| definition: to tax/stretch by imposing burdens/challenges
every other letter from [M]-A-[n]-X; with the end letter/”tail” of ca-T going at the beginning of the solution |
||
| 14 | BRA |
Supporter of British artist (3)
|
| B (British) + RA (Royal Academician, “artist”) | ||
| 15 | STEM GINGER |
Stock well-known baker’s cake ingredient? (4,6)
|
| STEM=”Stock [of a plant]” + GINGER (Ginger Baker, the well-known drummer [wiki]) | ||
| 18 | TRIALRUN |
Experiment starts in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 — go! (5,3)
|
| The starting letters from the solutions to clues 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 at the top of the grid give T, R, I, A, L; plus RUN=”go” | ||
| 19 | PRIMEVAL |
Ancient vampire bats left (8)
|
| anagram (“bats” meaning ‘crazy’) of (vampire)*; plus L (left) | ||
| 21 | EEL |
Swimmer‘s initially excited by terms of the deal (3)
|
| initial letter of E-xcited + “terms” (ends) of th-E dea-L
‘term’ can mean an ending or completion |
||
| 22 | LENS CAP |
This might stop photos being taken of crude lap dances, once lawyer’s disappeared (4,3)
|
| anagram/”crude” of (lap dances)*, without the letters DA (district attorney, “lawyer”) | ||
| 24 | APPEAL |
Beg group that wants to stay dry to carry masks etc over lake (6)
|
| AA around PPE plus L (lake)
AA: Alcoholics Anonymous, “group that wants to stay dry [teetotal]” PPE: personal protective equipment, “masks etc” |
||
| 25 | ROE |
Some theory about eggs (3)
|
| hidden in (“Some” of) a reversal (“about”) of th-EOR-y | ||
| 29 | IPAD |
Device‘s international power plug (4)
|
| I (international) + P (power) + AD (advertisement, a “plug” in the sense of ‘promotional activity’) | ||
| 30 | SITE |
In audition, refer to setting (4)
|
| sounds like (“In audition”): ‘cite’=”refer to” |
An interesting grid, full of different devices and it took me a while to parse AFFORDED and MEANDERS but couldn’t crack FLANNELS. I laughed at RECITAL and liked PARLANCE, TRANSFIX, CLOCK RADIO, INNOCENT, AMORAL and EUREKA. The surface for A LA CARTE was a bit nonsensical, but this was very enjoyable overall.
Ta Fed & manehi.
There’s also the words AIM, COTS and CEP.
Thanks Fed and manehi
A few I didn’t parse, including TRIAL RUN – I’ve never seen that trick before; very clever!
Is Ginger Baker still well-known? I’m old enough to remember Cream, but younger solvers might not be.
Must add LAT=muscle to my crossword toolbox.
I thought supply in DISGUISE was more straightforward as in supplying the letters for the anagram, but I like your parsing better, manehi.
Thank you manehi. EEL : 2 terms this week. I should have been awake to that.
Agree muffin@3. Good trick in TRIAL RUN. Ginger Baker and Cream better known to me than a county town. Or classical references for centuries before that.
Never heard of a STEM GINGER cake, but having looked up the recipe, I’m looking forward to sharing it around.
EUREKA def was a bit obvious, but I liked the wordplay.
AlanC@5. Supply as an anagrind was one I learnt early on. Fed provides an interesting mix of conventional indicators and clue types, and novel ones. He keeps me guessing.
I set a new record with a “Huh?” list of nine. Checking them out here resulted in more groans than smiles.
Enjoyed this, even if I didn’t parse everything. A few chuckles along the way. Thanks Fed and Manehi
paddymelon @7: I shall add that to my crossword toolbox for sure.
A strange week, and with the relative ease that this went in I thought it was more of a “Monday”. I had TRIAL CUT rather than TRIAL RUN and think that they’re equally valid.
Enjoyed the pun with SITE. 😉
Loved RECITAL for the diplomatic rendition of rectal, but favourite has to go for the clever TRIAL CUT (or is that RUN?).
Fed light maybe but still Fed so a treat in my book. Liked how “inserted” was squeezed into the RECITAL clue 🙂
Ticks for MEANDERS, FLANNELS & TRIAL RUN
Earworm? BOX SET from the Barenaked Ladies’ album “Gordon”
Cheers F&M
I wasn’t convinced that ‘stick’ defines TRANSFIX, but was pleased to discover, on consulting Oxford’s ODE, that the ‘trans-‘ + ‘-fix’ components of the word correspond to the meaning of “sticking” something through using a sharp point, as in a “stuck” pig. Nice.
The 5,4,3,2,1 thing was splendid — I didn’t see it, but biffed it.
Shame about A LA CARTE surface, since there are so many really good surfaces elsewhere in Fed’s clues today, such as BOX SET, PRIMEVAL, ROE, TRANSFIX.
Thank you!
Tricky and smooth, though I’m slightly unsure about TAX. The ‘begins’ seems to be doing double duty, and the ‘cat’ is superfluous to requirements.
poc @14
As manehi says, “cat’s tail” gives the T, not “tail begins” – the “begins” tells you where to put the T.
TRIAL RUN gave me the T&R for 5&4 which helped considerably. I had 1,2 and 3. Failed to parse FLANNELS and AMORAL, but I was not trying very hard. Sometimes when I have enough of a parse it’s sufficient for me. At other times I can work the clue out from the wordplay, but am stumped by the meaning.
Thanks for blog and puzzle.
Oh Pdm@6 Isn’t STEM GINGERis just an ingredient/adornment for Ginger Cake.
A bit of a surprise to see Fed again after exactly a week since his last appearance but I’m certainly not complaining.
To manehi’s favourites I’ll add 16ac AFFORDED, which I enjoyed working out, 27ac FLANNELS, ditto, and 19dn PRIMEVAL.
Fed delving in his ample box of tricks again with TRIAL RUN – very neat – and also coming up with excellent ‘lift and separates’ in Alexander Armstrong and PrittStick.
Many thanks to Fed for the fun and manehi for the blog.
Thanks Manehi. And thanks all.
I think the Baker in 15D should have had a capital letter – my apologies for it somehow being diminished.
As a couple of people have commented on the surface of 32ac, I’ll point you to the Wikipedia page for Muscle Cars, I didn’t think it a particularly uncommon phrase – I’m not exactly the target audience for Top Gear – but it’s certainly the sort of thing they’ve discussed.
Lots of good things here, with a variety of clever cross-references between clues – TRIAL RUN is particularly ingenious. Fed is fond of substitution clues – INNOCENT and AFFORD are prime examples – and of using names, as in the well-constructed PARLANCE and MEANDERS. (The Inquisition decree that common nouns can be capitalised to deceive, but proper nouns must always retain their initial upper case letter. GINGER (Baker) violates this rule – which personally I consider arbitrary, so no complaints).
Mostly great surfaces – pity about A LA CARTE, as others have noted.
Thanks to S&B
Fed @19: We crossed! Thanks for the explanation of ‘muscle cars’ – I’m no petrolhead – and the mea culpa for ‘ginger’, which I think is one of the sillier Ximenean rules anyway
…. of course the usual way round this is to put the name at the beginning, but this isn’t always possible without mangling the clue 🙂
Thanks Fed for the Muscle Cars explanation. Should have Googled first perhaps, before commenting.
I recognise the convention, but I think that giving “Baker” would have spoiled the clue.
How about:
Baker’s stock; first cake ingredient.
The rec[i]tal insertion reminded me of that Carry On scene when Matron finally cracks a smile, saying “Really, Nurse, with a daffodil!!”. Nice puzzle, ta Fed and manehi.
Absolutely horrendous!
Ignoring capitals, punctuation, fonts, parentheses etc. has always struck me as the safest bet for solving in the Guardian
I’m not sure about the parsing of 32 – to me, punctured tyre gives te at the end. However, in my struggling though it, ‘a muscle’ was superfluous, since ‘as’ = ‘a la’ then ‘car’ (obviously) + ‘te’ (see above). Yet to find a completely satisfactory explanation for this, though there must be one, since Fed is nothing if not scrupulous in clueing.
DavidT @27 – read the blog again.
As is not a la – ‘punctured’ is the insertion indicator for CAR in LAT. (‘Punctured tyre’ is another example of ‘lift and separate’.)
Thanks, Fed and manehi. Super puzzle, loved the TRIAL RUN trick. Yes, Baker should ideally have been capitalised but it still raised a smile when the penny dropped (after wasting time trying to make Hollywood or Lepard fit).
Goodness me. My brain felt like it was jumping about all over the place with this one. We know Fed likes to play with single letter indicators, juxtapositions and word ordering and he’s used the lot in spades today. I think it was, firstly, MEANDERS and then TAX that elicited ‘Good grief!’ when I realised the construction.
Faves today included PARLANCE, BOX SET, ATTEMPT, FLANNELS (another good grief), RECITAL, TRIAL RUN and EEL. I wonder how many clock radios still sit on bedside tables these days? My only eyebrow raise – apart from in shock 😀 – was the ‘in’ in GATEAU and I’m not sure how the blog is treating it. Is GATE ‘the total number of people who’ve paid in’ – which seems odd. Or is the ‘in’ indicating that those people who’ve paid are inside? Which also feels strange. I know this is ‘classic’ 225 quibbling about a two letter preposition but I’m wondering if I’m missing something as usual.
Thanks Fed and manehi
Loved it. Tough but amusing and satisfying at the same time. BOX SET probably my favourite for the surface.
PS. Pleased to say the grimace at A LA CARTE was for a different reason. Both sons love Top Gear etc so ‘muscle car’ was something I’ve encountered. I just grimace at it because it’s such an awful concept and phrase!
muffin @23: That works, though the ultraorthodox even get sniffy about ‘extraneous’ punctuation marks 🙂
As Eileen@17 I liked how “Alexander Armstrong” had to be lift-and-separated for 8a PARLANCE. Usually done with a BRA. Others like this and “Pritt Stick”:
13a COT – “Bed and breakfast’”; 16a AFFORDED – “street theatre”; ;32a A LA CARTE – “muscle car” – Had heard of this and LATissimus dorsi;
7d MEANDERS – “Morecambe and Wise”; 11d TAX – “Manx cat”; 19d PRIMEVAL – “vampire bats”
Also 31a EUREKA “Brussels” sprouts really are “full of potassium”
Thanks F&m
That started off surprisingly Monday-ish, almost quiptic in how many I got in the first pass, so I must have tuned into the wavelength nice and early. But the last quarter or so was tougher. My only eyebrow raise (Baker) has already been addressed by Fed.
I loved the TRIAL RUN trick but didn’t spot it at the time. RECITAL got a laugh. Also loved APPEAL, TAX, EEL, AMORAL, PARLANCE and BOX SET. Some wonderful constructions.
Many thanks both.
Pleasant solve; a bit more straightforward than some of Fed’s previous ones.
I liked the linking of Alexander Armstrong and ‘Pointless’ (for those without a TV or from abroad see here). I also enjoyed the wordplay for INNOCENT, the deceptive definition for trousers (not the Picaroon container), EUREKA, where brussels sprouts are actually high in potassium, 11%, and the ‘star turns’ in MEANDERS. Like PM @30, I thought the ‘paid in‘ in the clue for GATEAU was a bit odd. It could have been avoided by using ‘with’ after paid.
Thanks Fed and manehi.
A struggle towards the end but not too frustrating and I enjoyed the tricksy reference the the late (lamented?) Ginger Baker which reminded me of the documentary on him: Beware Mr Baker
Thanks to manehi and Fed
I didnt connect GINGER with BAKER-and i was there at Hyde Park -Good concert-well worth the money!!!Thems was the days.
And i did find my way home!
I managed all of this except MEANDERS–not sure why on that one–and STEM GINGER, having not heard of the “famous baker.” I’m too young, I guess.
No one has pointed out the “problem” (in quotes because it isn’t really a problem) in the surface reading of the clue for TAX: a Manx cat is tailless!
Mrpenney @39; ha ha, good point!
mrpenney@39. I assumed that the surface was an oblique reference to the fact that not all Manx cats are born without a tail. Though I don’t suppose any of the stubby ones ever ‘stretch’ to the extent of getting a full length one!
… I guess one could have put tummy or some such.
Finished this more quickly than previous Feds, but still thought it was a great puzzle. Muscle cars a commonly heard term on the left side of the pond.
I also found this easier than some previous Feds, though I had to check some parsings here. STEM GINGER took me a while as I’d never heard of Ginger Baker; but it was not too diffiucult to work out. PS I’ve lost count of the number of times the word BRA has been employed as part of a longer word, but it is rare to see it out on its own. With thanks to Fed for the entertainment, and to manehi for the explanations.
I have to leave and I haven’t read all the comments, but here are mine:
Favorite — TRIAL RUN for the wonderful device!
manehi — you change the designation for the anagram in 6dn — it’s (I croak cold)*, not including the “with.”
I’m probably not alone in never having heard of Ginger Baker.
I keep forgetting that flannels are trousers in the UK. To me flannel is the soft fuzzy stuff you make pajamas with.
Thanks to Fed and manehi.
This one was a lot easier than the last couple thought I didn’t know LAT nor could I parse INNOCENT.
Thanks both
Really enjoyed this one and thought the clues were straightforward enough (I still think of myself as a beginner at these!) without being overly clunky, especially given the high number of 3-4 letter words in the grid. Didn’t parse AFFORDED, I was stuck on Oxford (having discounted Hereford) and completely forgot about Stafford…
Really enjoyed PARLANCE but my absolute favourite was TRIAL RUN, never seen that construction before and I’d spent 5 minutes or more trying to work out the parsing before a EUREKA moment!
Thanks Fed and manehi
“RECTAL=”Type of thermometer”, with I inserted inside”
Ironically, it’s usually the other way around.
Thanks Fed for a very enjoyable crossword with RECITAL, GATEAU, DISGUISE, FLANNELS, EUREKA, TAX, BRA, and LENS CAP being my top picks. I revealed STEM GINGER; even if Baker had been capitalized I’m not sure I would have solved it since I never heard of that cake ingredient. (I liked Cream years ago so I had heard of Ginger Baker.) As the owner of a “muscle car” I had no problem with 32a. Thanks manehi for the blog.
[LENS CAP reminded me of this scene from Crocodile Dundee]
Fed is going easy on us today! Some great clues. I thought the devices in FLANNELS and INNOCENT were very clever. TRIAL RUN was of course the gem.
In 2023 Ginger Baker is not a well known drummer unless you happen to be in the company of many 60+ year olds. One of my daughters who is trying to learn cryptics would despair at such a reference.
Apart from that and 32a, another excellent puzzle.
Thanks Fed and manehi
Many thanks to Fed and to manehi for some deft cluing and solving – especially to Fed for 30D, rescuing the ancient phrase ‘refer to’ from its near-oblivion under the weight of the unnecessary Americanism ‘reference’. There’s a nice story about a (probably imaginary) American announcing that ‘there ain’t no noun that I can’t verb’.
I think A LA CARTE is the standout clue, because, as Eileen@28 points out, it contains not just one but two lift-and-separates – “muscle car” and “punctured tyre”.
But Googling…
“BRA” “support” site:www.fifteensquared.net
…returns “About 330 results” going back for ever – it’s an oldie but a goodie.
Brad Deel? Sports photographer. Deliberate?
[Robert @52: Although the process grates with many of us – athletes now medal (though meddling is frowned upon 🙂 ), conversion has been productive since Shakespeare’s time. Wikipedia:
Examples of verbification in the English language number in the thousands, including some of the most common words such as mail and e-mail, strike, talk, salt, pepper, switch, bed, sleep, ship, train, stop, drink, cup, lure, mutter, dress, dizzy, divorce, fool, merge, to be found throughout the dictionary. Thus, verbification is by no means confined to slang and has furnished English with countless new expressions: “access”, as in “access the file”, which was previously only a noun, as in “gain access to the file”. Similar mainstream examples include “host”, as in “host a party”, and “chair”, as in “chair the meeting”. Other formations, such as “gift”, are less widespread but nevertheless mainstream]
Fed@18 My comment on 32ac is not about the muscle cars (I have heard of them and had a vague idea of what they were) but that the surface makes no sense.Fed@18
Hadn’t realized that Alexander Armstrong (who I’ve never heard of) is a real person. Never heard of Pritt Stick either, wondered what on God’s green earth it could be. (I’ve looked it up now.)
PM@30 Your use of “bedside table” is a relief to me, to see that somebody actually says that. I said it myself for years without noticing that my compatriots call it a nightstand. I must have got “bedside table” from my mother, and it’s still what I say.
ArkLark @51: Knowledge of popular music from before one’s own time isn’t necessarily so arcane. I messaged my 37 year old son: ‘Have you heard of Ginger Baker?’ and he immediately replied: ‘The drummer with Cream?’
I suppose a ‘muscle car’ is a supercar or something like that.
As previously discussed 😀
Sorry!
I just turned 60 and I’ve never heard of Ginger Baker, but I’m more intrigued by the bizarre construction of STEM GINGER. As far as I can discern from the Googlemachine, it’s just ginger root that has been preserved with sugar – candied, I guess? Does anyone know where the “stem” part comes from?
[Re Ginger Baker and expectations of general knowledge — funnily enough even though I was born post-60s I remembered the fella from his brief stint in Public Image Ltd in the 1980s…!]
BlueDot@60. I thought it was to distinguish the STEM of the plant from the root, but if your Google research says different, then I’m just as puzzled as you.
First thing I did was write in PARLOUIS for 1a – then spent a while wondering if it is a word (PARLOUS?). But Chambers says, no it isn’t! To be honest, I’d much rather the ‘Armstrong’ referred to the immortal Louis A. rather than the disgraced Lance. But c’est la vie!
Totally failed to parse INNOCENT although I recognised the CON reversed in it. And I’ve worked hard at spotting these ‘substitution’ wordplays. Obviously not hard enough!
At least with FLANNELS I got it spot-on! One of my faves. And a good laugh at LENS CAP (How many wannabe photographers have been caught out that way? Happened often enough in the days of separate viewfinders.) Also ‘likes’ for RECITAL (another laugh!), AFFORDED (nice misdirection), TRANSFIX, OXIDISE, EUREKA, and many others!
With STEM GINGER [what’s the difference between ‘stem’ and ‘root’, anyone?] – the only ‘Ginger’s I could think of were that dancer (with Fred Astaire) and that (er, sort of) singing artiste (with Mel, Posh, Baby &co). Couldn’t place ‘Baker’ with either of those. Ah well – a guess is as good as the GK …
Thanks to Fed and Manehi.
Thanks for the blog, INNOCENT was very neat , a substitution but very precise with the FIRST time. I now see that Baker was a Guardian mistake so all forgiven, Good to see Ginger Baker in a clue, I’ve been waiting so long.
AlanC topping the charts yet again , it is now 32-6 , the comeback is on .
Eileen@17 I rather liked AFFORDED too. I spent far too long removing the ST from all the ‘casters, ‘cesters and ‘chesters and trying to shoehorn the remaining letters into the answer before hitting on the much more obvious Stafford.
Very enjoyable crossword. Thanks Fed and manehi.
Late to the party yet again, a few here I couldn’t quite parse, but never mind. Last two in AFFORDED and MEANDERS. Getting better with getting onto Fed’s wavelength. Many thanks Manehi today for the clarification…
Enjoyable puzzle. Favourites: STEM GINGER, TRIAL RUN, LENS CAP, APPEAL (loi).
I could not parse 12ac apart from rev of CON, and 26ac.
Thanks, both.
Roz @64: thanks for that bit of sunshine
I got root ginger for 15 quite early on, as I consider the stock of a rose bush is the root, (you always have to keep it covered with soil) so that threw 10 and 14 out for a while. Otherwise a very enjoyable puzzle to solve while watching France deliver a masterclass in Rugby. Hope Dupont is OK.
[PostMark @68: A bit of sunshine is needed in the white room with black curtains.]
Very quirky but mostly solvable (at least for me) puzzle.
Ludd @37 refers to the documentary which exposed Mr. Baker as one of the most cantankerous people I’ve ever seen. He was also a uniquely talented and influential drummer. Very highly recommended doc. As are his trancelike, African-influenced solo albums. I can attest to the excellence of Horses & Trees (1986) as well as Falling Off The Roof (1996.)
Thanks to Fed for the wide-ranging puzz and manehi for the very helpful blog.
Fine puzzle. I missed the TRIAL trick, to my shame, but biffed it from the crossers. I also missed STEM GINGER (hadn’t heard of it), plumping for SEED GINGER instead. I guess that’s not a thing.
Only one quibble that I don’t think’s been mentioned: shouldn’t OXIDISE have a ? at the end for the DBE, since rustiness is confined to iron.
Good fun. Thanks, manehi and Fed (especially for dropping in with the mea culpa).
Excellent although last to go in was IPAD; I suppose I don’t really consider it to be a word?
Roz @64 : strange brew but I feel free. Cream were the … at that time with early King Crimson, Yes and Led Zep.
DG – It’s only right I redress somewhat. Swift to “Zoilise” at an earlier Bluth, I’m not slow to praise. I see how smooth, and inspired, you can be; this was a barrel full (almost) of well designed clues and the whole thing quite inspired. With richness, and depth, over time (and with the inevitable rise of the cryptic among all generations – in time) great renown may follow
Incidentally, this was indeed a very straightforward solve (one commentator above cites Monday) but that is, of itself, no mean feat and indicates an easy (as in smooth, rather than devoid of any intellectual effort!) natural talent for writing good clues (and poetry….?)
Thanks manehi as I only got as far as Laccaria in parsing INNOCENT. Phitonelly@72 perhaps we can move the DbyE indicator from AMORAL as I don’t think it is needed there? [Jeremy Epstein@71 thanks for those album recommendations, I like his work with Fela so will search them out.] Fully endorse the praise of those above, thanks Fed.
Managed them all except FLANNELS (would never have thought of ‘channels’ for sewers) and STEM GINGER (which isn’t what we call it on this side of the pond, even if I’d ever heard of Ginger Baker). Some delightful clueing; bravo Fed. Probably not enough of a challenge for most of you, I fear.
Late post I know but thanks to Fed for a brilliant puzzle that made me think outside the square a few times, and to Manehi for parsings that were so neat and full, and thanks to Eileen for the frequent helpful comments she provides. Great blog. Thank you all!