Great start to the day from Goliath!
A most enjoyable puzzle with some standout clues. I particularly enjoyed 13/14 – a simple and literal bit followed by a more complex reverse clue. But plenty to enjoy, so many thanks to Goliath and hope to see you here again soon.
(PSST I CREATE A)* (*problem) – &lit
JOY (delight) about [m]INER[s] (content)
GO< (back) + HURT (wounded) after [part]Y (the end of)
(FAMIL[y] [bus]INESS)* (*corrupt, BUYS out)
BULB< (onion, <when on the rebound)
PAWN getting R (right) in + [coc]K (tail) (clue for K (king))
FLAME (fire) + NCO (sergeant? Non-commissioned officer)
GEE (my) + [ar]SE (half)
[f]OR A L[eading] (part)
P[a]RASOL* (*fancy, not A) + ROBE (gown)
ASTRAY (off the path) circling H (hospital)
[l]ITERATE (educated), L (learner)’s out
Double definition
ME (compiler) given a hug by HERS (the woman’s)
EVE (the night before) with OK (fine) entrance
CAN TINA (Is Turner able to)
Tina Turner the famous pop artist
PER (for every) + PIG (chauvinist) + NAN (grandparent)
Double definition
Cryptic definition
Nuns wear habits – a play on words
[velve]T (finale) on SURE* (*ground) about QUOI (what, Jacques Tati said, i.e. in French)
PATCH (plot) + [c]OUL[d] (edges cut) + I (one)
ARISE (emerge) nabbed by PLOD (policeman, after a change of heart)
For the change of heart, we need to reverse the inner letters (the heart of the word)
TRAGIC< (sad, <turn) about [sw]E[et] (heart) + (BUT TEST)* (*out)
MO (second) + LOT (item on sale) + [l]OV[e] (essence)
14 referring to 14 across, cocktail
[h]EAR (perceive, Cockney) + DRUM (beat) – semi &lit
Used quite a bit in crosswords, the Cockney accent typically doesn’t pronounce the letter H
[relieve]S (finally) + PAIN (suffering)
Liked the &lit’ish ESCAPE ARTIST and EARDRUM. Also the crisp INHABIT and GEESE!
Thanks Goliath and Oriel (Enjoyable puzzle and excellent blog)!
It’s always nice when I have no NHO list nor “Huh?” list. Crosswords are great without ultra-obscurities (although I don’t mind one or two — it’s never too late to expand one’s lexicon, even if only briefly).
An enjoyable solve, no quibbles. Thank you Goliath & Oriel.
Goliath in top form today and very entertaining too! I loved PERPIGNAN and TURQUOISE was a close second. And any mention of HERMES will make me smile (more for the silk carré maker than the messenger, admittedly). JOINERY was wonderful too, along with various interconnected answers.
Thanks for brightening my day, Goliath, and to Oriel for a fine blog as usual.
Thanks for the blog , very enjoyable puzzle with numerous clever clues . PRAWN COCKTAIL a neat mix of ideas.
Parker is our latest SOLAR PROBE , it has been in orbit for 6 years and will get even closer next year. It is already the fastest object ever made by humans.
Great puzzle and blog. Thanks to both.
Thanks also to Roz for mentioning Parker which was new to me and fascinating. It’s speed of 690,000 kph is mind boggling.NASA continues to amaze me.
I had a similar experience to yesterday, in that I had a fairly good run for most of the puzzle then had to spend an inordinate amount of time teasing out the last couple of answers.
Similar likes to above, specifically HERMES, ESCAPE ARTIST and JOINERY. I add YOGHURT for its surface
I am impressed that GDU has such a deep knowledge of plants and French towns. I was rather proud of myself for parsing PERPIGNAN with a minimum of crossers, never having encountered it before. While I liked PRAWN COCKTAIL, I thought the setter got a bit carried away with the complicated CIGARETTE BUTTS.
And I have a question – I asked a while back “when the setter says ‘half’ how does the solver know which half?”, and I am pretty sure the answer was “half always means first half”. Am I not remembering correctly or is the setter breaking some rule but using the second half of arse in GEESE?
This is getting a bit long, so I will say thanks Goliath for an enjoyable puzzle, and thanks Oriel for a great blog
Thanks Goliath and Oriel
Martyn@6: I am sure that there are some setters who only ever use “half” to mean “first half”, but I can see no logical reason for imposing that restriction. To me, it can mean either half, just as yesterday “45 minutes” meant OUR not HOU.
The end of comment 7 was badly worded. I should have said that yesterday 45 minutes meant OUR but could equally well have meant HOU.
Thanks Goliath, that was excellent with JOINERY (nice definition), PRAWN COCKTAIL, SOLAR PROBE, CANTINA, and INHABIT being my top picks. I missed PATCHOULI and couldn’t parse CIGARETTE BUTTS; thanks Oriel for the blog.
[Pelham Barton @8: I easily understood your comment at 7. I wonder if you’re an English instructor, an editor, or a crossword setter, hence the re-write!]
Wrt half-arse, I briefly toyed with Corrs as a solution for GEEESE. As well as being an inappropriate definition, I think rs for half-arse would have been a step too far.
Thanks PB@8&9. I like logical.
Petert@10 reminded me to mention that I confidently wrote “choice” at first as the answer to 25. It still looks good to me. Perhaps it will be the correct answer next time.
Martyn@11 re 25ac: I agree that CHOICE would fit, taking it as an adjective for the first meaning. This is often a potential problem with double definition clues. I think that double definitions are at their best when two words of different origin have converged in spelling, but it would be excessively restrictive to limit them to that.
[Tony@9: I am a retired academic. My work often involved being part of a team writing reports for decision making bodies. This was done in a context where critics would seize on any possible way of reading an unintended meaning into what we wrote.]
We puzzled for quite a while over PATCHOULI before recalling that we’d encountered it before in a crossword. SEMIFINALS was our LOI once we realised we had to take the letters of ‘buys’ out of the anagram fodder – at least they were all together if not in the correct order. And we thought the clue for MOLOTOV should have had a question mark as a definition by example. But an enjoyable solve with plenty to like, such as FLAMENCO and PRAWN COCKTAIL.
Thanks, Goliath and Oriel
I obviously have trouble with subtractive anagrams, as I was beaten twice today (here and in the Guardian cryptic) by this type of clue. The subtraction at 11a SEMIFINALS was four letters, which made it difficult for me to see that the 14 letters of “family business” provided the fodder for a 10-letter anagram. Will this be an ongoing blind spot? We’ll see.
Goliath remains one of my favourite setters, and this puzzle shows why. Superb surfaces and clever (but not too clever by half) wordplay are his hallmarks. Tanks, Goliath for the fun and Oriel for the excellent blog.
Liked this. Good surfaces. DNF due to “Patchouli”…after reading the blog, now feel I should have got it without much difficulty.
Couldn’t parse 13/14 nor 15/22
Thank you to Goliath and Oriel
PATCHOULI oil much loved by the hippies to disguise the smell of their herbal cigarettes .
Took me some time.. but mostly fell into place, even if some parsing occurred post-entry..
1/4, 11 n13/14ac were all a real boost to the solve.. SEMIFINALS seemed to shout out from the clue, but it took a while before seeing the device.. CANTINA was a penny drop when Turner RA was dropped in favour of the equally well-known Tina..
Thanks Goliath n Oriel