My first Solomon blog, standing in for loonapick
A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle, with some particularly witty and well-constructed surfaces. Hopefully a setter we’ll see a lot more of in the near future, and thanks for the challenge this morning.
C (Charlie) + A + SH (quiet) + COW (bully)
HID (buried) + AL (aluminium) + GO[ld] (half of)
“TEES” (banker, river, “on the phone”)
THE REF (card-carrying official) + O[utcast] R[ebels] and E[xtremists] (starts to)
ILL (sick) + US (American) getting TARTED* (*up)
[m]Y AP[ple] (contains)
Cryptic definition
We need to break up the letters to find the instruction: W in TON. Winton is also an example of a town.
Very clever indeed.
(YOUR BACLAV[a] (unfinished))* (*is abysmal)
Cryptic definition
A play on the word ‘beams’, which in this case refers to beams of light
(E (English) + NUT (head))< (<retired)
[p]INK (flower, Dianthus, dead-headed)
To dead-head a flower is to chop it off the plant once it has died to encourage new growth.
HE (ambassador, His/Her Excellency) stopping PEDERASTS* (*getting thrown)
EX (old) + P[itbul]L (exhausted) + OS (very large, oversize) + I’VE (setter’s)
HA (laugh) full of YEN (hunger) – semi &lit
T[i]DY (smart): I (one) overcome by RAGE (anger)
Double definition
CA (about, circa) + T (time)
The ‘flap’ being a cat flap of course
SWAG (stolen goods) including CALL (phone) + [tell]Y (close to)
SEE< (show, <retro) overcome by CHE (revolutionary)
(OWL CURATOR + [colleagu]E (finally))* (*revived)
HE (some bloke) adopting U (posh)
DRE (doctor that produces) + AD (bill) + FLU* (*treatment of)
P (papa, NATO alphabet); LOO (John)’s introducing + Y[ellow] (topping of)
Cryptic definition
A play on the word ‘change’, which in this case means leftover money
(LITTLE ENGIN[e] (almost))* (*crashes)
TRA[i]N (coach, I (one)’s taken) with PARENTS (mum and dad) cycling behind
A + MUT[t] (mongrel, docked) contains SEMEN (i.e. is impregnated)
O[t]TO (German, sacrificing T (time) + SCOPE (opportunity)
A medical instrument
(MAT HAS)* (*deteriorated)
[Gree]K APPA[rently] (part of) – semi &lit
“I.V.” (drip, intravenous, “sounds like”) – semi &lit
Triple definition
Not convinced of my parsing here, so please comment if you have a better idea
AIR
musical=(h)AIR —->belt out the opening
Def: number
CASH COW
Should we include the ‘that’ in the def?
Loved TOWN.
Other faves: LIGHTHOUSE and HYENA.
Thanks Solomon and Oriel.
I think this is the first time I have done a puzzle by this setter.
Got off to a quick start in the NW slowed down a bit in the SW and took quite a lot longer to do the right hand side.
Some lovely clues including: SCALLYWAG, TOASTER, HIDALGO, LIGHTHOUSE, HUE, OVERPAYMENT
Thanks Solomon and Oriel
An excellent puzzle. TOWN was a little gem. I had never heard of Dr Dre the producer .
Thanks Solomon and Oriel for an immaculate blog.
KAPPA
apparently, part of gree-K’
(but what is the Greek name for Greek?)
An intended &lit?
Trickier than my most recent experience of this setter. Never heard of Dr Dre or the river Tees.
Still don’t get INK. Why is see show? And I’ve never been a fan of “up” as an anagrind.
INK in is used to mean colour in, it’s in Chambers as a verb in that sense.
The River TEES is very pretty upstream, I’ve walked sections of it on the Pennine Way. Not so nice through the very industrialised Middleton-on-Tees.
I enjoyed this as light relief (after today’s Paul). Thank you to Oriel and Solomon.
KVa@4 — Greek ‘(Modern Greek: Ελληνικά, romanized: Elliniká, pronounced [eliniˈka]; Ancient Greek: Ἑλληνική, romanized: Hellēnikḗ’
Geoff Down Under@5 — I had the same problem with see = show in 3d CHEESE — Maybe “I’ll show you to the door” = “I’ll see you to the dooor”?
Noted. Thanks. Ellinika has a KAPPA in it. 👍🏼
I have not had enough time to tackle the FT for a while but glad I was able to catch Solomon whose puzzles I have generally enjoyed. Lots of lovely definitions and gentle misdirection as well as some super/amusing surfaces and some clever constructions. TOWN, VOCABULARY, HYENA, TOASTER, CAT, SCALLYWAG, CHEESE, OVERPAYMENT, INTELLIGENT and TRANSPARENT is my (fairly long) list of likes.
Thanks Solomon and Oriel
All good, last 3 took the most time, which were the pederast cells, whereas I was thinking mitochondria or similar, and TOASTER, where I was trying to include an I somewhere, given it gets a mention TWICE in the clue, finally AIR, where the triple def is still on, but maybe a weighting towards the decapitated musical.. many enjoyable bits, of which I’d pick OVERPAYMENT given the apparent paucity of actual information, which is revealed as exactly how much one needed.. reminded me of a clue in the Indy earlier..
Thanks Solomon n Oriel
I made steady progress, then needed to spend a lot more time in the SE corner. I too enjoyed this and agree there were a lot of interesting clues. My favourites were HYENA, VOCABULARY, SPREADSHEET, TOASTER.
I am another who did not know dr dre, wondered why see = show and was unsure how to parse AIR. I also wondered why the parents were cycling in TRANSPARENT.
Thanks Solomon and Oriel
We got there in the end despite barking up a few wrong trees, notably with SPREADSHEET where we were trying to think of cells in a biological sense, and we weren’t aware of the Mexican state, HIDALGO meaning only a /spanish nobleman to us. Favourites were CAT and SCALLYWAG.
Thanks, Solomon and Oriel
Thanks for the blog, very enjoyable puzzle , neat and clever clues with many nice touches .
Dr DRE make very expensive headphones that are popular with gullible students .