Apologies for the delay. Completely forgot. Early November brings a late blog of a puzzle from Bluebird
No theme that I can observe. Favourite clue has to be 1dn for the misdirection with 11ac and 4dn proving that simple clues are often more amusing.
Many thanks Bluebird – a reasonably quick solve which considering my circumstances was a blessing
Key * anagram; underline definition; rev. reversed; DD double definition
Across
1 Unpredictable blunder by a jerk (7)
err(blunder) + a + tic(jerk) = ERRATIC
5 Bird devouring a little green creature? (7)
Martin(bird) around a = MARTIAN
9 “Exercises make me exhausted” – the answer, ultimately, is a step-counter (9)
Pe(exercises) + do me (make me exhausted) PEDOMETER
10 Beat target after taking time to get really good (5)
(target -t)* = GREAT
11 Preserve the ends of celery (5)
C and Y (ends of celery) = CANDY
12 Cat, saving skin, went haphazardly through grass then went through again (2-7)
(cat + en)*(saving skin went) in reed (grass) = RE-ENACTED
13 Live at home, spinning, with wicked fairy tale character (2,8)
in (at home) + pr(spinning) + ogress(fairy tale character) = IN PROGRESS
15 Four nations of Britain, with king in charge (4)
B(Britain) + r (king) + ic (in charge) = BRIC
18 Feature, part of inglenook (4)
Hidden inGLENook = GLEN
19 ‘Deceptively roomy’ base used instead of a vacated lobby (10)
spacious(roomy) swapping out a for e(base) + ly (vacated lobby) = SPECIOUSLY
23 Flaming spirit comes with a piece of fruit (3,6)
red(flaming) + pep(spirit) + per(a) = RED PEPPER
24 Paper neckwear worn by spymaster (5)
ties(neckwear) around M (spymaster) = TIMES
26 Bishop Saint leaving foul smell where tramps hang about? (5)
b(bishop) + stench(foul smell) – st(saint) = BENCH
27 Bluebird’s little brother tipped oil on Gran’s front, making a mess (9)
I’m (Bluebird’s) + bro(little brother) + (oil)* after g(Gran’s front) = IMBROGLIO
28 Frenzied mob bringing loads back round for village raffle? (7)
Rev. a lot (loads) around (mob)* = TOMBOLA
29 Filming takes place here, in genteel street (7)
Hidden genteEL STREEt = ELSTREE
Down
1 Former producer of The Jam close to getting pregnant (9)
Ex (former) + pectin (producer of jam) + g (close to getting) = EXPECTING
2 Possibly writing a note on part of table (5)
R(possibly writing) + a + D(note) + on = RADON
3 Upstanding Conservative chasing cat with medium sized balls (8)
Tom (cat) + m (medium) + REv. tory (Conservative) = TOMMYROT
4 One serves three queens (7)
Cat (queen) + er er (two queens) = CATERER
5 Defenders during indirect free kicks and pens (7)
DD MARKERS
6 Music about horse leading a race at the end (6)
Re(about) + gg(horse) + a + e (race at the end) = REGGAE
7 Make heavy weather of disbanding riots around the church and M&S (3,6)
(riots)* around Ce(church) + MS(M&S) = ICE STORMS
8 Famous reason for tears at bedtime? (5)
No ted(dy) = NOTED
14 Endnote written by EU academic bringing up setter’s moniker (9)
PS (end note) + eu(european) + don (academic) + Rev. my (setter’s) = PSEUDONYM
16 Well-shaken Prosecco cracked open by unknown contraption (9)
(prosecco)* around y (unknown) = CRYOSCOPE
17 Neverland residents, terribly bossy lot, but others may be found around here (4,4)
(bossy lot)* = LOST BOYS
20 Spice cocktail drunk up by second of two secretaries (7)
Kir(cocktail) in Pa Pa (two secretaries) = PAPRIKA
21 Treatable bum ulcer lanced by sailor (7)
(ulcer)* around Ab(sailor) = CURABLE
22 Chet, wasted, supported by backing tracks in nightclubs? (6)
(chet)* + Rev. on (supported by) = TECHNO
23 Worker that’s turned on by stink-infested rubbish (5)
Rot(rubbish) aroun BO (stink) = ROBOT
25 Amoral maniac losing a tooth (5)
(amoral -a)* = MOLAR
Blogged just in the nick of time, as I was worried I’d turn in for the night Knowingly Undersolved.
Not sure I understand why “gg” is “horse”, or where the “T” in PEDOMETER cones from in the clue, but hopefully commenters will fill me in.
Thanks so much to Twencelas for our blog and Bluebird for a lovely puzzle
9a PE (exercises) DO (make) ME (me) T[h]E (exhausted the) R (answer, ultimately)
Gee Gee I always thought was a childish name for a horse.
Pedometer – PE + DO + ME + TE (exhausted THE) + R (Last in answer)
Pipped at the post by @2 FrankieG – my GG was too slow 🙂
Theme is boys’ names.
LOST BOYS: ERRATIC MARTIAN PEDOMETER … [Beaten to it by Christy@4] Thanks B&T
Theme is given in 17D. Not sure if the “around” bit is meant to work as Frankie G shows, but I can also see
cANDY, re-enacTED, in pROGress(?), bRIC, GLEN, speciouSLY, TIMes, BENch, TOMbola, RadON, TOMMYrot, MARKers, REGgae, noTED, and ROBot.
Cheers for the fun.
… plus RED PEPPER (Guardiola), PSEUDONYM (Everly), PAPRIKA (Mayall), CURABLE (C. Nesbitt) …
Oh, nice and unusual take on the theming! I did wonder what was going on with the superfluous chunk of 17d of course – but, me being consistently oblivious to theming, I made nothing of it.
Similarly I felt that 5d MARKERS was trying to be a triple rather than double definition because the football bit seemed a bit wordy – but I didn’t get anywhere with that.
I found this mostly gentle, and enjoyable, but I was held up for too long on MARTIAN (nho the bird martin, and got hung up on merlin).
Favs were RE-ENACTED, BRIC, SPECIOUSLY, EXPECTING and CATERER.
Thanks both
When I turned in yesterday evening, there was no blog. Well done to twencelas, in that case, for solving and blogging within the last hour of the day. A neatly incorporated theme and some fun constructions. I think ROBOT was my fave for the definition though I was also taken by MARTIAN, PEDOMETER, IN PROGRESS, BRIC, EXPECTING, CRYOSCOPE and CURABLE.
Thanks Bluebird and twencelas
Thanks both. Strangely, it feels like Sunday already….’Making heavy weather’ as the definition for ICE STORMS was an isolated query I had, but I guess there is no convention it needs to be fully at the start or end of the clue, and I assume RADON is specifically a part of the table of chemical elements – I also consistently fail to think musical notes for any of the seven A-G, so it was a very late entry
TFO@10 Radon, an element with atomic number 86, sits near to the bottom of the standard “periodic table” of chemical elements.
My understanding of cryptic grammar is that nothing is permitted to split a definition, and no wordplay is permitted to separate multiple definitions. However, linking words and other surface sugar is permitted to surround definitions. It usually doesn’t though, so we most commonly see definitions at the extreme ends of the surface.
Only just completed this, but just wanted to express my pleasure at the clue/answer of 8d. I’m not sure why, but it struck me as a 1st class cryptic construction.
Didn’t twig the theme even though I wondered what was going on at 17d
Thanks Bluebird for the challenge which I got through eventually. And also thanks to twencelas for the just in time blog.