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Tees provides our Thursday workout this week.
We found this to be rather more straightforward than we have come to expect from Tees with only one entry we had to check – the composer at 28ac.
If it weren’t for the recent controversy over the band at 2d, we would never have heard of them, and we liked the reference to the problems at the Beeb in 7d.
SKIP (dance) ANTS (workers)
D and E (poor grades in exams) in or ‘blocking’ CATS (musical)
BlEAK (miserable) missing or ‘releasing’ the ‘l’ (50 in Roman numerals)
COME (issue) round or ‘consuming’ UMBER (brown) S (small)
nICe wARm gUSt with the first and last letters or ‘wings’ omitted or ‘failing’
Cryptic definition – referring to the bridge of the nose
APPAL (shock) A CHInA (mate) missing the ‘n’ (name) or ‘unnamed’
Four letters (quartet) hidden in GosseC OR Dvorak
A reversal (‘backing’) of OH (appeal to) CE (church)
MUSTARD (really good, as in ‘keen as…’) GAS (chat)
CU (copper) T (tense) after CROSS (punch – in boxing)
DAM (hold back) AGE (time)
An anagram (‘cuckoo’) of SIMILAR TIT
wAXED (got bigger) with the ‘w’ (wife) leaving
VARiES (changes) missing or ‘putting out’ the ‘i’ (one) + E (east)
An anagram (‘renovated’) of ATELIERS
NEE (born) in a reversal (‘raised’) of PACK (crowd)
OK (passable) in or ‘cutting’ PER (for every)
An anagram (‘rebuilt’) of CASINO round or ‘investing’ I (one)
An anagram (‘battling’) of M M (‘two Frenchmen’) and INTERPOL AS
ELSE (more) ‘housed’ in CHA (tea) – we had to check that else and more were synonyms but they were not listed in Chambers. They do appear to have overlapping meanings according to Google. All we could think of was – Do you want anything more/else?
DG (Director General) RACED (moved fast) round or ‘covering’ IS (lives)
Cryptic definition
H (heroin) AS (arsenic)
C (century) OR SIC (so) Ago missing or ‘banning’ ‘go’ (travel)
RAM (‘butter’ – an animal that butts) in or ‘sandwiched by’ MACE (club)
Cryptic definition
An anagram (‘studied’) of ELGAR IS – we’re not sure about ‘studied’ as an anagrind
T (first letter of tea) RICE (cereal)
A reversal (‘revolutionary’) of I (writer) MAIM (cripple)
I’d agree with more straightforward than the usual Tees although I did vaguely remember the composer
Thanks to Tees for the breakfast time fun and to B&J for the blog
A minor comment on 25d. I think it works best if you don’t separate, i.e. ‘writer cripples’ = ‘I maim’.
I was surprised to see this is only Tees’ fourth puzzle of 2025 and, yes, it was a reasonably gentle solve. I did need to work my way through the alphabet to get the composer though I knew what parse I was looking for. Whilst I am aware of the Belfast band, I cannot pretend I enjoy the reference to the old IRA and their approach to punishment. I parsed CHELSEA without a second thought so our bloggers are right to make us reflect but I think they have the right equivalence for ‘more’ and ‘else’.
Thanks Tees and B&J
I liked the way CORSICA gets 4 elements of wordplay into quite a succinct clue. I wondered if there was anything else to AUDITOR? Is the person who hears the one who is called,?
MUSTARD is a noun in the “keen as …” phrase cited, but “really good” is adjectival. Is there another usage example as an adjective?
Well, I hear it used occasionally in this sense, and it is in Green’s Dictionary of Slang as an adjective. As in, ‘he’s mustard on those drums’, which is what people often say about me.
Okay, not that often.
As to frequency of Tees puzzles, of late I have been mucho snowed under, and something’s been having to give. I’m taking steps as we speak to lighten the load, and I hope that soon I’ll be able, or allowed, to send more in de direction of MH.
I did a little joke there for you. Thanks BJ & all.
Thanks Tees and BnJ
I disagree with the definition in 22. As the name implies, a crosscut saw is designed to cut across the grain: against the grain would be up it (cf against the flow).
Tees @6 et al: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJCpQp4xMeY
Thanks both. Well, I have ended up feeling pretty thick having read the comments here, as there were quite a few things I didn’t readily recognise to the point of seeking help, which I do rarely. Cross for punch in CROSSCUT was far from instinctive, MILITARIST as a hawk where I could only think bird, VARESE whoever he is when there are about a thousand words for changes, and ‘oh’ for ‘appeal to’ in ECHO (absolutely no idea). Sadly, also went for a hard instead of A DOGS LIFE wherein the setter was doing the hardening. Please tell me it’s Friday tomorrow….
I’m annoyed I had to do a word search for VARESE as he’s one my favourites.
I’m with TFO on this one – found it quite chewy. And why IS ‘oh’ ‘appeal to’, if anyone’s still out there? Thanks to Tees and B&J
6D put me in mind of the sublime Hickory Wind, by Gram Parsons and Bob Buchanan:
I started out younger
At most everything
All the riches and pleasures
What else could life bring?
Many thanks Tees and B&J
Jayjay @11 – we’ve had another look at OH for APPEAL TO. It’s not one of the better clues in the puzzle but all we could come up with was the phrase – O (or Oh) for the wings of a dove – which is a sort of appeal!
^ I think you have to take the reversal as a whole rather than isolating the Oh. So “Oh church? …” is, whimsically, the appeal to church [or whatever] for attention.
Under ‘Oh’, Collins has:
“used in direct address, as to attract attention
e.g. oh, waiter!”
Seems fine to me.
Thanks B&J and Twmbarlwm
Over a day late to this. Work has been…work lately.
Fun fact about APPALACHIA. The Appalachian mountain range runs from Maine to Alabama. From Maryland-ish on north, it’s pronounced with a long A (roughly a homophone for “appellation”.) From West Virginia-ish on south, it’s a short A (Appalatchin, with the word “latch” intact). If you live in a place where you pronounce it the first way, you’re not in Appalachia.