It’s a Saturday Prize puzzle, and it’s a Brockwell…so there MAY be a theme or Nina…
…although this bear of little brain failed to spot it until almost the last minute!…
I solved and submitted this last weekend, quite blithely ignorant of any sort of linkage or theme, and it was only when I started to write up the blog and create a grid that I saw – in plain sight – KENTUCKY, FRIED and CHICKEN! Then JERK, KORMA and NUGGET…WOODSTOCK, DEBONE, SOUP…gahhh…how could I have missed all that?!
I had to look up COCKSHY as I wasn’t familiar with the word or definition – bit Cyclops-ean? – and the chicken references kept on coming – WIRE, CAPON, EGG…
I’ve probably missed a couple in the animation below – LEG HORN, cockSPURS – but I think you get the picture…
What an EGG-cellent puzzle – my brain was obviously ‘scrambled’ when I first solved it, but it didn’t ‘tikka’ much to ‘crack’ the theme and even your ‘hard-boiled’ correspondent had to ‘(ome)let’ a wry grin and an eyebrow raise cheer up his usually grumpy countenance…the ‘yolk’ was on me!
My thanks to Brockwell, and I trust all is clear below.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 7A | MAHARISHI | Joint rolled by a Tory guru (9)
MAH (ham, joint, rolled over) + A + RISHI (Tory, remember him?…no, me neither!) |
| 8A | KORMA | Nothing stopping wacky Mark Curry (5)
K_RMA (anag, i.e. wacky, of MARK) around (stopped by) O (zero, nothing) |
| 9A | WOODSTOCK | Festival has Rolling Stone fronting The Animals (9)
WOOD (Keith Wood, Rolling Stone) + STOCK (animals) |
| 10A | SPURS | Urges on team (5)
double defn. – to SPUR is to urge on; and SPURS is the nickname of Tottenham Hotspur (a football team, m’lud) |
| 12A | DEBONE | Finished eating skinned sea bass fillet (6)
D_ONE (finished0 around (eating) ( |
| 13A | EXIT POLL | Former pilot confused about line in survey (4,4)
EX (former) + IT_PO_L (anag, i.e. confused, of PILOT) around L (line) |
| 16A | COCKSHY | Cast member at first is an object of ridicule (7)
COCK (male member) before SHY (cast, throw) |
| 19A | JERKING | Waistcoat good for pulling? (7)
JERKIN (waistcoat, sleveless jacket) + G (good) |
| 22A | ACENTRIC | Eric Cantona missing last three starts for lacking focus? (8)
subtractive anag, i.e. starts, or is surprised, of ERIC CANT( |
| 25A | GINGER | Annoyance after opener getting dropped by Joe Root (6)
GI (GI Joe, American serviceman) + ( |
| 27A | TWIGS | Gets syrup in this on vacation (5)
T( |
| 28A | IRON LUNGS | Training run is long for life-savers (4,5)
anag, i.e. training, of RUN IS LONG |
| 29A | FRIED | Cooked drug in two days (5)
FRI (Friday, a day) + D (day), so two days, around E (ecstasy tablet, drug) |
| 30A | ONLOOKERS | Witnesses in the matter of king and queen breaking thrones (9)
ON (in the matter of) + LOO_S (toilets, or thrones) around (broken by) K (king) + ER (Elizabeth Regina, queen) |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | CAPONE | Don Corleone ultimately plugged by new gangster (6)
CAPO (mafia don) + N (new) + E (ultimate letter of corleonE) |
| 2D | HANDBOOK | Manual worker is on top of work (8)
HAND (worker) + BOOK (work) |
| 3D | LITTLE | Young darts player scratching bottom (6)
LITTLE( |
| 4D | CHICKEN | Stylish dolly bird (7)
CHIC (stylish) + KEN (dolly, friend of Barbie!) |
| 5D | SOUP UP | Give a boost to Stokes with three overs (4,2)
S (stokes, physics) + O (over, cricket notation) + UP (over, as in the game’s up) + UP (a third ‘over’!) |
| 6D | AMORAL | Unprincipled monk about to pick up men (6)
AM_AL (lama, or Tibetan monk, about, or reversed) around (picking up) OR (Other Ranks, men, as opposed to officers) |
| 11D | WIRE | Telegraph and Guardian setters probed by the taxman some time ago (4)
W_E (Guardian setters, of which Brockwell is one, wo ‘we’ from his perspective) around (probed by) IR (the Inland Revenue, former name, i.e. some time ago, of HMRC, the taxman) |
| 14D | OBI | Fetish of British industry leaders (3)
leading letters of ‘Of British Industry’ |
| 15D | LEG | On stage (3)
double defn. – the ‘on’ side is the LEG side, in cricket; and a stage can be a LEG |
| 16D | CHA | Bloke doesn’t finish drink (3)
CHA( |
| 17D | CUE | Rod and line picked up (3)
homophone, i.e. picked up – CUE (rod) can sound like QUEUE, a line of people |
| 18D | HORN | Romeo consumed by love for the hard stuff? (4)
HO_N (honey, love – term of affection) around (consuming) R (Romeo, phonetic alphabet) |
| 20D | KENTUCKY | National food introduced to island state (8)
KE_Y (island) around (introducing) N (national) + TUCK (food, grub!) |
| 21D | A CORUNA | Carmen welcoming business career in Spanish city (1,6)
A_A (the Automobile Association, so car men – and women) around (welcoming) CO (company, business) + RUN (career, race) |
| 23D | COWARD | Playwright is 4 (6)
double defn. – Noel COWARD was a playwright; and 4D ‘chicken’ can mean COWARD |
| 24D | NUGGET | Putting the boot into No.10 raised lump (6)
N_ET (number TEN, raised) around UGG (a brand of boot) |
| 25D | GUN DOG | Piece on track for setter? (3,3)
GUN (piece, firearm) + DOG (track, follow) |
| 26D | EGGARS | Moths helping to make flipping clothes ragged (6)
reversed hidden word, i.e. ‘helping to make’ and ‘flipping’, in ‘clotheS RAGGEd’ |
I also saw: Chicken Little, Chicken Run, Ginger Chicken. Not the easiest puzzle, but spotting the theme helped a lot.
The blog is as witty as the puzzle! Enjoyed both. Thanks!
Just the right level of difficulty – took a few sittings. I especially liked WIRE and EXITPOLL, mainly for the surprise that popped out on doing the wordplay.
I couldn’t figure out a complete justification for SOUP UP. For me that’s a DNF (but I’m a bit picky).
Liked it a lot, although I didn’t get COCKSHY. I also couldn’t parse SOUP UP, but then I think there’s a mistake as Stokes is St, not S. Favourites CAPONE, CHICKEN, KENTUCKY, GUN DOG. I missed the theme. Thanks Brockwell & mc_rapper67!
I could see the theme, but failed to complete this one: did not know COCKSHY (I wondered if it might be CUCKOLD but of course I couldn’t parse it). Also defeated by MAHARISHI, DEBONE, GINGER, LITTLE, HORN and SOUP UP. I usually enjoy Brockwell, but this was hard work and not much fun, I’m afraid.
Well well, surprised never to have heard of the brilliant and prolific George Gabriel Stokes (only fluid dynamics name I remember from undergrad physics is Bernouilli).
Noticed a few chook bits — KFC, nugget, capon, cock — but didn’t bother much.
[instead musing about language ‘colonising’, eg our Leghorn is Livorno, their Tamigi is Thames]. Always stimulating, crosswordland, thanks both.