The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29893.
A splendid puzzle, with sometimes elaborate parsing couched mostly in meaningful surfaces. I think there is a slip in 19D SIERRA, but that hardly mars the overall effect.
But see KVa @1 (and the rest of the world).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DRESSED |
Journalist on pills, doctors wrapped and prepared (7)
|
| A charade of DRESS, an envelope (‘wrapped’) of ES (‘pills’) in DRS (‘doctors’); plus ED (‘journalist’). | ||
| 5 | POLYGON |
No doctor around to begin with – on location, you must get into shape (7)
|
| An envelope (‘must get into’) of OLY (‘to begin with On Location You’) in PGON, a reversal (‘around’) of ‘no’ plus GP (‘doctor’). | ||
| 9 | ARTIC |
E.g. oils winch occasionally for little lorry (5)
|
| A charade of ART (‘E.g. oils’) plus IC (‘wInCh occasionally’). ‘Little’ for the abbreviation. | ||
| 10 | AFTERGLOW |
Residual radiance of surrealist art we flog (9)
|
| An anagram (‘surrealist’) of ‘art we flog’. | ||
| 11 | TIE THE KNOT |
Get married in Windsor – possibly circumventing terms of it with divorce (3,3,4)
|
| An envelope (‘circumventing’) of THE, final letters (‘terms’) of ‘iT witH divorcE’ in TIE KNOT (‘Windsor possibly’). | ||
| 12 | FAD |
This writer’s article for European Vogue (3)
|
| A substitution: FED (‘this writer’) with the E replaced by A (‘article for European’). | ||
| 14 | PRECARIOUSLY |
Faithfully taking on Park Run – straining Achilles at the start in a hazardous manner (12)
|
| A double envelope (‘taking on’ and ‘straining’ – the latter I feel a strain) of A (‘Achilles at the start’) in REC (‘park’) plus R (run’), to give RECAR, in PIOUSLY (‘faithfully’). | ||
| 18 | INCANTATIONS |
Leaders of certain African countries checking temperature after hot spells (12)
|
| A charade of IN (‘hot’) plus CANTATIONS, an envelope (‘checking’) of T (‘temperature’) in CA (‘Leaders of Certain African’) plus NATIONS (‘countries’). | ||
| 21 | NUN |
Sister removing bits from kitchen units (3)
|
| A hidden answer (‘removing bits from’) in ‘kitcheN UNits’ | ||
| 22 | SANATORIUM |
Awful trauma – so in hospital (10)
|
| An anagram (‘awful’) of ‘trauma so in’. | ||
| 25 | IMMEDIATE |
I’m referee next (9)
|
| A charade of ‘I’m’ plus MEDIATE (‘referee’, verb). | ||
| 26 | SURGE |
Get material in audition and well up (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘in audition’) SERGE (‘material’). | ||
| 27 | LACONIC |
Brief initially taking legal advice concerning our negligence in court (7)
|
| First letters of (‘initially taking’) ‘Legal Advice Concerning Our Negligence In Court’. | ||
| 28 | ASSUAGE |
Diminish link, say, bringing sons together (7)
|
| A transposition: SAUSAGE (‘link, say’) with the two letters S moved together (‘bringing sons together’). A novel device. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DEARTH |
Want daughter to join our home (6)
|
| A charade of D (‘daughter’) plus EARTH (‘our home’). | ||
| 2 | EITHER |
One of two that is reared by the King (6)
|
| A charade of EI, a reversal (‘reared’ in a down light) of I.E. (‘that is’) plus ‘the’ plus R (Rex, ‘King’). | ||
| 3 | SACCHARINE |
Criminal in car chase looking for sweetener (10)
|
| An anagram (‘criminal’) of ‘in car chase’. ‘Looking for is just connective tissue. | ||
| 4 | DRANK |
Had coffee for one day on order (5)
|
| A charade of D (‘day’) plus RANK (‘order’). ‘For one’ as the indication by example. | ||
| 5 | POTPOURRI |
Tip and pour or spread mixture (9)
|
| An anagram (‘spread’) of ‘tip’ plus ‘pour or’. | ||
| 6 | LARD |
It might be Hollywood Boulevard for Grease (4)
|
| LA RD (Los Angeles road, ‘it might be Hollywood Boulevard’)’ | ||
| 7 | GOLDFISH |
Or try to get fairground prize? (8)
|
| A charade of GOLD (‘or’ in heraldry) plus FISH (‘try to get’ – generally in the form “fish for”). | ||
| 8 | NOWADAYS |
A Dyson Airblade was primarily designed for the current time (8)
|
| An anagram (‘designed’) of ‘a Dyson’ plus AW (‘Airblade Was primarily’). | ||
| 13 | TOWN HOUSES |
Sandwich maybe hot – nothing goes through connected properties (4,6)
|
| A charade of TOWN (‘Sandwich maybe’) plus H (‘hot’) plus O (‘nothing’) plus USES (‘goes through’). | ||
| 15 | CHARABANC |
Coach horse cutting almost all risk (9)
|
| An envelope (‘cutting’) of ARAB (‘horse’) in CHANC[e] (‘risk’) minus its last letter (‘almost all’). | ||
| 16 | BIENNIAL |
Perhaps honesty box is originally in lane for change (8)
|
| An anagram (‘for change’) of BI (‘Box Is originally’) plus ‘in lane’. Despite the botanical name Lunaria annua, honesty or the money plant is often grown as a biennial. | ||
| 17 | ECONOMIC |
English funny about working to be profitable (8)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of ON (‘working’) in E (‘English’) plus COMIC (‘funny’). | ||
| 19 | SIERRA |
Dossier parties surrendered before, essentially, Gerald Ford made it (6)
|
| A charade of ‘[dos]sier’ minus DOS (‘parties surrendered’) plus RA (‘essentially GeRAld’). The definition is puzzling: there are films entitled Sierra, High Sierra, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre etc., none of which was directed by John Ford nor starred Harrison Ford or Glenn Ford , nor involve any of them in any way. Unless I am overlooking something, I suspect a slip by Fed – perhaps most likely a confusion of John Ford with John Houston, the director of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
A clear case of tunnel vision: SIERRA (and Ford) said film to me, and I did not look beyond that. The Ford Sierra car gives a perfectly good definition, and the surface reference to Watergate and all that makes this a truly outstanding clue. |
||
| 20 | AMPERE |
Current measure of a politician regularly missing debrief (6)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus MP (‘politician’) plus ERE (‘regularly missing dEbRiEf’). | ||
| 23 | ARENA |
Ring some Sloane Rangers up (5)
|
| A hidden (‘some’) reversed (‘up’ in a down light) answer in ‘SloANE RAngers’. | ||
| 24 | ADEN |
Loaded without opening port (4)
|
| A subtraction: [l]ADEN (‘loaded’) minus its first letter (‘without opening’). |
SIERRA
A Ford car model
With KVa on Sierra, the Ford model.
Thank you PeterO, especially for ASSUAGE. I should have known/remembered the link/sausage as my father was a butcher.
GOLDFISH. I knew it had to be ”gold” something, and then got it. Not familiar with the history, or the predicament, of that poor little creature, still legal as a prize in some areas, I see.
INCANTATIONS my pick for the surface and wordplay.
I had a different interpretation of DRANK. Definition, had coffee for (link word) one day> D on (in a down clue) RANK (order). I really liked the clue, because so often ”drink” or ”drinking” or ”drank” implies alcohol consumption, without specifying it. I think we had a similar clue recently, not sure if it was Fed.
Tricky in places but fair, once you have the wordplay worked out. Liked GOLDFISH and SANATORIUM – after I’d spelled it correctly!
I was trying to think of a context where IMMEDIATE could be substituted for “next”, but the closest I could get was “immediate neighbour” and “next-door neighbour”. There’s probably something obvious but I just can’t think of it right now.
Tx.
I’m also with KVa #1 for 17, and Paddymelon #6 for 4.
NHO Honesty as a plant so thanks to PeterO for explaining that one.
Thanks also to Fed for a testing puzzle today with many answers requiring a deal of thought to deconstruct.
SIERRA. I agree with KVa#1 and pdm#3, a Ford car model. Clever separation of Gerald and Ford.
DRANK. Agree with pdm#6, I saw the definition just as ‘had coffee’.
I hadn’t been able to parse POLYGON, PRECARIOUSLY, TOWN HOUSES, ASSUAGE. Outclassed by Fed. Thanks PeterO for the explanations.
Loved TIE THE KNOT, INCANTATIONS, the economical ECONOMIC, SIERRA.
Thanks to Fed and PeterO.
Dr W @7: best i could do was “his immediate/next response was…”
Enjoyed this, although I found the answers easier to get than the parsing.
Ticks at ASSUAGE & SIERRA.
That was a lot of fun. I’m another fan of ASSUAGE, with LACONIC, INCANTATIONS and CHARABANC. I’m still confused by the role of ‘to begin with’ in the clue for POLYGON. Thanks PeterO and Fed.
Ref DRANK, I’m with PeterO on the parse with the ‘for one’ being the qualifier for definition by example; it need not have been coffee that was drunk. Otherwise we are left with ‘for’ as a link word and we have ‘definition for wordplay’. Fed is a grammatically accurate setter and I do not believe he would support that construction. It would also leave him with a superfluous ‘one’: why have that in the clue when ‘day’ alone would do the job?
Thanks Fed and PeterO. Fully agree with PostMark#12 on DRANK; though I’d parsed it as a few people suggested above when solving, I believe PeterO’s parsing is the correct one.
A slightly tougher fed ideal for the Friday slot.
Took a while to see how ASSAUGE worked after putting it in from the checking letters.
Liked PRECARIOUSLY and INCANTATION amongst others.
I was wondering if ARTIC Lorries were little before the blog gave me the facepalm moment it was the word on the little side.
Thanks Fed and PeterO
Thanks Fed and PeterO
Not too hard to fill the grid, but the parsing was another matter. I needed help on about half a dozen.
I’ve only seen SACCHARINE as an adjective – the sweetener is usually “saccharin”.
I still don’t see “sausage”=”link”.
I laughed at the LA RD!
DRANK
I also parsed it as the blogger & PostMark did.
My sister is an HGV driver, and she’s been known to describe the ARTIC cab as her little runaround, so that made me grin.
I needed the blog to parse ASSUAGE, another neat trick to remember. I agree it’s the Ford SIERRA car – which is very common in the UK.
Thank you to Fed and PeterO.
Enjoyed and finished this (unlike yesterday) but I think slight moral win for setter for reasons to become clear. For me DRANK was D and RANK and SIERRA was always a car in my mind because I can remember the impact of first seeing such a radical new shape as a youngish lad. SAUSAGE completely new to me as a link and I missed the parsing of POLYGON, LACONIC and TIE THE KNOT although Windsor is most obvious now. I’m sure most people know that the town of Sandwich is close enough to the village of Ham to produce an amusing and often stolen signpost. Thank you Petero and Fed.
muffin@15 – at least where I grew up in SW Scotland, the type of sausages that are linked together with a twist of the casing at each join were known as ‘links’. I needed PeterO to parse that one and personally I think it’s a bit vague both with the link/sausage equivalence, and the lack of indication of where the S’s go, but I think it does work.
Favourites LACONIC, LARD, SIERRA.
Thanks Fed and PeterO.
Thanks beaulieu @19. I’ve not heard that in East Lancs. I wonder how widespread that terminology is?
I liked it too – and yes I also thought of John Ford at first for 19d, PeterO, having seen the settings for some of his Westerns in Monument Valley when I visited your country in 2017. I then swapped to Henry and even tried (Ford) FIESTA until it was clear that wasn’t going to work. I had to look up that SIERRA, which then fitted 19d, was indeed a Ford model.
BTW, I also had trouble with the spelling of 22a SANATORIUM, Dr. WhatsOn@#7.
My favourites have already been canvassed, and sorry to be repetitive, but the “link sausages” clue for ASSAUGE at 28a, was at the top on my list.
Anyway, I just wanted to say I was grateful to both setter and blogger for their positive contributions to my Friday. Thanks, Fed and PeterO! That was fun.
Very tough.
I failed to solve 26ac and 19d – I do not know dozens/hundreds of names of car models and I’m not interested to learn them either 😉
Of the ones I solved, I could not parse 28ac; 16d biennial = ‘perhaps honesty’.
Tough indeed. But enjoyable. The surfaces all seemed to work. DNF for me, of course, but it is Friday.
The Ford Sierra was a very common car in the UK. Had not realised it was obscure outside these shores.
Liked the ‘sons together’ manoeuvre but was still sunk by the ‘link = sausage’ first step. See how that work but didn’t know it was a thing.
‘Lard’ was my favourite. Perhaps because it took so long to solve but was obvious once I had done so.
Most excellent puzzle. Looking forward to the next one from Fed.
Well, I found this quite a welcome relief after trying unsuccessfully to tackle Vlad yesterday. Took a while to equate INCANTATIONS with spells, however. Thought LACONIC rather neatly put together. Many thanks Fed and PeterO…
NOWADAYS, BIENNIAL and SIERRA were my favourites. A great puzzle as always from Fed.
Thanks for the definition of BIENNIAL and the parsing of ASSUAGE.
It felt like there were quite a few use the first-letter constructions today.
@paul 11
No doctor around to begin with – on location, you must get into shape (7)
The “to begin with” means you have to use the first letters of On Location You to get the “OLY” component of the answer.
Agree with muffin #15 the answers were much easier than the parsing.
In Scotland, sausages are always “links” to distinguish from square (Lorne) sausage, my son’s staple diet in times gone by.
I think the Sierra was eventually replaced by the Mondeo. I recall an early Peter Kay set about dads losing the car on the way out of asda…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/spG7xSaOdoE
After my failing dismally with Vlad yesterday, Fed cheered me up with some lovely surfaces and misdirection. TTS&B, and Happy New Year to all here.
Yes, KVA@1 and others are right about the SIERRA at 19d being made by Ford. I, fortunately, spotted that the “essential letters” of Gerald was part of the world play which enabled me to think of Ford a different way. Despite that tiger trap I saw the surface as a witty summary of how Gerald Ford stepped into Nixon’s shoes after the full extent of secret records had been revealed and the damning contents led to Nixon’s impeachment and resignation in 1974. I thought that particular clue kept on giving. I had less generous thoughts about some of the bells and whistles on other clues – the “circumvention” in 11ac and the “straining” in 14ac, for example – which I thought were superfluous embellishments on otherwise terrific clues. Thanks all round.
Agree with the SIERRA-as-car parsing as other posters mentioned above – I smiled when the penny finally dropped. Thanks to PeterO for explaining the parsing of the numerous clues that I could not. But loved this puzzle. Many smiles including the very elegant FAD and IMMEDIATE.
Two bites needed for this set of mostly quite chewy nuggets. Lots of good stuff, and I enjoyed working some of the complicated assemblages, but my favourite was probably the neat and laugh-out-loud LARD.
D-RANK worked for me, as did the Ford SIERRA car, a type called by an unimpressed mechanic friend the Ford Siesta. Ford the director never occurred to me.
It took me a while to see LACONIC, and then BIENNIAL fell into place as LOI.
Many thanks to PeterO for enlightenment on several PARSINGS (POLYGON for one) , and of course to Fed/Fad for the entertainment.
Re 12a. I usually complete the paper version, but sometimes use the Guardian app. The app does not show the setter’s name, hence clues like these are hit and miss (admittedly not difficult on this occasion). Or am I missing something?
IanSW@34. Agree it’s a fault in the app. Access the app version via the archive section and you will see the setter’s name.
I spotted that the Ford was going to be a car, but then spent some time trying to make Fiesta work (parties is in the clue) before being put right by SANATORIUM.
Thanks, Fed. for a very enjoyable puzzle and thanks, PeterO, for the blog, especially for reminding me that honesty is a plant.
Thanks for the blog, very good puzzle with a lot of variety . SAUSAGE , BIENNIAL and SIERRA all had clever wordplay and/or definitions .
A minor quibble , I agree with Rich@26 , the use of first letters a touch overdone .
AMPERE one of the greats in electromagnetism but too early to be a contender for a NUKE .
Failed on ASSUAGE I’m afraid, but otherwise I liked this a lot. FAD was very good.
This was in my sweet spot for degree of difficulty, and I parsed everything except honesty, which I had to google (other search engines are available) to verify. Plant names are as obscure to me as, apparently, popular car models are to others.
I also needed two bites at the spelling of SANATORIUM.
Thanks to Fed and PeterO for the parsing of ASSUAGE and GOLFISH. The top half went in quite smoothly but I got a bit stuck in the bottom half. Particularly ticks for POLYGON (not a wayward parrot for once), INCANTATIONS, CHARABANC, ECONOMIC (good surface), and SIERRA.
Nothing new to add to this blog other than my thanks to Fed for a tricky but enjoyable puzzle and to PeterO for lots of required explanations.
As people have said above the answers were easier than the parsing – with honesty and polygon for instance, I was confident but confused.
As a Scot, link sausage is fairly common parlance to me although I didn’t parse the clue. When “square” becomes a sausage indicator we will know it’s a west coast scot at the helm.
Thanks again.
Johnnybgoode@35. Many thanks for the tip.
Really enjoyed this, as others have said here, the parsing was a bigger challenge than the answers. I needed 225 to explain ASSUAGE (despite being a fan of Lorne sausages), and today I learned the correct spelling of SACCHARINE and CHARABANC. Great stuff, thanks to Fed and PeterO.
Very enjoyable crossword for a change.
19D was obviously a car produced by the Ford Motor Company. Dossier minus Dos, sier, Gerald essentially, ra. I don’t see how you could think otherwise
[In Fargo,which is, by a nose, my favourite film, Jerry Lundegaard (William H Macy) gives Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear (Peter Stormare) a new tan Ford SIERRA as payment for kidnapping his wife. The car becomes a significant factor in what follows. For some reason, whoever subtitled the film for Amazon spelled ii as ‘Cierra’, which made me wonder if this was maybe the American version of the model, but apparently not.]
Hey, Ed @44! You enjoyed a crossword! Good grief – it must be a new year or something.
For once I used Check Word and Reveal Word about the same number of times. Grateful for the blog comments and setting.
A POT POURRI OF POT POURRIs this week; Ramsay clued it on Tuesday. ASSUAGE, INCANTATIONS, FAD and LARD were my favourites although all of it was pretty spot on. I like gardening but was not aware of honesty.
Ta Fed & PeterO.
Hey Balfour @45.
I enjoy quite a few of these crosswords.
I’ve been doing the Guardian Cryptic for at least 55 years. I once won the Saturday Prize Crossword set by Araucaria, one of the greatest ever compilers.
I usually only comment when I think the crossword was below standard
[Balfour, if you come back, I’ve just finished The Turn Of The Screw. A tough but interesting read, thx for the recommendation].
Well that was really fun. I loved the convoluted ones! Favourites were BIENNIAL for its cheeky definition and INCANTATIONS for its complicated parsing. Failed to parse TIE THE KNOT and ASSUAGE – but I see that they are really clever too.
Many thanks to Fed for an enjoyable lunch time solve, and thanks for an excellent blog and explanation.
m.uffin@20 “Links” for sausages is common in the US. At restaurants you may get a choice between sausage links and patties.
Fun puzzle, thanks to Fed and PeterO.
Thanks gwd80@27, that’s clear (and I should have got it from PeterO’s blog but for some reason my brain went off in a different direction). Kind of you to take the trouble.
Google AI tells me that “links” for sausages is used primarily in Scotland and the US, as the confirmations here would suggest. I have lived in Devon, London, and now East Lancs, and I’ve never heard it before!
[ AlanC@49 , I thought that football supporters only read books with lift-up flaps ?
Does this mean that you have finally grown out of going to watch KPR ? ]
First crossword completed without using a thesaurus for a long time. Last one in was BIENNIAL – I had no idea about the plant, it was the only word that I could make fit following the clue.
Newbie Yank here. At 21d, how does “parties” give DOS, which I understand is to be deleted (“surrendered before”)? Is this an oblique reference to the 12 Steps acronym? Is it the plural, so that must mean two and be in Spanish? Something even more obscure? I can’t wring an explanation out of Chambers.
aemmmnostt @56
A “do” for a party is quite common in British crosswords. “How was your party?” “It was a posh do!”
@57, of course, thank you muffin.
I only got assuage because it was the only word that fit. Thanks for the parsing. Clever clue.
[Roz @54: alas, that’s where my foolish childishness remains. I’m glad you’re catching up on you reading, my wife used to read her Pharmaceutical Journal during the games].
Ed@48, I haven’t been doing the Guardian Cryptic anywhere near as long as you have. I too was amazed to discover my name amongst the Prize Crossword winners quite a few years ago, though, but I actually had a couple of wrong answers in the grid that time. Don’t know if anyone had checked my submitted entry, but I still received the book prize through the post a while later…
[ AlanC@60 , only been twice and only because it is for a good cause . I am now a world expert in studying how fast the grass grows .
A genuine question and I want a genuine answer , is there an Irish footballer called Troy Parrot ? I suspect my students are after revenge for all my spoofs . ]
[Roz @62
Nearly – there’s a Troy Parrott!]
[AlanC @49 Glad you got through TTOTS. As I think I said when we had our original exchange, James was one of my pet authors when I sat Finals, although his later novels can be tough going indeed. If you are minded to stick with him in shorter formats, you could try ‘Daisy Miller’.]
Thanks Fed for a set of splendid clues with my favourites being DRESSED, FAD, PRECARIOUSLY (enjoyed ‘reverse-parsing this one), IMMEDIATE, ASSUAGE, and ECONOMIC. I dnk that ‘honesty’ was a plant, let alone a BIENNIAL one. Thanks PeterO for the blog.
Yes, very nice puzzle. Filling in was certainly easier than fully parsing. Fed seems to be quite the master of using a convoluted parsing to deliver a meaningful surface. e.g. 5a, 14a. Beg to disagree with TerriBlislow @31, but I think straining and circumventing were necessary for parsings to work properly.
According to Collins, SANATORIUM is the British spelling and SANITARIUM, the American variant. Explains why I and maybe others here got a little confused. Glad to have anagrams sometimes as mnemonics to remember tricky spellings. Will try to add “in car chase” to that category.
Think GOLDFISH was my favorite due to its initial impenetrability and fine PDM as a result. It looked very much like a follow on wordplay from the clue before (6d), but not so. I wonder how outraged solvers would have been if Fed had mischievously added phantom ellipses (…) to both clues for fun! We shall never know.
Thanks, Fed and Peter
‘Terms’ means final now?! As an abbreviation of ‘terminals’?
yonoloco @67
For one of the meanings of term, Collins has:
13. archaic
a. end, conclusion, or termination
Also, for strain (in 14), I found:
9. (transitive)
to clasp tightly; hug
[ Roz@62: The Troy parrots were of course the watchbirds of that noble but beleaguered city, rather like the geese of early Rome. Odysseus was only able to get away with the horse business because they were all shagged out after a long squawk. ]
Thanks PeterO and thanks all.
As many commenters have suggested it was indeed the Ford Sierra car that was being alluded to in 19d.
My intended parsing for 4d was as per the blog and I think PostMark @12 explains why “had coffee” requires a qualifier to be a fair definition.
Beaulieu @19 – I’m not sure I’d agree that there’s a lack of indication as to where the S’s go. I think “bring them together” suggests that they both need to move – each towards the other – which, in the word SauSage only leaves one option. But even if you think the instruction is less precise than that, it’s an awful lot more precise than any anagram indicator and – after all – only one combination of the word with the two S’s side by side yields an actual word!
Happy new year!
Fed @70
Thanks for dropping in, but I do think that “links” for “sausage” is a bit too resetricted in use to be fair.
Muffin @71 I’m genuinely surprised to see so many people not knowing Link = Sausage… as much as anything because I’ve used it before without anyone raising any objections at the time.
I’m not convinced that it’s quite as geographically restricted as some are suggesting – if it is, I have no idea how it’s crept into my own usage as I’m not from those parts and have no familial connection to them either!
Ouch – isn’t all fair in love and war ? I’m much less at war, more in love, with such a consummate teaser as Fed. Can’t a sausage link pun without demur contain any part of the pig, except , or is it including, the squeak ?
New at this, thanks for the elucidation! Is there any way that RACER (backwards) could refer to Achilles, who is in a famous paradox involving a race? Too tempted by a straight clue, am I?
Delayed with this one due to spending an extra day on yesterday’s Vlad. I love it. Is Fed my favourite setter? Great constructions with consistently appealing and funny surfaces. Lots of favourites, including 5a POLYGON (“get into shape”), 12a FAD (clever wordplay and surface), 18a INCANTATIONS (“hot spells”), 22a SANATORIUM (“Awful trauma”), 25a IMMEDIATE (great surface), 1d DEARTH (“our home”), 5d POTPOURRI (“Tip and pour”), 6d LARD (“Hollywood Boulevard”), 7d GOLDFISH (“Or try”), 8d NOWADAYS (“Dyson Airblade”), 19d SIERRA (“Gerald Ford”, what a clue!), 24d ADEN (great surface), along with all the others. Great puzzle!
Thank you both
As many have said, I thought that this was super. Particular praise given for BIENNIAL and ASSUAGE.
[I won’t develop my views here on the extent to which the invasion of previously conversational social spaces – pubs – by football TV has contributed to a general increase in anti-intellectualism – to put it kindly – in the UK, but I’d say that it’s significant at least.]
Cheers one and all.
Fed@70, thanks for coming here to comment. Fair points about the S’s in ASSUAGE. As I said, I think the clue does work; it just wasn’t one of my favourites in a good crossword.
Ah but Fed @70 re your sausage you’d have been excoriated for anagramming a substitution!
This had so many delightful clues.
JaMaNn@78 It’s not an anagram! We see indirect letter-moving all the time, with indicators such as “cycling”, “top to bottom”, etc. Perfectly acceptable. “Bringing sons together” at 28a is clever and, as far as I know, original. It’s a great clue (among many)
An excellent, very enjoyable crossword.
All OK for me except ASSUAGE (28 a). I couldn’t parse it completely. I recognised the ‘bringing sons together’ meant SS but, I’m afraid I was one of those not familiar with ‘link’ as a reference to sausage. I shall remember it in future though.
I found PeterO’s struggle with SIERRA (19d) interesting. As it happens I did spot the reference to the Ford car model. Goes to show though that the best of us can be stumped sometimes.
Many thanks Fed and to PeterO.