Before I begin, a spot of self indulgence I’m getting married on Thursday to Cath and here’s a little extra puzzle from Anax http://crossword.info/anaxcrosswords/flashling . A right Celebration Cracker with a hint of my other hobby…
Back to today it’s Donk who last time was rogering nurses and waxing lyrical about brazilians. Blimey I thought Mondays were meant to be gentle, this is anything but and thanks to my “phone a friend” for 27.
Running across the top is AWOOGA which apparently is a track by Calvin Harris or the alarm sound in Red Dwarf, if there’s anything more then it’s lost on me
| Across | ||
| 7 | SPEARMINT RHINO | Fantastic pairs the norm in strip club (9,5) |
| Well it’s a chain of “gentlemen’s clubs” [pairs the norm in]* | ||
| 10 | OVEREGG | Hugely exaggerate layer’s position? (7) |
| OVER EGG as in hens on clutches | ||
| 11 | SANDBAG | Surveyor’s beginning with land that prevents flooding (7) |
| S(urveyor) & AND (with) & BAG (land as in fishing) | ||
| 12 | NASALISED | For speech, snitch used space group scheduled, wasting time (9) |
| Snitch is nose, hence someone who speaks nasally. NASA (space group) & LIS(t)ED | ||
| 14 | RESIN | Ford Scorpio at first using brake for amber? (5) |
| Ford = crossing, so we have REIN (brake) crossing S(corpio) | ||
| 15 | YEREVAN | Every drunk essentially loaned capital (7) |
| We had this answer recently, EVERY* & |
||
| 17 | DRIFTER | Bum doctor provided session for reduction (7) |
| DR & IF & TER(m) | ||
| 19 | UNTIL | Before deal, it nullified shepherds in turn (5) |
| Hidden reversed | ||
| 21 | WOLFS DOWN | Current returns given by Scotland’s banks, individual is putting away rapidly (5,4) |
| FLOW rev & S(cotlan)D & OWN | ||
| 23 | TREMOLO | Rock band gets in to see effect of repeated bowing (7) |
| REM in TO & LO (see) | ||
| 25 | APANAGE | Princely provision – a roast taking forever (7) |
| Obscurity for me but easy enough wordplay, A & PAN & AGE | ||
| 27 | REFERENCE POINT | It helps orienteers pick cycling club opening elsewhere (9,5) |
| Pick = PREFERENCE “cycling” becomes REFERENCE P & (j)OINT (club), its opening is elsewhere. Obvious really… | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | APSE | Section of church‘s indiscretion left out (4) |
| (l)APSE | ||
| 2 | WATER LEVEL | Superior height? We’ve taller monkeys! (5,5) |
| As in Lake Superior [WEVE TALLER]* anagrind Monkeys | ||
| 3 | OMEGAS | Greek characters‘ super, very big bags (6) |
| MEGA in O.S. | ||
| 4 | ONE-SIDED | Smitten, so denied considering single option (3-5) |
| [SO DENIED]* is “smitten” | ||
| 5 | GRIN | Panther’s tail caught in trap – show ivories happily with it (4) |
| (panthe)R in GIN for a toothy smile | ||
| 6 | AIRBUS | Jet black parts look American (6) |
| B(lack) “parts” ie inside AIR & US | ||
| 8 | ORGAN-GRINDER | Team almost call in reserve player from the street (5-7) |
| GANG & RIN(g) in ORDER | ||
| 9 | BOUNTY HUNTER | Most of spring, they turn hit into trailer for cash (6,6) |
| BOUN(d) & [THEY TURN]* “hit” | ||
| 13 | SIR | “Yes, I rowed” mentions Redgrave? (3) |
| Hidden | ||
| 14 | RAIN SHADOW | Place less damp dish on a raw salad? (4,6) |
| Any ideas on salad as an anagram indicator? [DISH ON A RAW]* | ||
| 16 | NEW TOWNS | Settlements for surplus Apple scientist accepting work on Sunday (3,5) |
| W(ork) in NEWTON & S(unday) | ||
| 18 | TWO | Zip up new flies covering pair (3) |
| ZIP=NOTHING=(n)OWT reversed with N(ew) flying away | ||
| 20 | TEE OFF | Well-to-do type receives tips for elite start (3,3) |
| E(lit)E in TOFF | ||
| 22 | LEAVES | Lightning originally seen by some roof exits (6) |
| L(ightning) & EAVES | ||
| 24 | OGRE | Monster, so retiring (4) |
| SO = ERGO reversed | ||
| 26 | ACNE | Falcon working out odds over English spots (4) |
| (f)A(l)C(o)N & E(nglish) | ||
This puzzle was quite a slow workout for me. I liked 16d, 6d & 23a and my favourites were 10a OVEREGG & 9d BOUNTY HUNTER.
I could not parse 18d, 8d & 27a – wow, they were all hard ones to parse!
New words for me today were SPEARMINT RHINO & APANAGE.
I parsed 15a as EVERY* + (lo)AN(ed).
I’ve seen ‘salad’ as an anagram indicator before but of course I can’t remember when or where, so this clue did not pose a problem for me today.
Thanks for the blog, flashling. All the best for your wedding, and thanks for the extra crossword.
BTW, there’s a typo @ 5d which should be R in GIN.
Yes Michelle, thank you I fixed 5d while you were typing this…
I agree with Michelle’s parsing of 15ac. Flashling’s works but is an overneccessary complication.
This was a difficult puzzle for a Monday and I have to confess I didn’t enjoy it that much. APANAGE was my LOI and I resorted to aids to get it even though pan=roast should have been obvious. Thanks to flashling for the parsing of REFERENCE POINT.
Thanks, flashling. I don’t know about rogering nurses, but I felt pretty rogered myself when I’d finally managed this one, and if I’d been in your position I’d have been phoning all the friends in my address book to work out the parsing of some of these.
It’s a sound and well-constructed puzzle, but devious to the nth degree for a solver of my ability. It’s a ‘clever’ cryptic in the best way – not show-offy, but plenty of places to be led up the garden path.
Of the ones I could parse, OVEREGG was my favourite. Not so keen on SPEARMINT RHINO. I know it’s an anagram and the surface is irresistible, but even with the crossers it was a bit of guesswork.
Bravo to Donk and congrats to Phil and Cath – will have a crack at the Anax puzzle tonight.
Thanks, flashling, for the blog, and for sharing your wedding present! [Thanks, Anax – I’ll save that one for later.] Many congratulations and best wishes to you both.
Many thanks, too, as ever, to Donk, for the energetic workout. I’m with Kathryn’s Dad on this. Wot, no theme? – or is it just me, as usual?
Eileen, the top row of letters on the grid spell “Awooga”, taken by many to be the sound of a siren going off. So perhaps today’s puzzle is our wake-up call for Monday morning?
Well, certainly not your average Monday gently-ease-into-the-week crossword, but all gettable apart from APANAGE for which I needed a word finder (surprisingly it only gave two possibilities for A-A-A-E). Perhaps helped by having to leave it to do something else and return to it later.
Anyway, thanks to Donk; thanks and congratulations to Flashling.
Donk already knows what I think about his puzzle 🙂 so I will just confine myself to contratulation Flashling on his forthcoming nuptials.
Shake-free me again!! For a while anyway, but gfeels good.
Nice cryptic bits to this puzzle I think, though the SALAD is a bit iffy, just doesn’t work v. well in that tense.
Cheers
Happy Rowly
All the best for the wedding, flashling.
Ah yes!! Happy times ahead Flashling.
Glad to hear/see that you’re better, Rowly.
Good crossword with lots of fine clues.
Thanks flashling and congratulations – hope everything goes well on Thursday. 🙂
AP(p)ANAGE was new to me and thanks for the parsing of REFERENCE POINT. I particularly liked OVEREGG and WOLFS DOWN.
Thanks for the wishes and glad to see Roley making more sense. Re overegg I see egg reversed hence over hidden in exaggerate…hope you enjoy the celebration cracker which isn’t as firework themed as you might think. This was Anax after all.
I really enjoyed this — I loved SPEARMINT RHINO.
Anyone fancy blogging the solution to my wedding present? Piece of cake obviously for first corrct, blogger and setter. Replies here please..
Many thanks Flashling and All the Very Best on your upcoming wedding.
This sure was tough and, after cheating, I learned about SPEARMINT RHINO and then discovered that they lost £2.1 million on their Year Ended 2011.
Boy have I led a sheltered life!
No one hazarding a guess at a Nina? You’re all too old 😉
Hi Rorschach
Doubtless – but you don’t have to rub it in! 😉
Bonjour from beautiful, sunny Quillan in the south of France! Many thanks to flashling for the blog and congratulations, all the best for Thursday! Apologies to everyone who didn’t find it as much fun as I hoped, but thank you all for commenting.
There is a bit of a ghost theme in the grid, answers and clues involving AWOOGA… Hopefully a hint of ‘John Fashanu’ might help a little!
Donk
Indeed, young Master Rorschach, we’ll have less of your smegging impertinence, if you please …
I have no idea. It’s too hot for nina-spotting.
Well, I can’t see anything thematic apart from the aforesaid AWOOGA in the top row of unches. But if anyone wants to investigate further you might find some help at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=awooga
We almost had to finish this one tomorrow but we will have to hunt further for the hidden theme in the morning.
Congratulations flashling – hope all goes well on Thursday. We will look at the Anax tomorrow as well!
Thanks Donk – not as amusing as the last one but certainly a challenge – especially for us wrinklies! We look forward to the next one!
John Fashanu used to be a presenter on a game show called Gladiators, which had characters such as Hunter, Rhino and Wolf in it. After investigation I found that Scorpio,Falcon, Jet, Lightning, Shadow, and Panther were also in the show
Thanks Allybazz, you’ve saved us some time this morning!
Yes, thanks Allybazz. I fancy the setter’s efforts in including all these references will have been lost on most solvers above the age of 30 (sadly, the majority). We’re more in tune with the judge who once asked ‘Who is Gazza?’
Right, must try to locate my glasses so I can find the bottle of Sanatogen … then off to the hospital this afternoon for my hip replacement.
It was a fine puzzle in any case – thanks again to Donk.
@K’sD more like the “a popular beat combo m’lud” generation :-). Donk sent me a message last night spilling the beans on the rest of the theme but Allybazz has already nailed it.