It’s Thursday so we thought we might be in for a bit of a challenge. We then saw that that it was a Donk puzzle so we thought we were in for a treat as well!
We didn’t think it quite lived up to some of his recent puzzles but it was still very enjoyable with some good LOL moments. There are a couple which we are not too sure about so if anyone can help us with 5ac and 9ac we’d be very thankful.
Thanks Donk for the amusing solve. Joyce loved 22d despite not being able to solve or parse it and also liked the surface reading in 1d!
| Across | ||
| 1 | People in main cast revealing costume for The Sun? | |
| MANKINI | KIN (people) inside an anagram of MAIN (anagrind is ‘cast’) | |
| 5 | Classes get ready to print | |
| TYPESET | TYPE (classes) + SET (get ready). We’re not sure about this one – ‘type’ is singular but ‘classes’ is plural. Are we missing something? | |
| 9 | Tiny length of note by lonely relative? | |
| NANOMETRE | A play on the idea of NAN (a relative) having MET 0 people + RE (note). At least that’s what we think it is although you have to read it as O MET rather than the other way around. Not our most favourite clue of the puzzle though! Sorry, Donk! | |
| 10 | See 11 | |
| 11/10 | Cavorting upstairs, almost no-one to intervene | |
| PUT ONE’S OAR IN | Anagram of UPSTAIR |
|
| 12 | One aiming for bronze welcomes time – it’s a beaut | |
| STUNNER | SUNNER (one aiming for bronze as in tanning!) around or ‘welcoming’ T (time) | |
| 13/18 | Things to tie up fir? | |
| UNFINISHED BUSINESS | We needed a few checking letters for this one. It’s a play on the fact that you can read it as FIR |
|
| 16 | Life sentences, all bankers lacking | |
| LESS | First and last letters of LifE SentenceS or all the ‘bankers’ | |
| 19 | Platini’s ready for UEFA hosts from east | |
| EURO | ‘Hosted’ or hidden and reversed within the clue (from the east) in the clue fOR UEfa | |
| 20 | Green leaves? | |
| ECOTOURISM | Our last one in and we have to admit we needed an electronic search to solve it. We then kicked ourselves when we saw the answer. Needless to say it’s a play on ECO (green) + TOURISM (leaves or holidays)!! Great fun. | |
| 22 | Man from USA with gold pants | |
| DOUGLAS | An anagram of USA + GOLD (anagrind is ‘pants’) | |
| 23 | Loads of booze – wicked drinks lead to kebab | |
| SKINFUL | SINFUL (wicked) around or ‘drinking’ K (lead to kebab). Another excellent clue we thought. | |
| 25 | After 19 failures, try this fix | |
| PLANT | A play on the fact that if you number your tries PLAN A, PLAN B, your 20th go would be PLAN T! | |
| 26 | Club heard cynicism levelled by press | |
| IRONED OUT | IRON (club) + sounds like (‘heard’) DOUBT (cynicism) | |
| 27 | Squash racket finally studied more | |
| TREAD ON | T (last letter of racket or ‘finally) + READ ON (studied more) | |
| 28 | Is apiarist swapping partners at last, bringing in ex-celeb? | |
| HAS BEEN | A play on HAS BEE |
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | Blokes work with a purpose, that’s the change! | |
| MENOPAUSE | MEN (blokes) + OP (work) + A + USE (purpose) | |
| 2 | Why fisherman fails group | |
| NONET | A play on NO NET – presumably why the fisherman fails to catch anything! | |
| 3 | Approaching statement of self-possession? Not without heart | |
| IMMINENT | You have to read this as I’M MINE (statement of self-possession!) + N |
|
| 4 | Nasty cut is causing stress | |
| ICTUS | Anagram of CUT IS (anagrind is ‘nasty’). A topical clue for Bert as he cut his finger with a brand new saw recently! He should have used the workbench that was nearby, but didn’t! | |
| 5 | Finish from rest of kids in Spain most slight | |
| TEENSIEST | A play on TEEN |
|
| 6 | Support for new setter? | |
| PROP UP | PRO (for) + PUP (a new dog, perhaps a setter?). Another smile as we solved this one! | |
| 7 | Plain green ties worn | |
| SERENGETI | Anagram of GREEN TIES (anagrind is ‘worn’) | |
| 8 | Drift in remote north | |
| TENOR | Hidden within the clue – remoTE NORth | |
| 14 | Speciality spreads for fish on a roll | |
| FORTUNATE | FORTE (speciality) around or ‘spreading’ for TUNA (fish). A crafty clue! | |
| 15 | Hearing about tips for cigarette withdrawal | |
| SECESSION | SESSION (hearing) about the ends or ‘tips’ of CigarettE | |
| 17 | Idiot spoilt men rotten | |
| SIMPLETON | Anagram of SPOILT MEN | |
| 18 | See 13ac | |
| 21 | Criticised fine points raised, lacking source of info | |
| SLATED | DETA |
|
| 22 | Prepare for bed in warehouse | |
| DEPOT | You have to imagine that you are kneeling by the flower bed. You have a new plant in a pot just ready for planting but before you do, you have to remove it from the pot so you DE-POT it!! As a keen gardener, Joyce was very annoyed that she didn’t solve this one AND she had to have it explained to her. | |
| 23 | Tree-hugger’s opening hospital | |
| SLOTH | SLOT (opening) + H (hospital). A lovely clue we thought! | |
| 24 | Stopped Cockney’s projects | |
| FROZE | You have to say THROWS (projects) in a Cockney accent to solve this one! | |
Thanks Bertandjoyce and Donk,
I don’t really understand NANOMETRE either.
I took TYPESET to refer to two kinds of class – TYPE and SET, with “get ready to print” as definition.
Very nice puzzle and blog.
Thanks Muffyword for TYPESET. How did we miss that?
Excellent puzzle from one of the best setters.
Re NANOMETRE I think it works with Nan as the object, as “Nan 0 [zero people] met”, i.e. Nan that nobody met, = “lonely relative?” Quite touching in its way and a bit Enigmatist-ish, I thought.
Thanks, B and J, for a great blog.
Lovely puzzle, which unravelled at a very satisfying rate. Lots of great clues, as ever, but special mention for 11/10, 13/18, 19, 20 ac and 1, 22 and 23dn.
[herb’s interpretation of 9ac works for me.]
Many thanks to Donk for a most enjoyable ride.
Very nice from the Donk if not as hard or rude as we’ve been served up before, took Nanometre as per Herb.
Is it just me or is PANTS getting a little overused as an anagram indicator these days?
Thanks B&J, oh well back to work 🙂
An enjoyable solve that I agree wasn’t as difficult as some of Donk’s past puzzles, but none the worse for that IMHO. It must have taken me 5 mins at the end to get PLANT, and I could have kicked myself when I realised what the wordplay was telling me. Good clue.
Count me as another who entered NANOMETRE from the definition and the checkers. Herb@3’s explanation works for me.
Thanks Herb@3, that was what Joyce was trying to say about NANOMETRE but she was obviously not quite as clear as she should have been!
Thanks for the blog. I was really stuck on many answers today.
Thanks Donk for a very enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks BJ and Herb for help with some of the parsings. I particularly liked HAS BEEN, PROP UP and SKINFUL as well as the green leaves.
Sorry Donk, I must be a 17 down,hardly got any, again this is not a crossword for the general readership,