An excellent challenge from WANDERER today! Thanks to setter for an enjoyable solve.
FF: 10 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1, 6 | HITTING THE ROOF | Too thin? Fighter flips, becoming very angry (7,3,4) |
| [TOO THIN FIGHTER]* | ||
| 9 | CARRY-ON | Don’t stop getting this sort of bag (5-2) |
| double def | ||
| 10 | ADOPTER | One that’s taken up painting’s beginning to read liberally about it (7) |
| P (Painting, first letter) in [ TO READ ]* | ||
| 12, 13 | VALUE ADDED TAX | Proportion of Conservatives on centre- right? In the UK, it’s usually 20% (5-5,3) |
| cryptic def; clue refers to “..conserVATives..” (centre letter is V, letters to the right of) | ||
| 15 | ANYHOW | Crazy face-off with housewife, whatever way you look at it (6) |
| zANY (crazy, face-off i.e. without starting letter) HO (house) W (wife) | ||
| 16 | ENDODERM | Finish poem with right metre in embryonic section (8) |
| END (finish) ODE (poem) R (right) M (metre) | ||
| 18 | IN DETAIL | I love describing dead Greek character point by point (2,6) |
| [ I NIL (love, zero)] containing [ D (dead) ETA (greek character) ] | ||
| 20 | ENAMEL | Type of paint used for some name labels (6) |
| hidden in “..somE NAME Labels” | ||
| 23, 24 | ALL IN GOOD TIME | One way of getting to galleon soon enough (3,2,4,4) |
| reverse clue for GALLEON – ALL in [ G (good) EON (time) ] | ||
| 26 | INVADER | One carrying out raid, even without its initiator? (7) |
| [RAID eVEN]* – without E, starting letter of even (initiator) ; RAID on double duty | ||
| 27 | STORAGE | Keeping of electronic data keeps soldiers in step (7) |
| OR (soldiers) in STAGE (step) | ||
| 28, 29 | EARL STRICKLAND | London court facing deception by country’s top 9-Ball pool player (4,10) |
| EARLS (london court) TRICK (deception) LAND (country) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HACK | Share? Not with journalist (4) |
| wHACK (share, without W – with) | ||
| 2 | THROATY | Husky model splits from Tory that misbehaves (7) |
| [tORY THAT] * – without T, model | ||
| 3 | IF YOU DONT MIND | Poem solver doesn’t care for that’s OK? (2,3,4,4) |
| IF (poem) YOU (solver) DON’T MIND (doesn’t care) | ||
| 4 | GENIAL | Kind of angel busy guarding setter (6) |
| [ANGEL]* containing I (setter) | ||
| 5 | HOARDING | Billboard has John Wesley on record, describing love (8) |
| HARDING (sounds like HARDIN, JOHN WESLEY – a famous outlaw) containing O (love) | ||
| 7 | OCTETTE | Month before letter unmasked group of 8 (7) |
| OCT (month) lETTEr (unmasked, i.e. without end characters) | ||
| 8 | FOR EXAMPLE | Say at length in English what’s hidden in the grid (3,7) |
| cryptic def; expansion in english of EG, hidden in “..thE Grid”, Exempli Gratia (latin) | ||
| 11 | OLD BOY NETWORK | What a school like Eton has, covered in cobwebs? (3,3,7) |
| cryptic def; expansion of “cOBWEBs..” – OLD (O) BOY (B) NETWORK (web) | ||
| 14 | CAPITALISE | Money one’s exchanged, initially put in a different case (10) |
| CAPITAL (money) I’S (one’s) E (Exchanged, initialy) | ||
| 17 | ZIGGURAT | Spot in which ghostly head with a wig on climbs tower (8) |
| ZIT (spot) containing [ G (Ghostly, first letter) GUR ( RUG = wig, reversed) ] | ||
| 19 | DELIVER | Provide daughter with electronic organ (7) |
| D (daughter) E (electronic) LIVER (organ) | ||
| 21 | MOMBASA | Pair of medics like descending on a port in Africa (7) |
| MO MB (pair of medics) AS (like) A | ||
| 22 | BONSAI | One stuck-up person turned up carrying a little tree (6) |
| [ I (one) SNOB (stuck up person) ] reversed (turned up) containing A | ||
| 25 | WEED | Pot plant with flower dead- headed? (4) |
| tWEED (flower, river without starting letter) | ||
I particularly liked the ingenuity in 8 and 11. I think that 28, 29 is perfectly clued but a bit of GK too far; I had to check him on-line before I could enter it..
Thanks to S&B.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
I think “John Wesley on record” is referring to the Bob Dylan album ‘John Wesley Harding’.
The outlaw at 5d may be famous but I’ve never heard of him (the pool player vaguely rings a bell). Wasn’t sure of the definition for 10a. Seems more a definition for ADOPTEE. “One that takes up” seems better to me.
Thanks, as always, to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
… never heard of the Bob Dylan album either.
I’d never heard of EARL STRICKLAND, but the wordplay made it solvable. Just couldn’t get CAPITALISE despite spending an unreasonable amount of time on it. Thanks for explaining VALUE ADDED TAX and HOARDING, both of which I bunged in unparsed.
No rest for the wicked – this one after a tough one from Paul in the Guardian. And the weekend puzzles coming up.
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs
A first run-through yielded a measly 3 answers in the SE corner, kicking off with ENAMEL.
However, after solving some of the excellent longer clues, things accelerated from there. OLD BOY NETWORK was a particular favourite and EARL STRICKLAND raised a smile. I’m not familiar with 9-ball pool but I remembered this player’s name from a wacky ad on TV which came on in the interval during football matches, circa 2006. Possibly, he sported a fine mullet?
WEED and DELIVER were similarly witty. I failed however on ZIGGURAT which I knew as an Art Deco motif but not its inspiration. I would never had made the ‘tower’ connection and was trying to make ‘wig on’ fit. So, thanks to Turbolegs for helping me understand this and the parsing of several others. And to Wanderer for keeping me well entertained.
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs. I also had a very slow start but then connected with several of the longer items. Still, I needed a lot of help with parsing, especially with VAT but also FOR EXAMPLE and HACK though I did dredge up the Dylan title and ZIGGURAT.
Thanks Wanderer. Even though I completed the grid after a look-up for EARL STRICKLAND, there were many I could not parse so thanks Turbolegs for shedding light on VAT, IN DETAIL, IN GOOD TIME, and FOR EXAMPLE which I thought was brilliant.
We couldn’t get CAPITALISE either – we were fixated on the grammatical cases, not the typographical ones. Apart from that we got everything and parsed it all apart from 12/13.
Plenty to enjoy, though. We particularly liked ALL IN GOOD TIME, THROATY and ZIGGURAT.
Thanks, Wanderer and Turbolegs
Classy puzzle.
Loved the VAT thing – highly original – and FOR EXAMPLE when I twigged it, despite being slightly disappointed that ‘in the grid’ wasn’t some sort of indication towards a Nina.
Can’t agree with Hovis @3 re ADOPTER. I too had ‘adoptee’ as a 1st shot but ‘adopter’ as one who has taken up or ‘adopted’ a new position on, say, mask-wearing seems fine to me.
And the new Dylan album is great, btw.
Thanks to all.
I see what you mean, Grant. Need to take that’s as “that has” rather than “that is”.
Thanks to Turbolegs and Wanderer
1,6 I had “becoming” as part of the def
9a I think the second def is just “sort of bag”
26 I’m not sure I understand this one. If “out” is the anagrind then that’s doubling up as well
3d I saw “mind” as “care for” and I can’t find “if” in the def:
“If you don’t mind” = If “that’s ok”
5d Great album. For a real treat try Thea Gilmore’s cover
To Dansar @12,
‘If’ is the poem by Rudyard Kipling.
Diane @13
That’s in the wordplay.
I think 3d is sort of OK if one takes the question mark into account.
The definition then being “that’s OK?”.
26ac wasn’t the best in today’s altogether excellent puzzle, was it?
Like Dansar I was a bit confused by the mix-up of things.
I also agree with Dansar about the wonderful Thea Gilmore (and unfortunately not with Grant about Dylan’s latest).
Some commenters were pleasantly surprised by inventive clues like 12,13 and 8dn.
However, Wanderer cannot fool me anymore when it comes this type of clue.
One can even add two more today: 11dn and 23,24.
Have a closer look at Wanderer’s back catalogue and you’ll see this ‘trick’ many many times.
It’s actually trademark Wanderer.
Two more clue answers caught the eye.
This setter’s alter ago Hob also had BONSAI on the very same Friday.
And the Guardian’s Paul also had THROATY today (same definition, ‘husky’).
Of course, all coincidence.
Many thanks to Turbolegs (for having had so much fun yourself) & Wanderer (for a nice challenge).
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs (belatedly)
Did this last Friday but it got lost in the pile and only got to check it off today. A challenging puzzle that took a little longer than usual to finish. Had to get to the bottom of the grid before getting a start with DELIVER and then MOMBASA.
Do enjoy his little tricks, as with VAT, EG and OB WEB, and like Sil have being doing his puzzles for long enough to be on to them. Forgot to go back to check the HARDING bit of 5d, but think that it is very clever having seen it.
Finished in the SW corner with IN DETAIL, the deceptively tricky ANYHOW and the even trickier CAPITALISE as the last few in.