A puzzle from Morph – a guarantee of some fun.
A quirky puzzle as I expected. 6ac had me in stitches from the off. Suspect it will lose a bit in the telling but reminded me of a strange football chant I remember from the Gallowgate end in the 1980’s.
Oi, Screw,
Give us the loo,
for a number one,
and a number two.
The sort of street poetry, you don’t get to hear in the modern game.
A bit of a theme too, with several answers describing what needed doing position-ally in other clues.
12ac was another clue I liked too. But I do like Morph’s cluing style so there are many other candidates.
25ac is a very ingenious construction utilising it to refer back to the definition of the answer, allowing its use in the wordplay.
Thanks Morph – always fun
Rev. Reverse; Underline – definition; * anagram; DD Double definition
Across
6 The practice of looking after number one? (7)
Cryptic definition with number one meaning not a number two, as it were = UROLOGY
7 Being flexible, I’ll get drawn into scheme by vacuous celebrity (7)
I in plan (scheme) + cy (vacuous clemency) = PLIANCY
10 Rear 16 birds (5)
Terns (birds) back to front = STERN
11 Restructure beer co. asap – it’s not bloody rocket science! (9)
(beer co asap – b)* = AEROSPACE
12 Put off payment for Trident, supposedly (9)
Deter (put off) + rent (payment) = DETERRENT
14 Like a lot of cathedrals and mosques? Tour southern Europe and North Africa, perhaps (5)
Do Med (as in Mediterranean) = DOMED
16 Where troops might go after leave’s reversed (4,2,5)
Cryptic definition = BACK TO FRONT
20 They avail themselves of escorts when hotel’s deserted (5)
ushers(escorts) – h (hotel) = USERS
21 Fully covered to make one’s destination Italy’s Calabria region? (4,2,3)
Calabria is in the toe of Italy = HEAD TO TOE
23 Cover revolting case of firearm (9)
Up (revolting) + holster (case of firearm) = UPHOLSTER
25 Trunk – character opening it roughly (5)
t (opening character of trunk) + or so (roughly) = TORSO
26 Grand plan to broadcast major feature on Bambi? (3,4)
Homonym of big eyed deer (bambi) = BIG IDEA
27 What cougar will do before assignation (7)
pre (before) + date (assignation) = PRE-DATE (Cougar in the sense of a predatory woman praying on young men)
Down
1 Food arrives, morsel served up with trimmings of lettuce (10)
comes(arrives) + Rev. bit (morsel) + le (trimmings of lettice) = COMESTIBLE
2 See 6
3 ‘Rising monetary growth’ comprises spin (6)
Rev. Hidden monETARY Growth = GYRATE
4 Dancing around fire pit with a drink (8)
(fire pit + a)* = APERITIF
5 Woman turning bread 8 (4)
Naan (bread) inside out = ANNA
6/2 Turnover-like pud is done unconventionally, adding whiskey (6,4)
(pud is done + w)* = UPSIDE DOWN
8 Studio in west end of Edinburgh revamped thoroughly (6,3)
(studio + in + e (west end of Edinburgh))* = INSIDE OUT
9 Yen’s calamitous slide returns (6)
y(yen) + (slide)* = YIELDS
13 Firm is exciting, humming (4-5)
rocks(is exciting) + olid (humming) = ROCK SOLID
15 Ran into a sailor, mariner missing bottom part of foot (10)
met (ran into) + a tar (a sailor) + salt (mariner) – t = METATARSAL
17 A beat I incorporated into another from ‘South Pacific‘? (8)
a hit (beat) + i in tan (another ‘beat’) = TAHITIAN
18 Hitch, getting lift in northbound vehicle in outlying district (6)
Rev. Rub (hitch) in Rev. Bus (vehicle) SUBURB
19 Cadge a drink then beat it! (6)
beg(cadge) + one (a drink) = BEGONE
22 Bra in disarray – put in order sharpish (6)
(bra)* + (put)* = ABRUPT
24 21 seafowl for witches (4)
Sha(sea fowl) head to toes = HAGS
25 Pour forth out of 6/2 encounter (4)
meet (encounter) upside down = TEEM
Excellent! Very impressive to get BACK TO FRONT, HEAD TO TOE, UPSIDE DOWN & INSIDE OUT into a grid. Nice to see Morph having the correct whiskey spelling for 6/2. Enjoyed this throughout with only the crossing TORSO & BEGONE holding me up a bit. Thanks to Morph and twencelas.
What a lot of fun! – ‘quirky’ is the word. And so clever.
Like twencelas, I had lots of candidates for favourites – too many to list – and this was one of those puzzles where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Many thanks to Morph for the fun and twencelas for the blog (amusing typo in 27ac 😉 )
Always enjoy a Morph puzzle and like Eileen I have too many favourites to mention them all. Perhaps young Bambi gets my vote for the ‘aah’ factor.
Many thanks to Morph and to twencelas for the review.
I’m in complete again with Eileen once again (including smiling at the typo)
Thanks to setter and blogger
27 is referring to cougars as the big cats; they are predators, so they predate.
A pleasant diversion over coffee, particularly once we twigged 16, 21, 6/2 and 8 together with their application to 10, 24, 25 and 5. Favourite, though was AEROSPACE.
Thanks, Morph and Twencelas.
Lots to like, starting with UROLOGY through to TORSO at the end, with a bit of topsy-turvy along the way. Favourites were COMESTIBLE, one of those good old-fashioned words we hear rarely nowadays and PREDATE. Wonder what’s more effective for the task at hand – the Nicene or Apostles’ Creed?
Thanks to Morph and twencelas
There was I thinking Morph had managed to get every phrase of this nature into the grid, then WordPlodder comes up with topsy-turvy. That would have made the grand slam. Never mind, excellent puzzle so thanks Morph and Twencelas. Oh, and I would have said ‘food’ should be ‘comestibles’ as a noun, but no matter.
Thanks to twencelas and Morph
11a Seen b for bloody a couple of times recently, still not sure where it comes from. Text speak or euphemism?
26a I saw as just “big eye dear”
27a “what cougars do”, “what a cougar does” – why “will do”?
24d Very clever using “seafowl”
All good fun.
What typo in 27a?
Many thanks to Morph and Twencelas.
Dansar @ 9
My parents used BH as a euphemism to protect our tender ears when we were young
‘before assignation’ = pre date, hence ‘will do’
Brilliant puzzle from Morph, all the more enjoyable as finished it after a very slow start, thinking I would be in for a hard slog. Clever four “inversion” clues, although INSIDE OUT my LOI. Couldn’t parse TORSO, so thanks to twencelas. STERN doubly clever and UROLOGY was, well, possibly my number one.
Cannot see what controversy there is about PREDATE (apart from “praying” in the blog), another of the many excellent clues.
Thanks to Morph and twencelas.
Rabbit Dave @10 – ‘praying’. Saying grace, perhaps.
Thanks Paul @13. I was only looking at the clue itself, which left me very puzzled!