A brisk WANDERER challenge this Friday AM. Thanks WANDERER, for the workout.
FF: 8 DD: 8
| ACROSS | ||
| 1, 6 | JOBS FOR THE BOYS | Former IT boss faces current online stink? Yes, if heartlessly restricted access to posts (4,3,3,4) |
| JOBS (former it boss, steve) FORTH (current, river) E (online) BO (stink, Body Odor) YeS (heartlessly) | ||
| 10 | HOBBS | Former cricketer, one who philosophised on the radio (5) |
| sounds like HOBBES (thomas, english philosopher); cricketer is jack HOBBS, | ||
| 11 | PUNCTILIO | Wordplay one clot misconstrued, retaining setter’s strict attention to etiquette (9) |
| PUN (wordplay) { [ I (one) CLOT ]* containing I (setter) } | ||
| 12 | ALTER EGO | Trusted friend spinning tale before about-turn (5,3) |
| [ TALE ]* RE (about) GO (turn) | ||
| 13 | BATIK | Printing process Christopher and Jack recalled (5) |
| KIT (christopher) AB (jack), all reversed | ||
| 15 | REGRESS | Go back through right exit (7) |
| R (right) EGRESS (exit) | ||
| 17 | PROVISO | Condition for face covering finally to be removed (7) |
| PRO (for) VISOr (face covering, without last letter) | ||
| 19 | NAMIBIA | First-rate bishop, one with staff all over South-West Africa once (7) |
| AI (first rate) B (bishop) I (one) MAN (staff), all reversed | ||
| 21 | ANNATTO | Female, going back and forth, put back over-the-top food colouring (7) |
| ANNA (female, going back and forth – palindrome) TTO (reverse of OTT – Over The Top) | ||
| 22 | WIGHT | Shipping forecast area of importance when going east? (5) |
| WeIGHT ( importance, without E – east ) | ||
| 24 | DOORNAIL | Lion Dora shot, according to one saying it’s dead (8) |
| [LION DORA]*; cryptic def – from the phrase ‘dead as a doornail’ | ||
| 27 | TIME LIMIT | One minute after the first Spice Girl gets into Bristol, given this no longer possible? (4,5) |
| [ { I (one) M (minute) } after MEL (spice girl) ] in TIT (bristol, cockney slang, bristol city = titty) | ||
| 28 | ENSUE | Make certain missing recipe is to follow (5) |
| ENSUrE (make certain, without R – recipe) | ||
| 29, 30 | RUSH ONES FENCES | Act with undue haste, ordering cheeses for nuns (4,4,6) |
| [ CHEESES FOR NUNS ]* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1, 14 | JOHN DRINKWATER | Former poet and playwright can sup Adam’s wine (4,10) |
| JOHN (can) DRINK (sup) WATER (adam’s wine) | ||
| 2 | BUBBLEGUM | Pop music perhaps a bit of a gas, when by Sweet (9) |
| BUBBLE (bit of a gas) GUM (sweet) – refers to music created specifically for children as a marketing ploy | ||
| 3 | FESTE | Fool made to look small in outdoor charity event? (5) |
| S (small) in FETE (outdoor charity event); from shakespeare’s twelfth night | ||
| 4 | REPRESS | Put-down from 15 (piano not grand) (7) |
| REgRESS (answer to 15a) with P – piano replacing G – grand | ||
| 5 | HEN COOP | Ring about enclosed cage with more than one layer? (3,4) |
| HOOP (ring) around ENC (enclosed) | ||
| 7 | OWLET | Sitting in Row L, Eton’s youngest Member of Parliament? (5) |
| hidden in “..rOW L ETon’s..” | ||
| 8, 26 | STOCKTON-ON-TEES | Cooking ten scones took little time in northern town (8-2-4) |
| [TEN SCONES TOOK T (time) ]* | ||
| 9 | STUBBORN | Persistent objections raised then supported, reportedly (8) |
| STUB (reverse of BUTS, objections) BORN (sounds like BORNE – supported) | ||
| 14 | See 1 | |
| 16 | EMBATTLE | Prepare for conflict, as doctor crashes into former PM when cycling (8) |
| MB (doctor) in EATTLE (former PM = ATTLEE, cycling implying that the last E moves to the front) | ||
| 18 | INTRINSIC | Essential to get home by train, leaving behind a second-in- command (9) |
| IN (home) TRaIN (without A) S (second) IC (In-Command) | ||
| 20 | ABDOMEN | Doctor moaned about beginning of bulging belly (7) |
| [ MOANED ]* around B (beginning of Bulging) | ||
| 21 | AGOUTIS | A problem afoot with one’s rodents (7) |
| A GOUT (problem afoot, build up of uric acid) IS (one’s) | ||
| 23 | GAMES | Relaying a message, “Is fencing in this sports event?” (5) |
| hidden in “..relayinG A MESsage..”; typically referring to the olympics when used in particular, of which fencing is a part | ||
| 25 | NIECE | Relative peace at last in French resort (5) |
| E (peacE , last letter) in NICE (french resort) | ||
| 26 | See 8 | |
Thanks Wanderer for a solid crossword that I enjoyed over dinner. Favourites included ALTER EGO, BUBBLEGUM, OWLET (great surface), and NIECE. It was, however, a DNF due to JOBS FOR THE BOYS — aside from JOBS the parsing was beyond me. I guessed TIME LIMIT — thanks Turbolegs for explaining that one.
Lots of unknowns but all clued in such a way that I managed to solve them.
In blog for 16d, should say MB not MR. Also, though it is obvious, blog for 24a should mention it is an anagram of LION DORA.
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Fond this a little tougher than usual, although with some very nice surfaces, the slightly bizarre ‘cheeses for nuns’ a crosswordy favourite.
I think there’s an ‘I’ short in the blog for 27, solved by ‘1 MEL’ (‘the first Spice Girl’).
Thanks to both.
Enjoyed chipping away at the perimeter first (the ‘cheese for nuns’ anagram tickled me) but it was EMBATTLE which opened the grid up for me. Very much liked the mis-direction at 1d and my favourite was DOORNAIL. Lots of clever surfaces, like PUNCTILIO, though I couldnt parse them all. LOI was Feste which I didn’t know but could parse.
Some dictionaries give BATIK as a printing technique but I knew it as resist-dyeing using wax.
Anyway, thanks very much to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Lost my temper with this before I got halfway through.
current = forth, pop music = gum, feste?
No. No. No.
It’s a bit late to be putting in my two penn’orth and I’ve not much to add really, except my appreciation of the puzzle and my thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
I didn’t know BUBBLEGUM as a term for pop music, so struggled a bit with 2dn.
My favourites were OWLET (loved the definition) and STOCKTON-ON-TEES (lovely surface).
Thanks again, both.
Not sure I get alter ego as trusted friend …
Thanks both anyway.
Jaydee@7: Chambers gives alter ego as (1) one’s second self, and (2) a trusted friend.
Really nice crossword – what else to expect from Wanderer? – one that I actually found ‘harder’ than usual.
Loads to admire here but I wasn’t that keen on 10ac and 22ac.
In 10ac, we have a cricketer being a homophone of a philosopher.
Hadn’t heard of either of them and so a bit of an unfortunate GK clue.
And (in 22ac) I didn’t like “when going east” for “minus E” very much – despite the probably intentional question mark.
2d’s BUBBLEGUM was one of my favourites.
Very apt to give The Sweet a mention here as, certainly in their early days, they were an exponent of the genre (Funny Funny).
Aargh, how we hated them, The Ohio Express (Yummy Yummy Yummy, Chewy Chewy), 1910 Fruitgum Company (Simon Says), The Archies (Sugar Sugar, Jingle Jangle) etc etc.
Great song titles, don’t you think so …..
I considered The Lemon Pipers to be OK – Green Tambourine, Rice is Nice, Jelly Jungle, they had some psychedelic flavour to them.
Many of these bands were signed by Buddah Records.
But, thank God, their success was only short-lived (late 60s/early 70s).
I should stop now!
Many thanks to Turbolegs for the blog (which as Hovis says should be tweaked for 24ac) & Wanderer.
Allan_c@8:it’s a fair cop!
Always delighted to get a Wanderer puzzle, and this certainly lived up to expectations. There’s a lot of word manipulation required here, but it’s well worth the effort to unravel such gems as STOCKTON-ON-TEES, TIME LIMIT and EMBATTLE. Wanderer is my joint favourite FT setter along with Rosa Klebb, who sadly hasn’t put in an appearance for a while now.
It’s great that this site is so inclusive and diverse that people with so little command of English, such as the poster at #5, feel welcome to display their ignorance for all to see!
Took a long while and didn’t give much pleasure. Many clues seemed too concocted with clunky surfaces.
Thanks to both setter and blogger. We struggled to get going FOI was 19a and it took a while to finish, which we finally did. Had not heard of JOBS FOR THE BOYS (which took a while to parse) or RUSH FOR THE FENCES (but gettable given the letters). Favorites were 1D and 7D. LOI, which we couldn’t parse, was 27 across- thanks Turbolegs.
Thanks all for stopping by.
Hovis@2, thanks for the inputs. A bit careless of me …
Regards,
TL
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Nice crossword that took a good part of the day on and off to complete. Didn’t get a lot of help from the long perimeter clues as the top and left hand side one were only solved near the end of the challenge. Didn’t end up parsing all of JOBS FOR THE BOYS or WEIGHT. Both HOBBS and HOBBES were unknown (but it had to be from the crossers), didn’t know of JOHN DRINKWATER (but clear from the very clever word play) and ANNATTO / PUNCTILIO were both new terms.
The latter two along with WIGHT (always take time with those Shipping Forecast areas) were the last few in.
Really enjoyable challenge that did need to be chipped away at and to be savoured afterwards.