TftT Christmas Turkey No. 1

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Other Crosswords

It’s good to be back, squeezing in a blog report before work, and the shared clue writing in this puzzle happens to be similar to a puzzle coming up in the Sunday Times. On December 29 we will have a special supplement to celebrate the centenary of crosswords, with six crosswords, four Sudokus, three codewords, two articles on crosswords, and all our usual puzzles. Some of the crosswords will be different to our usual fare, but solvers of our usual puzzles should be able to solve them. The extra crosswords will be presented online using the new software that was demonstrated at the Times Crossword Championship in October. One of them has clues from all five of our setters.

Solving time: about 40 minutes, with 8D not seen until considerably later.

It was late at night after a hard day at the “clueface”, and I’m not as quick as I used to be, but puzzles from new setters can take a long time, and with a mixture of clues, you can’t get used to a new style. My favourite clues were 1, 10, 15, 21, 24, 26, 31, 1D, 2, 19, 22, 23, 27. There were very few technical flaws with the others, but some of the surfaces weren’t quite strong enough for me. Now that I get people (not as many as I expected) sending hopeful sample puzzles, they confirm that the difficult thing is to combine a convincing surface meaning with fairness and rule compliance.

Thanks to everyone here for looking after the blog well. I don’t visit every day, but it’s still interesting reading when I do. On we go with the clues, using a template for blog reports which I was relieved to find.

Across
1 SUNSET – UN = a French, in a revolutionary version of TESS.
4 HARMLESS = (Sharm el S)*
10 PI(G-MEN)T – “stain” has the right meaning, and a G-man is an FBI agent
11 CONCEDE = s(CONCE) = fortification, DE = “of” in French. I don’t think this one works – “of the French” in the same style as “the French” would have to be DU or DES, so “Surrender of French” would have to be used.
12 OATS – hidden (first of four hidden words, but difficult to avoid this problem in a group puzzle unless the organiser sends an extra email saying “hidden word slot now taken”. The appearance of SUNSET when it’s the answer to 1A is a similar hazard.
13 DENIGRATED = opposite of “valued”. – DEN, GI<, RATED.
15 ELATED – hidden
16 EN CLAIR – (Racine, L)*
20 DECENCY – cede*, C=compliance in NY. A tricky abbreviation but within the rules I currently use
21 LITCHI – hidden
24 I,N,TIMID,ATE
26 C,LOT
28 SYNONYM – SpYiNg, O=over, NY = city, M. I’d say “state” and “broadast” just qualify as synonyms, but with a big range of synonym possibilities, I think a clearer pair might have been found.
29 FOR SAKE = the reason for the Japanese shopping. Independent invention is possible, but a similar trip to the bar is quoted in a centenary puzzle collection purchased at the Penderel’s Oak gathering.
30 DAY = sunrise, sunset, BREAK – an imaginative clue, but I wasn’t completly convinced by the “day” part.
31 SPEECH – S=society,“peach”
Down
1 SUPPOSED – StUmP = puzzle, POSED
2 NEGOTIATE – 2 definitions
3 EWES from first letters of “Ezra was eccentric, so”
5 AUCTIONS = Au, tonics*
6 MINERAL OIL (a laxative, hence “go”) = (in limo, earl)*
7 EVENT – hidden
8 SPEEDS – cryptic definition based on cameras in yellow boxes – my last answer.
9 UTTER- U for O in Otter [or at least that was my reading – on reflection, UTTER seems equally convincing …]. Surface relies on pretty good geography for Holt in Norfolk.
14 DETERMINER – 2 defs
17> INCULPATE – IN,(CUL from first letters),P,ATE. Interesting story, but “first of” applied to 3 words seems just a bit flaky
18 ACADEMIA = Oxbridge – (Jack) CADE = rebel, inside A,MIA = rev. of aim=train.
19 SIXTIETH – I for E swap in “six teeth”. Interesting dental story, but difficult to indicate “six teeth” without giving the game away.
22 BIASED = “be said” – def using “bias” as in bowls, I think
23 STUFF – 2 definitions
25 TANGY – (TANGO – O) + Y. I think the wordplay is fairer without the comma in the clue
27 TRAP = part reversed

Merry Christmas to all of you.

68 comments on “TftT Christmas Turkey No. 1”

  1. Well done everyone, especially Sotira for some adroit editing! A special well done to the creator of 8d, which I did not get at all, taking my time from a comfortable 20 minutes or so to infinity and beyond. I resorted to looking up every conceivable filler for S?E?D? (there aren’t that many) and every conceivable synonym of the three words in the clue, but couldn’t make anything work. Now I know why I dislike cryptic definitions so much!
  2. This took me a smidge under 28 minutes suggesting I found it hard to get on the setters’ wavelengths 🙂

    Overall it was a fun solve.

    I had 4 QMs: At 1dn where I wasn’t sure that taking odd letters from an indirect word was entirely fair, at 2d where I hadn’t come across “hash out” before, at 8d where I thought I’d spotted the CD but wasn’t 100% given the lack of a motoring reference in the clue, and at 14d where I had no idea that “the” was a “determiner”.

    I ticked 5 clues as being particularly good:
    1a – my last in but a perfectly fair clue with a great surface reading and sound construction.
    29a – a funny clue. Knowing whose it was I can confirm that this was original thought. This is my COD.
    30a – I enjoyed the originality and unlike Peter I think that the indication of day works.
    5d – Really nice and well-disguised definition.
    17d – clever construction, amusing surface reading and another well-disguised definition.

    Thanks to my fellow setters for the fun, to Peter for the blog and especially to the lovely Sotira for the concept, the editing and the cat-herding.

    Merry Christmas and happy new year to all.

  3. I couldn’t quite close this out without resort to aids for the 14/24 crossers. I shared the blogger’s difficulties with 8dn, my last one in, but having eventually worked it out I thought it was a worthy clue.

    I think we are allowed to identify our own clues now if we wish, so I’ll own up to 10ac. I thought the abbreviation in 20ac might indicate the clue’s provenance in the Dorset area.

    1. Maybe someone could start a setters’ blog for the puzzle so that anyone with a mind to can document how they went about putting their clue together
      1. I’d been hoping you’d get one where you could’ve worked a good (and one hopes obscure) scientist in. Bad luck this year I guess. I liked LITCHI, by the way.
      3. May I ask – is a lot here a location for filming (as such) or is the ‘filming’ a natural part of what Chaplin does?
  4. I didn’t time myself for this one but it probably took a good while longer than a Times one usually would. I thoroughly enjoyed it, realising early on that even attempting to work out who set any of the clues was a futile waste of time and energy.

    My personal fave was 26a for its really good surface.
    LOI, as others was SPEEDS. I still can’t decide whether it was a Christmas Cracker or a turkey. In the spirit of Xmas, I’ll plump for the former.

    At 29a I wasn’t aware of the famous “mustn’t coincidentally be similar to a clue in a collection obtainable from Penderell’s Oak the day after this puzzle was published” rule. I’ll make sure I bear it in mind for next year (please). Perhaps it’ll be next year’s “DBE”.

    I don’t comment on this site very much these days but visit it daily and would like to thank everyone concerned for keeping me informed and entertained.

    Merry Xmas to all and a special thanks to Sotira for immaculate conception.

  5. Many thanks to sotira and everyone who contributed clues, and also to Peter Biddlecombe for the blog, which disclosed some subtleties that had passed me by. I have to confess to entering ‘otter’ at 9d, having parsed the clue as ‘u’ for university having abandoned ‘utter’ to be replaced by ‘o’ for old. C’est la vie. Best wishes to all setters, bloggers and solvers for the festive season.
    1. Doesn’t ‘otter’ work at least as well if not better? It’s what I had so a dnf for me if ‘utter’ is in fact the target.
  6. To tell the truth I was a smidgen disappointed overall, though the idea’s a brilliant one and sotira as presiding genius beyond praise. My own clue – denigrated – was not a wonderful effort, study as den being a giveaway (though sotira prompted me to think again with the excellent suggestion of ‘foxhole’ and the soldier in some way but I couldn’t get round to it). I shall be interested to see the joint effort of the professionals on 29th, as the hidden individual stamp seems more important than I’d realised. No time but steady progress and found none of the clues a serious challenge. Loved daybreak though.
  7. This was the only clue I failed to see through – guessed SPEEDS as a possible reference to DIN film ratings. The reference in the blog to ‘yellow boxes’ only made me think of cheapo Kodaks, seen in supermarkets, so it was only on seeing Penfold’s mentioning motoring that it was about Gatsos. (I’d given up driving years ago.)
  8. I think we can give ourselves a collective pat on the back because I thought it was a decent puzzle and certainly harder to solve than some that appear in the regular places.

    I didn’t time it but it took me a while and I needed aids at the end to get NEGOTIATE because I couldn’t see past “nightmare”, and SPEEDS, which flummoxed me as much as it seems to have flummoxed the majority of us.

    Thanks to Sotira for putting it all together.

  9. Thank you, Peter, for the blog. Always insightful, but even more so as I’d been at Penderel’s and so had heard the setter’s perspective on three or four of the clues in addition to knowing mine.
    I found not being able to get onto a setter’s wavelength added an interesting twist to the solve. I liked almost all of the clues, and a very high percentage had clever surfaces. Like others, 1a was LOI, not counting the very clever 8d which was a NIBFTC (not in, but for the checkers).
    And thank you, Sorita, for the idea and the editing.
    Good Christmas and Holidays to all
  10. I thoroughly enjoyed this and sent it to my siblings as a way to combat the longueurs and tensions of Christmas en famille.

    I thought “speeds” was very good – once I got it. I didn’t know the fortification so “concede” was a guess. I failed to see the double def in 14d. And like others I hesitated between “otter” and “utter” and chose the wrong one. Vallaw on the Club Forum calls these double-helix clues. I don’t know how long I took because I did it in bits and pieces – at least 1/2 an hour or more.

    Okay, braced. I did 4a. It was laughably easy but the 3 alternative clues I dreamt up were far too convoluted so it was faute de mieux. Sorry I seem to be in a franglais mood this morning.

    Many thanks to Peter for the blog on top of all the other stuff. And a salute to Sotira for putting up with all us cats.

  11. Many thanks Sotira – a great idea and well done in the rather short time you gave yourself! Good to see you again Peter, your insights are much missed.

    I got most of the puzzle relatively quickly but was then left with a small number of problems. 9D I found too parochial, thought the answer could be either UTTER or OTTER and guessed the former. 11A where I decided to ignore the incorrect French and of course 8D which on balance I don’t like because I think it’s a bit too indirect – for me it needs something extra that can tie it to motoring.

    It’s my turn to blog tomorrow so hope to see some of you then. If not all the best for Christmas and the New Year from a very wet and windy Dorset

  12. Thank you, Peter B, the man I always credit as being primarily responsible for the crossword blogs which have brought pleasure to many.

    I am pleased that my two clues featured in his favourites. The across clue was, of course, inspired by my recent good fortune to be accepted as a setter in FT.

    Setter, new, shy & worried

    1. Invention: I think I was first with a blog about cryptics, but I was inspired by one of the first blogs about the NY Times crosswords.

  13. What fun…and massive thanks to Sotira for organising!

    DNF for me, as I needed aids for NEGOTIATE (I too wanted to put in ‘nightmare’), and I had a blank at 8d, which I think is a great clue now it’s been explained! Oh, and I also had ‘otter’ at 9dn. Laughed at FORSAKE, which I, knowing nothing of Penderel’s Oak, thought a good’un.

    OK, I’ll fess up, and own up to SYNONYM. I did give another clue along the same lines with two other synonyms, but I guess they were equally unclear… Hey ho, I’ll try harder next year, and try again for a ‘tick vg’ from Mr Biddlecombe…!

  14. Well, the brains have beaten me – didn’t manage to parse CONCEDE (though it couldn’t have been anything else) and now I can see why, and left 8dn – SPEEDS – blank (not my favourite clue of all time).

    Parsed OTTER thus: Outright=utter, abandon university (U) in favour of old (O) and you get the resident of a holt, which is an OTTER. QED.

    Nice set of clues. Oddly, other than SPEEDS, I was most held up by trying to read 20ac as a grammatical sentence.

    Are four hidden words, OATS, ELATED, EVENT, LITCHI, in one puzzle within the rules for a Times Crossword?

    Thanks everyone, it was good to cross swords so enjoyably, and a Merry Christmas!

    1. It’s a good idea not to rely on “rules” when solving as they vary from crossord to crossword and anyway are really only whatever preferences the editor of the time may have. currently The Times cryptics have either none or one hidden clue, and very occasionally two, especially if one is (eg) reversed. Four is too many, really.

    2. “Parsed OTTER thus: Outright=utter, abandon university (U) in favour of old (O) and you get the resident of a holt, which is an OTTER. QED.”

      Otterly correct!

  15. Some very good stuff here, although I’m with Londoniensis on both the parsing of OTTER and the not quite-enough-in-the-clueness of 8dn – which I got, notwithstanding – eventually.

    Mine was OXBRIDGE – a rather obvious surface, as PB says. Sadly, my alternative, with literal DONS (with many more shades of meaning), was precluded on account of including a living person in the clue. If one can still be alive after being married to Bruce Willis!

    Many thanks to Sorira for her annual mega-contribution.

    Edited at 2013-12-23 12:10 pm (UTC)

  16. How I enjoyed this event.. thank you *so* much, Sotira.
    I thought the result was interesting and surprisingly upmarket, considering. I wasn’t too keen on 8dn because although the answer was plausible, it didn’t seem definite enough. Having said that, over most of The Times’ crossword history it would fit in perfectly well, but we seem to have a precision thing going at present.
    9dn seemed clearly otter to me and looking at it again I still can’t see how utter would work, someone will have to parse that for me, it seems fine as a clue.
    The quality of the surfaces was a bit mixed but I was left thinking that there were some very fine ones indeed. 4ac, Olivia, is a most impressive clue!
    My clue was 15ac, elated. I submitted three options to Sotira, one as clued, one was “Dead inside, news chief is jubilant.” The third one was (∆E)³ – I thought this was an interesting attempt, and I wasn’t concerned about the lack of a def., but the use of “cubed” as an anagrind seems a little bit iffy.

    Overall, I think we held our end up quite well. Thank you again Sotira and happy Xmas to all

    Edited at 2013-12-23 12:39 pm (UTC)

    1. I loved (∆E)³ – and I think ‘cubed’ is analogous to ‘diced’, which has been used as an anagrind before. But I wasn’t sure if either the superscript or the Greek character was allowable in a Times-style crossword (and the software I was using wouldn’t accept them!).

      Edited at 2013-12-23 02:11 pm (UTC)

        1. (DELTA,E)* – anagram of DELTA + E = ELATED

          It’s a brilliant device but, as Jerry says, it lacked a def. I did wonder if there was a way of getting Eureka! in there as part of a def., but didn’t suggest because I didn’t think it the device was admissible anyway, for the reasons given above.

  17. I’ve just woken up to find a fully cooked turkey. Thank you, Peter B, who I know is up to his eyes in puzzles but still found time for this (I hope you remembered your Christmas shopping, Pete).

    The ‘correct’ (ie. original) answer for 9d is OTTER.

    The is mostly my fault. Let me explain …

    The setter’s original clue was:
    Outright abandonment of university by old lodge resident (5)
    Nice surface, but my research (well, Wikipedia) said that otters live in holts below ground and ‘couches’ above ground. I wrote to the setter with a query but alas he missed the message and didn’t get back to me until the thing was just published.
    I made a panicky, last minute edit to the clue (I considered ‘couch sitter’ but thought it too obscure), and went with the deceptive capitalization (actually thinking of Holt in Norway) in an attempt to make it “less obvious”!

    George, glheard of this site, very kindly stepped in late that night to do a test solve and emailed me with a rapidly assembled parsing of all clues, which I should have studied more closely – he had UTTER, which should have alerted me to the need to rewrite the clue. I didn’t. So…. executive decision:

    Both answers are permissible (but ‘otter’ is right!).

    Apologies, especially to George, who did a sterling job and helped me avoid another potential pitfall. He also pointed out the French problem in 11a, which I thought I had corrected but hadn’t (it was well past midnight and I was more than slightly frazzled).

    1. I was glad to step in and help Sotira out in the eleventh hour (literally, I think our email correspondence started around 11pm) and if there’s going to be a repeat performance, I’d be happy to help out again.

      And if it’s any small comfort, today’s Independent by Monk contains a hugely dubious piece of French (pity, I was really enjoying it up until that point).

      Mine was the “imaginative” clue for DAYBREAK, where I thought the surface might justify the leap of faith. Like everyone else I submitted a hidden word clue (I’m partial to SunDAY BREAKfast, just not this early) as an alternative. I didn’t know SUNSET was going to be in the grid or I would have avoided it in the clue (qv today’s Rufus).

      My midnight brain couldn’t get past the definition as being for UTTER so sorry to precipitate the confusion there.

      Thanks to Peter for the blog, and letting me know what I’ll be doing next Sunday (presuming all of the crosswords will be in the usual place).

      1. I enjoyed your imaginative clue George, and since no-one else has mentioned it, its reference to the lyric and title of the song featured in “Fiddler on the Roof”
      2. “usual place”: if that’s the xwd club site, not quite – look in forums (and hopefully in one of those notes on the right of the front page) for the route to the extra 6 – they’re the first Sunday Times go at using a new online interface for our crosswords.
      3. I haven’t been hiding, I just got to visit here now, and I’ll own up to the ‘original’ OTTER/UTTER clue. Sotira, as explained, took a hand to it after unsuccessfully trying to reach me (my fault) but the utter confusion would apply to the clue as originally written, or as edited. Sorry to those who spent time wondering about it. And huge thanks to Sotira for organizing the whole thing, and PB for dropping in to say kind things about the collective effort. By the way, I had OTTER(!), but not SPEEDS, so a DNF.

      4. Yes, it’s interesting to compare what’s been before: I certainly wouldn’t have used city=NY, if I’d known that DECENCY used the same device.

  18. Enjoyable puzzle, thanks for organizing it Sarah. The only two I really struggled with were 11ac and 8dn. I shared Peter’s reservations about 11ac but thought 8dn was ok once the penny had dropped.

    I’m like Jerry – I can’t see how 9dn can be parsed to give UTTER. The way it’s worded doesn’t seem ambiguous to me (as a clue for OTTER).

    My own was 1dn. I did have some reservations about the indirect alternate letters wordplay, but there haven’t been too many complaints and Pete liked it, so it must be ok.

  19. This took me about 50 minutes, quite a lot of it at the end on 8dn, which made me laugh when I saw it, so I for one approve. Otherwise it was decidedly tricky, I thought, and I suspect the multitude of setters contributed to this.
    My clue was 1ac. I spent ages on an alternative, much more convoluted and “clever” clue, but couldn’t quite get it to work.
    Thanks to Sotira for organising this: a lot of fun.
  20. Very good fun and just over 60m for me. I had to use aids to complete the last few which appear to be the usual suspects for others as well. I liked SPEEDS and SUNSET, but thought there was a number of enjoyable clues. Mine was TANGY and I am very glad Peter commented on the comma as it was cold blooded revenge for all of the occasions when I’ve been caught out by capitals, commas and apostrophes over the past two years! Not that I think anyone was held up by it either! Many thanks to Sotira and all those involved, including our blogger today (and every other day); it is always a joy to log on and join in the debates. Merry Christmas to all!
  21. hm … 2:15pm in the UK and no mention of a Nina ….. where are all you classical scholars, then?
    2. Aha, I see it now. I did have a quick look for one before, but it must be too ingrained in me to look for symmetrical unches to spot that without a hint.

      I assume 1ac and 30ac are part of it too?

      1. You’re there, linxit., and geoC,

        And yes, 1 and 30 were part of the idea. I was aiming for more darkness -> light thematic movement to reflect the time of year and the festivals, religious or otherwise, which mark it, but then I discovered how incredibly hard it is to get any kind of Nina into a grid without going all Mephisto with the vocab. And it wouldn’t fit in symmetrically aligned unches, damnit!

        Edited at 2013-12-23 03:58 pm (UTC)

    3. This is going to involve NOEL but I am not there yet.

      Later – OK forget that!

      Edited at 2013-12-23 04:06 pm (UTC)

  22. Well, since I doubt you’re referring to oui, post, ten, Sid, son, lux, pi or fat (or at), though there’s a bit of classical light in there, I wonder if you’re doing something evil with Roman numerals. We have IV which with the ten gives fourteen that only needs 20 in front of it; we have ID, is that 499? Help!
    And going down we have leo and Cleo (Clio?) and finally OK. Seems classical enough but not I fear what you have in mind.

    Edited at 2013-12-23 02:50 pm (UTC)

    1. Well, it’s not the first time I’ve made a fool of myself. Brilliant stuff sotira.

      Edited at 2013-12-23 04:15 pm (UTC)

  23. About 45 mins for all but one and 3 days for the last one (8D of course but finally saw it). My little contribution was OATS and my alternative suggestion was GRASSES ARE UNSAINTLY WEASELS which I can see is a bit unwieldy. I also see that I was in the OTTER camp.

    Great fun and thank you so much sotira for putting it together and Peter for blogging.

    Merry Christmas all.

  24. I found the RH side considerably easier than the left and I too was an OTTER!

    Thanks to all the clue setters (I wouldn’t know where to start) and to Peter for the explanations.

  25. My congratulations to all of you for a really fine, fun puzzle which was a real challenge. I have to declare DNF for two reasons. One, mince pies are now available in Kenya so that was a distraction, and secondly as a parson Christmas is a really busy time for me, more so this year with refugees from the disaster in Southern Sudan pouring into Kenya.

    I thought you all did really well with some really fine clues. Eagerly waiting for TftT Easter Egg no. 1 now.

    Merry Christmas to you all.

    Nairobi wallah

    1. Many thanks to all, I really enjoyed everything but it took one whole day to see “speeds” and it’s so obvious once seen.
  26. Great idea and execution from Sotira, great fun and an interesting experience. I own up to 11ac (and 22 dn) and agree that it should have been ‘of French’. Now I come to think of it, the vin of the French may have contributed!

    Edited at 2013-12-23 10:41 pm (UTC)

  27. Thank you, NW. Merry Christmas to you and all your congregation, including those newly arrived. Let’s hope the new year brings better news and a bit more peace.
    1. Thanks Sotira for your fine editing especially having the metaphorical ’round objects’ to go with my speeding-fine 8 dn instead of the alternatives we discussed – it seems on balance to have been a cracker rather than a turkey and I thought a nice change from the usual formulaic options. In France we don’t have yellow box cameras but a big sign saying radar control ‘pour votre securité’ within half a kilometre before, in case you forget the camera is there… fair play, not just revenue extraction.
  28. Nice to see PB blogging again, and well done, Sotira, on the idea and execution; good for all of us to have a little reminder that setting a top class puzzle isn’t as easy as some setters make it seem! If this experience teaches us anything else*, it may be that crosswords are definitely better when they are the work of one guiding hand (and a good editor, of course) and not when set by committee – but it was fun anyway.

    My own small contribution was NEGOTIATE, which had an alternative clue along the lines of Gone crazy, we hear woman scoffed treat (9), which was a little less obscure than the shorter version, if not as concise.

    It seems I was far from alone in finishing with SPEEDS, which provided the penny-drop moment which I suspect all setters long for; and I also liked SIXTIETH, though as PB said, hard to disguise it in a way which makes it that bit tougher to spot. Anyway, if I’d not known anything of the provenance, I hope I would still have said this was a solid effort for a daily puzzle.

    *Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting it needs to teach us anything: I’m very much in the Seinfeld** “no hugging, no learning” camp on this one.

    **speaking of which, as it’s December 23rd, I shall take the opportunity to wish everyone a happy Festivus.

  29. What everyone else said. Nearly finished in half an hour, but another half hour to get CONCEDE and SPEEDS.

    FWIW, mine was AUCTIONS. It attracted kind words from Sotira and Penfold, but failed to make PB’s top 13, so will try harder next year.

    Thanks Sotira, that was much more fun than I expected.

    Edited at 2013-12-23 06:35 pm (UTC)

  30. Really enjoyable crossword, definitely not a turkey, thanks to the setters and sotira. Speeds was my LOI, and my favourite clue for the penny-drop moment.
  31. An enjoyable solve that revealed how it’s difficult to be on multiple different wavelengths at once. Enjoyed HARMLESS and TANGY but COD to ELATED for the topical (if slightly irreverent) surface. LOI SPEEDS.

    Many thanks to sotira, all setters, and PB, and Merry Christmas to all.

  32. As with others, left with SPEEDS at the end. (Still wondering for whom it’s an opportunity as such.) And miffed that I missed the nina and the slight night-and-day theme. Congrats to Sotira for working all of that into the puzzle.

    What I mainly noted was the frequency of the letter E, the overlap between 1ac and 30ac (as noted by PB) and a double use of “city” as NY (20ac and 28ac). Also the two puns on “lot(s)” in 26ac and 5dn.

    Not much taken with the concealed odd-letters part of 1dn where you have to turn “puzzle” into STUMP before finding the odds to get SUP. Surely not quite within PB’s rules??

    Got a Groan-like chuckle out of the clue for MINERAL OIL. And ditto from Jerry’s clue for ELATED and its gruesome take on the festivities shortly to come. The cunning def at 19dn was well done. Had me going for a while.

    I’ll cop responsibility for 14dn for which the alternatives were:
    14. One deciding end of the session in restaurant (10)
    14. Judge in ermine threads has gone off the rails (10)

    Won’t be giving up my many part-time day jobs any time soon.

    Edited at 2013-12-23 08:23 pm (UTC)

    1. In that case I’ll reveal myself as being behind mineral oil. When all Chambers gives you is “any oil obtained from minerals” you have to start thinking laterally outside the box-envelope to get a definition.

      Edited at 2013-12-23 11:56 pm (UTC)

    2. I think you had a difficult word to clue, mc. I might have gone for something quite straightforward, invoving blocked underground workers, perhaps..

      As regards my clue, note that it could have been just dinner (or more surreally, dormouse) but donkey seemed to fit best

  33. Just trying to bust the bug whereby page 1 says 64 comments and page 2 says 54

    (Penfold, not logged in on this machine)

Comments are closed.