Bluebird has set the crossword challenge today. The last Bluebird we blogged was back in April.
We looked carefully at the completed grid but couldn’t see anything . However, looking at other blogs Bluebird sometimes includes hidden themes.
We looked again and suddenly realised that there were links to the game of MONOPOLY. We unearthed our set last weekend when some relatives came – it is now about 60 years old! We played it a lot when we were students when we couldn’t afford to go out on a Saturday night and years later, our son enjoyed the game too.
The grid includes a collection of words that feature on the board – FLEET (Street). COVENTRY (Street), BOND (Street), BOW (Street), ANGEL (Islington) x2, (Communiy) CHEST, WHITE (chapel), PARK (Lane) and CHANCE. We think we have identified them all!
Thanks Bluebird.
LEE (general) ‘appearing in’ FT (paper – Financial Times)
COVEN (more than one witch) TRY (trial)
GR (King George) ANNIE (who was raised in an orphanage)
An anagram (‘plastic’) of CAVA O (first letter or ‘opening’ of one) before DO (party)
An anagram (‘split’) of ROUTE
TABU (something forbidden) LATE (old) D (duke)
An anagram (‘ruined’) of POOL M (Frenchman) ON and Y (4th letter in July)
Hidden (‘trousered’) in bassiST IN Gabardine
HA (first and last letters of Hiroshima or ‘on vacation’) eating YEN (Japanese bread/money)
An anagram (‘stray’) of SICILY and R and M – the middle letters or ‘hearts of girls and women’
T (time) REASSURE (comfort) with one S (son) moving to the end or ‘Far East’
A ROMAn (Italian capitalist) losing or ‘releasing’ N (new)
S (initial letter or ‘start’ of Sprint) after SETTER (me)
UN (one in French or ‘in the Tuileries’) L (left) around or ‘snorting C (coke) beside OAK (tree)
I C (see) being ‘cuddled by’ ANGELA (one woman)
S (third letter in list) COLD (indicated by C)
OF (reversed or ‘rising’) G (first letter of Gas or ‘originally’) over BOW (part of London) – a new word for us
EX (old) ACT (knife thrower) – not the best of synonyms for ACT we felt. We guessed the answer but were not convinced until we had the crossing letters.
TANGO (drink) around LE (the outside or ‘peel’ of lime) reversed or ‘twisted’. We needed all the crossing letters for this one.
HE’S (this man’s) inside or ‘filling’ CrickeT (first and last letters only or ’empty’)
AI (London Edinburgh road) V (Victor) reversed or ‘heading north’)
N (last letter or ‘bottom’ of biN) OODLES (bags)
An anagram (‘vigorously’) of TEAm TRAINS without M (millions)
AG (silver) in BOND (spy) E (base – as used in Maths)
A homophone (‘read aloud’) of BY (times) A (article)
OVER (on) EA (homElAnd – 4th and 6th letters only) TEN (10)
OLE (inside only or ‘skinned’ vOLEs) around I or ‘putting one in’ R (river)
HIT (smack) inside or ‘smuggled into’ WEST (Europe and America?)
AU (middle letters of fAUn or ‘naked’) next to an anagram (‘frolicking’) of TREES
CasH AuctioN CollapsE (first and last letters or ‘ends’ only) on S (first letter or ‘top’ of Salesman)
ED (as in Ed Balls) after or ‘beyond’ PARK (football pitch)
S (small) AU (gold) N (navy) A (adult)
O (love) V (verse) On LOgs (just the top halves)
Hidden (‘in’) sleighS KIds
Only needed the O to get TANGELO. It is Countdown’s favourite fruit making it an easy guess for me.
I felt that a couple of the parsings didn’t quite match the clues. For AVOCADO ‘bottles’ indicates the inclusion of O in the anagram of CAVA. In MONOPOLY, we have (POOL)* after (by) M + ON, all followed by Y.
A great crossword. TABULATED, AUSTERE and SAUNA all very good, but COVENTRY is clue of the puzzle and maybe the week. Thanks Bluebird!
Agree, BandJ, knife thrower is a bit wild; could’ve used Precise old dance?, but whatev. Agree with Hovis re Avocado and Monopoly. A dnf for me as nho fogbow and, after getting fog, cqba searching the ‘database’ for the right 3-letter bit of London. Thanks all.
If WHITE (chapel) is actually WHITE (hall) then I think all the properties around the perimeter are in the same locations as on a Monopoly board
Just spotted OLD (Kent Road) in 32a which completes the set
Well spotted Chrism!
Thanks both. Great fun, having picked up the theme very early, which assisted FOGBOW, though I did try to fit ‘go’ into about 11 solutions, so no £200 for me.
Not a fan of this style of presenting clues I’m afraid. Completed it all, but with multiple answers where there was no real understanding of the parsing. Think @Hovis helps cover a couple of those off. Ho hum…
Completely missed the theme but enjoyed the puzzle. COVENTRY and CHEST made me smile.
Added bonus – when entering OUTRE with auto check switched on, you get a little green acute accent above the E. Perfect!
Thanks both. All mysteries explained, as always
The image of the poor tortured voles in the clue for OILER was in really poor taste. Otherwise, good fun.
No chance on the theme, since the American version (the original, I should add) of MONOPOLY is set in Atlantic City, New Jersey. If I’d seen BOARDWALK or MARVIN GARDENS or READING RAILROAD, I’d have been grabbing my top hat.
Thanks Bluebird, another American here with a different version of Monopoly so no theme for me. It didn’t matter, there was much to like including GRANNIE, HYENA, WHITEST, AUSTERE, and SAUNA. I failed with the very clever LYRICISM as well as PARKED. Thanks B&J for explaining.