It’s Tuesday and we have a Mog to solve and blog.
Well, we managed to solve the puzzle although we needed to check 25ac which took a while to parse and 24d which we think must be a clue as definition.
However, we then were very puzzled. It’s Tuesday and it is usually theme day. We did however have a Dalibor puzzle recently on a Tuesday which did not have a theme so perhaps today is the same. It’s Joyce compiling the blog today and I can’t help but think that 27/28 gives us a hint to a possible theme. However, an ‘investigoogle’ into chess openings revealed nothing of any value.
We hope that someone out there can help.
TERN (bird) inside (‘swallowed by’) MAmmAL missing the middle letters (‘heart’)
CU (copper) SHY (retiring)
L (learner) RID (freed) after U (university)
An anagram (‘work’) of ON SPIKE IN
E (last letter of hare) LOPED (sprang)
R (Republican) EVE (first lady) REND (to rip into)
BOARD (get on) SHOTS (photos) around (‘securing’) R (right)
MACe (club) missing last letter (‘losing backing’)
fERAl (wild) missing first and last letters (‘unclothed’)
An anagram (‘spread’) of IF MELTING + ON (over)
CA (about) + OP inside (‘boring’) ALLIEs (friends) missing last letter (‘endlessly’). Thanks Banksia.
A reversal (‘back’) of ELK (deer) NARk (grass) missing last letter (‘cut’)
ERIE (Pennsylvanian city) after (‘pursuing’) an anagram (‘absurd’) of N (new) and MEGA
Double definition
C H E S (first letters or ‘starters’ of certain horizontal entries seven) SOS (help) around PENnING (enclosing) missing (‘striking’) the middle letter (‘centre’)
E (English) and a reversal (‘up’) of ELBA (isle) after (‘supporting’ in a down clue) MALL (shopping centre)
TURBOt (‘swimmer’) missing last letter (‘clipped’)
RE (soldiers) DEAD (finished) around (‘eating’) H (hot) – apparently an alternative name for a pochard
A (alto) LPS (records)
CO (company) NESS (head) around (‘squeezed’) F (first letter or ‘head’ of finance)
An anagram (‘in kerfuffle’) of MIRED inside (‘punching’) SPAN (cross)
gYm missing first and last letters (‘stripping’) wIELD (to exercise) missing first letter (‘topless’)
UN (French word – ‘in Nice’ – for a) and an anagram (‘dilapidated’) of RENTAL
A TAG (children’s game) LANCE (run through)
HE (fellow) mainLIning (middle or ‘essential’ letters only) PORT (wine)
CONS (scams) EN (nurse) SUS (suspicious)
F (loud) RING (band) ES (first and last letters or ‘extremes’ of egregious)
I (current) and an anagram (‘translation’) of NARNIA
CO-MIC could fancifully describe someone who is sharing a microphone (‘amplifier’) with another presenter
KN (first two letters or ‘pair’ of knickers) OWN (to have)
PEE (wee) P (first letter or ‘introduction’ to partridge). We guessed this from the parsing and can only think that it is a clue as definition with a bird such as a partridge making a ‘peeping’ sound – Chambers has one definition of ‘peep’ as ‘to cheep like a chicken’. Can anyone think of a better explanation?
The exhibition’s not open yet but I can give you a quick peep/introduction …? Hmm, bit of a stretch, and double duty …
Good puzzle. 27/28 provide the theme.. seven horizontal entries starting with chess related words:
MATE
PIN
BOARD
RANK
FILE
ELO
MEN
I wondered if CHESS was the theme. Obv the word itself is there, along with OPENINGS and there is MATE and BOARD. And then I ran out of themers so suspect that’s not it. If there are the names of chess openings hidden somewhere, then that’s too obscure for this solver. nho BOARD SHORTS and only knew ERIE as a city because of another puzzle by a US setter that featured it recently. I feel the definition for HELIPORT is a tough one: I wonder how many folk asked to name a base would come up with that? PINK NOISE is nicely done, along with AT A GLANCE and FRINGES.
Thanks both
[I see JP has posted whilst I was writing. I have played chess but am not familiar with ELO in a chess context. PIN – I suppose so. A lightish theme although very nice to see how the setter has alluded to it in the keystone clue.]
OK. Just went over and Googled ELO which turns out to be a rating for chess players. Didn’t know that.
I read 24d as an &lit. The wordplay reading of the clue gives pee + p, as Joyce explains. For the definition, a baby partridge might introduce itself by making a ‘peep’ sound. The question mark suggests a degree of latitude in the definition (to me, anyway).
Not many comments probably because a difficult solve. Well done with parsing, especially 27/28. I’d never heard of most of the chess terms and was looking in vain for “gambits” … LOI 24 (I suspect as for many) – couldn’t really believe it turned out to be right …
The ELO rating is a fun one because it looks as if it should be an acronym but is actually named after a Mr Elo.
Thanks to all the commenters so far. We were looking at ‘chess openings’ rather than chess related ‘openings’. Even if we had, we’d never have found all of them without a great deal of investigoogling.
Not sure about the comma in 8d. Is it in the right place?
C would be the term for about in 21 ac. There is already an “a” in “allies”
Some artful misdirection, for me, at least… cryptic defs are not my forte, and de-creases obviously missed out the punctuation. Happily the crossers made it fairly obvious. Themes in general are, for me again, a thing of the past, or the future, but rarely in the present. Postmortem, I spotted MATE, PIN, and BOARD… I see I missed a few, but I’m not sure the theme was intended to help us in the solve…
Thanks Mog and Bertandjoyce
Some old familiars ( oh no! not decreasing for ironing, yet again!); computer = mac: first lady = Eve. The old uns are not really good uns.
Note to self: memorise the muses.
CALLIOPE: other muses are available.
I was looking for something better, on CHESS OPENINGS, a clever ruse, but not played to its best advantage. So many options, but the setter has gone for ” anything that is to do with chess, in any form or words”.
Good idea, Poor execution.
PINK NOISE and BOARD SHORTS are really poor efforts, but the total stinker is PEEP, 24(d) , up there, with the worst clue any setter has yet contrived.
Sorry . Mog , a big thumbs down, but a diplomatic blog , from BJ
Thanks Banksia – blog corrected.
I looked in vain for Nimzo-Indian, Sicilian or Four Knights but saw the other themers eventually. I suppose PEEP is the first thing a young bird would say.
Tx for parsing CHESS OPENINGS. That was tough but now I see why it was so contrived. Re BOARD SHORTS Nigel Short was an English chess player who actually challenged Kasparov for the world title in 1993 but lost.
The first peep of dawn?
Thanks both. An okay solve spoiled by the over-complex clue and purpose for the thematic CHESS OPENINGS which crossed with the simply bewildering PEEP – as ‘pee’ means wee and is the first letter in partridge, I couldn’t get past that there was a rogue letter at the end – there kind of was.
I had to think long on what JP@2 said to believe the theme is legit. It is – though, to me, not very impressive; there’s much more that could be said about chess than those very short words, none of which primarily refers to chess except ELO. PEEP is I think a clue as definition, as the blog suggests. Thanks Mog and B&J
I thought the clue for PEEP was cute, and the reaction bewildering, with ENB’s comment probably the most hyperbolic thing ever written on the internet.
James@18, ouch , but fair comment.
Banksia @9 I actually read 21 as Ca for circa with allies missing both ends = endlessly.
Either works I guess.