Thanks to Sleuth for an enjoyable challenge.
I’ve not blogged a Sleuth puzzle before, and am standing in for the regular blogger. I really enjoyed this, and found Sleuth’s trademark long outer perimeter clues a great help to kick-start to grid. The anagrams are quite masterful! Great range of clues, all cleverly and thoughtfully composed. Thanks to Sleuth.
(RUE INEPT LEARNER)* (*poorly)
Cryptic definition
ROVER (dog) trapped by PB (lead, chemical symbol)
Double definition
(A NEUROTIC)* (*mixed up)
CO[s]T (price, not S (small)) in ENTREE (course)
GIG (concert) has [f]L[a]I[r] (on and off)
[th]E US NE[wly]< (element in, <given backing)
(ENDS VISIT)* (*sadly)
SMALL (limited) + [f]ARMS (rural workplaces, with no leader)
[reg]AL BAN[quet] (in)
Saint Alban is the first recorded British Christian martyr.
Cryptic definition
‘Allegro’ is a musical term indicating a brisk, lively pace – sheet music is made up of bars.
(A + RUM< (spirit, <revolutionary)) in (S[uch] (first of) + AI (excellent))
(TRADESMEN POTTER)* (*around)
ELLE (that woman from Quebec, i.e. in French) has (DISMAL SNEER)* (*unusually)
Double definition
COPES* (*engineer) + HERE (in this place)
ELI (priest) captivated by RC (Roman Catholic)
PINES (longs) to get into SPIN< (aspect of bowling, <on reflection)
(A [d]OUBT)* (*resolved, with D (day) gone)
I[ncreased] (early sign of) + C (cold) before GREBE< (bird, <soars)
(UNENVIABLE TRIO)* (*struggling)
ORDER (command) + FORM (to establish)
GEN (information) on DAMES (titled figures) about R (right)
(R, L (two sides, right, left) + U (for all to see, movie rating)) in SNAP (sudden)
E (English) + MB (doctor, Bachelor of Medicine/Medicinae Baccalaureus) on ARGO (ship, from Greek mythology)
“LAAGER” (South African camp, “picked up”)
[thi]S US AN[niversary] (taking part in)
Sleuth, like Flimsy, is another setter we don’t see so often but whose puzzles I usually enjoy.
Today was no exception. Admittedly, the perimeter clues helped to make light work of this solve but it was no less satisfying for all that.
My favourites included GENDARMES, NIPPINESS and for their surfaces, PROVERB and SMALL ARMS. Needed to come here to check the full parsing of 17.
Thanks to Sleuth and Oriel.
Enjoyable with several speed bumps. Couldn’t parse SNARL-UP (which I’ve never heard of) — the hidden British movie classification didn’t help. And I’ve never heard of a laager or St Alban or tenor Gigli. Didn’t think LOO ROLL was cryptic.
LABOUR INTENSIVE was my favourite of the long anagrams and NIPPINESS was cleverly done. It must be hard to come up with really good cryptic definitions, but LOO ROLL perhaps isn’t one of them.
Good fun – for once I abandoned my usual habit of working through the clues in order and tackled the 4 outer anagrams which gave me the corners and borders of the jigsaw puzzle. I did not find either of 9ac or 24ac particularly cryptic – I suppose once one has seen the tricks of “bars”meaning “music” and “to go” being a lavatorial reference the misdirection disappears. However, not everyone will have seen those tricks so I think they are fair cryptic clues. On the other hand Gigli died nearly 70 years ago so was a bit of a reach.
A pity about the lovely “Ellesmere Island” clue – the Québecois use “a” instead of “elle” (quite a few of the pronouns differ).
thanks Sleuth and Oriel
A light but enjoyable romp which I think I finished in a record time!!! Thanks, @SLEUTH.
For once, I got to see what people mean when they say things like “the long perimeter clues helped with the rest of the grid”, because for once, the long perimeter clues came relatively easily for me! Usually I like to do shorter answers first to give me some traction on the longer ones, but this time I needed only a couple before ENTREPRENEURIAL and ELLESMERE ISLAND became evident, and with all of those first letters in place, it was off to the races from there.
I particularly liked the latter: the image of the Quebecois woman sneering at the rest of Canada was amusing.
Starting with the four perimeter clues, I solved all but SMALL ARMS on the first pass. I am going to swim against the tide a bit, as I felt there was not much variety (so heavy on anagrams) and the setter seemed to be having difficulty with the surfaces. I liked PROVERB, and EMBARGO.
Thanks Sleuth and Oriel
As Diane @1 says, the perimeter clues helped to make light work of this solve but it was no less satisfying for all that. LOI was GENDARMES, once we had SAMURAI (and after we tried and failed to make something out of ‘generals’). Favourite was ENTRECOTE, bringing back memories of dining at a restaurant called L’Entrecote in Montpellier many years ago.
Thanks, Sleuth and Oriel.
I dined at L’entrecôte in Toulouse a couple of times.
Everything’s been said. Good fun in front of the TV tonight.
Thanks Sleuth and Oriel.
I think you need the s of trios for the 8d anagram also.
This was a lot of fun!
For awhile I thought the hidden in 23a was galba, a Roman general!
Not to mention Emperor for seven months. I saw galba too, but speculated that ALBAN would be more likely given the likely bias of on these puzzles to all things British. Besides, Galba was not in a position to be revered very long and, as you probably did, I looked at a crosser before committing.
In case anyone is reading this blog a week later, JOFT@4 is not quite correct, and the clue for 1a ELLESMERE ISLAND Is correct. The written word for ‘she’ (that woman in the clue) is ELLE in Québécois French, although ‘a’ is used orally in casual speech. It was an excellent clue with a great surface.
Cellomaniac@12: D’accord.
I’m sure I’ve drunk COINTREAU and, among much else, I don’t remember it being colourless?