The original puzzle may be found here.
Bluejacket provides the cruciverbial challenge today.
Thankfully not too much of a challenge. There were a couple that needed checking although the answers were clearly clued. We had never come across YOGH (4d) or GYM RAT (3d) before.
A Spoonerism of COLLIE (dog) MODEL (sit)
U (uniform) inside (‘adopted by’) HE (that man)
OR (other ranks) + a reversal (‘about’) of RED (visibly embarrassed)
A reversal (‘reversed course’) of DR (doctor) inside (‘plugging’) an anagram (‘new’) of INHALER
N (last of ‘final’ letter in electrician) EARTHING (wiring to ground)
OVER (completed) T (time)
SPEEches (missing half or ‘half forgotten’) DUP (‘party’ – Democratic Unionist Party)
BOOTLE (Merseyside town) G (first letter or ‘origin’ of grisly)
A (answer) MISS (teacher)
An anagram (‘cryptic’) of MASTER around (‘holding’) ALL (everything) reversed (‘back’)
pARTRIDGE (game) without (‘lost’) ‘p’ (pawn) after (‘by’) C (Charlie – in the phonetic alphabet)
BOG (marshland) around (‘trapping’) E (first letter or ‘leader’ of expeditionary) F force)
SoOT (product of coke) missing one of the middle two letters (‘half-heartedly’)
Hidden (‘accommodated’) in urBAN GLADE’S HIgh rise
I (one) M (million) POUNDS (quid)
First and last letters (‘tips’) of PotentiaL + OD (overdose)
Hidden (‘in’) and reversed (‘climbing’) in tighT ARMY Gear – a new phrase for us
Last (‘ultimate’) letters in CanterburY whO sanG hallelujaH – a letter from Middle English
WELL (source of water) TO-DO (agitation)
CHANCE (risk) + a reversal (‘regressive’) of ROLL (revolution)
LEAR (Shakespearean role) NT (National Theatre)
A reversal (‘going north’) of L (left) BIG (large) I (current) RID (free) + E (east)
An anagram (‘edited’) of E MAIL + ORATE (to speechify)
I’M POSEiDON (sea god’s declaration) missing (‘exiling’) I (setter)
DEE (Chester river) around (‘including’) S (first letter or ‘top’ of stony) and CRIB (bed)
A reversal (‘uplifted’) of EG (perhaps) + TAG (signature) RIP (expression of condolences)
C (first letter or ‘beginning’ of court) inside (‘cracking’) an anagram (‘criminal’) of CASES
LIDO (swimming pool) around (‘inspiring’) BI (non-heterosexual)
bELLEs (beautiful women) missing first and last letters (‘not covered’)
F (foxtrot in the phonetic alphabet) cAST (performers) missing first letter (‘topless’)
Elegantly put together. YOGH unknown to me as well but clearly clued. A smile for MOLLYCODDLE, a laugh at WELL-TO-DO and a gasp of admiration at the deletion spot in IMPOSED ON.
Thanks both
Yes I’m Poseidon was inspired. DIRIGIBLE nicely assembled and the YOGH very clearly clued.
Thanks both. GYM RAT strikes me as an Americanism which sounds horrible over here. I commented yesterday about whether crossword clues are modernising at all, and then YOGH comes along, who does apparently slightly pre-date the aforementioned exercising rodent.
If you found YOGH, 4(d), as a clever bit of cryptic setting, then good luck to you.
For this solver, it’s YUCK.
Apart from that, and the desperation of GYM RAT, 3(d), it’s not so bad, in fact, it’s pretty darned good.
A very quick solve, via some very obvious definitions, and wordplays using a megaphone; but the Spoonerism was quite good.
Not the best BJ , but thanks for BJ
Thanks Bluejacket for an admirable crossword. I failed to parse MOLLYCODDLE and NEAR THING but all else made sense with my favourites being OVERT, BOOTLEG, AMISS, SMELL A RAT, GYM RAT, CHANCELLOR, and ELLE. GYM RAT is very common in the US though I was a bit surprised to see ‘rat’ twice in the grid. Thanks B&J for the blog.
Liked this very much. Witty and well put together. FAST was a lovely surface, IMPOUNDS and IMPOSED ON very good and the Spoonerism very satisfying when I finally got there as LOI. No complaints.
Ian @4 at al: What’s wrong with GYM RAT? It’s not exactly a new phrase. It’s common enough in the gay community that I’ve heard it of various people many times (usually disparagingly).
YOGH obeys the old rule that while one can clue plain words obscurely, one should clue obscure words plainly. A better question is why that word was chosen in the first place. Off the top of my head, both Pooh and doth were available and are less obscure.
Easiest solve of the week so far. I did know YOGH but had to dredge it from my memory once I’d worked out the wordplay.
I print out the puzzle and fill it in. Took me a while to see I’d entered SMELL A BAT for 22ac.
Thanks everyone for your kind and interesting comments, and thanks especially to bertandjoyce for the blog!
The reasonable reactions to Ȝȝ show that I may be a victim of overfamiliarity with high medieval epigraphy…