Another epic journey through the devious mind of the Enigmatist in Saturday Prize mode – with some brain-stretching definitions, imaginative surface reads, tricksy word-play and (for your blogger) one un-parseable clue at 14A…
Luckily for me I took a punt and started at the bottom right of the clues, and found the one pretty-much-write-in with BIDET – more commonly part of the fixtures-and-fittings on the continent, rather than here in the UK.
I hovered around the lower half, with INDIA, TSAMBA, NANOMETRE and AIRE, before lazily putting in RASTAFARIANISM at 9D – a 14-letter faith, ending in ?A?I?M, who needs to check the word-play?!…
Working my way back up to the top half was a struggle, with some LOL moments interspersed – ‘wine, women and song’ leading to a SNOG at 6A; the HO RATIO scale for Santa Clauses at 5D; an outrageous Spoonerism with a BAY PLOY helping to find a parking space for a 22A PLAYBOY; and the poignant image of an exhausted runner turning to FACE the PACK of wolves at 1D.
Once I had corrected RASTAFARIANISM to ZOROASTRIANISM, with that good-ole cruciverbal staple of cross = zo/zho/dzo, I managed to tackle the top-right quadrant as well.
My LOI was GREY MARE at 16D, needing some Wiki-oogling to confirm, with Tom Pearce on his way to Widecombe Fair; and I still can’t work out the clod-hopping COUNTRY COUSIN at 14A – any suggestions welcome below!
Looking back, this certainly didn’t take as long as some recent Enigmatists – finished on the day of publication rather than a day or two into the next week, so maybe I just got on the wavelength sooner this time. By my reckoning about four &lit(ish) clues, although I am notoriously bad at calling them and usually get corrected in the comments.
I’m sure many commenters will have their own favourites – too many for me to single out just one – and I will finish with my usual thanks to the big E for the challenge, and I trust all is clear below.
[As per usual, I will be out golfing on Saturday morning when the UK contingent wakes up – use of mobile phones on courses is no longer as frowned upon as it used to be, mainly because most of the distance reckoning and scoring is now done on apps, so I will be keeping an eye on developments below, but not in a position to reply until later in the afternoon.]
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1A | FULL PITCH | Hit fine pull shot over Crawley’s head (poor delivery) (4,5)
FULL_PIT_H (anag, i.e. shot, of HIT F (fine) PULL) around (over) C (head, or first letter of Crawley) [in cricket a FULLy-PITCHed delivery, or full toss, doesn’t bounce before reaching the batter, of which Zak Crawley is an example, and therefore might be a ‘poor delivery’, as it is usually easier to hit for some cheap runs…] |
| 6A | SNOG | What follows wine, women … turned on … ? (4)
the phrase is ‘wine, women and … song’; turning the ‘on’ around gives SNOG, which might happen if the participants are disinhibited, or turned on, after imbibement of said wine?!… [&lit? whole clue is wordplay AND definition…] |
| 10A | CORGI | Old queen’s favourite brother, Joe (5)
COR (interjection expressing surprise, as is ‘brother!’) + GI (GI Joe, American serviceman) |
| 11A | FORGOTTEN | Neglected wetland in which ordinary river has become dry (9)
F_EN (wetland) around O (ordinary) + R (river) + GO (become, as in go off, become rotten) + TT (teetotal, dry) |
| 12A | PRO RATA | Commensurately paid singer left for auditorium (3,4)
PRO (paid, professional) + RAT (singer, tale-teller) + A (left-most letter of Auditorium) |
| 13A | THOREAU | Formally, you are, curiously, probing social critic (7)
THO_U (you, formally) around (probed by) REA (anag, i.e. curiously, of ARE) [Henry David Thoreau, US philosopher, essayist, social critic] |
| 14A | COUNTRY COUSIN | To acquire Amtrak, possibly involve US clodhopper (7,6)
Not at all sure of the parsing here – COUNT (acquire) + RY (railway, Amtrak) + CO_IN (?) involving US |
| 17A | BAREBACK RIDER | Barrels were returned empty? I’m not sure I can forgo tack (8,5)
B (barrels) + ARE BACK (were returned) + RID (empty) + ER (I’m not sure!) |
| 21A | SCALPEL | Essential for operator training to cut speaker’s initial connection (7)
S (initial of Speaker) + CAL_L (telephonic connection) around (cut by) PE (Physical Education, training) [essential for an operator in a surgical theatre] |
| 22A | PLAYBOY | Libertine tactic used to find car park space for Spooner? (7)
the Rev. Spooner might have use a BAY PLOY as a tactic to find a car parking space, or bay! |
| 24A | MIDI-SKIRT | On counter, neatly sews single storage unit in garment (4-5)
M_IRT (trim, neatly, on the counter) around (sewing in) I (single, one) + DI_SK (computer data storage unit) |
| 25A | INDIA | International relief supplies finally flown around land (5)
I (international) + NDIA (AID, relief supplies, plus n, final letter of flowN, all around |
| 26A | AIRE | Which current runs through area by centre of Leeds? (4)
A (area) + E (centre of leEds), around I (electric current0 + R (runs, cricket notation) [&lit again, as whole clue is wordplay AND definition?…] |
| 27A | NANOMETRE | Small unit moving near to Bury not including this person (9)
NA_RE (anag, i.e. moving, of NEAR) around (burying) NO_T, itself around (including) ME (this person)! |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | FACE PACK | Unable to outrun wolves, must one turn to this beauty treatment? (4,4)
if you are unable to outrun a group of wolves, you might have to turn to FACE the PACK – good luck! |
| 2D | LARGO | Antagonist of Bond film topped by M’s predecessor (5)
L (predecessor of M, alphabetically) + ARGO (2012 film starring Ben Affleck) [Emilio Largo being an antagonist of James Bond in Thunderball (1965 film)] |
| 3D | PHILANTHROPIST | Man’s lover arranged NHS hospital trip to discharge son (14)
subtractive anagram, i.e. arranged, of NHS HO( [a philanthropist want to be kind to the human race, so could be said to love ‘man’ – with man being a generic term?] |
| 4D | TIFFANY | Jewel merchant and his glassmaker son, did they quarrel at all? (7)
if you wanted to know if there were any arguments between Charles Lewis Tiffany (jewel merchant) and his son, Lewis Comfort Tiffany (decorative glass maker), you might ask ‘TIFF, ANY?’ |
| 5D | HORATIO | Hamlet’s intimate means to compare Santa Clauses? (7)
Santa Claus impersonators are known for their ‘Ho ho ho’-ing, which could be measured/compared using a HO RATIO! [Horatio being a confidant of Hamlet; c.f. Act V Sc I – ‘Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio’] |
| 7D | NET-VEINED | Like some leaves I needn’t’ve braised (3-6)
anag, i.e. braised, of I NEEDN’T’VE |
| 8D | GENIUS | One in a special class (6)
GENU_S (taxonomic class) around I (one) [&lit again?] |
| 9D | ZOROASTRIANISM | Faith right to stop Cross and Cook climbing peak of Mount Sinai (14)
ZO (hybrid, genetic cross) + ROAST (cook) + R (right) + IANISM (M, peak, or first letter, or Mount, plus SINAI, all climbing) |
| 15D | UPBRAIDER | Who’s reprimanding United attacker for preserving lead? (9)
U (United, football club abbreviation) + PB (plumbum, lead) + RAIDER (attacker) |
| 16D | GREY MARE | Mr Pearce unwisely let a lot of folk use his dominant partner (4,4)
double defn. – in the folk song ‘Widecombe Fair’, Tom Pearce unwisely lends his GREY MARE to various travellers to said fair (Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all) and, spoiler alert, the mare dies; and a GREY MARE can be a dominant wife in a marriage, who rules her husband and/or is more able than him (is there any other kind of wife? Just asking for a friend…!) |
| 18D | BILLION | Performers in show withdrawing favourite number (7)
BILL (the list of performers in a show) + ION (No 1, favourite, withdrawn) |
| 19D | CAPSTAN | Turner makes function appear larger on screen? (7)
if you want to make the mathematical function TAN appear larger on a computer screen, you might use CAPS (capital letters)!? |
| 20D | TSAMBA | Wanting a taste of 25, cook basmati dish (6)
subtractive anagram, i.e. cook, of BASMAT( [tsamba being a Tibetan barley dish – delicious, I had some on a trek in the mountains of Darjeeling in the mid 90s – OK not in Tibet itself, but in the lower foothills of the Himalayas and in sight of Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world!] |
| 23D | BIDET | Bathroom ‘fixture’? It’d be ‘fitting’ (5)
anag, i.e. fitting, of IT’D BE |
14ac – Could it be to COUNT COIN with RY (railway) possibly Amtrak with US in. Very tricky crossword for me, and not that enjoyable as a result. Thanks for the blog.
14A: I had: COUNT IN (involve) around (to acquire) {RY CO. (Amtrak possibly) + US}, but I am not entirely convinced by that parsing. I do not see the inclusion indicator for “US,” there.
I think everything else I had agreed with the blog. Very tough puzzle. GREY MARE references were very obscure for me (in the US).
I thought “thought” was a former way of saying “you”, not a formal way?
Thanks for the parsing of PRO RATA – I had included “paid in the definition and then got lost, For COUNTRY COUSIN I assumed to “count coin” was a phrase for being focused on acquiring money but I couldn’t find an evidence for it!
Thanks both.
I thought “thou” was a former way of saying “you”, not a formal way?
Thanks for the parsing of PRO RATA – I had included “paid in the definition and then got lost, For COUNTRY COUSIN I assumed to “count coin” was a phrase for being focused on acquiring money but I couldn’t find an evidence for it!
Thanks both.
Amtrak = RY CO and involve US = US IN , so just a charade .
Too sleepy now , back later .
Sorry for duplication. The edit function didn’t appear for my first post. Feel free to tidy up!
My best guess for 14 was that if you were buying Amtrak you might have to COUNT RailwaY COIN.
There may well be better suggestions.
Thanks to Enigmatist and mc_rapper67
Myself@2 and Roz@5: I think it is: COUNT US IN (involve us) around (to acquire) RY CO. (Amtrak possibly). That works.
Thanks mc_rapper67. Too hard for me and I only completed the grid by more reference to Google than I was comfortable with. Even then I had to wait to come here to find too many explanations. However, I thought 14a was acquire=count in around ry co = railway company and US.
Sorry, too late.
Tough one. Didn’t get GREY MARE, not helped by having a half parsed BAREBACK RODEO! The whole Mr Pearce reference made no sense to me, and I’ve never heard of GM as a dominant wife. Apart from that, though this was a struggle, it was a satisfying one. HO-RATIO must by a candidate for worst dad joke of the year!
Cineraria @9: that was my parsing also. After about four days!
Very tricky, thanks for the blog, that explained a few holdout parsings.
Our blogger questioned his &lit. identifications. My take is that SNOG is for sure, AIRE isn’t because “which” doesn’t participate in the wordplay. As for GENIUS, I don’t see how “special” is necessary for the wordplay – but it doesn’t hurt, so a definite “maybe” there.
Tx!
Tough indeed. If it hadn’t been for the jolly HO_RATIO I’d have drawn a miserable blank on quite a long and slow first pass, and I thought this might well be yet another Enigmatist I wouldn’t complete. But then it came together – over time – in a very satisfying way. There was a big “Oh, THAT Mr Pearce!” when I finally saw GREY MARE (but I didn’t know the dominant wife meaning – I don’t think that’s how it’s used in the song!) I parsed COUNTRY COUSIN as Cineraria@9 and MuddyThinking@12, and while I got ZOROASTRIANISM once I had enough crossers, I never saw where Mr Cross and Mr Cook came in – I don’t play Scrabble, so I don’t have all these odd 2-letter words at my fingertips. I actually don’t have a list of favourites – it was just a set of almost uniformly tricky but clever clues. Thanks to both.
Enjoyed this, but a dnf, bunged an unparsed acre for Aire. 16d was loi and a total guess [only known ref the schoolyard rudey: The ogm said let’s have anothery Down by the shrubbery I’ll bring the rubbery (sorry!)] Genius a super neat &lit. Thanks to rapper and the big E.
I got to within two from completion, with parsing correct or correctly assumed (LARGO) – so one of my best assaults on an Enigmatist so far I think! I parsed COUNTRY COUSIN as a mixture of what earlier commenters suggested, but Cineraria’s@9 is clearly best.
SCALPEL held out a long time and finally allowed the garment and the nho-but-guessed-and-verified TSAMBA to fall.
My most significant failure was the nho CAPSTAN. The wordplay, if not unfair, is pretty oblique; I think you have to take “makes function appear larger on screen” as a whimsical plain definition and treat it as a ‘partner clause’ to the solution: “CAPS TAN makes function appear bigger…” – else the wordplay suggests we’re looking for an agent while the situation suggests a result). Which is a long-winded way of saying that this one is pretty hard one to jorumize, so I’ll take my failure on the chin.
I am more gutted about failing on GREY MARE, as a Devon lad who knows the song by heart! I just couldn’t conjure up a Mr Pearce, other than Guy the actor. What made it more frustrating was that when I still didn’t have the final R checker I came up with Lady Jane (Grey), thinking Mr Pearce might have been a paramour… so when the R did turn up, grey was the first word that came to mind! Alas it was not to be; I’ve nho grey mare in the second sense.
A great challenge. Tx both
Revisited this on and off through the week, and even solved three more today. Only three in the SE remained unsolved (16d GREY MARE, didn’t know either reference — struggled to anagram “Mr Pearce”), not too bad for an Enigmatist Prize. A number of unparsed guesses were correct
Of the ones I solved, I especially enjoyed 10a CORGI (“brother” = COR), 1d FACE PACK (fun wordplay imagery), 5d HORATIO (offbeat!), 8d GENIUS (excellent CAD)
Congrats to Roz on the name check!
27a NANOMETRE my loi, the third Matryoshka clue recently, and another opportunity to use my new word
2d LARGO references the film, ARGO, about Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor’s rescue of Americans during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 (though the film unjustly underplays his involvement). Pretty good flick, but THUNDERBALL gets the prize, one of the best Bond films
Thanks mc_rapper67 for the nice clear blog, and Enigmatist for the challenge
I think there’s an argument for regarding AIRE as an &lit; when the surface is phrased as a direct question to which the solution is an answer, I can forgive it the cryptically-superfluous interrogativo. Oh, and it’s always ZOROASTRIANISM!
Thanks for a great blog , not easy for this puzzle , a tough Prize solve with a lot of thinking for each corner . CORGI , I liked the change from my=cor , HORATIO a very neat and original idea , GENIUS very concise , definitely &Lit as genus=special class in logic .
GREY MARE , we used to sing the song in school music lessons . The second part from – the GREY MARE is the better horse – an axiom that should be better known . FORGOTTEN , very minor point , I had – become dry = go TT – a very short phrase .
Cineraria@9 yes that seems conclusive .
[KeithS@14, zo is on my family’s very short list of acceptable uncommon two-letter Scrabble words. I took me decades to convince my mother to allow it!]
Well done Mig@17 , GREY MARE was doubly obscure really , I just loved singing the ballad at school – Old Uncle Tom Cobley and alllll – but it does get very sad and quite spooky . I use the second saying quite a lot .
Not much fun, a bit of a grind. Got there in the end but with no idea of some of the across parsings.
I really enjoyed this and felt more in tune with Enigmatist than I usually do.
CORGI raised a proper chuckle.
No amount of searching for Mr Pearces came up with Widdecombe Fair for me. I was left with Guy Pearce saying ‘aw, gee mate’ unwisely and you can guess the rest. Thanks for the explanation.
Everything else went in with the usual amount of effort.
My only dislike was GREY MARE which you had no real chance of being able to actually work out from the clue if you were not aware of at least one of two fairly obscure references.
That’s why I don’t really like most cryptic definition clues. Too much “pressure” to tune in to someone else’s puns.
Thanks Enigmatist and mc_rapper67
Hard but doable. I laughed at the HO RATIO.
In the version I learnt at school, Old Uncle Tom was written COBBLEIGH rather than Cobley, though of course it makes no difference when you sing it. I had never come across the dominant wife meaning either.
I had Nanometer (thanks AI) so there was no chance of getting Grey Mare.
Loved the Ho-ratio.
Very enjoyable and a good workout for the grey mattre…
Thanks both.
Completed and parsed on the day but with a sense of relief more than anything.
GREY MARE is one of those Enigmatist moments where not one iota of clue or definition triggered the even a fleeting recollection. We live and learn….via Chrome in this case.
Monochrome nags aside, AIRE was the one that baffled me most.
Thanks mc_rapper67
Funny, GREY MARE went in early for me. Possibly because I was reminded of Widdecombe Fair at a folk festival last week. I did have to check the dominant wife meaning though.
Thanks for completing my 3 non-parses. I didn’t know ZO so couldn’t make a sensible parse but, of course, it had to be ZOROASTRIANISM. PRO RATA was obviously correct but I failed to grasp rat=singer. And I knew it was tan in CAPSTAN but failed to see the CAPS makes larger on the screen
I almost had ACRE for 26A (AC current, runs and centre of Leeds giving me an area) before remembering the river AIRE
I only had just over half in until I woke at 6:30 yesterday morning with COUNTRY COUSIN suddenly springing into my thoughts. So pleased to worry the rest our in the nick of time. A struggle but a good challenge.
Very tough. Challenging rather than enjoyable, but none the worse for that. I ploughed through it but couldn’t parse at least 8 of the answers. Too much bung and hope and not enough pdm.
Nho TSAMBA, AIRE (I had the river Aare which half works) NET-VEINED or GREY MARE in its meaning as dominant wife. Loi was GREY MARE after a delayed pdm – oh THAT Mr Pearce.
Liked TIFFANY, PLAYBOY and FACE PACK as they were clever and not too hard.
Thanks to Enigmatist and to mc_rapper67 for the explanations.
I did manage to complete this last Saturday morning but there were plenty that went unparsed and a fair degree of turning to solving tools but, for this solver, anything goes when solving an Enigmatist. Very hard work. I think LARGO, GENIUS and HORATIO are my faves from the ones I understood. Another who’s never heard of a GREY MARE in the second context in which it’s used here.
Thanks both
My first failed to complete for years but still found plenty to enjoy especially HORATIO, CORGI and PLAYBOY. I was surprised to fill in the 14 letter 3d and 9d quite early on. Didn’t manage SCAPEL – for which I have no excuse – and TSAMBA – the obscurity of which allows a wry smile and I’ve learnt something. Thanks Enigmatist for the tussle and bloggers for eventual clarity.
I had COUNT IN to acquire as in the member of a group, e.g. we can count in John. Then railway (RY) company (CO) and US in that.
I didn’t find filling the grid as hard as some E puzzles, but had to return for quite a few parsings.
Cheers all.
Too difficult for me. I don’t know that Mr Pearce, assumed Stuart or Guy.
I didn’t like CORGI. I’m probably being picky but “Cor!” = “Wow!” and “Brother!” = “Damn!” (or thereabouts).
I agree with Judge (#4) that “Thou” isn’t a formal way of saying “You”. It’s an old-fashioned form, but it’s the the opposite of formal – it’s the equivalent of the French “Tu” or German “Du”, that you use informally with friends, or children.
GREY MARE defeated me, because I hadn’t come across the “dominant partner” meaning; but I really should’ve got the Widdecombe Fair reference. When a clue looks complicated, I tend to break the clue down into words and smaller units; whereas that required consideration of the first ten words as one definition. I got it with a bit of help from the “Check Word” function on The Guardian website just now – if you put in a wrong answer, it tells you which letters are right ! So I got it, eventually, from _R_Y MA_E. A good clue which outwitted me.
Pretty happy with that for an Enigmatist. Had a part-parsed MIDI-SHIRT despite knowing of the right answer, d’oh; and having filled in the rest of the grid by Sunday, I never would have got GREY MARE in a month of them. I knew neither meaning. Maybe the song has fallen out of use somewhat…
Thanks to Enigmatist, who is in his proper place in the Prize slot; and to MC for blogging.
Well I did finish it, with a good deal of artificial aids, but also a lot of guessing.
CAPSTAN makes very little sense. Putting something in upper case doesn’t make it bigger on most screens.
THOU is historically (e.g. Shakespeare or the King James Bible) the informal second person singular, and ‘you’ the formal equivalent, though in modern usage they have switched places.
Also, HO RATIO was excellent; and I always love a cricket-themed clue.
Thanks for the blog !
Failed on GREY MARE, being unfamiliar with both of the thoroughly British cultural references involved. I’m with gwd80 @25 on my opinion of that one, in other words. So I’ll chalk this one up as having completed those parts of it that were possible for me to complete.
I had a different ‘film’ for 2d, with the L having ‘topped’ (chopped the head off) FARGO.
I failed on two, with STAMBA at 20d making SCALPEL unsolvable – never thought of reversing the first two letters!
My great-grandmother had a framed illustration of Uncle Tom Cobbleigh on her sitting room wall, so I absorbed the poem at a very early age but still didn’t spot GREY MARE until I had all the crossers. 🙄
I still had a dozen unsolved this morning, so I was very pleased to get as close as I did in the end.
Thanks to Enigmatist and mc_rapper67.
I had thou art as the formal version of you are. And couldn’t get the anagram…
Likewise, were returned is not “are back”. Different tense for starters and were returned does not mean they are still, in the present, back.
The grey mare should always have comment 42 and a bright yellow square .
It does really mean dominant , just more capable .
DGC@41 “The knives that went missing from the cutlery drawer were returned/are back” seems to work. If they go missing again, that’s another matter, but for now they are back.
sheffield hatter @40 Well done! I didn’t think of FARGO, but that totally works. Yet another great movie! I wonder which the setter had in mind?
Agree with Dr.WhatsOn@13’s views about the possible &lit candidates suggested by the blogger.
CAPSTAN
a minor point:
The def (turner) is not underlined in the blog.
My faves: SNOG, COUNTRY COUSIN, BAREBACK RIDER, AIRE, HORATIO, GENIUS,
CAPSTAN and BIDET.
Thanks E and MC.
Thanks for the blog, mc_rapper67, and thanks for agreeing to cover for me in blogging today’s Prize. I’m currently airside at Heathrow T2 and hope to be so busy in the next week in Vancouver that I won’t have any time for puzzles!
[bridgesong @46
I’ve just read a book in which Granville Island and Lynn Canyon were recommended places to visit in Vancouver. Are they on your itinerary?]
I think that “thou art” is grammatically formal for the socially informal.
As I would.
Chuffed to bits to finish an Enigmatist puzzle for the first time. That is all.
I am the opposite of the blogger. I finallly stopped being intimidated by Enigmatist and his pseudonyms and have been successful or one or two out on his last few offerings.
This beat me though. I can see a few answers I had were right even if completely unable to parse so did better than I thought.
Had a good read of the blog, well done for deciphering it all.
Thanks Enigmatist and MC
Annoyed that I didn’t remember Tom Pearce’s GREY MARE (‘er took sick and ‘er died…) but I have never met the other definition of that term. That was the only one that remained unsolved, though several remained unparsed. I liked the HO RATIO but a lot of the others were just very heavy going.
(I am determined not to keep a Do Not Attempt list, but where Enigmatist is concerned I am very tempted).
Very tough, this. Took me ages to parse PRO RATA & to guess GREY MARE, confirming with Google. But at least there were a few more straightforward clues to get us going.
gladys@51
As usual my opinion of a puzzle is similar to yours. To use one of your earlier expressions there were too many “well I suppose so” clues, as is often the case with Enigmatist. I too liked HO RATIO.
I did remember Widdecombe Fair but the other definition appears to be very obscure. The OED quotes a Dictionary of Slang in 1870.
Similarly UPBRAIDER is one of those words only used by crossword setters out of desperation.
Thanks to Enigmatist and mc_rapper67.
Thanks for all the comments and feedback so far – much appreciated as usual…and thanks to all those who have come back with responses and explanations to queries/quibbles in my absence – the golf (from me) was fairly average, but the weather, the company and the banter was very enjoyable…
Far too many comments to reply to all individually, but the general feel is that this was a tough one – some hardened same-day Enigmatist solvers; some gracious week-long DNFers willing to come on and share their near (or far) misses; and many in-betweeners as well.
Several variations on parsings of 14A, but the gist is that Amtrack is a RY CO (railway company) rather than just a RY – thanks to all who chipped in there.
GREY MARE seemed to be the most problematic, and the HO-RATIO probably the most enjoyed.
I have underlined ‘turner’ as definition for CAPSTAN – good spot KVa at #45
And I am more than happy with a ‘definite “maybe”‘ from Dr. WhatsOn at #13 for my attempts to identify the &lits…!
As Bridgesong mentioned at #46, I will also be covering this week’s Saturday puzzle – bonnes voyages to him – but please no comments on that puzzle here as it is still ‘live’…
I’m with gladys@51. Too hard for me. The humour of CORGI, TIFFANY and HORATIO kept me trying for most of the week. But I still had barely half done … even with PRO RATA and COUNTRY COUSIN pencilled in but unparsed.
As a hydrologist born in LEEDS I tried rather hard at 26a but never quite thought of AIRE. A really fine clue: just too hard for me.
GREY MARE ditto. I knew the song well but not the dominant partner meaning. Our version of the Old Maid card game was called Grey Mare. A regional variant it seems. So Grey Mare means both the capable woman in a marriage and one left on the shelf?
Many thanks, Enigmatist and mc_rapper67.