Fabulous fun.
Clear and entertaining, but still tricky enough to get your teeth into. Thanks to Goliath!
ACROSS
1. Attach programme finale (6)
APPEND
APP (programme) + END (finale)
4. Last cut of lamb greased and cooked (6)
BOILED
[lam]B (last cut of) + OILED (greased)
8. At least three Englishmen showing some balls (7)
POMPOMS
Cryptic definition
If ‘POM’ is an Englishman (post-war slang), then we have the first POM (singular) plus POMS (plural, so minimum two), meaning there are at least three Englishmen in ‘POMPOMS’.
9. Thrilled with fish biting it on the way back (7)
ATINGLE
ANGLE (fish) biting IT< (<on the way back)
11. Celebrity’s at home with illness getting most recent treatment (10)
INFLUENCER
IN (at home) with FLU (illness) getting RECEN[t]* (most, *treatment)
12. Encourages chickens, potentially (4)
EGGS
13. Not the best-sounding sausage (5)
WURST
“WORST” (not the best, “sounding”)
14. One losing faith in a job had some food (8)
APOSTATE
A + POST (job) + ATE (had some food)
16. Underground pet gets a groomer (8)
CATACOMB
CAT (pet) gets A + COMB (groomer)
18. Frizzled friend left kitchen at last (5)
FRIED
FRIE[n]D (left [kitche]N (at last))
20. Sort of family feud’s ending (4)
KIND
KIN (family) + [feu]D (‘s ending)
21. Melted cheese for starters: Swiss, Parmesan, Leicester and Stilton left us lost for words (10)
SPEECHLESS
(CHEESE + S[wiss] P[armesan] L[eicester] S[tilton] (for starters))* (*melted)
23. Source of infection, no matter which country (7)
GERMANY
GERM (source of infection) + ANY (no matter which)
24. Illegally hunted dolphins perhaps hurt inside (7)
POACHED
POD (dolphins perhaps), ACHE (hurt) inside
25. Varied way to preserve tomatoes? (6)
SUNDRY
26. Funny story about beginning to eat seafood (6)
OYSTER
STORY* (*funny) about E[at] (beginning to)
DOWN
1. Article about my food squirrelled away (5)
ACORN
AN (article) about COR (my)
2. They say you hid in tree? That’s fashionable (7)
POPULAR
“U” (you, “they say”) hid in POPLAR (tree)
3. Popular place for a poo (6,3)
NUMBER TWO
5. Riverside dweller depicted in pottery (5)
OTTER
[p]OTTER[y] (depicted in)
6. Florentine not for becoming soft (7)
LENIENT
[f]L[or]ENTINE* (not FOR, *becoming)
7. Very pleased with shop, the extremely good layout (9)
DELIGHTED
DELI (shop) + (THE G[oo]D (extremely))* (*layout)
10. Mixed up, some cheerleaders went on and on (9)
SCRAMBLED
S[ome] C[heer] (leaders) + RAMBLED (went on and on)
13. Exhaustion raises new problem (9)
WEARINESS
15. Look up plant that’s smelly (9)
OLFACTORY
LO< (look, <up) + FACTORY (plant)
17. Corporation changing leaders, bad sign (7)
ABDOMEN
[b]AD (changing leaders) + OMEN (sign)
19. Setter is going to one city, briefly breaking the law (7)
ILLICIT
I’LL (setter is going to) + I (one) + CIT[y] (briefly)
21. Sailors out navigating avoid rocks primarily using this (5)
SONAR
S[ailors] O[ut] N[avigating] A[void] R[ocks] (primarily) – semi &lit
22. Cattle guide (5)
STEER
Thanks for the blog , usual excellence in the clues , neat bit of fission for SCRAMBLED , a nice idea for SUNDRY . WURST would cause a riot in the Guardian blogs .
Perhaps a minor change for ABDOMEN – in bad the BA becomes AB .
You summed up my thoughts nicely, Oriel. That was a wonderful puzzle. Challenging in places, but with variety and superb surfaces throughout. I ticked so many clues and POMPOMS was my favourite
I could not parse NUMBER TWO and I am afraid I still do not understand why it means popular place. Would someone please explain?
Thanks Goliath and Oriel
Martyn@2 perhaps it meant your comment in this blog , got to go , swim time .
Martyn@2
2d is POPULAR.
Good fun. I do enjoy puzzles that are well clued and don’t require frequent diving into a dictionary or Wikipedia.
Did no-one else find it odd that the answer to 2dn was the first word in 3dn? I know the clues are related by the cryptic part of 3dn but I would’ve expected a synonym at least, rather than the whole answer. It made me want to rethink my answer to 2dn.
Otherwise, excellent cluing, some write-ins, some chewy. Thanks Goliath and Oriel.
Unusually for Goliath there is a bonus: BOILED, FRIED, POACHED and SCRAMBLED EGGS.
And if you want to go down the path of groansome puns, there are also OYSTER EGGS.
JofFT@6
Perhaps you are not familiar with the infantile name for poo: number two? That is why the clue is a double definition.
Thanks Goliath for a great puzzle and Oriel for a clear blog that explained all.
Thank you, Simon S @7, for the icing and cherry on an excellent cake!
Thanks, too, of course, to Goliath and Oriel.
Simon S@7: There is also an EGG nina in Column 13. I did not get the “popular” part of 3D, but would like to think I would have figured it out if I had thought about it a while longer, given Goliath’s penchant for “meta” clues.
Comment #11
SM@8: No, I understood the clue perfectly, thank you. My point was that the answer to the previous clue was explicitly written as the first word of the next clue which I would say is a thing most setters avoid. Surely a synonym could’ve been used (especially given the simplicity of the definition part together with the letter count)?
Yes, Jack @6, I did but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. This was fun as Goliath’s puzzles always are.
I also liked the ‘eggs’ idea (prefer mine SCRAMBLED), along with POMPOMS, SUNDRY and LENIENT.
Re 13A, ha ha, Goliath, you said it, that homophone is not the best! As Bruno might say, it’s a ‘nicht nicht’.
Thanks to him and Oriel.
Very enjoyable if, perhaps, a little over easy. I think having a synonym for “popular” would have made the reference to 2 down too oblique.
I do not know if the missing comment 11 was my previous attempt, in which case apologies for duplication if that comment does appear at some time in the future.
13ac: The English pronunciation of wurst required to make this clue work is supported by all of Chambers 2016, Collins 2023, the Oxford Dictionary of English 2010, and the Shorter Oxford 2011.
3dn: I agree with Petert@14 (among others?). In my view, giving a definition for “Popular” here would make it a clue to a clue, and hence objectionable for analogous reasons to the indirect anagram.
(Possibly repeated) thanks to Goliath and Oriel
Thanks Goliath for the usual fun. This was a smooth solve for me. I enjoy surfaces that make sense and there were plenty of those. Favourites included EGGS, SUNDRY, OYSTER, ABDOMEN, and SONAR. My only issue was ‘problem’ as an anagrind in WEARINESS but that complaint is certainly not a new one. Thanks Oriel for the blog.
Good fun, though I missed the various EGGS and the link between 2d and 3d. I liked the ACORN squirrelled away (in my garden they squirrel away hazelnuts and a lot of them germinate: I’m always pulling out little hazel trees) and the ingenious POMPOMS.
Thanks for answering my question about 1d. The device is interesting and, happily, not likely to be repeated often.
Lovely stuff from my favourite setter, if slightly easier than usual.
I hope he doesn’t get oil and grease mixed up in real life! Quick way to ruin your bearings.
Thanks too to Oriel
Of course I@18 meant 3d (not 1d)
I too (buckle my shoe) didn’t catch the 3d connection to 2d, and just thought that if number one is very popular, NUMBER TWO would still be popular. The real parsing makes it my favourite clue. Among many other excellent clues, 8a POMPOMS also stood out.
Thanks Goliath and Oriel for the Wednesday wit and wisdom.