A fun challenge from JULIUS this Friday.
FF: 8 DD: 8
A couple of parsings could be improved upon.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CAGE |
Put in prison — about time! (4)
|
| C ( about ) AGE ( time ) | ||
| 3 | EPIC |
Impressive digital snap? (4)
|
| E ( electronic, digital ) PIC ( snap ) | ||
| 6/11 | POTTY MOUTH |
“Crazy Mike” — exposed husband who swears a lot (5-5)
|
| POTTY ( crazy ) M ( mike ) OUT ( exposed ) H ( husband ) | ||
| 10 | BRITANNIA |
Subject of proud song woman coined? (9)
|
| cryptic? | ||
| 12 | EVEREST |
Peak most demanding when taking southern face? (7)
|
| sEVEREST ( most demanding, without S – Southern, first letter ) | ||
| 13 | HEIGH HO |
Routine dry grass implement advertised on the radio (5-2)
|
| sounds like HAY ( grass ) HO ( sounds like HOE ) | ||
| 16 | BLOTTO |
Drunk left in bed, missing Mass (6)
|
| L ( left ) in BOTTOm ( bed, without M – mass ) | ||
| 18 | END |
Close game between seeded finalists (3)
|
| final letters in “..gamE betweeN seedeD..” | ||
| 21 | MAN |
Sultanate banishing old fellow (3)
|
| oMAN ( sultanate, without O – old ) | ||
| 22 | ELAPSE |
Glide past section of Silverstone (lap 7) (6)
|
| hidden in “..silverstonE LAP SEven ( 7 )..” | ||
| 23 | STEM |
Staunch second XI missing ace (4)
|
| S ( second ) TEaM ( XI, cricket team, without A – ace ) | ||
| 25 | LAYETTE |
Bet Julius, say, made unlimited togs for little ‘un (7)
|
| LAY ( bet ) sETTEr ( julius, say, unlimited i.e. without its end letters ) | ||
| 27 | DRAWN UP |
Composed principally daft, unrefined, repellent wordplay gag (5,2)
|
| D ( Daft, first letter ) RAW ( unrefined ) NUP ( reverse of PUN – wordplay gag ) | ||
| 29 | AIOLI |
Dressing slices of caribou loin (5)
|
| alternate letters of “..cArIbOu LoIn..” | ||
| 30 | GAME POINT |
Advantage in court? (4,5)
|
| cryptic def; tennis reference | ||
| 31 | ANTI-G |
Like special suit for flier — US soldier — retreating (4-1)
|
| cant make out this – solider is ANT, us soldier is GI which gets reversed so not sure what the parse is | ||
| 32 | TOYS |
Starts to take over young sister’s playthings (4)
|
| starting letters of “..Take Over Young Sister’s..” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CABLEGRAM |
Caught American gambler after decoding message (9)
|
| C ( caught ) A ( american ) [ GAMBLER ]* | ||
| 2 | GRIPE |
Grumble after travel bag tore at the back (5)
|
| GRIP ( travel bag ) E ( torE, last letter ) | ||
| 4 | PANATELLA |
Whiff infanta periodically got in her rice dish (9)
|
| NAT ( iNfAnTa, alternate letters of ) in PAELLA ( rice dish ) | ||
| 5/17 | CRASH TEST DUMMY |
My Dutch master’s crazy driving could be the end of him (5,4,5)
|
| [ MY DUTCH MASTER’S ]* | ||
| 6 | PUMP IRON |
Work out question persistently carried by press (4,4)
|
| PUMP ( question persistently ) IRON ( press ) | ||
| 7 | TOUCHIEST |
Feeling that is singular, tense, most sensitive? (9)
|
| TOUCH ( feeling ) IE ( that is ) S ( singular ) T ( tense ) | ||
| 8 | YAHOO |
Oik’s exclamation of joy (5)
|
| double def | ||
| 9 | WATER |
Conflict across both sides of the sea (5)
|
| WAR ( conflict ) around TE ( ThE, both sides of ) | ||
| 15 | NANNY GOAT |
Bother, annoy, nag, ultimately torment Billy’s mum (5,4)
|
| [ ANNOY NAG ]* T ( tormenT, last letter of ) | ||
| 19 | DAMP PATCH |
Rhondda MP Pat Chambers suppressing evidence of leak (4,5)
|
| hidden in “..rhonDA MP PAT CHambers..” | ||
| 20/14 | TEETHING RING |
Entire night disturbed, finding at last something to calm baby (8,4)
|
| [ ENTIRE NIGHT ]* G ( findinG, last letter ) | ||
| 24/33 | NAPPY RASH |
Impulsive after strong beer? It’s a wee problem (5,4)
|
| NAPPY ( strong beer ) RASH ( impulsive ) | ||
| 25 | LIANA |
Climber set up a fastening device (5)
|
| reverse of A NAIL ( fastening device ) | ||
| 26 | EIGHT |
Whiskey unloaded from power boat (5)
|
| wEIGHT ( power, without W – whiskey ) | ||
| 28 | NAIRA |
New revolutionary song ready for Nigeria (5)
|
| N ( new ) AIRA ( reverse of ARIA – song ) |
A baby shower-flavoured grid! I fairly rattle-d (ha ha) through this.
It was, as we’ve come to expect from Julius, a hoot. Among a lot of entertaining clues, my top selection was the droll and well hidden 19d.
Lovely.
Thanks Julius and Turbolegs.
BRITANNIA
Subject of proud song
Woman coined
I think DD
Thanks Julius and Turbolegs.
10 – cryptic with 3 defs – song, woman and coin
31- something missing?
KVa, I see we crossed. Or a double, as you say.
31 – “flier” is the ANT, not part of the definition.
BRITANNIA appeared on some versions of the pre-decimal penny, so “a woman coined”
Andrew@5
ANTI-G
Your parse must be right.
I was thinking about flier=ANT, but could not find any dictionary support.
What is the explanation?
I didn’t know what an oik was — British? Also that nappy was a strong beer. The flier/ant stumped me too. Boat/eight a bit of a stretch, I thought.
Good fun.
GDU @7,
If you refer to someone as an oik, you think that they behave in a rude or unacceptable way, especially in a way that you believe to be typical of a low social class.
[British, informal, disapproval], Collins online
I’m still troubled by ‘ant’ = ‘flier’
Flying ants, certainly, but surely ‘flier’ is need to define the anti-G suit of an aviator (Maverick). Is ‘special suit’ enough? Is there a second soldier missing?
GDU@7
EIGHT
This has the support of our revered C-boss.
An eight-oar boat.
ANT is a flier when it becomes an alate?
(agree with you Diane@8)
Thanks for the blog, dear Turbolegs, and thanks to those who have left a comment.
RE 31 ANTI-G…I’ve absolutely no idea what I’ve done there, it’s complete cobblers. I remember my test solver commenting on my original effort so I changed it but must have left something out. Very sorry. Must be the heat.
best wishes to all, Rob/Julius
This was fun – felt quite gentle, I think Julius is being kind to us today – although I didn’t understand the strong beer in 24d. 19d is a masterful embed and I enjoyed the penny-drop when getting 22a. Thank you Julius, and ty turbolegs for the blog.
(Forgive my asking here, but I’ve often wondered: what’s the meaning of the FF:8 DD:8 prefix?)
Thanks Julius and Turbolegs
24dn: Chambers 2016 p 1022 has nappy² n strong ale. I did not know this when solving, but the rest of the clue was clear enough that I was confident in taking it on trust.
FF = fun factor, DD = degree of difficulty. This is a system special to Turbolegs, and marks are out of 10.
Thanks Julius for a very satisfying crossword. Great clues as always with my favourites being EVEREST, CABLEGRAM, CRASH TEST DUMMY, WATER, TEETHING RING (COTD), and NAIRA (liked ‘ready’). I couldn’t fully parse BRITANNIA and ANTI-G. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
spent ages trying to figure out how LLAMA would fit in 25d 🙂
Apart from 31ac, where we thought ‘flier’ was doing double duty this was mostly straightforward although nothing particularly stood out.
Thanks, Julius and Turbolegs.
Andrew @5: Britannia also featured on the pre-2008 50p coin and more recently on £2 coins.