Bluebird has come round on my Saturday blogging day again and I know what that means:
There will be a well hidden theme …
… that I cannot spot, …
… not helped by being unsure if I managed to get the right answers in some cases: 11a, 2d and 5d.
So, straight in, here’s my usual ask for help with these and anything else I got wrong. And of course the theme I have undoubtedly missed.
I am continuing my current solving regime of attempting all the clues cold before entering them in the grid and using any crossers. For this puzzle I got 9 out of 29, and 4 of them had “?” against them as I had not fully parsed the wordplay. On that basis alone I thought this puzzle was pretty tough. There are 31 clues. I had purposely ignored the two clues that had numbers that were most likely references to other clues or their answers. At least, I didn’t bother to give them much thought.
Happily, one answer I did get on that first cold-solve pass was 18d which gave lots of first letters, some of which provided enough to get the answer. Then followed a slow plod through the grid generally working from bottom left, to bottom right, to top right and top left. The last couple of answers I got were 1d (cue large groans – how did I not see that earlier) and 13a (I had been thinking of a different synonym for drugs with an “F” in it). Before being left with those three I’m still not sure about: 11a, 2d and 5d.
If there is a theme, is it something to do with ancient Greece? We have Presephone and Odysseus, and Arms, and War, and Pandora could own one of 3d’s Boxes. I am clearly grasping at straws.
Favourite clue 21a BEDFELLOWS. I had solved 3d before I revisited it, and had most possible crossing letters but could still not see what was going on in the wordplay, misled by the extended definition. So the answer came from what could possibly fit those crossers. Normally I wouldn’t rate such a clue thinking that I shouldn’t have the “back into” the answer like that, but when I understood the def. and wordplay, and particularly the surface reading, it really tickled me
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | UPROOTS |
Troops in disarray after Ukraine’s leader pulls out completely (7)
|
| U[kraine], (TROOPS)* AInd: in disarray. First read and first solved. |
||
| 9 | INSTEAD |
Rather stained pants (7)
|
| (STAINED)* AInd: pants. | ||
| 11 | BAN |
Outlaw‘s backside shot in heist situation? (3)
|
| BAN[dit] Hang on, I realise now that I was thinking of “Outlaw” for the definition and also for the wordplay and haven’t accounted for “in heist situation?” Could the wordplay possibly be BAN[k robbery] (heist situation) ? Seems clumsy. Maybe I also have 2d wrong. Thanks KVa at #2 The wordplay is BAN[k] (heist situation, i.e. location of a heist) |
||
| 12 | EXTREMITIES |
Retired army engineers beside university wearing ties and tails? (11)
|
| EX (retired), then RE (army engineers) and MIT (university) inside (wearing) TIES | ||
| 13 | ROCK |
Crack habit fellow’s lost (4)
|
| [f]ROCK (habit, without its F[ellow]) For a while I pondered SHI[f]T but thought that might be frowned upon. |
||
| 15 | PERSEPHONE |
Mythical character with a strange, exhausted call (10)
|
| PER (with) S[trang]E PHONE (call) That Greek Goddess took a while to see Thanks to Doofs at #6 Wordplay should be PER (a) then the rest. |
||
| 18 | UNITE |
Heartless, ill-equipped English joiners do this (5)
|
| UN[f]IT (ill equipped, heartless), E[nglish] | ||
| 19 | MEN |
One ignored by unkind older boys (3)
|
| ME[a]N (unkind, without A (one)) | ||
| 20 | RATES |
Informers probed by the first of eight judges (5)
|
| E[ight] inside RATS (informers) | ||
| 21 | BEDFELLOWS |
3 containing nuts feed 50 people working alongside one another (10)
|
| BLOWS (3, answer to 3 is Boxes, as in hits) around (containing) (FEED)* AInd: nuts, making EDFE, and L (50) | ||
| 22 | ARMS |
American conglomerate transferring money for weapons (4)
|
| MARS (American conglomerate, Mars Company) with the M for Money shifted | ||
| 25 | EXPERIENCED |
Old plastic pierced the skin of nectarine and went through (11)
|
| EX (old) (PIERCED)* AInd: plastic, around N[ectarin]E | ||
| 27 | WAR |
The return of bloody conflict (3)
|
| RAW< (bloody, returned) | ||
| 28 | LEATHER |
Permit this girl to carry a whip (7)
|
| LET (permit) HER (this girl) around (to carry) A | ||
| 29 | EXPRESS |
Fast Show (7)
|
| Double Def. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | NUMBER |
Song that induces sleep (6)
|
| Double Def. That old chestnut | ||
| 2 | IRON |
Metal bird without wings attached (4)
|
| [h]IRON[delle] That’s the only bird I can think of with IRON but I’d expect the “wings” to be unattached at front and back to have the same number of letters Thanks to AJG at #5 Wordplay is [b]IR[d] (bird without wings), ON (attached) |
||
| 3 | BOXES |
Cricket equipment with bad smell relations rejected (5)
|
| BO (bad smell) SEX< (relations, rejected) | ||
| 4 | ISOTHERMAL |
Is a top from Lidl keeping cycling old lady at a constant temperature? (10)
|
| IS and A L[idl] around (keeping) MOTHER (old lady) “cycling” to make OTHERM | ||
| 5 | FIVE |
1 2 3 4 (4)
|
| I do not understand this but I cannot see what else it could be. I think it uses some or all of the answers to lights 1 2 3 4 : Number Iron Boxes Isothermal. Besides 1d being Number which I’m hoping functions as the definition, I’m lost. Very much last one solved. Thanks KVa at #1 Wordplay is FE (Iron, from 2) inside (boxes, from 3) IV (4, nothing to do with Isothermal) I’m glad the definition (number, from 1) was correct. And as PostMark at #9 notes, having FIVE as the answer to clue 5 with clue “1 2 3 4” is very nice |
||
| 6 | HELICOPTER |
Change the police force’s core mode of transport (10)
|
| (THE POLICE + [fo]R[ce])* AInd: change. | ||
| 7 | ODYSSEUS |
Yankee steamship features in poem with American protagonist (8)
|
| Y[ankee] SS (steamship) in ODE (poem) US (American) Protagonist of the current top film – which I heartily recommend. |
||
| 10 | SLIPPERS |
Shoes drinkers left inside (8)
|
| L[eft] inside SIPPERS (drinkers) | ||
| 14 | CHILDS PLAY |
A piece of cake that’s presented at kid’s party? (6,4)
|
| Double Def. | ||
| 16 | SANDWICHES |
Smooth, enchanting women wasting time making lunch at work? (10)
|
| SAND (smooth) WI[t]CHES (enchanting women, less T[ime]) | ||
| 17 | RESEARCH |
Review the latest part of The Archers – ‘rubbish’ (8)
|
| ([th]E ARCHERS)* AInd: rubbish. IMO The Archers is not rubbish. |
||
| 18 | UMBRELLA |
Cover of avant-garde album about river eels, oddly (8)
|
| (ALBUM)* AInd: avant-garde, about R[iver] E[e]L[s] | ||
| 23 | STRESS |
In theory, one should put this on the second lock (6)
|
| S[econd] TRESS (lock) Edit: Thanks to Hovis at #4 and KVa at #8 I have also underlined the in the clue as it definitely needs to be included in the definition which alludes to how the word theory is pronounced (though I suspect it may depend on your accent) |
||
| 24 | ADEPT |
Skilled acrobat’s beginning atop branch shortly (5)
|
| A[crobat] DEPT (branch, shortly) | ||
| 26 | EARS |
Lift base of seat in which hammers are found (4)
|
| ARSE (seat) with its E (its base) shifted (lift-ed) to the top | ||
| 27 | WEED |
Something pulled out and went (4)
|
| Double Def. “Wee’d” as in peeing, and gardening |
FIVE
iron=FE
FE boxes IV
BAN
I think ‘heist situation?’ is just BANk.
IRON
Could the bird be a girl (& a girl’s name in turn) like SIRONA (is it a girl’s name?)?
Or the name of a prison?
Loved 5d & 6d but the whole crossword was marvellously crafted. In STRESS, Bluebird is saying that the stress in THEORY is on THE, i.e. first 3 letters.
For 2d, I thought it was IR for bird without wings and ON for attached.
I’m with AJG@5 for IRON, and KVa for BAN. And a very clever solution to FIVE which went in unparsed.
I used ‘a’ for the PER in PERSEPHONE, not that it makes much difference. No nearer discerning a theme but a most enjoyable way to spend rather more minutes than I expected!
Thanks Bluebird and BM
I should add that I parsed 5d as KVa and had ‘a’ for PER as Doofs but failed to parse (the now obvious) IRON. Glad I wasn’t the only one to trip up on that.
Agree with Hovis@4
The definition should include ‘the’.
Can’t see anything that suggests it’s a semi &lit.
Particularly nice that FIVE also happens to be clue number 5. Some very clever and whimsical stuff in this Bluebird – very imaginative constructions and lovely surfaces to boot. Chapeau.
Thanks both
Thanks both, or should I say all, as I needed quite a bit of the above to fully explain the parsing. Agree this was highly inventive, with my only issue being blows for boxes in BEDFELLOWS – I get the ‘exchange blows’ element, but a straight substitution doesn’t quite work for me.
I’m puzzled (!) as to how you can be unsure whether an answer is correct when the answers can be checked online.
Thanks to all commenters for the wordplay corrections and clarifications which I have updated through the blog. I think we’ve got all of it nailed down now.
No-one spotted a theme it seems. I’m quite happy about that. Will Bluebird fly in and disabuse us?
Andrew at #11: “The answers can be checked online” What!?
I suppose that something that changed when the Saturday puzzle stopped being a prize puzzle and I never noticed. I never do the Indy online as it insists I turn off my Ad Blocker, which is fair enough, but I choose to leave it on and do the puzzle on paper.
Anyway. Good to know.
Using clue numbers to get five, in which iron boxes IV, is super neat. Probably not a new ploy but I don’t remember it. And putting the stress on the the in theory was pretty cool too. Great puzzle, ta both.
Thanks Bluebird for a very satisfying crossword. Aside from missing the very clever FIVE and the parsing of BEDFELLOWS and STRESS this slipped in very nicely. My top picks were UPROOTS, ARMS, WAR, MEN, and PERSEPHONE. I sensed a war theme but nothing definitive. Thanks beermagnet for the blog.
Probably spurious, but a few of the solutions could relate to MEN: Man of WAR, ARMS and the Man, IRON man, UMBRELLA man (hadn’t come across that one before). Not really enough for a theme.
Thanks to Bluebird and beermagnet
Thanks as ever to beermagnet for the blog and to all who have commented – it’s much appreciated.
I can confirm there is NOT an intended theme in this puzzle. There’s just the gimmick around 5down.
As for boxes/blows – Chambers has ‘(noun) a blow on the head or ear with the hand’ for one of the meanings of ‘box’. So naughty Victorian children may have received boxes/blows on the head.
I think everything else has been explained.