NTSPP – 262

60 comments on “NTSPP – 262”

1. Thanks Gazza, interesting puzzle.

   The bottom half went in smoothly but I didn’t know 1A or 4D, so that slowed things up.

   I particularly liked 6, 22 & 26. Not sure I am parsing 3 & 27 correctly.

   1. In 3 Down, the “local line” is a line on the floor of a pub (local) that has a dartboard!

      In 27 Across the deinition is (the) runs and it’s an anagram.

      1. Thanks BD. 3d is very clever.
         I was typing my comment below when you were answering windsurfer.

      2. Thanks BD, 3D very good when you understand it! Unaccountably, I didn’t spot that 27A was an anagram. I got the runs (although not now ;) )

2. 3*/5*. A magnificent pangram, Gazza! Great surfaces with lots of laughs and peppered with innuendo. I particularly enjoyed 1a, 12a, 22a, 27a, 7d, 9d (last one in – my was that hard to spot the definition) and 18d. I had better qualify that by saying that 27a is not usually something to be enjoyed.

   Like windsurfer23, I haven’t been able to parse 3d fully, nor can I quite unravel 8d. I’ll wait with bated breath for the review.

   Well done and many thanks, Gazza.

   1. Re 8d, the may is another word for hawthorn.

      1. D’oh! Of course. Thanks pommers.

3. More innuendos than in a RayT – we like that!

   27a – Got in a bit of a mess on this one … how many ways are there to spell it?

4. Wonderful stuff Gazza. Cheeky and irreverant with not a Greek god or obscure ecclesiastical reference in sight! Great fun and a breath of fresh air.

5. I reckon this is your best-ever puzzle Gazza and it was hugely enjoyable, even if not over-taxing. Lots of great clues and I’m still grinning about 22a, 27a and 4d to name but a few :lol:

   Favourite has to be 7d for its wonderful surface :lol:

   Only hold up was caused by putting EXIST for 7d. Well, in my defence it is hidden (during) in sEX IS Tactless – it was a “bung it in and parse it later” job. (Note to self – if it ain’t parsed it don’t go in).

   Many thanks for the fun Gazza – can’t wait for your next one.

6. The clues make you laugh, the answers make you laugh, and it is solvable with a bit of thought…what’s not to like?

   Many thanks Gazza

7. Loved it, even though I could not parse 3D or 8D and I’m not sure of my rationale for 14A. Very pleased with myself for working out 1A, which is new to me, from the checking letters, but I had to Google to confirm. I have many checks by the ones I like best, but I think 1A, 2D and 18D come out tops. Super puzzle Gazza! You are far and away my favorite NTSPP setter because you always leave me laughing.

   1. Hi Chris – for 14a you’re looking for one of those answers that Kath reckons she can rarely find!

      1. Thanks! Completely missed that.

      2. Really sorry Jane and Expat Chris – this is becoming an epidemic . . . .

         1. . . . before long it will be pandemic – oh dear!!

            1. er . . . I found one that wasn’t an answer, Oh dear indeed

8. Loved every minute of it, despite having to guess at 1a and discovering that I’m still incapable of spelling 27a.

   Just one thing – I’ve got several alternatives for 9d but can’t justify any of them. Can someone help?

   So many potential favourites to choose from – maybe I’ll go for 2 or 7d.

   Many thanks, Gazza – you made my day.

   1. Gosh Jane, I think you’ll say ‘crikey’ when you see it!

   2. Re 9D, Here’s how I parsed it. The definition is My. Take a 2-letter abbreviation for a medical doctor and tuck it inside the first 4 letters of a 7-letter word for the kind of obsession that Richard the Lionheart had that came close to bankrupting the Treasury.

      1. Although Richard the Lionheart’s obsession is a very inventive interpretation, I suspect that Gazza intends us to remove the last letter from a shorter word meaning infatuation.

         1. I’m sure you’re right, and I’m sure someone will tell me why mine doesn’t work according to the rules, but I like it!

      2. 9d – I parsed it differently … I agree that the definition is “My” … but isn’t the baseless obsession CRUS(H) – it is St Valentines Day.

   3. Many thanks everyone, it was ‘obsession’ that was the sticking point in my parsing and now it seems I have two choices!

      You are quite probably correct RD – but I do rather like the Richard the Lionheart analogy.

9. Cannot wait for tomorrow to see what an idiot I am, 1ac has completely defeated me and as everyone else has solved it I will probably be spending the day in the cupboard under the stairs shame faced once again. In mitigation it is my first attempt at a NTSPP. Onwards and upwards to quote a well used phrase.

   1. Welcome to the NTSPP gang, Hilary – it’s always great fun to give these a go.
      I hadn’t heard of 1a before and guessed it from the checking letters. It’s a somewhat ‘cheeky’ expression coined to describe a spectator wriggling round in their seat during tense moments of a sports match.

      1. A feeling that is familiar to all Spurs supporters!

         1. Usually experienced from a hiding place behind the sofa in our house!

10. Thanks for Google suggestion – it worked perfectly, I now have a completed grid but only tomorrow will show whether or not I am right.

11. Great puzzle Gazza. Needed help above to understand 3d. Missed the pangram because I spelled 20a with an S, giving somewhat unsatisfactory answer, but I can’t parse it to spell it with a Z. Please help.

    1. It’s those pesky IVR codes again!

       1. Grrr. Thanks Jane. How did Saudi Arabia beat them to it?

          1. Maybe they paid for it in oil?

          2. It’s from Zuid Afrika – Dutch for South Africa. (Afrikaans is Suid Afrika)

             1. I knew there’d be a sensible answer – thanks, Pommers. Now that I’ve bothered to look, I also discover that Saudi Arabia uses KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) so I guess that leaves SA still up for grabs!

12. We just loved it. Smiled, chuckled and laughed out loud as we solved it with our Sunday morning breakfast. 1a set the mood, and the biggest guffaw was when we picked that 27a was an anagram with runs as the definition. Totally failed to pick the pangram. Excellent fun.
    Thanks Gazza.

    1. I was giggling so much I never thought to check for a pangram, not that I ever do. :grin:

13. Fantastic stuff, had me chuckling throughout. Best NTSPP I can recall, with the only problem being I had far too many favourite clues to mention. Thanks Gazza!

14. I loved most of it apart from 1a because I can’t do it – I’m really fed-up with myself about it as everyone else has got it . . .
    If I could get 1a it might help me with 5d which is one of the other two that I can’t do – 28a being the other one.
    I think this is one of those “how can you be so dim” and “oh dear” days.
    Brilliant puzzle, gazza – lots to laugh about which is sometimes lacking in other crosswords, and that’s all I’m saying!
    SO many good clues that I’m struggling to pick out any in particular, let alone just one favourite, so in no particular order 12a (because of the misdirection of combine) 22 and 27a and 2 and 7d.
    Thanks and congratulations to gazza, yet again.

    1. I think 5D may be the key to you getting 1A. For the first word of 5D, think of a 4-letter maritime navigational aid that also means ‘encourage’ and remove the ‘o’ (nothing to be lost).

       1. Be afraid, be very afraid – you might be the next one press ganged into the blogging team – look what happened to Kath

          1. Heaven forfend!

             1. If you want a try at it I’ll share a blog with you any time

                1. That is more than generous, and I am flattered by the offer. The fact of the matter is that I still have a demanding full-time job and could not guarantee availability. Add to that, having been an expat for so many years does take me out of the loop when it comes to being up on the more modern British expressions. However, I am usually a dab hand at most things US related! Call me in a couple of years!

                   1. You are in the diary

15. Hi Prolixic – re 10a, I had the same thoughts about THING doing a bit of double duty but I forgave Gazza because of the wonderful surface reading, especially as the beast in question is on the verge of being obliterated. It’s really an &lit.

16. Re 29A, I am ready to be corrected, but isn’t a deerstalker a cap rather than a hat?

    1. Correct, but it’s one for the pedant’s corner I think. Of course, one could argue that HAT is a generic word for headgear which would include the subspecies of cap so the clue is OK. Leave it to the pedants as far as I’m concerned – it worked for me and it raised a smile as well.

       1. Could I just peek out from pedants’ corner to add that combine harvesters don’t make hay? They combine the cutting, threshing and winnowing of cereals in one operation, hence the name. Hay is just mown grass cut with a giant lawnmower. I missed it first time through as the answer went in from def and word count.

17. Many thanks for the review, Prolixic – don’t think I’ll be trying out Bear’s quicksand trick any time soon!

    I’ve been looking into the origins of that line for darts players. Some of the suggested reasons behind it are hilarious – I particularly liked the one about the spitting distance!

18. In 3 down the OCHE (local line) needs to be cycled (loops) into E-OCH before the P (quiet) is inserted.

19. Many thanks for your review, Prolixic. For 3d the local line is not reversed, its final letter is looped round to go outside the abbreviation for quiet.

    1. Bother! BD beat me to it.

       1. 

20. Congratulations, Gazza – that was great fun to solve and the wordplay was excellent :-)

    I was hoping to see 1a appear in a puzzle at some stage and therefore it was extremely satisfying to witness its appearance !

    Well done indeed.

21. Feeling much better this morning!
    I don’t mind not getting an answer that I know I would never ever ever have got!
    I should have got 5d and husband eventually did 28a which is another one that I should have managed “all my own self”!
    Thanks to Prolixic and to Expat Chris for her hints.

    1. Delighted to hear that you are feeling better this morning. I have to admit that i found 1ac via Google and also needed this morning’s help to explain what I had put in for several other answers.

22. Thanks to all who commented and to Prolixic for the review.

    I wrote the ‘squeaky bum’ clue about 3 years ago but thought that many people wouldn’t recognise it so I didn’t use it. Then last October Elkamere (Toughie 1269) used the phrase as an answer:
    End-of-season nerves make my sub quite erratic (7,3,4)
    so I took that as a green light and stuck the clue in.
    As pommers suggested I intended 10a to be a semi-all-in-one with the whole clue being the definition.
    The main definition for 6d is meant to be ‘lot of underwear’ with ‘problems experienced by accident-prone drinker?’ being a second definition.

23. Thank you Gazza.
    That was great fun.
    Guessed 1a from the checking letters though. And a couple were more or less bunged in.
    I laughed at 27a. Not an easy word to put in a crossword.
    I’ll make it my favourite with 26d. So smooth.
    As for the blog. I liked the crusade from Expat Chris. I had the same problem with 14a. I thought it was Star Airways with one inside.
    For 29a I wrote cap also.
    Didn’t spot the pangram either because I had the same problem with 20a. I just knew it couldn’t be an ‘S’.
    I could carry on commenting all night about it but decided to spare you.
    Thanks.

24. Another hugely refreshing and enjoyable puzzle from Gazza with his signature mix of deceptive wordplay, cleverly concealed definitions and Sid James humour.

    I agree with Prolixic that 10a involves double duty (even if read as a semi-&lit), but BRB and Oxford Online both list “may” in lower case meaning hawthorn (8d). Re. 14a, you could argue that since the hidden solution spans two words, the plural “entertain” is fair. (I’m a bit less convinced about plural “hold” in 8d since it is only a one-word container.) I also agree with Prolixic (and disagree with Gazza!) that the definition in 6d has to be the second part, since that – and not “a lot of underwear” – is the sense of “many a slip” as an established phrase. By the same principle, I feel that 17d doesn’t clue the dictionary meaning of “fast track”, and is therefore not really legit. All of which nitpicking took nothing away from my appreciation of the puzzle.

    Missed the pangram (always do), and looked in vain for wordplay in 1a, not knowing that the phrase was associated with Ferguson. 4d was also new to me, or at least rang only a distant bell.

    Great fun and look forward to Gazza’s next one.

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