A Puzzle by Jaffa
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
Jaffa’s turn to provide our Saturday lunchtime entertainment
Across
1a Maybe Sponge Bob's aren't elasticated (9)
ABSORBENT: An anagram (elasticated) of BOBS ARENT
6a Partial hijab bothered religious leader (5)
ABBOT: Hidden (partial) in the second and third words of the clue
9a Revealing tip-off about name for Pope (7)
PONTIFF: An anagram (revealing) of TIP OFF into which is inserted (about) the abbreviation for Name
10a Family gathering around a church in the wee village (7)
CLACHAN: A family ‘gathering around’ A (from the clue and the abbreviation for church
11a European picked up with comrade will end conflict (5)
CZECH: A homophone (picked up) of a word that when added to a friend will end a chess match (conflict)
12a Employ some plan adopting new Piccadilly illuminations? (4,5)
NEON LAMPS: An anagram (employ) of SOME PLAN ‘adopting’ the abbreviation for New
14a Exercise required by writer after chocolate (7)
AEROBIC: A ball point pen (writer) goes after a chocolate bar
16a Fashionable Cornish resort, not unknown to inspire (6)
INHALE: The usual two-letter fashionable and a Cornish resort without the mathematical unknown in the middle
18a Norfolk resident formerly known as Prince (6)
ANDREW: A cryptic definition that probably needs no explanation from me
20a Girl in relaxing hydro clutching good books (7)
DOROTHY: An anagram (relaxing) of HYDRO ‘clutching’ the abbreviation for the books in the first half of the Bible
25a Wader changes colour when foraging (9)
TURNSTONE: Changes and a colour
26a English basket case arrested by policeman for arrears (5)
DEBTS: The abbreviation for English and the letters that ‘case’ BaskeT inserted into (arrested by) an abbreviated Detective Sergeant
27a Some northern seats for viewing Anfield defence? (3,4)
RED WALL: Some parliamentary seats in the North of England thought to be safe Labour (red) seats; a defensive formation by Liverpool Football Club who play at Anfield
29a Steel car - immaculate!! With hindsight, a discovered wonder (7)
MIRACLE: Hidden in reverse (with hindsight) in steEL CAR IMmaculate
30a Reptile multiplying by logs (5)
ADDER: Someone multiplying by using logarithms could be described as this
31a Avian flu sufferer once said to be at square leg? (5-4)
DICKY-BIRD: An informal way of referring to a sufferer of Avian flu gives us the name of much-loved cricket umpire
Down
1d Long haired South American returns a hat to Tinseltown (6)
ALPACA: A reversal (returns) of A (from the clue), a type of hat and an abbreviated American city where Tinseltown is located
2d Trustworthy from the time I arrived in Bow reportedly (7)
SINCERE: An adverb meaning from that time and how a Cockney would say where he was
3d Declared the walking dead of Scottish football (5,6)
RAITH ROVERS: A homophone (declared) of an apparition (the walking dead) and wanderers (the walking)
4d Oddball Lars deserting false friend upset old official (7)
EFFENDI: An anagram (upset) of FalsE FrIEND once you have removed LARS, ‘oddball’ telling you that they aren’t in that order
5d Unionists take issue with US city (6)
TUCSON: An abbreviated group of unions and a male issue
6d Norwegian group hidden by sea haar, express surprise (1-2)
A-HA: Hidden in se AHAar, the name of this Norwegian group could, without the hyphen, be an expression of surprise
7d 11's home maybe famed for irregular, emotional music? (7)
BOHEMIA: Where a type of rhapsody (irregular, emotional music) might have originated
8d Originally wooden, barrel needs good gun metal (8)
TUNGSTEN: An originally wooden large barrel, the abbreviation for Good and a type of gun
13d/28d Music of Irish character or City seat for French auditors? (11)
LONDONDERRY AIR: Character of a city and a homophone (for auditors) of the French word for bottom (seat)
15d Bounder who has plans for you? (3)
CAD: In capital letters, this bounder would be an abbreviation for Computer Aided Design
17d Bugs make return more distressing we hear (8)
BACTERIA: A homophone (we hear) of return and more distressing
19d Mocked jockey at Becher's Brook perhaps? (7)
DERIDED: A jockey at Becher’s Brook might have come off his horse or been xx-xxxxx
21d First performance for comedian, with no bad publicity, could be here (4-3)
OPEN-MIC: An anagram (could be) of the first letter of Performance and a COMEdIaN without the AD (no publicity – bad telling you that the letters aren’t in that order
22d Hailed twice, caught returning taxi for the barbie (7)
HIBACHI: Two lots of an informal word of greeting between which is inserted a reversed (returning) taxi
23d Member of Parliament found in the sack was dismissed (6)
BOWLED: A bird known collectively as a Parliament inserted (found) in a more formal word for the ‘sack’
24d When first cohort reaches objective move up (6)
ASCEND: A conjunction meaning when, the first letter of Cohort and an objective that has been reached
28d See 13
That was very enjoyable, no caffeine required, thanks Jaffa. I suppose there could be a debate over whether Tinseltown applies to all of the city required for 1d or one neighbourhood of said city; personally, I favour the latter.
Smiles for 1a, 14a, 30a, 8d, 19d, and 23d.
Thanks again and thanks in advance to CS(?).
Great fun with loads of laughs – thanks to Jaffa.
Both the wee village (10a) and the barbie (22d) were new words for me but sympathetically clued.
I don’t think that ‘first performance’ (21d) and ‘first cohort’ (24d) quite past muster as first letter selections.
I particularly liked 18a, 3d, 13/28d and 23d with my favourite being 31a.
Great fun with many smiles along the way. 10a is a new word for me and needed confirmation, but very fairly clued. Very much liked 7d, 22d and 25a, but cotd goes to 13d/28d. Thanks to Jaffa.
I did enjoy most of this entertaining puzzle, but I had a few concerns.
I seem to remember Prolixic frequently stressing in Rookie Corner that “first word” doesn’t mean W. It needs to be “first of word” or “word firstly”. In addition in 21d, the extra letter to be added to the fodder is split from the rest of the fodder by “for”. “With” would have worked here,
I am not keen on 8d with two definitions, one before and one after the wordplay, which I found confusing rather than helpful; and, although 15d is a clever DD, I don’t think it works using “who has” as surface padding linking the two.
I did have a lot more ticks that hmms, and 13/28 was my favourite by a short head from 31a.
Many thanks, Jaffa.
A fun puzzle from Jaffa, enjoyed in a cooling-down garden (at last!) before rain showers forced a retreat indoors.
Podium positions for me this week went to 1, 14 & 26 Across with 2, 3 & 23 Down. I have a couple of question marks for some apparently flamboyant wordplay in 25a & 7d and look forward to the review for clarification. My British GK was a mixed bag as I had to check the ‘Cornish resort’, but did know the ‘wee village’. Finally, ‘conflict’ seems a bit of a strong word in the context used for 11a – but then I think back to Spassky and Fischer in 1972!
Many thanks to Jaffa, and my thanks in advance to our reviewer.
With clues like 3d, 10a, 16a and 27a the setter was obviously not expecting to have solvers from our part of the world. However with some judicious Googling we did manage to get it all sorted. 17d was our favourite.
Thanks Jaffa.
Thank you, Jaffa. 10a was new to us, as was 22d. Favourites are 31a, 23d and 2d. We look forward to your next one. Thanks also to CS.
Thanks for the review, CS. Our much loved umpire was spelled ****ie and not ****y, so I would suggest that the ‘Avian flu sufferer’ is the definition for 31a. Not sure why our wader needs to be foraging but I suppose it helps with the surface reading.
Many thanks again to Jaffa!
…unless it is also intended to imply looking for “molluscs and crustaceans hiding under rocks” as described by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust
Also the BRB gives a definition of forage as “ To rummage about (for what one wants)” which seemed appropriate, but I guess there is an element of padding. Perhaps “ Foraging wader…etc” might have been better as I believe there are rather a lot of waders.
Thank you for all of the comments. I think 18/32 clues were mentioned in dispatches by you. I’m always (pleasantly) surprised about people’s different tastes in clues but I’m glad I managed to raise a few smiles. I too rather liked 31a and the 13/28d combination, the latter if only for the memory of Mr Snelling my French teacher, who bullied me, a very limited linguist, through my O-Level many, many years ago.
Talking of lessons learned I obviously didn’t learn the “ first” lesson from Prolixic, or perhaps I did but forgot it. I’m good at forgetting things nowadays. The list of Head Indicators in my 10 year old Chambers Crossword Dictionary contains “at first” and “first” but I presume, as in the rest of life, fashions and interpretations change….
I apologise to our antipodean friends if a few of the clues were too obscure. I agree the Cornish and Liverpool clues are pretty niche but surely Raith Rovers are to be famed along side Manchester United and City, Bayern Munich, PSG, Real Madrid etc…..😂
As for 10a I think I’ve taught a new word to quite a few people. It was unknown to me also before I came to live in Scotland in a wee village (hamlet?) called The Clachan of Campsie – a nice place to live and a nice word to clue.
Thank you as ever to the sterling efforts of Mr K, CS and all you others whose dedication makes all of this wonderful website possible.