A Puzzle by Jaffa
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid
A bit of tricky Saturday lunchtime entertainment from Jaffa. I’ve written on my piece of paper “friendly until it wasn’t”!
Across
1a Prelate, presumably not Bath and Wells, on the board? (8,6)
STINKING BISHOP: A smelly prelate, rather than an actual one as, for example, the head of the diocese of Bath and Wells, found on a [cheese] board
10a Neither wingless drone can be recalled (3)
NOR: Hidden in reverse in the inside (wingless) letters of dRONe
11a Red Devils' quest for freedom (11)
MANUMISSION: An abbreviated form of the football club known as the Red Devils and a mission
12a Jack's article with newspaper is behind (5)
ABAFT: A sailor, an indefinite article and the informal way we refer to the ‘pink’ newspaper
13a Blindness resulting from vigorous daily sex? (8)
DYSLEXIA: An anagram (vigorous) of DAILY SEX
16a Origins of Stratford, on a rising river, in the Midlands (4)
SOAR: The ‘origins’ of Stratford On A Rising
17a Cheese sworn about in Wensleydale? (4)
EDAM: In Wensleydale or other parts of Yorkshire, this could be a form of swearing x xxx
19a Woods involved in row about golf (5)
TIGER: A row goes about the letter represented by Golf in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet
22a Explosive gladiator (5)
NITRO: A type of explosive or the name of one of TV’s Gladiators
23a Announce Fawlty Tower's location (4)
PISA: The location of a tower that is definitely faulty (which is a homophone - announce - of Fawlty)
24a See 8d
26a Gossip surrounding Sovereign's award is unimportant (2,6)
NO MATTER: Gossip ‘surrounding’ an abbreviated award given by the Sovereign
29a Talk about Billy losing his head (5)
UTTER: An informal name for a goat (Billy, an animal that buts its head) without its first letter
31a Reportedly dodgy loft conversion? A worry for disheartened Greek. (11)
PROBLEMATIC: A homophone (reportedly) of a dodgy loft – a worry and a Greek order without its middle letter
33a Army brother who had words for US barman George (3)
IRA: An abbreviated army or the brother of George Gershwin who wrote the music while the brother provided the words
34a Oxford exams with comfortable chairs for 60s day-trippers? (4,3,7)
MODS AND ROCKERS: Public examinations at Oxford University and some comfortable chairs
Down
2d Battleaxe man manipulated with great initial twirl (9)
TERMAGANT: An anagram (manipulated) of MAN and GREAT followed by the initial letter of Twirl
3d Parliamentarian investing in repeatedly abandoned industry is a fool (6)
NUMPTY: An abbreviated parliamentarian inserted into the even (repeatedly abandoned) letters of iNdUsTrY
4d Discarded but with top removed accommodated (5)
INNED: An informal way of saying discarded without the ‘top’ or first letter gives us an archaic verb meaning accommodated
5d Member initially grips a mashie-niblick (3)
GAM: A slang name for a leg, especially a female one (member) is found in the initial letters of Grips A Mashie-niblick
6d Investigates power grab by popular factions (8)
INSPECTS: Popular and some factions ‘grabbing’ the symbol for Power
7d Hawaii protects small island state in the Caribbean (5)
HAITI: The abbreviation for the State of Hawaii ‘protects’ a small island
8d/24a. Communicate electronically smell of Whiff Waff (4)
PING PONG: Communicate electronically and a horrible smell
9d Revolting peasants capture knight - and also a pawn (2,7)
EN PASSANT: An anagram (revolting) of PEASANTS captures the chess abbreviation for knight, to produce the taking of a pawn that has just moved two squares as if it had moved only one
14d Messi played in many such games (5)
SEMIS: An anagram (played) of MESSI
15d Scotsman under orders having a choice of name (9)
GREGORIAN: Two Scottish men’s names give us a monk (man under orders)
18d Regularly drank hard and keeled over in regimental headquarters (5)
DEPOT: A reversal (keeled over) of part of a verb meaning regularly drank hard
20d The girl so upset turns a Whiter Shade of Pale (9)
GHOSTLIER: An anagram (upset) of THE GIRL SO
21d Non-U pair, holding father, accept a DA compromise (3,1,4)
COP A PLEA: A pair without the letter U ‘holding ‘ an informal name for a father and an abbreviation for Accept
25d Bestow honour on said European - a 60s Soviet-bloc rebel (6)
DUBCEK: Bestow honour on and a homophone (said) of a European
27d Kosovo idyll conceals old empty elliptical space (5)
OVOID: Hidden in the first two words of the clue is a word made up from the abbreviation for Old and an adjective meaning empty
28d A trio working nine to five possibly (5)
RATIO: An anagram (working) of A TRIO
30d "I'm pink therefore I'm junk email!" (4)
SPAM: A type of pink luncheon meat or some junk email
32d Glam rockers with recorded interest in 19's podiatry (3)
MUD: Some glam rockers, one of their records was 19a and parts of the feet treated by a podiatrist
Very entertaining with a number of laughs – thanks Jaffa.
I needed to check the 22a gladiator and I don’t fully understand 30d.
I particularly liked 1a, 11a, 23a and 34a.
Caffeine, and a little e-help, required! Plus frequent use of the ‘Check’ button as (potential) answers were entered into the grid.
Smiles for 1a, 11a, 31a, 5d, 7d, 25d, and 32d.
Thanks for the challenge Jaffa and thanks in advance to CS/Stephen.
A pleasure from start to finish. A real Jaffa!
You had a different alias when you last commented in June 2019 which is why you went into moderation
Sorry. I’d forgotten my original alias.
Spent far too long trying to find a chess answer to 1a, but thought it clever once the penny dropped. Had a big Hmmm for 4d where I had to reveal a couple of letters and was still none the wiser. After some investigoogling found it described as an obsolete term. Had to drag 25d from the depths of memory and check the spelling. Very much liked 1a, 17a and 23a, but cotd goes to the dodgy loft conversion at 31a. Thanks to Jaffa for the entertainment and StephenL.
Jaffa has brought some much-needed fun back into my puzzle solving after some consecutive tough Toughies from the DT archive had dejected me somewhat. It was good to come up for air!
I did need to confirm a few things: the 11a ‘freedom’, ‘Oxford exams’, ‘Battleaxe’ and ‘Glam Rockers’. For me, the title of the 32d song was more memorable than the ‘Glam rockers’ themselves, but the track itself is not memorable enough to make it into my playlists! I was also interested to note that 4d could be used as a verb. The question marks on my printout are for the incidence of ‘not’ in 1a and the apparent lack of a definition in 31a? I’ll look forward to reading (I assume) Stephen’s comments on those tomorrow. Podium places went to 13, 23 and a tie between 12 and 26 for the Across clues; and 6, 28 and another tie, between 3 and 14, for the Down clues.
My thanks to Jaffa for restoring my enjoyment of crosswords. I do appreciate the challenge of the tougher puzzles, but preferably interspersed with some more accessible material
Thanks also, in advance, to StephenL.
Jaffa is a nationally-published setter so I’ll be providing the review
Sorry, CS – that’ll teach me for making assumptions! I’ll look forward to your thoughts tomorrow…
Thanks for the review, CS. My query about the use of ‘not’ in 1a was based on my thinking that ‘Bath and Wells’ was cockney rhyming slang for ‘smells’. Another incorrect assumption, it would appear…!
This was extremely quirky and a lot of fun although I did have a couple of hmms along the way.
– 17a doesn’t really work for me, but it raised a smile.
– 31a seems to have two doses of wordplay and no definition.
– I can’t work out the construction for 27d. It looks like wordplay (Kosovo idyll conceals) + wordplay (old empty) + definition (elliptical) + padding (space) but I am probably missing something.
– I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry about 30d.
I did have a lot of ticks, with 1a, 11a & 15d my podium selection.
Many thanks to Jaffa for the entertainment.
Thanks, Jaffa. That was very tough, but great fun.
There were many clues that could have appeared on my podium but I have chosen in no particular order:
the “Fawlty Tower” , “the unwashed prelate” and the “60s day trippers”.
Loads of laughs!!! Thanks again to Jaffa.
Found this tough in spots across the grid.
I liked 13a, 17a, 34a, 9d & 30d — with 34a the favourite
Thanks to Jaffa & StephenL
Found this tough in spots across the grid.
I liked 13a, 17a, 34a, 9d & 30d — with 34a the favourite
Thanks to Jaffa & CS/StephenL
Thank you for all of the comments. I’m generally feeling quite good about them and I’m glad I raised a few smiles. I’ll comment in more detail tomorrow when I’ll try and answer some of your queries and explain my warped logic 😂
We had to reveal letters in the SW to get 31a and 32d and few other parsings are not yet sorted, so a significant challenge for us. Plenty to enjoy and 1a, our favourite, set the standard.
Thanks Jaffa.
We also had to reveal some letters to finish the puzzle but we enjoyed the challenge. Thanks to Jaffa and CS. Favourites were 1a, 29a, 31a and 26d.
Once again thank you for all the comments. You are excellent and constructive critics. I think exactly half of the clues were mentioned in dispatches by you which I think is quite a good rate of return. I’ll try to answer some of your queries. A plea of Mea Culpa is probably appropriate for many of them.
30d This is a phrase I learned from a theologian friend at university (scarily nearly 60 years ago). I couldn’t resist using it but I should have realised that it probably wasn’t sufficient to stand alone.
4d Apologies for this ugly answer. I too was surprised to see that inn can be used as a verb and I looked, to no avail, for an alternative. Back in my Rookie Corner days Big Dave once told me “ sometimes you have to be prepared to kill your babies”. Looking at the three crossing clues I liked them too much to do this so inner survived.
31a Definitely guilty as charged. Two nice sets of wordplay (IMHO) but no definition…..oops!
27d More or less the same as for 31a. Definitely two sets of wordplay play but I would argue that elliptical space is the definition if ovoid is viewed as a noun. The BRB defines it, as a noun, as “an egg-shaped figure or body” and I was hoping this was sufficient. I must stop being overgenerous with wordplay…..
Many thanks as always to all of our “prefects” for keeping this wonderful site running and especially to CrypticSue for her help and this review.
Some pleasant moments, such as with 1ac and 16ac (the latter being fairly local to me) but overall I didn’t enjoy it much. Failed on the tower’s location and the DA compromise.
Thanks, though, to Jaffa and CS