My main excuse is I hosted a birthday party at the house on Saturday for my daughter who's just turned 15. We had a Gamer's party. All the consoles were out - we collect them, and four hours of nostalgia and sugar hyped Dance Central, Mario Kart and Smash Bros battles ensued. It was great fun, but my ears are still ringing from the screams that emanate from 15 year olds who don't win.
Add to that a 10 year old with a chest infection who refused to be quarantined.
And now I'm sick, too.
excuses, excuses...
I think this DA was the hardest yet. Where I thought I'd made headway and was doing really well - I'd gotten five! I found out later I only had two. I kicked the cat and pouted for a few days. (I don't own a cat)
I'm not even sure I'll be able to parse most of these myself and will refer to the hints left on the D.A. Trippers. I had tried working through on my own and got quite frustrated, so the picture shows where I just rage quit and aggressively vacuumed or made cookies for the party. The only ones that are my genuine answers are 1A and 11A. Let's face these demons...
Not even much in the way of scribbles, as most of these I struggled to figure where to begin. Truly not a Newbie puzzle, but how are we to improve if we don't challenge ourselves?
1A - No fur seal clubbing (7)
I got this one right off, I was so chuffed and enthusiastic! Our definition is "No" and "clubbing is an anagrind. Club together "fur seal" to get REFUSAL.
5A - Sot, very wasted, waves off first drinks (7)
Our definition is "drinks" and I spent too much time trying to work "very" into the answer having assumed "wasted" was an anagrind. It's not. I can get RIPPLES for waves and we take the "first off" or -R but how that gets me to adding a T for TIPPLES I can't figure out. Beth at D.A.T. says "letter 1 of 5ac is Sot without ‘very’ followed by synonym for ‘waves’ minus first letter" I guess so=very, then.
9A, 22D - Articulate brat roughly coating extravagant pottery (5,5)
I thought I had this, even though I didn't have the parsing, I had an S in place from 1D (which was wrong) and figured "Articulate brat" was a SMART ALECK. Well, that was wrong, too. I'd worked the wrong end of the clue. The definition was "pottery" and there, too I'm struggling to see the parsing. "roughly" looks like an anagrind and somehow I wonder if I'm to mix up...*shrug* I don't know. The answer is TERRA COTTA.
10A - Darling town reported grit getting sharper (9)
The definition is "Darling town" and Darling is a county in New South Wales. The answer is WILCANNIA and that's as far as I can go here. I don't see which bit is "reported" which bit is "grit" or "getting sharper" which I'd have thought HONE but I am without a clue here.
11A - Smoker's request to step down? (6)
Hooray!!! I got this one! I. Got. This. One! Even sweeter it's a question mark clue and I suck at question mark clues. We want a phrase that's a "Smoker's request"and also a synonym for "to step down" ALIGHT. Woo-hoo!
12A - Hypnotist manipulated vegan's relief centre (8)
Definition is "Hypnotist" and "manipulated" is an anagrind so we take "vegan's" and add "relief 's centre" L mix them up for SVENGALI. Which promptly brought Derren Brown to mind.
14A - Snug resident maybe learns ideal kick-boxing, quietly (5,8)
Definition is "Snug resident" but the parsing is beyond me to get the answer APPLE ISLANDER. D.A.T. Gayle did hint that Snug was a town in Tasmania, but I've not lived here long enough to know that Tasmania was known as an apple island. Mix-up "learns ideal" and we get Earls Island which isn't in Tassie. A plea? A leap for kick-boxing?
17A, 4D - New pianist improving old broadcaster in 5-down policy (4-9,4)
If we look at 5D now, it's appears the answer is likely to be TELEVISION with the TLVS in place. Don't bother looking at 5D as it just refers back to this clue so the letters were meant to be obvious? "New pianist" I think hints to PIANIST being an anagram, and "improving" if we think of skills or knives gives us HONING. Now I've put those letters through two anagram solvers and got nothing! So unless I'd had some prior knowledge of ANTI-SIPHONING LAWS I'm stuffed. It's an Australian thing.
21A - Outrage at Rome, say, after Rome exiled author (8)
Definition is "Outrage" and I'd first googled "exiled authors" and thought Voltaire might work, he had the same letters, but wasn't exiled from Rome. I see I'm supposed to "say" something to get closer to the answer and often "author" can mean the compiler DA himself, but I'm not getting it. The answer is ATROCITY.
23A - Opt for the rough jobs in the Centre, stopping18-down? (2,4)
Looking at 18D's (go ahead and scroll down for that rant) answer is TORRENT. Now I ask - how does this help us? I don't know. Really, struggling. GO BUSH is the answer. I toyed with taking the middle letters from "rough jobs" but I was missing an H, or had a useless J or no S unless I took the S from "stopping"...move on. Just move on. (unless it's simply to avoid the rain, live in the desert?)
25A, 5D - Retailer is 5-1 repackaging 26-across alternative (4-2-3,10)
So looking at the answer for 26A, we want the alternative to that. Being staunchly anti-Murdoch this is easier than I'd previously thought. We don't have CABLE and only use FREE-TO-AIR. What I cannot see is how "Retailer is 5-1 repackaging" leads me to the answer. "retailer" and "repackaging" are definitely telling me something but the message is not getting through. "five to one" is not a direct anagram nor is "four ahead" "four up" "score"
26A - Old message guy (5)
Gosh I'm getting all wound up again. This one I figured when looking at it was going to be a synonym for wire, morse code or the guy who delivers a message, like a courier. The answer was CABLE, so how "guy" works in this I'm not sure. I mean sure, there's The Cable Guy, but I still feel like it's a stretch.
27A - Audited off-peak fertiliser ?(7)
Definition is "fertiliser" and I guess I need to "audit" a synonym for "off-peak" to get NITRATE. Oh! Could "audited" be hinting to a homophone? Could it be "night rate" as off-peak phone/energy charges? I'm going with that.
28A - Far from unkempt bed-changer? (7)
This is a double definition clue. My first thought was "Candy striper" for bed changer but putting that through thesauruses yielded little help. I wasn't too far off the mark, I was in hospitals where our answer is ORDERLY. Those question mark clues are such stumpers.
1D - Rogue TAB gets a redraft in racing tips (6)
Don't even try googling slang for "racing tips" you'll be swarmed with betting websites. The definition is "Rogue" and I'd initially put in RASCAL. It worked in two cross clues and seemed ok. The real answer had made use of the TAB which isn't there for nothing. The answer must make use of those letters, and the answer is RATBAG. Where RAG comes from? Well I'm not googling racing slang to find out. (Oh, ok I will)
2D - Heatproof protection behind amp plug-in mid-stage (7)
My mind went straight to "Fuse" as I've had to put fuses into many plugs to make them work, but that was in the UK. You don't have those types of plugs here in Oz. Definition is "Heatproof protection" and the answer is FORMICA. So I'm guessing the MIC is the "amp plug-in" but where does the FORA come from?
3D - Sport's foremost buff wishes for old coaches (9)
Uhm...where to begin? I'm not sure which end is the definition even though I know the answer. STANHOPES is the answer and I'm guessing "wishes" is HOPES but which is STAN? Are we talking sport coaches or buses?
4D - See 17 across
5D - See 25 across
6D - Mountain climbing in steppe (5)
With a short clue it's easier to figure out which end is the definition. But is this a double definition where both ends need to marry up? I'm not sure. I tried to work it that way and had pencilled in "Range" but the dictionary definition of "Steppe" is PLAIN. I can't see how "Mountain climbing in" also equals plain. OH! I see ALP climbing IN; is climbing a hint to reverseALP as it's a down clue? I think it is!
7D - Reflected light divided 11-across cord (7)
With all the cross letters in place this looks like it's LANYARD a synonym for "Cord" and it is. But I'm not seeing the wordplay "reflected light divided ALIGHT" to give me lanyard. But I did have this image in my head for the rest of the puzzle and a craving for Wish You Were Here. My favourite Floyd album.
8D - European tub backed up sewer (8)
"European" is our definition. SPA is a synonym for "tub" and a synonym for "sewer" is DRAIN but we're told that word is "backed up" or reversed to give SPANIARD.
13D - Maintain ill-repute stuffs head (10)
I can see "ill-repute" is telling me REPUTE is going to be scrambled and "stuffs" a synonym for "head" or PATE for P ERPETU ATE.
15D - Body builder naming coach aide after losing sides (5,4)
"losing sides" is the instruction we need to follow here. "Body builder" is our definition. if we remove the first and last letters of each word in "naming coach aide" we get AMINO ACID.
16D - Fuel road regulars, roaring, hurting? (8)
"Fuel" is our definition . I refer to Gayle's clue in D.A.T. "16D, got it. Hurting is ‘ in letters 1,2,7,8′ . Road regulars letters 3,4. Roaring letters 5,6" So a synonym for "hurting" is PAIN, which means "road regulars" are RA and "roaring" is FF? Because the answer is PARAFFIN but I'm not making the middle part connection. Although I do see the middle 6 letters spell AFFAIR, so I count that as me becoming more word aware.
18D - Australian river dwindled before August's ultimate flood (7)
Since we've had quite a few Australian geography clues I figured this was another "Australian river" and looked up a list and figured one of the seven letter rivers would eventually fit. But of course they did not!! That would be kind, that would be easy. There's no generosity here. No! Our definition is "flood" "dwindled" hints that a word is to be shortened and placed before...you know I just gave up. Sad but true. Frustration level reached its peak. Rage quit. Dummy spat. I can't fit AWE or AUG, I can't use the A from "Australian" I'm not searching through a hundred bloody rivers for the right letters to remove. A synonym for flood is TORRENT. Sometimes you just have to say fuck it and move on. the solution is always published later. I can wait.
19D - Kick digger (7)
I don't know I'd have gotten this, it's pretty Australian. I know a "digger" is how Aussies refer to their soldiers but "kick" eludes me in this double definition clue and I'm told by Rupert "19D is a double definition. A kick that bounces unpredictably, and a shallow digger, especially around roots. " the answer is GRUBBER. I'd never have made that connection.
20D - Gay place of worship sounded peculiar (6)
Definition is "Gay" and "place of worship" will refer to...well I'd say CE for church of England but we just want the CH here. Something that "sounded peculiar" would be EERIE but that has too many letters. but saying CH + EERIE you'll hear the synonym for gay, CHEERY.
22D - See 9-across
24D - Spectacular vote installed PM (4)
So tempting to make "vote" into an anagram for something, having four letters, being the last clue, wanting to be done. The definition is "PM" but not Prime Minister, but clock-wise, after noon. Australian slang for the afternoon is ARVO, and if you look, ARVO is "installed" in "spectaculAR VOte"
I know I've said it before, but I'll do better this Friday. I can only get better. I'll quote the recently departed Casey Kasem "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars." and if those stars happen to be a goal to improve one's cryptic solving skills then that's a good thing. Not dorky at all, right?
Now I have yesterday's LR to tackle, Girl Guides meeting to organise and run and oh did I mention we are all home sick? Great times. Don't let us cough on you.
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