i Cryptic Crossword 4127 Tees
April 29, 2024
Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳⏳
Most of this very enjoyable puzzle was solved very readily, but there were a few places where I got a bit stuck, and so I ended up with a ⏳⏳⏳ solving time, rather than the just less than ⏳⏳ I seemed to be heading for. Perhaps I’m just not on form, and perhaps you will have done better.
One clue which caused a bit of a frown to appear was the old-school sort. The answer seemed pretty clear from the definition and the crossing M and A (in my solve). However, I did think that having both the Scots chimney and the collection of anecdotes in the same clue seemed a little iffy. I suppose both words are not uncommon in crosswordland, but are very rare in ordinary speech (although I can’t say I’m all that familiar with Scots as she is spoken). This is, however, a minor criticism, in a satisfying puzzle. One or two other words were also rare ones, like the shield and, crossing with it, with the lights out. Whether the steak is rare I will leave others to judge (🙂). I did wonder whether Our Younger Solver will have got the reference to Billy Bunter, or heard of the dessert, which I don’t think I have seen in decades, but which was the centrepiece of celebration teas in my childhood, usually formed in the shape of a rabbit, nestling in grass made from chopped-up green jelly. They were simpler times…
I liked the one less than flexible and the advancing years, however, my Clue of the Day is 6d, which is simple, but with such a well-written surface reading: “Italian agreement reversed by the French -in Ireland? (4)”.
Here’s the link for the answers and explanations: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/05/20/independent-10484-tees/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
Nice mix of easy and not-so-easy, but all eventually doable. ⏳⏳⏳
A good challenge where the SE corner pushed me up to two ETs. A disturbingly slow start until CELLO got me going. I misparsed 1d, thinking POLE was STICK, and have come across enough LUMs in crosswords to solve 8d and will try to remember ANA. I left any attempt on 22d until LOI as my knowledge of rock bands of any colour is sparse, but had a PDM on realising that this was a misdirection (like the Bunter reference I had noticed), so concluded with the Black rock.
Thoughts of the “Younger Solver” feminded me that I have always imagined Tees to be a younger setter, but the references you quote mean that I should perhaps think again.
As per the above really – a little chewy in places, needing about two of those egg-timers. STALL gave me the most problems at the close.
Just into ⏳⏳⏳ here. Similar experience to Denzo with 1d where I couldn’t get STICK out of my mind for ‘pole’, and also 8d where LUM is sufficiently familiar these days not to cause problems, but ANA was new to me, as was DARKLING. BUCKLER was vaguely familiar.
I liked the misdirection in the clue for TOURNEDOS where I spent too long trying to unravel an anagram of ‘steak done’.
“Sword and buckler by my side….” is a line from a patriotic operetta by Edward German, and we haven’t heard of him either, have we?
On the contrary, I once performed Germans’ “Dan Cupid hath a garden where women are the flowers” in a public concert. Probably not allowed these days!
He was in a recent puzzle which you might have missed, and most of us had to look him up.
Agreement with the consensus today. Yet another fine puzzle from Tees. ALUMNA would have confounded me no end a few years ago, but LUM and ANA are both regular imports from the barred world so the answer was solvable from wordplay today.
Another pleasant puzzle from Tees – all solved without help, although there were a few delayed PDMs.
An enjoyable solve but I thought 9 was a weak clue with (to me) a new word for an answer and needing to guess some random French place. 22a also weak: loose cluing IMO where you need to guess the answer. But praise elsewhere for the clever charades at 22d and my LOI 17.