Ok here we go. Great creativity as always and a pleasure to judge.
There were 17 setters with 36 clues. I counted 6 straight anagrams, 4 subtractive and 1 ghost, 15 constructions, 7 double definitions, 2 literary definitions (I’m counting
Mathprof’s entry even though he was pipped to the post by
Jimmy) and 1 Spoonerism.
All four of the main definitions were covered with 12 blunders, 11 pieces of underwear, 7 flowers, 5 loaves of bread and 1 florid letter (thanks to
Buddy!).
Good to see some new names - welcome
Heathcliff and
Sheep, not sure if this is the first time you’ve entered or if you are returning old hands, either way great to have you.
Some ingenious subtractive anagrams, I particularly liked
Fiery’s (sweets ballroom - was let)* and
Marty’s (Boris met older - tired)*
Mattrom’s "moo blurs" Spoonerism was a delight and Mattrom also takes top place for most indicated DBEs of plants with Cowslips and Acacias (I thought there would be more of those).
Some smart devices were
Jimmy’s “Nice view” (of the French sea),
Mattrom’s cleverly hidden anagrind in “short-changed” and
PaulH’s “deposit”.
Also some well disguised definitions stood out from
Paul (smalls),
Chris (boobs),
Aristo (beachwear),
Fiery (oops) and
Dorrien (red faces).
Tyke@24 entertained with a poem without a clue, and
Buddy's basketball based clue @28 would work brilliantly stateside I think.
Jimmy and
Mathprof win the prize for best (only) literary reference (see below).
PaulH’s entry @17 reminded me of one of the opening sequences to Fawlty Towers where the signage is altered to “Flowery .....” (I’ll leave you to Google that one ;-)
Which brings us to the subject of kangaroos, boomers, euros and old men. Who knew, well you all did, not me seemingly. Thanks for the education from
Faiton,
PeterM and
Mattrom.
So to the top three…
Bronze
PeterM@26
Old men wearing large, baggy knickers (8)
Had it not been for Peter’s clarification I would have read old men as baby boomers and still be satisfied, but the kangaroo definition is a treat.
Silver
Mattrom@29
Over-large jumpers worn down under? (8)
More kangaroos and trademark cleverness from Mattrom with a suitably antipodean surface read!
[Btw I’m also surprised Chambers doesn’t give L for large. It is given in both Collins and the ODE which seems perfectly fair. Not the OED however (though I did just discover from the OED that in a ship’s logbook L may stand for lightening… I digress)]
Gold
KT17@7
Crusty ones born in the sixties - around fifty (8)
I really liked this, a play on "crusty ones”, nice surface and even the maths works (give or take)! I dare say it’s also a fairly good description of a few forum members (I include myself!) ;-)
Congrats KT, here is your prize…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8W4LyIXINE
And inspired by Jimmy and Mathprof, here’s the bonus prize…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7FobPxu27M&t=29s