Many thanks for a rich crop of clues this week which have proved very hard to judge.
I really liked Chris’s attempted ‘flutterby’ Spoonerism, it’s such a shame it didn’t quite work, I’d like to think there’s a clue there somewhere.
Then we had Buddy’s libertarian “,” Comma and a plethora of other DBEs including Red Admiral, Large Copper, Vanessa, Monarch, Painted Lady, Peacock, Hairstreaks, Cleopatra, Marbled White, Aphrodite Fritillary, Adonis Blue, Gatekeeper and Lulworth Skipper.
I also enjoyed Paul’s anchor, Peterm’s Trump’s pants, Spike’s Greek mythology references and Fiery’s sitcom (which I remember well).
Of the anagrams I liked Fiery’s ’fuels bitter struggles’, Patrich’s ‘self-tribute’ and ‘brittle fuse’.
Thanks also to Patrich for the definition of ‘buttery’ which I don’t think I’ve seen before and was surprised to find it in Chambers quite so precisely.
I had a very long shortlist, so honourable mentions must go to:-
Patrich@29, Spike@31, Chris@34, Dorrien@42, Aristo@36 and Fiery@49.
But my top 3 were…
Mattrom@44’s succinct: Eaters of nectar, fruits and betel nuts (11)
Bbm@41’s cricketing: Cook opened, the Essex skipper a fine example where technique requires discipline (9)
(It didn’t escape me that Alistair Cook plays for Essex, though I’m not sure he captained them, but he did captain England which does makes him a skipper!).
And finally Buddy@37’s clever reverse subtractive anagram with ‘swim this’ doing some double duty…
Swim this to sea: I arrive at Statue of Liberty (9)
..the winner!
Congratulations Buddy, here are your prizes…
Science…
https://youtu.be/fDek6cYijxI
Nature…
https://youtu.be/AHroqZ0FB-w
Song…
https://youtu.be/BR6pYICqZT0
Cheers all!