Many thanks to all who entered this week’s challenge.
Good to see Spike and Jimmy back after short breaks and welcome to SimpleSimon joining us for the first time. With so many good clues forgive me if I don’t mention them all below…
SimpleSimon@5 was an ingenious construction, “box" for MI5 was new to me (from its wartime address PO Box 500, I’ve now learnt), though the definition eluded me.
Buddy@12 - I tried to find a way to equate “chief” with “the route of all” but I couldn’t quite get there, which is a great shame, so a case of “close but no cigar” I’m afraid Buddy.
The “she” in Fiery’s subtractive @24 brought to mind Atë, the Greek goddess of mischief who, it is said, “leads men down the path of ruin”.
I enjoyed the Amis reference in Culmer’s @25 and the ‘perhaps’ was a nice touch given it’s the son not the father we need to think of.
Also enjoyed discovering Fiery’s @35 “hie” as an archaic term for hasten. "Hie thee hither!". Perhaps “go quickly once” or something similar, would indicate the archaic use?
I liked Spike’s @36 use of “saucier” for chef; oddly I couldn’t find this in Chambers but it’s there in Collins and the ODE, so it’s fair, though I would have preferred an example indication, ‘saucier perhaps’ or some such thing.
With Mattrom’s #32 it was nice to see an ‘inclusion’ split a cross four words in the clue (there was one in the most recent Everyman which I commented on at the time). Perhaps ‘a’ is unnecessary? Just a thought.
Patrich@37, I agree capers is perfectly fine and there were more likes for Mattrom@4, Buddy@6, Mattrom@9, Tyke@11 (I’m surprised no one used “Tyke” as a definition by the way!), Paul@15, Jimmy’s chemistry lesson @34 and Mathprof@13 for use of multi-talented for ‘misc’ which was also new to me (I learnt a lot this week!).
Difficult, as always, to pick a winner, but runners-up are …
Culmer@25
Perhaps Martin shrugs off a head injury (8)
Fiery@24
If his scheme collapses she will leave destruction (8)
And the winner, Mattrom@32…
Embodied in Taoism is ch'i, effectively a free spirit (8)
Congratulations Mattrom, your prize is inspired by your clue…
Taoism and Ch’i (Qi)
https://youtu.be/bsJRGT3d0DU
And some others also inspired by clues…
Chris’s ‘mice and pranks’ reminded me of Tom and Jerry 🐱 🐭
https://youtu.be/ZcIQ7xkFxd8
“Buddy the Elf” (I have to admit I’ve never seen this film, sorry Buddy) 🧝♀️
https://youtu.be/a54yC1etmVc
And to round things off, some Louis Armstrong 🎺
https://youtu.be/mU7buBPRUko
Cheers all!