Merino Ergo Sum [June 27 - July 2]

FLEECE is a charade for FLEE/CE (run away from Church of England), i.e. become an apostate. Not sure that 'Go over to' would be a suitable anagram indicator, especially with the otiose 'haste'!

Saturday's puzzle was hard going and there were quite a few times when I didn't think I was going to make it, but I got there in the end. FLEECE was probably my third last. I hadn't even seen merino in there (which I agree, doesn't work) although it's so obvious now that you've pointed it out. FOXED and SAXIFRAGE were my last two.

Haven't made much headway yet with today's.

Point take, El Pez. FLEECE will always be the answer, but thought the MERINO scramble a fluke worth sharing.

As for 9040, I'm guess the same compiler, as it's equally evasive, and satisfying. Love the insidious familiarity of 6ac, and the story told by 28ac.

By way of encouragement, 9ac is new to me, at least with this definition.

My knock on it would be that the defn just doesn't give you enough. MERINO = coat?

Furthermore, 'go over to Rome' is almost technical jargon within the C of E. 'Swim the Tiber' is a synonymous example, and I really hope it never appears in an 8-letter clue, because the anagrind would be even more tempting!

RK - kudos. Saxifrage wasn't in my head, that's for sure.

On 9040, I'm doing well in the bottom half, but the top is still ahead of me. It does have some nice surfaces.

I'm having the opposite problem, Anthony. Top half is looking healthy. Bottom half, not so much.

And I didn't know that I knew SAXIFRAGE. When I got the X, it just leapt forward from some cobwebby, rarely-accessed part of my vocabulary.

While no botanist, I've always loved SAXIFRAGE, as the genus literally means rock-splitter: talk about flower power.

Insidious familiarity indeed...with everything else in place, 6ac still eluding me, with as far as I can tell four or five equally unlikely candidates waiting for the coin toss!

Really quite an excellent piece of work, this one. 1ac nearly drained me - great economical clue. 10ac tells a great story...so does 11ac, with even greater subterfuge. 23ac was a great idea, executed kindly. 27ac was sly, but again, fair - could have been made tougher easily enough. For a while there, I thought 5 down might well describe the whole puzzle (but then I corrected letters 2 and 3). And I wouldn't put it past this setter to have calculated where the line breaks would fall in the clues (if you know what I mean).

Yep, I've enjoyed having this beauty to spend a day off with :)

Now if I can only guess right...

6ac is a sublime double-meaning clue, Anthony. A suggestion of arrogance, perhaps? Good luck.

I'll take that clue, with thanks.

May I refer you all to page 7 of today's Australian. Just a couple of weeks too late...

41 looking tough.

Well spotted Anthony. You actually read the ads?

Survived yesterday. Enjoying today's so far.

No...but that one kind of leapt out at me and whacked me over the head with a blunt instrument.

A pox on RENMINBI, and all who spend it.

Oooh - I've finished the top half, and already there's some beauties. Pun intended.

Oucheroonie - how tough is 9041?

Barely had time to scratch my bonce today, with a school holly looming - but the broken 10 minutes I spent while cooking yielded a grand total of 3 words, and I reckon one is wrong.

May need to burn Garrett's band.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6....

It's a monster. I threw in the towel early today.

I don't think it's breaching the hinting rule to suggest that 21ac drew the most criticism for being the weakest of the clues, though the first couple of checkers should give it away.

Also, despite appearances, it ain't a pangram.

I'm not giving up on this one yet. Five to go: 13dn, 26ac, 27ac, 18ac and 7dn.

Thank God it's not a pangram. I've nowhere for the Q.

One left! (Although I have no idea what the assortment of letters I have arranged in 27ac are actually supposed to represent.)

Back on line now after 40th b'day celebrations... hard one today, but think I'm home. Liked 25A and 12A, 10A - smart clueing. Didn't quite get the Tamworth reference, always thought it was a rooster. Will hit Google...

Finito. That was a doozy.

Congratulations Bon. I assume the birthday was your own.

Yes, the bell tolls for me this time...

My eyes are on stalks - been puzzle-mongering at the screen all day - and just now reading about your horrors with 9041. You really know how to buoy a bloke's spirits -

Will have to dismantle this demon in the hay, if I can fight sleep, with the sad and sorry upshot to be disclosed on the morrow.

(Trying to get every duck aligned before a much needed furlough, this weekend for 10 days.)

Wow, Bon, you scored this for your birthday?! (Perhaps the gift is getting it out!) Congrats.

And RK - you got that far without 7dn! Golly.

10ac was timely for us, given recent "news" coverage of 'world's ugliest dog' contest. Hard to pick a COD, but I reckon the first four across clues would be enough to get a setter a slot at any publisher.

I consoled myself with a lovely lightweight Paul in the Guardian, by the way - all the fun, but much less of the usual labour!

Looking forward to a frothy Paul. He's the one solver to guarantee a smile.

As for 9041, I battled boldly last night, and cracked the lot bar one: 18ac.

HORN SEAL? CORN MEAL? NOON BELL?

In the end, bamboozled, I put in JOHN DELL and nearly fluked it. Back to zero.

JOHN PEEL was a good clue, but hard if you didn't know the radio presenter. Apparently my partner is a descendant of the guy who wrote the tune for the folk song - a John Woodcock Graves who lived in Tasmania.

I was astounded to see I had yesterday's all correct. Where does the SC come from in SCRUFF?

SCILICET [SC] adverb to wit; that is to say; namely. [Latin, from scīre licet it is permitted to know]

Helps when you have heritage on your side. Well done, RK - that's a mighty effort.

Thanks DA. I should brush up on my Latin. Most of what I know either comes from Year 7 Latin Roots or The West Wing.

I don't think you'll need _Latin_ today, RK. Though if the cage bird turns up, it might come in handy...

Nice to get back to a slightly less demanding standard! Wasn't familiar with 12ac in this sense, and hadn't heard of 17ac, which I suspect is trying too hard to be clever. Took a lot longer than it should have to get 24ac, largely because of the word 'powerful'!

But my biggest holdup was having a completely different answer for 2dn than the setter intended. I maintain mine showed more flair ;-)

14ac probably my COD, though 7dn was a pretty good effort to hide one letter!

Well solved, Anthony. Again have yet to wrangle with the puzzle, but sounds like it's a cruisy kitchen diversion as the pasta softens.

So anyway, getting back to JOHN PEEL, why the hell was he hunting for Auntie's phonogram anyway? I presume Auntie is the Beeb, but then -

And is there truly a cryptic element? The more I consider the clue, the more I begrudge it, since there seems no wordplay traction for a solver beyond the cultural reference.

It's a double definition. There are two John Peels: John Peel, the hunter, is the subject of a folk song - D'ye ken John Peel - and (the late) John Peel, radio presenter for the Beeb.

9042 brought some welcome respite after the crackers of late. There were very few sneaky definitions, so it could almost be solved like a quick. I agree with Anthony about 12ac and 17ac though. Both definitions get a huh from me.

No real faves. I liked the surface of 9ac, even though it carried no deception. And it was nice to see the ubiquitous 23ac as an answer for a change rather than part of a clue.

I agree with all you guys have said. Not a big trouble, even if 20A seemed arse-about. I liked 3D best, took me a little while to remember my Yr 9 maths.

And I blew the John Peel yesterday, plumping for horn bell instead, which I reckon might have caught a few. Yes, a double cultural whammy there.

Found this tricky, and unfun. But muddled through over the broccolini...

12AC is a phrase to embody appetite, as well as spiritual hunger.

While 17AC is the old work trap again, being a work of theatre.

I'm heading up to Wang tomorrow - overnighting for a writers' gig - then back briefly before a 10-day break. But you'll find plenty of pre-loaded posts to keep the cogs turning, and mouse loyalty staunch. Will post to that effect manana, before the juggernaut chugs into gear.

Thanks for the explanations, DA. I can sleep easy now. Enjoy your road trip.

I'm just delving into a musical Brendan before lights out.

...and here I was to tell you about it, RK! Not too taxing, though a couple of them left me unsure on the wordplay.

I crowed too early. Two wrong, both by one unch letter, both defensible choices. My luck runs cold. At least I avoided the third obvious unch glitch.

For the record, I had TROOP(er)S for 2dn. Quite clever, I thought - a sleight that was similar to one I tried recently:

Voicing opinion reveals OK Corral itself (9)

A wet pinata with tungsten carbide reinforcement today. Over half the clues went straight in at first glance, and before long I had four left. And they stayed left, never coming right. A cruel day!

I see what you mean, Anthony. I now have four left. If they're a different four to yours, maybe there's hope I can still crack this one.
6ac, 8dn, 16dn and 19ac?

8dn is the softest target of those, and then 6ac has to be what it has to be, no matter how odd it seems.

16dn can be obtained via wordplay - you've got one more letter than me, and it could be useful in that. 19ac - well, it's unlikely to be popular with Bon, but it's conceivable that you might back the right horse.

I'll be especially impressed if you can solve those in reverse order! And as a freebie, all four of them seem to have additional words inserted to smooth the surface sense.

As one who always strives to be impressive, I'm disappointed to report that I solved (?) the four clues in precisely the order you mentioned them, rather than the reverse.

Your hints were excellent. The first thing I did was look for the superfluous words, which made 8dn suddenly a breeze. The word I had been considering as the def, or part thereof, was actually the extra word!

All that is giving me confidence with 6ac is it looks about as Welsh as a word can be. 16dn and 19ac are words I am unfamiliar with, so I'm trusting the wordplay alone. Your Boniface hint threw me momentarily, as I thought perhaps it was the name of some obscure English hamlet, but then I remembered a recent noteworthy discussion.

Ironically, the one that will probably get me in the end is 1dn. My definition element is sound but in no way does my answer match any wordplay I can see.

Yep, I had that one (1 down) wrong. But if you've got the best match with the most obvious defn, then you should be ok. The wordplay's a vague feel to it.

I am home with this one also, didn't experience any great difficulty and like Anthony saw this as a bit of a fill in for the most part. It's nice to be even with DA and the gang but no doubt there's a tiger lurking around the corner.

Bumped off 9044 in a 15-minute cab ride, the driver running a few lights to put my time trial under pressure. (Try it some time, if you're running late for an appointment.)

Rarish words at 1dn and 18ac. Not much else to report. Will wrangle '45 at the airport tomorrow, and wish you lot well next week (while I suffer in 25-degree heat, Moscow Mule in hand).

Yeah not a toughie today made it in about 30 in between child-oriented activities. Still waiting for that lurking tiger...

Thought there was something familiar about 18dn in Times 9045.

Times 8993 18dn (exactly the same place on the grid): Maybe the heavy goods vehicle left warehouse at last

25ac was also in 9014 but with very different clueing. Too much time on my hands?

Curiously, both of those were ones that caused me trouble when they appeared, IIRC. Certainly 25ac did.

Two in a row...perhaps my luck turns once more. Meh to 6ac, unless I'm missing more than three letters. On the other hand, some nicely disguised defns.

And no Z. Does 22ac make it an honorary pangram? ;-)

Third time unlucky for me. 7 left over, though one I might have put in at a pinch, and another might have come with work. Back to square none.

15ac is very meh.