Wordplay for Jaffa 3
Across
1 Young Conservative - brass player and farm worker (6,3,4)
LITTLE BOY BLUE – From the nursery rhyme - brass player (come blow your horn), farmworker (the sheep’s in the meadow etc)
8 Are footballers caught in the covers by this? (7,4)
OFFSIDE TRAP–Football tactic - Offside (where the Covers are on a cricket field), trap (i.e. caught in it)
11 Little piggy with Roller reveals human trait (2,3)
TO ERR – is human. Toe (little piggy [as in “went to market”]), plus RR (Rolls Royce i.e. Roller) split (2,3)
12 Left and right give minimum (5)
LEAST – L(left) + East(right [side of compass])
13 Healthy food – an even distribution of fruit in saccharin (4)
ACAI – letters 2,4,6 and 8 from saccharin
15Little relief heard to produce lament (4)
WEEP – Wee (little) plus P (pee i.e. relief –sorry!)
17Old loco's gaucho (10)
COWCATCHER – cowboy/gaucho and on the front of Wild West trains
19Are Paddington bargains to be bought here? (4,6)
BEAR MARKET – Bear (e.g. Paddington) in a market where prices are falling
22 Article and conjunction do this (4)
ABUT – A (article) plus BUT (conjunction) abutting one another
25Unmuddle regularly to reveal colour (4)
NUDE – select letters 2,4,6 and 8 (regularly)
26Team paradoxically always contains a plus one (5)
EIGHT – as in rowing eight who always have a cox making them a nine!
27 Different sexes have achieved some notoriety here (5)
ESSEX – an anagram (different) of “sexes” assuming the reputations of Essex Men and Girls
29Dictator created from hailstorm at the end of WWII (7,4)
MARSHAL TITO - an anagram (created from) “hailstorm at”
30 Necessary action for 1 or the source of his problems? (8,5)
COUNTING SHEEP – necessary for Little Boy Blue to check if “the sheep’s in the meadow” but “he’s under a haystack, fast asleep” perhaps through counting sheep?
Down
2 Slander with Liberal on board will anger (7)
INFLAME – Infame (slander) containing L (Liberal)
3 Meanders like plot changes (6)
TWISTS – like river bends or in stories/plays/films
4 The birthplace of naturism? (4)
EDEN – as in “Garden of” with Adam and Eve before apples
5 One who believes in a good soaking (7)
BAPTIST – my Baptist forefathers would wince at Baptism being described as “a good soaking”. Hellfire and damnation awaits me……..
6 Let looseUncle Pasha without scruffy cap (7)
UNLEASH – remove cp and a (scruffy cap) from Uncle Pasha
7 Blackbird, present on 28th December, wavers in disorder (12)
COLLYWOBBLES–Colly (the old name for a blackbird in the original lyrics of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” [the 28th December being the 4th Day of Christmas]) plus wobbles (wavers)
9Sounds like Irishman's deflection (8)
RICOCHET – As in Rick O’Shea, a well known(?) Irish joke –sorry!
10Porcini contain it but are not farmed using it (4,8)
CROP ROTATION – reverse (rotate) porc to give crop, for farming system
14 Car thief found on the merry-go-round? (8)
JOYRIDER – one who steals cars for fun or enjoys fairground rides
16Under this one feels sick unless on course (3)
PAR – Feeling under par (i.e. ill) or playing golf well (i.e. scoring under par)
18Infusion, a bechamel ingredient (3)
CHA – lurking in bechamel
20Report needing a blessing or one of these say (7)
ATISHOO –Report (i.e. a sneeze) that needs a blessing (to ward off the Plague) or as in a tissue
21Islanders, at least three, holding vote (7)
MANXMEN – Man (1 person) + Men (at least 2 people) [1+2=3] holding X (a vote)
23Ask for passage noisily to lead up the garden path (7)
BEGUILE – Beg (ask for) plus Aisle/Uile (noisily)
24The law can be a source of this (6)
WEALTH – Anagram (can be a source) of “the law”
28Headcover I hear, was a politician (4)
WHIG – as in wig (headcover)