Guardian 24,692/Brendan
Posted by Andrew on May 6th, 2009
I was lucky enough to blog Brendan’s “note” puzzle a couple of weeks ago, and he produced an amazing puzzle yesterday in the Independent (as Virgilius); here he is again with a Pope-themed puzzle, with typically ingenious and sound clueing. I can only see 10 popes (shown in a suitably ecclesiatical purple font) in the grid, so I think JOHN PAUL must be the eleventh. Update: as Peter B points out, the 11th Pope is probably LEO NINE in 14ac.
Key:
dd = double definition
* = anagram
< = reverse
| Across | ||||||||
| 9. | ALEXANDER | A LEX AND ER. There were three King Alexanders in Scotland in the Middle Ages, | ||||||
| 10. | OVOLO | O (old) + VOL + O (round shape). | ||||||
| 11. | LEANT | A in LENT (“fast time”) | ||||||
| 12. | EXTENSIVE | (EXIST EVEN)* The definition is “over large area”, with “scattered” being the anagram indicator. | ||||||
| 13. | CLEMENT | Hidden in “artiCLE MEN Thought” | ||||||
| 14. | LEONINE | ONE* in LINE | ||||||
| 17. | PETER | T in PEER, and “peter” is slang for a safe | ||||||
| 19. | IVY | dd | ||||||
| 20. | TROUT | T (part of Thames) + ROUT (as the Battle of Waterloo was, I suppose) | ||||||
| 21. | STEPHEN | STEP HEN. Boxing Day is St Stephen’s Day, hence “on the feast of Stephen” in “Good King Wenceslas”. | ||||||
| 22. | GREGORY | ERG< + GORY | ||||||
| 24. | DOMINICAN | dd | ||||||
| 26. | URBAN | (d)URBAN | ||||||
| 28. | FELIX | LIFE* + X (= times) | ||||||
| 29. | NAUSEATED | (ATE SUNDAE)* &lit | ||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | PAUL | dd based on two famous Pauls | ||||||
| 2. | LEGATE | EG in LATE | ||||||
| 3. | RAN TO EARTH | ART in ANOTHER* | ||||||
| 4. | IDLEST | L in ID EST (which is what i.e. stands for) | ||||||
| 5. | BRUTALLY | R in BUT (save) + ALLY | ||||||
| 6. | JOHN | Initial letters of “Jealous Of His Nobles”, &lit. I got this and 1dn first, and suspected a Beatles theme until I saw the clue for 8dn) | ||||||
| 7. | POLITICO | I TIC in POLO | ||||||
| 8. | POPE | dd – as a fish, another name for the Ruffe (I had to look this up for confirmation) | ||||||
| 13. | COPES | dd. The Cope is a sort of cloak used in church ceremonies.. | ||||||
| 15. | ON THE QUIET | I think this is ON=playing, THE QUIET = “not just any old piano” | ||||||
| 16. | ENTRY | (g)ENTRY | ||||||
| 18. | THERMALS | dd – air-currents and underwear | ||||||
| 19. | INNOCENT | IN NO CENT | ||||||
| 22. | GENIUS | I in GENUS | ||||||
| 23. | ORBITS | OR BITS – “round-the-world trips” is a nice definition | ||||||
| 24. | DOFF | Hidden in heaD OFFice | ||||||
| 25. | NEXT | X in NET | ||||||
| 27. | NODE | NOD (a “signed” agreement) + E | ||||||
May 6th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Isn’t the other pope Leo IX at 14A? (An old xwd joke)
May 6th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Ahhhh, thanks Peter.
May 6th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Thanks Andrew – very enjoyable.
I filled this in quite quickly, which is not to say there were no smiles or ‘ahas’ on the way, as always from Brendan. POPE was the last one to go in! [I'd never heard of a pope fish, so that was the ultimate 'aha'.]
Lots of lovely surfaces, especially 9, 21, 28ac and 1 and 6dn [& lit]
I’ve seen LEO IX before – but I still like it!
[I wondered whether 'name of' was strictly necessary in 19ac?]
May 6th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Thanks Andrew ….
Aah, at long last a happy use for the correspondence catechism my mother subjected me to.
I’m with Peter, I saw Leo-nine as one of the Popes.
I really enjoyed this today … and for the first time ever, cracked a Brendan without resorting to cheating … hurrah.
May 6th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Ah, I foolishly concluded early on that 8D was “sole” and that there must have been only one of each papal name. I didn’t think to check later names, and had I spotted Leo IX it would have been obvious I was barking up the wrong fish.
Otherwise, this seemed very easy for a Wednesday, as was last Wednesday I believe. Is the pattern changing?
May 6th, 2009 at 11:12 am
I, too, found this easier and quicker than the usual B., but also enjoyable.
No negative comments today!
For 7d I was convinced I was looking for a footballer called POLIFITO; doh!
May 6th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Thanks for the blog. I enjoyed this, but stupidly put ‘relate’ for ‘legate’, even tho ‘legate’ crossed my mind earlier on. Lots of nice surfaces — I liked 28ac in particular.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:42 am
I found this harder than yesterday’s brilliant Virgilius (anyone who didn’t see it should dig out a copy of yesterday’s Indy) possibly because I took a long time to twig the theme.
This wasn’t in the same league as a feat of grid engineering but it was still of the usual very high standard. Definitely my favourite setter at the moment.
May 6th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Smutchin, do you have a link to yesterday’s Virgilius’?
May 6th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Dave, there is no link. The Indie only has a link to the current day’s puzzle (or the previous week’s competition puzzle on a Saturday). They don’t maintain an accessible archive. Best bet is to hope someone can send you a scan or pdf.
May 6th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
The Virgilius puzzle was mentioned on the Crossword Centre message board, with an offer of emailed copies.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I’m a fan of themed puzzles nd thought this was nice in that some of the non-theme clues or definitions were ecclesiastical too (like Dominican, Copes…). In fact, I was impressed that the theme words were not clued as such so we didn’t continually have “an 8″ or “for 8″ in all the clues and so finding a pope was a nice surprise!
Anyway, all in all a nice puzzle and I did like head’s double duty in 24dn.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Agreed with Arthur both about the theme and 24Dn
May 6th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Excellent puzzle
May 6th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Alexander Pope, the poet
May 6th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Thanks for the blog: enjoyed this one from Brendan, as usual, but surely, Andrew, Waterloo was ‘a damn close-run thing’, according to the Duke of Wellington, rather than a rout.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
According to the dictionaries, Waterloo=a decisive defeat. So whatever the Duke said, “rout” seems OK for xwd purposes. (My old Collins has “[...] routed the French under Napoleon” in the entry for the placename)
May 6th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
In Abba too, a decisive win.
May 6th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Shirley: love it!
May 6th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Brendan brilliant as ever. I nearly finished before finding the pope theme and noticing the other ecclesiastial answers.
May 7th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Re comment 16, I believe Wellington meant it was close-run in that it might have gone the other way had the Prussian cavalry not arrived in time. As they did, it ended in a rout.
May 7th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
I visited this siteafter completing the crossword and had no idea of the theme until I saw your intro Andrew. Got one wrong – “sole” I put in reluctantly at the end for “pope”. Could not understand why there were only 2 fish!! What an idiot! Really enjoyed the puzzle though and I am sorry if this post is too late (I live abroad and get the papers a day late) to have a question answered, as I am a bit baffled.
I have been doing the Guardian crossword for many years but I often do not understand some of the terms used on this blog, which I found only recently. The word “surface” is today’s. Is it the surface reading of the clue/its character? Could someone tell me if there is still anyone there? Thanks
May 7th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Hello and welcome, Sandra. It’s never too late to post a comment, as the author of the blog gets a copy by email, though other commenters may be unlikely to return after a day or so.
The surface reading of a clue (often abbreviated to just “surface”) is what it appears to be saying when read as a piece of prose, rather than as a cryptic clue.
For explanations of some of the terminology, see some of the sites listed on the “Links” page, particularly Peter Biddlecombe’s “Yet Another Guide to Cryptic Crosswords” at http://www.biddlecombe.demon.co.uk/yagcc/
May 7th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Many thanks Andrew and I forgot to say thanks for the blog. I’ll follow up on your advice. It’s great to see what others think, and I know nobody out here who does this type of crossword, although there are many expats. I also enjoy reading analyses of clues where I haven’t altogether unravelled it. It’s a great find.