A spectacular tribute puzzle from Io. This puzzle was accidentally omitted from the FT website on the day of publication. If you missed this one then I recommend having a go. download the PDF here.
The Reverend John Graham crossword setter for the FT (as Cinephile), Guardian (as Araucaria) and others died one year ago today. This is Io’s tribute puzzle.
One of John Graham’s most famous clues was:
POETICAL SCENE WITH SURPRISINGLY CHASTE LORD ARCHER VEGETATING – solution THE OLD VICARAGE GRANTCHESTER.
This was a topical reference to the author and politician Lord Jeffry Archer who was at the time embroiled in a sex scandal and was lying low at his home The Old Vicarage in Grantchester (itself the scene of a famous poem by Rupert Brooke). This clue has been cited by several setters and commentators as a contender for the BEST CLUE EVER.
Amazingly, Io manages to get all this as the down solutions of the grid. Io substitutes WITH for HAS, but even so this is a remarkable achievement. Io manages all this with only one obscure across entry too (WELLNEAR). Spectacular!
This post is a re-write of yesterday’s rather poor offering from me – a puzzle this good deserved a proper write up. Many of the comments below refer to the original post that was hurriedly thrown together and incomplete following the omission of the puzzle from the FT website and my subsequent struggle to find a paper copy of the FT out here in rural Perthshire.
| Across | ||
| 7 | MINOR ROLE |
Small part of masked hero turning head in race (5,4)
ZORRO (masked hero, turning head) in MILE (race) – Zorro’s head (Z) is turned onto its side to give N
|
| 8 | YEAH |
After 12 months, what about a positive response? (4)
Y (year, 12 months) EH (what) containing A
|
| 9 | MAIDEN |
Female help brought in by opposite sex (6)
AID (help) in MEN (opposite sex)
|
| 10 | EASY TASK |
As yet undone question is a piece of cake (4,4)
(AS YET)* anagram=undone then ASK (question)
|
| 12 | BARRACKS |
For the rest of the men, it is jeers (8)
double definition – it is a place the men rest
|
| 14 | REVUE |
Show over, 24 round the bend (5)
EVER reversed (over) round U (bend)
|
| 16 | BETH |
Representation of the B (4)
anagram (representation) of THE B definition is &lit – the second letter of many Semitic alphabets
|
| 17 | EMEER |
Writer set back 24 19 Islamic title (5)
ME (writer) reversed then EER (ever, poetical)
|
| 18 | GAPE |
Open wide space by end of lane (4)
GAP (open space) by lanE (end of)
|
| 20 | TAROT |
Opening tips for travelling at rear of the pack (5)
opening letters of (opening tips for) Travelling At Rear Of The
|
| 21 | ERSATZES |
Bizarre stares fixing a couple of Zenit substitutes (8)
ZEnit (couple of letters of) IN STARES*
|
| 22 | GET WORSE |
Degenerate’s dreadfully wet coming through prickly bush (3,5)
WET* anagram=dreadfully in GORSE (prickly bush)
|
| 25 | NITWIT |
Gutted Mr Dury’s comeback, one Blockhead after another (6)
IaN (Mr Dury, is gutted=no middle) with TWIT (blockhead) after – definition is another blockhead. At first I misread this clue as “Gutted Mr Drury’s come back, one blockhead after another.” My name is Paul Drury (PeeDee) and I recently met the very friendly Mr Henderson (Io) at one of the Sloggers and Betters lunches. I was somewhat taken aback to read this clue and was left wondering what awfully insensitive thing I might have to him said to receive such a damning public put-down. Then I noticed that the clue is about Ian Dury the singer… |
| 26 | LETS |
Yes, we shall serve them again! (4)
definition/cryptic definition, serves in a tennis match
|
| 27 | WELLANEAR |
For the very old, alas, we shall lend it when listening (9)
WELL (we shall) AN EAR (what you lend when listening) – alas, now obsolete (for the very old)
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | VICARAGE |
A fund-raiser in depravity where the reverend’s quite at home (8)
A RAG (fundraiser) in VICE (depravity)
|
| 2 | LORD ARCHER |
Writer left looking down on old road sign (4,6)
L (left) on (above in a down clue, looking down on) O (old) RD (road) ARCHER (sign of the zodiac) – writer Geoffrey Archer
|
| 3 | GRANTCHESTER |
It’s bestowed with joy round street where vicar unravels clues (12)
GRANT (its bestowed) then ST (street) in CHEER (joy) – The Grantchester Mysteries is series of books by James Runcie (and now a UK TV series too) about vicar who is an amateur detective in his spare time
|
| 4 | CLUE |
Collude on and off no longer with old crossword guide (4)
CoLlUdE (on and off, every other letter) –
|
| 5 | BEST |
Cream tea finally regurgitated by animal (4)
BEaST misssing (reguritated, thrown out) teA (final letter of)
|
| 6 | CHASTE |
Hunted, caught and restrained (6)
sounds like (caught) “chaste” (hunted)
|
| 11 | SURPRISINGLY |
Not entirely certain one’s included in image management alone, strange to hear (12)
SURe (certain, not entirely) then I (one) is included in PR (image management) SINGLY (alone)
|
| 13 | SCENE |
View children should be heard? No . . . . yes! (5)
sound like ‘seen’, as in “children should be seen and not heard”. I can’t explain how the “heard? No…yes!” bit works. I get the idea but then it all falls apart when I try to put it into words. Can anyone come up with a succint explanation? Update: JH informs me that his intention here is to write one of those slippery definitions so loved by Cinephile/Araucaria that refuses to be pinned down. Quite a success then!
|
| 15 | VEGETATING |
Very possibly secure a metal set in a bummer of an activity? The reverse (10)
V (very) EG (possibly) containing (with … set in) GET (secure) A TIN (metal) – vegetating is ‘bumming about’.
|
| 19 | POETICAL |
Sort of licence given to rhymester at police clubs (8)
anagram of AT POLICE clubs=anagram, bashes about
|
| 20 | THE OLD |
Out with it on hogmanay! (He spilt the beans about it) (3,3)
HE inside (with … about it) TOLD (spilt the beans)
|
| 23 | WITH |
By law, it has limits (4)
found inside (limited by) laW IT Has
|
| 24 | EVER |
Take 7Up out of tin at all? (4)
R (recipe, take) sEVEn 7 (missing Sn=tin) all reversed (up)
|
definitions are underlined
I have asked FT production desk why it is missing.
PD – Any chance you can upload a blank grid if you do get the hard copy?
I am confused. What happened to 14,788 by CRUX?
Apologies. I meant what happened to 14,787 by CRUX
John
14,787 by Crux was a Monday Prize crossword. The blog for it will appear a week tomorrow, after the closing date for entries.
The puzzle is available on the FT site now. Trouble is I now don’t have time to solve it 🙁
This isn’t a normal FT grid. Today is the anniversary of Cinephile’s passing, and one of his most famous clues was for 20 1 3. I therefore wonder whether this is Io’s homage to an old friend by being a recluing of that Araucaria puzzle.
@alchemi – indeed. And the clue for “The Old Vicarage Grantchester” was “Poetical scene has surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating” all of which are in the grid…
You have to find time when it is an Io and so glad I did. Splendid tribute to a much missed friend. Thanks to Io and PeeDee too.
Thanks for your noble efforts, PeeDee.
Wonderful stuff from Io – another labour of love. Huge thanks to him.
That Araucaria puzzle [set in January 2001 – before the days of 15²] can be found here:http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/22103
Remarkable puzzle – not only is the whole clue and the answer in the down answers, the remaining down answers say “BEST CLUE EVER”. I wonder if anyone else could have done this. A great tribute to Araucaria/Cinephile too.
WOW!
@8
Tiny correction – it’s “with chaste Lord Archer” (not “has”) – and WITH is there in the downs along with the rest of the clue/answer.
Genius!
Beautiful puzzle.
Did anyone else try HOT WELLY at 22 across?
I had an inkling the puzzle had something to do with the Cinephile clue but I did not realise quite how much. Hugely impressive and a very fitting tribute. Totally in awe on this one.
Such a pity that I didn’t get a chance to enjoy it more, it was all such a rush and a shame to deliver a half-finished blog for such a fine puzzle. It is a bit late to start again now so I will write it all up properly tomorrow.
Thanks Io.
A worthy tribute and a great puzzle in itself (in se?).
Having done the Guardian one earlier I was on the qui vive, which helped a bit.
COTD for me 11d but all the Araucaria related stuff was good too and not overdone.
Many thanks S&B – also thanks to the FT puzzle editor for hosting this as it obviously alludes to an Araucaria puzzle rather than a Cinephile one.
Thanks to S & B. Terrific stuff.
Wow, John.
As Eileen said, a Labour of Love.
Let’s face it – probably, the majority of FT readers/solvers didn’t see what this was all about.
But I did, and you did.
Wow, John.
John Henderson; aka IO, Enigmatist, Elgar and Nimrod, is the best current setter. If any more evidence were needed this puzzle provides it.
I’m a little confused about “with”/”has” in the famous clue (see my comment @13) – I followed the link @10 above and the clue definitely reads “Poetical scene with surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating (3,3,8,12)” but two people have now quoted it with “has”. Are there two versions of it?
Herb – my mistake. I’ll fix that right now.
Many thanks, everyone. and well done Mr Drury with two Rs!
With the fantastic tribute from Philistine/Hugh in the G, my very, very dear friend’s anniversary was beautifully marked and well respected. Thanks to everyone who has commented, rung or texted me.
John
WITH/HAS error fixed now. While writing up the post I could not find the original puzzle (thanks, Eileen and Herb for pointing me in the right direction).
I read a few articles on JG while looking for the clue and pretty much all of them misquoted it with “has” rather than “with”. Wikipedia misquotes it too. I guess this is a case of one person gets it wrong and then everyone else just cut-and-pastes the error ad infinitum.
John Henderson is clearly made of sterner stuff!
Thanks PeeDee
I have a similar ? to you regarding 1dn and 13dn. However, in 15dn I think the ‘in reverse’ is there to make the definition ‘an activity of a bummer’.
Only found this today – wonderful work!
This must be the cleverest puzzle for a long time! Pity I missed it first time around. Well done IO!
Wow! Only just seen this, what an incredible piece of setting. Thanks John & PeeDee for the blog.
I guess the FT might be like the Times and not allow living people. Otherwise DES LYNHAM would have fitted in the WELLANEAR space.
A beautiful tribute to Araucaria/Cinephile.
What a lovely tribute. Thanks Io/John H and to PeeDee for the blog.
Robi @28, Les Lynham would have fitted but unfortunately the man even I knew (before I came to the UK) is called Des Lynam.
“I guess the FT might be like the Times and not allow living people” – the FT does.
It’s a real shame that, especially Guardian and Independent solvers do not frequent FT puzzles as much as these crosswords deserve.
In the FT Radian/Crucible is the wonderful Redshank.
Rufus = Dante, eXternal = Artexlen, Pasquale/Quixote = Bradman, Klingsor = Alberich, Tees = Neo, Scorpion = Aardvark, Paul/Punk = Mudd, Philistine = Goliath and so on.
The quality of FT puzzles is, in my opinion, very high and perhaps even more consistent than in the Guardian.
Meanwhile, I hope there will be a comment no 32 to celebrate this marvellous, heartbreakingly moving tribute.
Comment 32. Thanks Io and PeeDee. I’m one of those Guardian solvers that rarely looks at the FT – so many thanks also to Eileen for posting directions to this exceptional tribute.
I’d like to add a late vote of thanks for this too – having seen all of the praise I printed off a copy and took it to the pub last night, but found it too difficult to make any progress given the distractions. So I took it with me on the trains to my walk in Yorkshire this morning, and returning to it after tackling the Guardian prize, it suddenly dawned on me what was going on when I saw LORD ARCHER, and most of the other down clues went in from the enumerations and definitions, with the parsing last. A lovely tribute – thanks to Io/John H and to PeeDee for the blog.
Clever, entertaining…… and a little sad, of course.
Sil@31 Thanks for tip-off re FT. Perhaps I’ve been unlucky; on occasions I’ve solved its puzzles they’ve fallen in just a few minutes (I understood this was intentional?). Now I realise they can be more nourishing I may become less exclusionary. Or perhaps this Io is atypical.
Interestingly, the Guardian of 27th November 2013 has, in its front page article (continued on page 3) “Poetic site finds surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating” and his obituary (same paper, same day) has “Poetic scene with chaste Lord Archer, vegetating”. Quite amazing that the Guardian can get it so wrong – and in two different ways in the same edition. No wonder some confusion still reigns!
Sil – I wholeheartedly agree with your comments on the consistently high quality of puzzles in the FT at the moment. Colin Inman is doing a fine job there.
William F P – the FT usually has a harder than average puzzle on Wednesdays. I would say the range of difficulty is wider than the Guardian, ranging from pretty easy to downright fiendish. If you like a challenge look out for MONK and IO are always challenging.
As a blogger I especially like the FT as there is no ‘cheat’ facility as there is in the other dailies. It makes the task of getting the blog out more exciting as there is nowhere to hide!
PeeDee – Thank you for your advice. (that’s four-a-day now, just when I was looking to cut down on my habit/addiction…!)
Thanks Io and PeeDee
As with all puzzle by Io / Enigmatist, this took a number of sessions across a few days to finish off. With no knowledge of the famous Araucaria clue, the theme would have remained a mystery. The admiration for what JH has been able to achieve is nothing short of brilliant and I cannot think of a finer tribute to the master setter, JG, who still leaves such a lasting impact twelve months on.
The clues throughout the puzzle all seemed to take an effort to get the answer, but once solved it was clearly the answer and made one think why it took so long to get it!
Finished down in the SW with the two shirt ones TAROT and LETS the last couple in.
I think that this one can genuinely be termed a ‘tour de force’.
Hi Bruce, my definition of a good clue is one that seems impossible at the time but in retrospect looks obvious. So good clues all the way in this one then!