The things you learn: my basic knowledge of cricket and opera has increased significantly since I started doing cryptics regularly. A nice selection of Rufusian puns and cryptic definitions.
You’d think there’d be a reference to the new year… I can’t find it unless it’s BRAND-NEW at 9A.
Across
| 5 | OBSTACLE – hurdles are a kind of OBSTACLE in a race. |
| 9 | BRAND-N+E+W – “three quarters” of the compass can produce N, E and W. Not sure why “finished” is required unless it (redundantly) indicates that the “three quarters” finish the phrase. |
| 13 | STAR – a fine anag &lit: arts* with “performing” as the anagrind and the whole thing is a great def of a STAR: “Big name in the performing arts”. |
| 17 | ONCE MORE – I think “…but for the last time” refers to the answer we often give as parents. |
| 18 | SHED – double meaning: “slough” is a lovely versatile word isn’t it? |
| 23 | VIGO+[ho]UR – One of the unintended side-effects of following European soccer (OK, football) is getting to know various secondary towns – in this case VIGO in Spain. |
| 24 | LATITUDE – double meaning: the 2nd def is somewhat cryptic: “a matter of degree”. |
| 25 | ANCESTRY – (tyres can)*. Second appearance of “race” in this puzzle – the cute trick is that in 5A and this clue, “race” has opposite cryptic and direct meanings. |
Down
| 2 | OG(R)E – rev(ego=”I”) contains R[ex] for “king”. |
| 3 | BONAPARTE – (one tap bar)* — I knew someone in high-school named BONAPARTE who claimed too that he was v. distantly related. |
| 4 | DON+A+TE – DON is a familiar TLB (three-letter boy). At first I was a bit mystified by the wordplay since (d, a note)* is also DONATE. |
| 5 | ON WITH THE MOTLEY – (Timothy, Helen, two)*. Turns out to be an aria from Pagliacci made famous by Caruso a century ago singing Vesti la guibba. Relatively easy to work out with crossing letters if you don’t know it (as I didn’t) given the common small words (ON, WITH, THE) and the fact that it’s an obvious anagram (proper names are dead giveaways). |
| 6 | SPOT CASH – nice charade: “place” and “money” for paying on the spot. Which I’m guessing is what bookies have to do when they pay out – not that I’ve ever bet on anything. Well, I did bet that Gore would win the 2000 election. But we know what happened to that one. |
| 8 | LEG SPINNER – For Rufus, a somewhat weak surface (dare I say “Araucarian”?). LEG is the “on” side in cricket and, again in cricket, a LEG SPINNER bowler “spins” the ball (anticlockwise or clockwise – probably depending on whether he’s south or north of the equator). |
| 12 | STENTORIAN – (A tenor isn’t)* — an intentional reference to Caruso’s rendition of 5D? |
| 15 | LAST RITES – cryptic def for a cobbler’s (he of lasting fame) funeral service. |
| 16 | HOLY=”wholly” WRIT – homophone for an archaic term for the “The Scriptures”. |
| 22 | ID+ES[t] – Remember the IDES of March? And “that is” was “id est” in Roman times. |
I’ll bet more people know Vesti la guibba than they think. Try some recordings here – Franco Corelli does it pretty well.
The letters “TE” for note occurs often in crosswords. Can anyone tell me the connection? Thanks in advance.
TE is the 7th note the scale — also TI. (My source: Julie Andrews in the “The Sound of Music”)
All the tonic sol-fa note names (do, re, mi etc.) have variant spellings to watch out for (and the variant name Ut for Do in some countries). Note can also of course mean A/B/C/D/E/F/G, N.B. and in theory at least, breve, minim, crotchet, quaver etc.). The resulting range of possibilities means that some people don’t like “note”, for the same reasons as “state” and “man/woman” (Art, Bert, Les, Des, Vi, Di, etc. etc.). I sit on the fence a bit – I don’t mind these if the setter makes sure there’s enough other stuff to work off, and uses them in moderation. And if he uses “note” for something like the E-flat in DEFLATE, that’s fine as a crafty bit of novelty.
For more on the musical stuff see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfege . The “accidental” names like Di = “Do sharp” are not used in crosswords, probably because they’re not listed in the dictionaries used for reference.