I don’t think I’ve blogged an Araucaria before so seeing the puzzle this morning worried me a bit. I like Araucaria, in fact my only published Listener puzzle was a tribute to him. However, my clues were strictly Ximenean (I hope) and I have over the years wrestled with his cluing. Some of his clues are brilliant and some of his techniques novel but I still have problems with the liberties he takes. That said I found this puzzle a (relative) breeze with the theme—coinciding in one entry with the recent Virgilius—helping.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | DOG-EAT-DOG — DOGE+(GOD TA)< — a doge is a magistrate. God appears openly in the clue as do parts of the wordplay in several clues in this puzzle. |
| 9 | BRAVO — double def— a bravo is a thug in the sense of a hired killer. |
| 10,11 | LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD — (GIRL INHERITED ODD LOT)* — nice anagram with odd being used for effect twice, once as the anagrind and once as part of the fodder. This is the first thematic entry, all are pantomimes. |
| 12 | USER — US+ER — ref to user-friendly. |
| 14 | BOOKMAN — BO(OK+MA)N — a bookman is a scholar. |
| 15 | ALADDIN — A+LAD+DIN |
| 17 | ALMANAC — AL(MAN)AC(k) — alack is an expression of regret. |
| 19 | ASKANCE — ASK+AN+CE — the Church of England is the established body. |
| 20,6 | SNOW WHITE — (WHOSE TWIN)* — “is shown” doesn’t cut it for me as an anagram indicator. |
| 22 | UNECONOMIC — UNE+C(ON)OMIC — une = a foreign female. |
| 25 | ARCHITECT — CHIT in (CRATE)* |
| 26 | TOTED — TO TED— groan! |
| 27 | KYRIE — KYLIE with R for L — I’m not sure if Araucaria was aware of the current exhibition of Kylie Minogue’s clothes at the V&A, including gold lame hotpants with worn crotch! For those of you still baffled, Kylie was in an Australian TV soap, Neighbours, before venturing into the world of pop. |
| 28 | SUCCESSOR — SUCCESS+OR — or = gold, a regular crossword cliche. |
| Down | |
| 1 | DEBAR — (al)DEBAR(an) — Aldebaran is the brightest star in Taurus, a red giant many times the size of our Sun. |
| 2 | GUARDROOM — (MOOR+DR(A)UG)< — drug appearing openly in the clue confused me for a while. |
| 3 | ANOINTMENT — AN+OINTMENT |
| 4 | DOLPHIN — (Ran)DOLPH+IN — Randolph Churchill was the father of Winston Churchill, British PM. |
| 5 | GATOOMA — GA(TOO)MA — Vasco de Gama was, I guess, from Gama. Gatooma would be better described as a Rhodesian place as it is now called Kodoma. |
| 6,24 | WILDFIRE — WILD(FIR)E — Oscar Wilde and wildfire spreads. |
| 8 | ENDURANCE — END+U+RANCE — the Rance is a French river ermerging into the English Channel, or rather emerging into La Manche, near Dinard. I once spent a very enjoyable new year’s eve on Dinard beach watching and listening to a very confusing son et lumiere. It took the form of a rocket crashing on the beach. Jules Verne emerged and proceeded to be interviewed my the mayor of Dinard. I didn’t follow a word but Jules was accompanied by some scantily clad space maidens. The cider was very good. |
| 13,14 | JACK AND THE BEANSTALK — JACK+AND+THEBE(AN)S+TALK — if it isn’t Ur it’ll be Thebes. |
| 16 | DYNAMITES — (TEN+DISMAY)* — 10 confused me for a while as I tried to link that clue in. |
| 18 | CINDERS — double def — Cinders being short for Cinderella. |
| 19 | ASCETIC — A+(SECT)*+IC |
| 21 | OSCAR — OS CAR — another groan moment. The allusion is to 4x4s being outsize cars. Try telling that to the owners of the Fiat Panda 4×4. |
| 23,7 | CADER IDRIS — CADE+RID(e)R+IS — once I had I-R– the answer was obvious. Cader Idris is a mountain in Wales. I believe cade was discussed recently in one of the crossword blogs. |