Mostly straightforward from Brendan today, some easy anagrams and a couple of hidden words – I was racing towards one of my quicker times until I ran into 2 down.
Edit: missed the theme first time round: “Internal Relations”, present at the head of the printed crossword but not online, points to LEGEND, YARN, ROMANCES, TALE, EPIC and ACCOUNT hidden in the across rows.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 6 | GENDER – cryptic def, and one of the nicer clues. |
| 9 | MAGYAR – (army)* around A and [Hun]G[ary]. Magyars are Hungarians, for the most part. |
| 10 | NAUTICAL – (a lunatic)* |
| 11 | PROM – PeRfOrMs |
| 13 | INSIDE STORY – “Basis for scoop”, and INSIDES TORY. Not sure what “as seen in other rows” is doing, unless it’s a reference to 21a and Alec Douglas Home. Quite a stretch, if it is. It isn’t. See above. |
| 18 | BREADFRUIT – bread = money, of course, and I take it that breadfruit grow in the Pacific. I suppose this is a cryptic def. |
| 21 | ALEC – ALE, C[reamy]. Nice. |
| 22 | OF COURSE – OF[f] COURSE |
| 23 | PICK-UP – a vehicle, and an improvement, which can be economic. |
| 25 | BARSAC – BARS, A = top mark, C = clubs. Barsac is a french white. |
| 25 | COUNTY – COUNT, [da]Y |
| Down | |
| 2 | GLORIA – guessed in the end. Clue (online) is “Female’s contribution to mass production (6)”. A quick Google doesn’t reveal any obvious links between Glorias and mass production, but I’m sure one could be found. Once I post this I’ll go and buy the paper on the off chance that they’ve printed a nicer clue. Edit, thanks to Nabokov1 – the Gloria is a part of the Catholic Mass. |
| 3 | GET UPSET – “get up set” suggests something like getting a set up on someone on a tennis court. |
| 4 | EDGIER – E[xpedition] + (ridge)* |
| 7 | READER – double def. |
| 8 | UNSCHEDULED – (dud clues he n)*, n = new |
| 14 | INFORMAL – I + NORMAL around F |
| 15 | RE,A,SCENT |
| 16 | PR,E,FAB – PR being proportional representation, E = key |
| 17 | PENURY – PEN = writer, “y r u” sounds like “why are you”, then jumble them |
| 19 | A,BOARD |
| 20 | TIP-TOP – TOP = spinner following TIP = “gratuitous advice”. |
Gloria is a sung part of the Catholic Mass.
There’s actually a delightful hidden theme here – INSIDE STORY is seen in the other rows if you read across between each of the pairs of across clues – LEGEND in the first, and so on.
I had marked out GENDER as a possible thematic clue, seeing only the wordplay – GEN, DER – and not the definition. In fact it’s a cryptic def+lit.
Mick, I noticed the theme as soon as I filled out the paper version – I guess I was editing while you commented. But how did you get the GEN part of 6a’s wordplay?
Will edit 2d as well.
6A GEN is information
I’m beginning to think I can never see these hidden things, damn it. I spent ages looking at the completed (bar 2) grid trying to see “relations” such as Sis Bruv etc. somewhere hoping it would help with the missing pair – which it would have for one if I’d seen it.
I know that it is a Brendan, so you’d reasonably expect a theme; there is a broad hint so there really must be a theme…
But I complete the crossword and still can’t get it, until it is pointed out on here. It is so clever, and so elaborate, yet I am still disappointed that I didn’t see it.
Ah well…
17d I think it’s YRU written upwards rather than simply jumbled.
Radchenko, the central answer is often the key for this type of Brendan/Virgilius thematic. It’s always worth checking if that answer has a cryptic meaning.