After last week’s slightly disappointing puzzle, this one from Cinephile was most enjoyable. Verging on difficult in places (no pun intended), particularly with some of the Italian towns, but a very good challenge. If you enjoyed this puzzle (and have slightly masochistic tendencies) then I can thoroughly recommend this month’s Guardian Genius by Cinephile’s alter ego, Araucaria.
Across
1 MILANO – MILAN M1 LAN[e]
4 JUMBO JET JOB (work) reversed in ME in JUT (stick out)
10 LIVORNO – LEGHORN LEG (walker) HORN (hooter)
11 TRAILER dd
12 HEAT dd
13 SCATTER PIN *(PRACTISE NT) – a small brooch often worn in groups of two or more
15 NAPOLI – NAPLES NAP LES
16 PERHAPS P *(PHRASE)
20 VENEZIA – VENICE E N (directions) in VICE (bad habit)
21 GENOVA – GENOA ONE in AG (silver) reversed
24 RED BRIGADE RED (left) BRIG (ship) A DE[pot] – a communist terrorist group in Italy back in the 1970s
26 ROMA – ROME homophone of ‘roam’
28 FIRENZE – FLORENCE F (female) homophone of ‘Laurence’ (saint) and a girl’s name
29 MANTOVA – MANTUA MAN (person) AUT[omobile] reversed
30 TREASURY AS (like) UR (ancient city) in TREY (3)
31 TRENTO – TRENT cd – the River Trent and the Council of Trent, which was the Nineteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church
Down
1 MULCHING L (line) CHIN (feaature) in MUG (face)
2 LOVE APPLE LOVE (nothing) APPLE (pupil) – the old name for a tomato (fruit for salad)
3 NARK N[oah] ARK
5 UNTITLED T (time) in UNTIL (up to) ED (edited) – ‘being’ seems to be simply a link word to improve the surface
6 BRAKE SHOES B (key) RAKES HOES (garden tools)
7 JULEP JUL[y] EP (record) – a sweet drink, often medicated
8 TORINO – TURIN TURIN[g] – Alan Mathison Turing of Bletchley Park (Enigma code cracking) fame and ‘string’ = ‘g-string’, musical or otherwise
9 COUCH cd
14 BLUEPRINTS – I have yet to work out the ‘no connection with Black Prince’ other than the fact that ‘prints’ is a homophone of ‘prince’
17 PROTOZOAN ROT (decay) OZ (weight) O (zero) in PAN (cooker) – a member of the lowest or simplest of animals, unicellular forms or colonies multiplying by fission
18 KING LEAR KIN (family) in *(REGAL)
19 GALAPAGO GALA (celebration) PAGO[da] (temple)
22 PROFIT PRO (expert) FIT (worthy)
23 ADAMS A DAMS – Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Féin and Irish Republican politician
25 DIRGE G in DIRE – ‘threnody’, an ode or song of lamentation, especially for the dead
27 ONER [g]ONER
Good afternoon, Gaufrid. What a lovely puzzle. I didn’t get Trento, I’m afraid, and am not too keen on ‘oner’ as an answer, but otherwise it was pure joy.
Gaufrid,
If we consider that “blew” is a homophone of “blue”? Just wondering!
Well, despite further extensive research I am still no nearer being able to explain 14d.
If the ‘no’ in the clue is ignored, ‘Black Prince’ could refer to a prototype tank developed in 1944 which had this name.
Alternatively, if we take ‘prototype’ as the first of something then Edward of Woodstock (the Black Prince) was the first person in England to be given the title of Duke (of Cornwall, previously it had been the Earl of Cornwall). He was also the first Prince of Wales who failed to become king because he died before his father (Edward III).
Apart from that, ‘Black Prince’ is the name of a motorcycle made by Vincent in the 1950s, a warship, a steam locomotive and various other items unconnected with ‘blueprints’.
At least my knowledge of English history, as well as Italian geography, has been enhanced today.
Hi Gaufrid,
I naively took 14D to simply be a pun on “Black Prince/Blue Prince”. Admittedly a pretty lame one, with no literal/historical sense for “Blue Prince” nor any sign of a homophone indicator (which is bound to raise your hackles!). All the more unfortunate, as BLUEPRINTS lends itself very readily to other devices (re: mucky pictures, or Picasso reproductions, for instance).
Notwithstanding the above, I agree that this was a nifty and fun theme.
Hi Smiffy
I have reluctantly come to the same conclusion regarding 14d. I considered the possibility that ‘no connection’ could indicate splitting ‘blueprints’ into ‘blue prints’ but unfortunately that got me no further.
I have spent enough time on this one clue and will now add it to the list of Cinephile’s clues that I have been unable to parse to my satisfaction (about one a month recently).