Solving time: 14 mins, about half of which on 7dn (TOMATO PUREE) and 10ac (GROOM).
I enjoyed this as much as any Guardian puzzle of recent times. The highlight is probably the remarkable clue at 20/6dn based on the Shakesperian quote at 14/16/19dn from Romeo and Juliet but I loved several others too, although a pair in the top right nearly beat me.
Music of the day: I couldn’t find any ‘grebo’ (7ac) that I liked, I’m afraid, nor anything referencing tomato purée, so here’s Chocolate (6dn) by Snow Patrol.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | REPACK; rev. of CAPER (= ‘bound’) + K (= 1000 = ‘grand’) – I don’t think I previously knew that ‘caper’ meaning ‘to leap about’ came from the Latin caper, a goat (the same root as Capricorn, ‘horned goat’). |
| 4 | SOLICIT; SO (= ‘Hence’) + LICIT (= legal = 5dn, hence ‘5’) |
| 9 | FORTY-FIVE; (OVER FIFTY)* – I thought this clue was brilliant. |
| 10 | GROOM (2 defs) – I couldn’t see this until the ‘M’ was in place. |
| 11 | GREBO; rev. of BERG + O – a new word to me, meaning a heavy metal or grunge devotee. I do remember the band Pop Will Eat Itself although not their songs Oh Grebo I think I love you and Grebo Guru. Topically this band was colloquially known as ‘The Poppies’, although I doubt that was on Paul’s mind when he wrote the puzzle. Having said that, I’ve just discovered that ’45 RPM’ (9ac in this puzzle being FORTY-FIVE) was a 2004 hit for the punk band Poppyfields so maybe this is a very well-hidden theme! |
| 12 | CANAL BOAT; CAN + (TO A LAB)* |
| 15 | MISLAY (1 def, 1 jokey def) – the jokey definition being ‘Producing square eggs, might you’. I suppose the question mark really belongs with this part as well. |
| 17,13 | ORIENT (= ‘E’) + EXPRESS (= ‘say’) – excellent wordplay. |
| 19 | SUCCEED; “SUCK SEED” – ho ho. |
| 22 | TRICOLOUR; “TRICKLER” – fantastically terrible homophone (21 refers to 21dn, ‘stream’, i.e. something that trickles). |
| 24 | SACRA; rev. of AS + rev. of ARC – two separate reversal indicators here, ‘turning’ and ‘back’. |
| 27 | POOTERISH; POORISH around T[h]E – Charles Pooter was the main character in Diary of a Nobody. His |
| 28 | MASSEUR; MASS + EUR[o] |
| 29 | S + TUBBY (= ‘obese’ = 23dn) |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | REFUGEE; (FREE)* around [h]UGE |
| 3 | CEYLONESE; (ONLY)* in C[h]EESE (= ‘Leicester, say, less hot’) – very good surface reading. |
| 4 | STERNUM; UM (= ‘I’m still deciding’) under STERN (= ‘back’) – a hyphen requires to be ignored here. |
| 5,26 | LEGAL EAGLE; LEG (= ‘on’, in cricket) + ALE (= ‘beer’) + (LAGE[r])* – it’s a good job I guessed the answer here because the wordplay was tricky to unravel. |
| 7,2 | TOMATO PUREE – this was the one that stumped me. The wordplay is brilliant: ATOP (= ‘on’) + URE (= ‘river’), all inside TOME (= ‘book’). It was this last part that led me to the answer, but only after I’d spent plenty of time looking for a famous book to fit the whole phrase. Doubt over GREBO at 11ac didn’t help, but to be honest probably didn’t hinder either. |
| 8 | DISCUS[s] |
| 14,16,19 | PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW; (HERO’S + CAPU[l]ET OR WS’S WRITINGS)* – I only dissected the anagram after seeing the answer, which fortunately was a phrase I knew, but it is nonetheless brilliant (referring to Juliet’s family, the Capulets). |
| 18 | TROOPER; rev. of REPORT around O[ld] |
| 20,6 | DEATH BY CHOCOLATE – ’14 16′ translantes to ‘Parting is such sweet’ – stunning. |
| 21 | STREAM (2 defs) |
| 23 | OBES + [cak]E – ‘Orders’ = OBEs, which looks better with an apostrophe but I can’t quite bring myself to use one for a plural. |
| 25 | CLIMB; C (= ‘a ton’) + LIMB |
Many thanks, Rightback, yet another wonderful puzzle from Paul.
Like you, I struggled with 7d TOMATO PUREE and 10a GROOM and, until the pennies dropped, I was unable to complete the NW corner.
I’d never heard of 11a GREBO and it took me ages to twig 1a REPACK and 1d REFUGEE.
Very enjoyable!
Re 27 ac, I believe Lupin was Mr Pooter’s son, not his brother. Incidentally, there’s a nice theory on the web somewhere that Charles Pooter might have been Jack the Ripper – hence the missing pages in his diary, and his shock at seeing his hand covered in red paint when he was painting the bath . . .
Thanks for the blog, rightback. I got lucky with a series of intuitive entries but ended up needing explanations for four clues. The parsing at 15a MISLAY beat me.
11a GREBO was easy but way outside my ken.
25d CLIMB: didn’t understand “if human”.
Ralph – 25d: I think it’s just that you have 4 limbs, if you’re human (though this isn’t very PC, come to think of it !)
11a: I’m sure I remember ‘grebos’ from my youth, but as I recall they were defined less by their musical tastes than by dress style (leathers as opposed to the Skin’s Crombies and Doc Martins)
5,26: The answer fairly jumped out but the wordplay was impenetrable as LAGE (lager not entirely) actually appears twice.
Interestingly, I had a moment of deja vu when doing this month’s Genius – though I won’t say on which clue of course 😉
I struggled to get started with this one – only 3 done after 15 mins. I then managed to solve the anagram at 14 etc, and eventually managed to finish after 80 minutes!
Thanks, rightback, for the explanation of 1a, the only one I couldn’t see.
Cool stuff here. I rather liked ‘death by chocolate’ clue. Real good.
‘Grebo’ made me laugh, as I know a few ‘grebo’ youngsters who live in my neighborhood- which made my mind drift, as it does.
Thanks for blog Rightback, and explaining ‘trooper’. I had it but was unsure of the full wordplay.
Cheers to Paul for setting a wicked puzzle.
No special kudos for “Obese”? The first time a clue’s made me laugh out loud for a long time.
Thanks, Rightback. Lovely puzzle. CLIMB caused me the most difficulty, for some reason! I’d never heard of GREBO, but it was gettable from the wordplay.
Thanks, rightback. I really enjoyed this.
I loved your ‘fantastically terrible’ epithet for 22ac – my feelings exactly!
A heartfelt plea: please don’t EVER be beguiled into using an apostrophe in plurals. [OBEs may look odd but OBE’S looks ten times worse – and when would you ever see either, except in crosswords?] We oldies are relying on you youngsters to maintain some kind of standards! Bravo in the meantime!
[And, while on the subject, Colin, it was a great clue!]
I thought that this crossword was lamentable.
Re #10:
I don’t like people saying a thing like this without telling us why?
So, Edward, could you please explain?
Lamentable Edward? I thought it was great.
The splitting of the long phrase into 2 such separate constructions was particularly elegant and I also liked the cheesey bits like the homophone.
Stiofain
Edward
I would be very happy if all puzzles were as bad as this.
Please don’t be surprised when in due course Paul is annointed Saint Paul II.
But not for a long time I hope.
19 Ac. Toothless parrot? Like all other birds, parrots do not have teeth. Perhaps Paul has been misled by Steve Bell’s toothy penguins, who also have navels.
Only just checked this one. 1a threw me as I had ‘deport’ as the answer (roped reversed and deport as possible outcome of customs search! As a result couldnt get 1d or 2d. Wonderful Paul genius nevertheless.
Andrew T #14 – are you not familiar with the old saying “Nothing succeeds like a toothless budgie”? This was the first solution I filled in. I presume Paul referred to parrots in his clue rather than budgies because they can “talk”. This, the fantastically terrible homophone for TRICOLOUR, and the hilarious 22d are exactly what I like about Paul’s crosswords.
rightback – I’m sure the Poppies theme was deliberate. I reckon Paul is about the right age to have been a PWEI fan back in the day.
The sort of relentlessly obscure puzzle that appeals to those solvers who look down on puzzles solvable by mere mortals. I got 14,16,19 from context but couldn’t be bothered to wade through the ridiculously complex clue to confirm it.