What a struggle.
Firstly there was no magazine in The Independent in my local shop and none to be had in the nearest big city. A quick SOS email to my bellow floggers soon provided me with enough copies to paper a room – thanks guys.
Secondly, there were no clues to 26, 28, 29, 31, 32 & 33 down. Surely they can’t all be thematic and even if they are, surely they would say so, especially 29d which we already know to be thematic. Time for another email, this time to the crossword editor who kindly provides his email address at the bottom of the puzzle.This time it seems like there had been some kind of editorial cock-up confusion and Mike was able to provide the missing clues:
26 Good friend supports American trumpeter (5)
28 Home team replays at Nuremberg (5)
29 See preamble (5)
31 Waterproof jacket certainly not lost in the drink (4)
32 Flier, one serving on Ark Royal? (4)
33 Vessel’s neat, newly rigged (4)
Thirdly, it was a rugby weekend and I just had to watch (and thoroughly enjoy) Scotland beating Australia for the first time in 27 years, so no cruciverbalistics until Sunday at the earliest.
Fourthly, and some would say, most importantly, it was my wife’s birthday weekend so she wouldn’t take too kindly to me having a crossword stuck to my nose all weekend.
So, on to the puzzle itself, Glow-worm, eh? I’m not sure I’ve met him before but I’m sure that HolyGhost will give us the gen when he reads this. A lengthy preamble that is difficult to understand at first, never mind there’s no mention of extra letters or suchlike (except that six clues contain “22 19” which needs to be removed – whatever that means) so on to solving the clues. Most of the answers came fairly quickly. Two notable exceptions were 32d which I initially had wrong and 3d which I still don’t understand. The unclued words were: (22a) STROLLING, (19d) PLAYERS and (29d) AGAIN. Six clues (16a, 18a, 30a, 2d, 6d & 28d) contained a jumble of PLAYERS which had to be removed. Then I had the task of unraveling what was going on. This proved troublesome. I spent the next few days picking it up, staring at it and putting it back down until suddenly one day the centesimo dropped!
The six clues containing STROLLING PLAYERS had jumbled place names which proved hard to decipher. My first potential lead was 6d whose residual letters are an anagram of ANDOVER but no amount of googling brought results for “STROLLING PLAYERS” +ANDOVER. Then I suddenly realized I didn’t need to use all of the letters thus VERONA became a candidate, so I started researching Two Gentlemen of Verona – I carry The Complete Works of Shakespeare with me everywhere, thanks to my iPhone – to no avail. Then I noticed a potential VENICE in 30a. Now Google was more forthcoming, “STROLLING PLAYERS” +VENICE +VERONA gave me the lyrics to We Open in Venice, which, in turn led to KISS ME, KATE. The tour is represented in the song We Open in Venice from the Cole Porter musical KISS ME, KATE. The missing letters of the six places, VENICE, VERONA, CREMONA, PARMA, MANTUA and PADUA had to be inserted into the blank spaces in the perimeter. Other letters (apart from last letter of 29d) not forming a part of the place names, spelt out KISS ME, KATE.
Thematic clues:
| Across | ||
| No. | Entry | Wordplay |
| 10 | MESAL | Hidden word: priME SALmon |
| 11 | LANCE | Double definition |
| 12 | EQUILIBRATION | ON TEQUILA BLAIRITE(anag)-LATE |
| 16 | TUT | (see above) |
| 17 | CADET | AD (nowadays) inside TEC (detective) (all reversed) |
| 18 | HILL | (see above) |
| 20 | STENT | Double definition |
| 21 | MYALGIA | AMYGDALA-DA (Diploma in Anaesthetics) (anag) |
| 22 | STROLLING | (unclued) |
| 24 | AUNT | N(ewcomer) inside AUT (Association of University Teachers: group of dons) |
| 25 | HALAL | A (indefinte article) inside (Jerry) HALL |
| 27 | DRAYAGE | GRAVEYARD-VR (Queen Victoria) (anag) |
| 30 | NEGATED | (see above) |
| 34 | PRO RATA | PRO (expert)+RAT (strike-breaker)+A(ssociate) |
| 35 | ROMANISED | D(eus: God)+REASON IM (anag) |
| 36 | SIND | Hidden word smallS IN Detergent |
| Down | ||
| No. | Entry | Wordplay |
| 1 | ASUNDER | Homophone: AS UNDER |
| 2 | MAIDEN | (see above) |
| 3 | ELL? | ELLE or ELLA – I don’t know 🙁 Clue: Woman’s cigar thrown away. |
| 4 | PHILHELLENIC | PHIL (boy) +(ELLEN inside HIC(K)) |
| 5 | ALB | A+LB (pound). INVESTMENT is an archaic word for clothes (vestment) |
| 6 | RARE | (see above) |
| 7 | ACTS | Double definition. ACTS is a book of The Holy Bible |
| 8 | KEITH | E(cstasy) inside KIT (Christopher)+H(eroin) |
| 9 | AROUSING | U (classy)+SIGNORA (anag) |
| 13 | MATTHEW | MATT (dull)+HEW (hack). MATTHEW is a book of The Holy Bible |
| 14 | TIMID | I’M (this writer) inside TID(E) |
| 15 | FLAG | Quadruple definition!! |
| 19 | PLAYERS | (unclued) |
| 23 | LA TÈNE | ENTAILED-ID (fish) (anag) |
| 26 | AGAMI | A(merican)+G(ood)+AMI (friend) |
| 28 | ABODE | (see above) |
| 29 | AGAIN | (unclued) |
| 31 | ARAK | A(NO)RAK |
| 32 | WREN | Double definition. I originally had CREW (an old crow) and this misled me for a while in the endgame. |
| 33 | ETNA | NEAT (anag) |
I can help with 3D. CASTELLA is a cigar (though interestigly not in Chambers, which acknowledges panatella but not castella) remove CAST (= “thrown” away) leaving ELLA. Good clue except for the dictionary omission!
Good crossword. I particularly liked the placing of AGAIN – the tour being repeated several times in the song. I wasn’t quite sure what to write under the grid, but went for “Kiss Me Kate” like kenmac. “We Open in Venice” and “The Taming of the Shrew” were possibilities.
By the way, my dictionary has La Tene (with accents) as two words – not mentioned in the clue.
I agree with both comments by George (who seems to be a bit of an early bird): CASTELLA for cigar, and La Tene is two words. I think the reason that Chambers includes “panatella” but not “castella” is that the former is a type of cigar whereas the latter is a brand name.
I had ANDOVER first of all, like kenmac, but quickly saw VENICE and CREMONA so had to rethink it.
And this is indeed Glow-worm’s first outing as Inquisitor, but (s)he’s produced about half a dozen puzzles for the Listener over the last 10 years or so, most recently just before last Christmas with one based on Hunt-the-Slipper.
You’re right George about La Téne – I’ve updated the blog. I think as I was keying it in, I thought, “I’ll check that before publishing as I don’t quite remember it.” But, of course, I forgot.
As for CASTELLA, I have vague recollections of Castella adverts on the TV in the 70’s; odd that there was no mention of proper names in the preamble.
Of course, I mean La Tène … d’oh!
If one were nit-picking, that should be “doh” not “d’oh” (according to my Chambers).
Ah! Time to update your Chambers. “D’oh” is in Chambers 2008.
So it is! – I bow to your modernity, sire.
Glow-worm is one of the regular Indy 15X15 cryptic setters as well as appearing elsewhere, eg Enigmatic Variations, Listener (as mentioned), and Telegraph Toughie. In the Listener, he specialised in puzzles based on children’s games.