Another excellent puzzle from the master, as usual with a theme underlying it, I refer to this following the clue explanations. Solving time, 28 mins, of which the last 8 were trying to work out the interlinked answers 4A, 5D, 7D
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 SWEET WEE in ST (11 is SAINT)
4 GENTLEMAN GET (win) around N (new) LEMAN (lover)
9 FOB Initial letters of Festival of Britain
10 ODOUR DO (function) in OUR (Monarch’s possessive ie from ‘the Royal we’ so ‘my’ becomes ‘our’)
11 SAINT Sin (first letter) AIN’T = isn’t
12 GEORGE Double definition, one of the characters in Jerome K Jerome’s book ‘Three Men in a Boat’ and the automatic pilot in an aircraft.
13 MORALITY O (nothing) in (MY TRIAL)*
15 ALLOTROPE ALLOT ROPE From chemistry, some elements can exist in more than one form, came out of distant memory when tackling the puzzle.
16 ANGEL Double definition, financial backer (eg theatre), and a coin of the past
18 DEVIL LIVED = experienced (reversed)
21 RESITTING RESTING around IT
24 FELONIES (One’s life)*
25 DRAGON DRAG ON
27 KNAVE knave = jack is an honour card in bridge
28 PAVES AVE (Hail) – from Latin in first letters of Perfect Storm
29 ENA 9 is FOB The letters of ENA are one before each of FOB’s letters in the alphabet.
30 SCOUNDREL (DON CLUES R)* Surface referring jokingly to two setters, I think, Don Manley and Rufus (of the Guardian)
31 NASTY 8 = NATTY so change central letter, 1 across = SWEET
DOWN
1 SAFEGUARD EG in (FRAUD AS)*
2 EMBROIL BRO (little brother) in EMIL. Not quite sure what Emil = German refers to, maybe a typical German name or perhaps refers to a (German) book from the 1920s, Emil and the Detectives.
3 THOUGHT THOUGH (however) T (little time) Definition: did judge Excellent surface, my favourite clue today.
4 GOOD DO (going up) after GO (Japanese board game)
5 NARCOLEPSY My last answer. COPS are divided CO and PS in (NEARLY)*. A medical condition.
6 LA SCALA (Callas)* A Famous opera house in Milan and Maria Callas, famous opera singer
7 MAIMING M (male) AIMING (training in the sense of ‘taking aim’) Nicely misleading.
8 NATTY N (new) ATTY (abbrev for Attorney)
14 DOORKEEPER (ROOK)* in DEEPER
17 LEGENDARY Double definition
19 VOLCANO V AN in (COOL)* One to cheer up those tackling the puzzle to pass the time waiting in an airport…
20 LANTERN LAN(d) = light (vb) TERN
22 TURNS IN Double definition
23 INGRESS (Singer’s)*
24 FAKES Alternate letters of FrAnKnEsS Definition: isn’t genuine
26 EVIL LIVE (upwards) ref electricity
Theme: Throughout the grid words with opposite thematic meanings appear in symmetrical positions eg SWEET, NASTY, GENTLEMAN, SCOUNDREL, GOOD, EVIL etc etc
9a ENA from FOB. Never would have occurred to me in a million years. Was thinking of what comes before 9 – which is 8, which sounds like ATE. Reverse ATE and you get ETA, which I’m sure must be a female name somewhere in the world…. Why is it I always have one wrong or unsolved?
Do you think that all the “good” words are above, and “bad” ones below, the central nina “rope” deliberately?
An excellent themed grid-fill with beautiful clueing ENA particularly inventive.
Thanks, nms, for the blog. Did get there in the end, apart from ENA, where I entered EVA because I couldn’t think of anything else. There are clearly some opposite meanings in the grid, but I don’t understand it all.
Just to point out to lurkers that DEVIL in 18ac is from DEVIL’S ADVOCATE. I think.
And 28ac gave me a flashback to Ave Maria, gratia plena, dominus tecum in my (non-abusive, since you ask) Catholic secondary school.
Pat @ no 1: I share the same feeling a lot of the time when I can’t get one or two, but then think that tomorrow’s another day. (For which there’s probably a Latin expression with which someone more eruditer than what I am will supply us.)
I did also notice saint george and dragon in there. I doubt that’s just a coincidence.
Easy but good. They say that is the hallmark of a good compiler!
The GEORGE and DRAGON I’d put down as among the possible symmetrical opposites without being 100% sure of it.
Yes, I liked ENA. Got 16ac the wrong way, “AN” for A, + “GEL” as ‘bit of old money’ GEL(d), as in Danegeld. Didn’t know about the coin. The paper version not foldable again though.
K’s D,
I’m not sure if Devil does come from Devil’s Advocate. To make legal assistant into Devil’s Advocate and thence somehow into Devil doesn’t work for me. I think it just refers to a menial in an office job – it’s most commonly Printer’s Devil, but can also be used for someone doing a menial job in, say, a solicitor’s office.
I didn’t really spot the theme. Like flashling, I thought it was something to do with Saint George and the Dragon. I was also a bit stumped by Ena.
I certainly saw it as ‘good’ in the top half and ‘evil’ in the bottom, in symmetrical pairs. I worked that out when stuck with one clue to go. Three Men in a Boat and the pilot had me stumped, but when I realised it had to be a counterpart to dragon, that did the trick.
I saw ROPE in the middle, Ian, but why would that divide good and evil?
I never saw why allotrope and resitting are opposites of one another. Still don’t
I think it’s only some of the entries, Wil.
Mick @10
Have you never heard the saying “No’but them as bad uns’ll be found under’t’rope”?*
We use it in our house all the time, especially when we’re trying to frighten our son.
*OK, I made that up. Sorry.
I don’t know why. I just it thought there may be a reason.
A well-known saying I’ve never heard of? A reference to Leopold & Leow? Gallows?…
Neal @ no 9: you’re no doubt right, I was just thinking along the lines of advocate being a legal person/lawyer. My brain was a bit frazzled by the time I’d finished. Are we all agreed that it was an incomplete theme from Virgilius that only covered some of the answers, or have we missed something? Not to take away anything from the crossword if it was just a partial theme; it was the usual entertaining stuff.
Ian, you need to rein in your imagination. Tha’s frightenin’ me, lad, never mind t’young’uns, happen …
We agree it’s an incomplete theme but a good, enjoyable puzzle.
Good succeeding over evil? We think the ‘rope’ is a coincidence but we wouldn’t like to put our necks in it!!
Did this on the website in the early hours,29 across being last to go in.Put in Eva, but as the congrats message didn’t appear I knew I was wrong.Tried Ena as it was the only other gir’s name I could think of.Didn’t understand it but thought ‘evanine’ might have been a word.
It was only this morning whilst preparing chilli for tonight’s meal and listening to LVB(who says men can’t multitask) that the penny dropped.Very clever clue!
I wonder if the theme is something to do withthe film ‘The Good,The Bad and The Ugly’?
I seem to remember plenty of hangings in it.
Being a bit of a computer person I was aware of HAL (2001 a space…) <= IBM in a similar away and got ETA quickly but unless there's something else really clever couldn't see the antonym. Estimated time of arrival / FOB watch tenuous at best. Something is still nagging in my mind about rope and angels from a book I've read though.
I thought this was remarkably easy for a Virgilius. Took a while for the penny to drop on a few clues (e.g. ENA) but I completed the puzzle before I noticed the symmetrical opposites. Regarding 18a, Chambers gives one meaning as “a drudge (esp legal – hence the advocate connotation – or literary)” and also has it as a verb meaning “to perform another person’s drudgery”.
Paul A: I’m with you about the dead tree version not being foldable. Have you complained to the Indy? I suggest all users of the paper version do so.
Enjoyed the joke at my expense ( and indeed the puzzle as a whole)!
I put in clues like 5d,19d and 4a (because I had 2 ‘n’ in the clue) without fully understanding them.Never heard of Leman for lover.Put in 18 from Devil’s advocate which maybe wrong but right in the crossword from which I got volcano.Along with the anagrams which I love and knowing the names of 3 men in a boat I finished this all but Ena ( I had Eva).Very pleased with myself.Kathryn’s dad (cras illud esset as alium diem or thereabouts ! )A level Latin 1975!
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