We were aked to identify a quotation round the perimeter which denied the existence of three unclued entries. Its source was indicated in the grid – clearly involving the barred off central square.
Unusually I was able to get a good start in the top left hand corner, and ENTERATE, BLUDE and ANNE led to one of the unclued entries being ??TU?N – Saturn or Autumn sprang immediately to mind.
The start of the quotation contained . . NGL . . and a guess at the start being “The English”, meant that a second of the unclued entries began with S. NEEDLES at 22A indicated that the third also began with S and TILLER at 13A gave S??I?? for one of them. I decided to enter SPRING, SUMMER and AUTUMN as the three unclued, leaving WINTER.
As 7D (WALL) began with W, I decided to look up “The English Winter” in the quotations book and there was “The English winter—ending in July, To recommence in August.” which fitted both the clue in the rubric and the space in the perimeter. It is from DON JUAN by Byron, and the J of Juan went in the central barred off square. The highlighted title is diagonal from R4C4.
Spotting the theme early really does help an enormous amount, and I finished in about an hour and a half. Writing this blog took the same again!!
It was necessary to refer to the dictionary pretty frequently for unknown words (IKAT and K(h)AT in 6D for example), but all the clues worked for me. Considering the current wet and cold snap, a topical crossword from Schadenfreude!
In the table below, I have put (Ch) by meanings that are confirmed almost word for word in Chambers.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 9 | TONE | Vocal Expression (Ch) – T(enor) +ONE |
| 10 | PLANT | A slip (Ch) – PANT (long, as in “As pant’s the hart”) round L(ecturer) |
| 11 | STEWARD | Ship’s officer – [WATERS D]* |
| 12 | UREDINE | Plant rust (Ch) – U(niform) + RED + IN + E |
| 13 | TILLER | Double meaning – sapling (Ch) and cultivator |
| 14 | GARBOARD | Ship’s planks (Ch) – G(erman + (L)ARBOARD (port or left on ship) |
| 17 | SITE | Situation – sounds like SIGHT |
| 18 | SAGAMAN | Story-teller – GAS reversed + A + MAN (male sexual partner Ch) |
| 21 | RIBALD | Mean (Ch) – RIB + A L(or)D |
| 22 | NEEDLES | Threads (Ch) – NEED LES(S) |
| 26 | ISLE | Corsica perhaps – IS + LE |
| 28 | SUMATRAN | From Indonesia – SUM (whole) + A + T(ons) + RAN (smuggled) |
| 29 | ECARTE | Game – TRACE reversed+ E(cho) |
| 32 | MORNING | Dawn – MO (Maureen) + R(ex) + N(ew) + IN + G(overnment) |
| 34 | WHIMSEY | Capricious (whimsey is usually a noun, but can be an adjective) – H in (Lord Peter) WIMSEY |
| 35 | NAOMI | Campbell perhaps – MOAN reversed + I(n) |
| 36 | NAAN | Bread – AN reversed + A + N |
| Down | ||
| 1 | HOORAY | Approving shout – O(ver) + O(ther) R(anks) in HAY (dance) |
| 2 | ENTERATE | With a digestive tract – E(nrolled) N(urse) + [TREAT]* + E(arl) |
| 3 | NOTION | Fancy (Ch) – N(ew) + MOTION minus M(ember) |
| 4 | GWEN | Girl – GEN round W(elsh) |
| 5 | LOWERS | Double meaning, glares and reduces. |
| 6 | IKAT | A technique for colouring yarn (Ch) – I(n) + KAT (or khat in Ch – tea leaves) |
| 7 | WALL | Defence – W(eak) + ALL |
| 8 | INLET | A piece inserted (Ch) – IN + LET |
| 15 | BLUDE | Scottish blood – BUDE round L |
| 16 | ANNE | Princess – ANN (Ch annat – half-year’s stipend paid to Scottish minister’s widow) + E |
| 17 | SABOT | Footwear – SAT round BO |
| 19 | ARUM | Lily – A + RUM |
| 20 | MADRIGAL | A song – MAD + [A GIRL]* |
| 23 | LITHIC | From stone – LIT + HIC |
| 24 | PARENT | Pop – [ART PEN]* |
| 25 | LANDAU | Carriage – LAND + AU |
| 27 | SCRAM | Hence! – S + CRAM |
| 30 | ATOM | Something very small – A + MOT reversed |
| 31 | EIRE | Country – ER + IE all reversed |
| 33 | OSLO | Capital – O’S + L + O(f) |
Since I was flying to Shanghai the day after this puzzle came out, I thought I’d leave it for the long journey – with no dictionary & no Google. Having settled into my seat, I started solving what turned out to be a remarkably easy puzzle, and finished (apart from I_AT at 6d) just as we were preparing for a slightly delayed take-off … somewhat disappointed, as we still had 11 hours to go!
I first came across the quotation in Aug 1975. It was in Azed 178, a Letters Latent competition puzzle, word to be clued A(U)G(U)ST.
Enjoyed this one – didn’t find it too hard at all, though was perhaps greatly helped by the quotation having appeared as a (very) long anagram in a Quixote puzzle a few weeks previous.
I thought this was probably the easiest Schadenfreude puzzle I have ever done. Very enjoyable none the less. Like Hihoba, it was England or English that was the key to unlocking the quotation and then Spring, Summar and Autumn fell very quickly.