No prizes for guessing the subject of the celebration in this puzzle.
Happy 80th birthday to Roger Squires, also known in FT circles as Dante.
This puzzle contains numerous references to Roger Squires’s life. He was born in 1932 and educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School, leaving at 15 to serve as a rating in the Royal Navy, training at the HMS Ganges base, once notorious for harsh treatment. He eventually became an observer flying in the Fleet Air Arm. At sea he passed his time setting cryptic crosswords, learning card tricks and joined the Magic Circle. On leaving the navy he became a professional actor and magician, making hundreds of appearances on British Television. On the breakup of his marriage he was forced to give up acting to be at home to care for his two children. To make ends meet he ramped up his crossword output, selling crosswords at some time to almost all the British newspapers, notably including the FT, Observer, Guardian (as Rufus) and the Glasgow Herald. He calculated that at the time he needed to produce 40 crosswords per week to survive financially. This output eventually led to him being recognised in the Guiness Book of Records as the most prolific cryptic crossword setter in the world. He is a member of Mensa, lives in Ironbridge and has grandchildren called Esme and Oscar.
My apologies for the late posting, but for some reason there was no online version of this puzzle and I had to spend ages driving around trying to find a somewhere selling a paper copy of the FT.
Thank you very much to John H who kindly prompts me to look for words hidden in today’s grid: guru fusillade, period antepost, basillica russet, sharpshod gear and longbow erect. These are all pseudonymns used by Roger Squires.
| Across | ||
| 7 | ROGER | double definition |
| 9 | SQUIRES | Second QU (question) I RES (reserve) |
| 10 | SHARP-SHOD | SHARP (someone crafty with cards) SH (quiet) ODd (funny, unfinished) – fitted with spiked horseshoes |
| 11 | GEAR | hidden (secret) in IronbridGE ARtitste – definition is paraphernalia |
| 12 | BASILICA | B (first letter of boat) and anagram (seen off) of CALAIS and I (one, roman numeral) |
| 15 | RUSSET | RUfuS (missing much of fun) and SET (compile) – rufous means reddish-brown |
| 17 | ITS A KIND OF MAGIC | (KING ADMIT FIASCO)* – album and song by the rock band Queen, also reference to Roger Squires membership of the Magic Circle and also his frequently elegant cryptic clues |
| 21 | PERIOD | EsmE and OscaR (final letters) in POD (school, of whales) |
| 24 | ANTE-POST | Ace and TEN-SPOT* – a bet placed well before a race |
| 25 | GURU | maGic (essence of=centre) with Relax (start of) between UU (two u-turns) |
| 26 | FUSILLADE | anagram (preposterous) of DULL (mostly) LIFE A and Stultifying (a little of) – definition is ‘hail’ |
| 29 | LONGBOW | MeNsa (core of) in LOG (record) and BOW (take a bow=to acknowledge) |
| 30 | ERECT | puzzlE (ultimately) and RECT (sounds like wrecked=ruined) – definition is ‘hard’ |
| Across | ||
| 1 | BRASSART | BRASS (chutzpah) and ART (trickery) – an arm-piece in a suit of armour |
| 2 | PROP | PRO (for) Puzzling (a little bit of) – definition is ‘back up’ |
| 3 | GSOH | SO (very) inside Glasgow Herald (leaders of) – abbreviation in the personal columns for ‘good sense of humour’, wit |
| 4 | FUND | FUN (entertainment) crossworD (end of) – definition is ‘supply’ |
| 5 | BRUGES | BRUtal GanGES (skipping over six letters) |
| 6 | ESCAPE | APE (take off, copy) after ESC (key on computer keyboard) |
| 8 | GRANITA | (A RATING)* – an Italian water-ice dessert |
| 13 | ILIAD | DAILIes (newspapers, two letters missing) reversed (recalled) – epic poem by Homer |
| 14 | ALDEA | cAlLeD (regularly, every other letter) and EA (each) – a place in Lanzarote, also Spanish for ‘village’ |
| 15 | REFIT | anagram (affecting) of FT IE (that is) Right – definition is ‘refit’ |
| 16 | SAG | gAnGeS* periodicaly=every other letter, planned=anagram – definition is ‘sinking’, as a noun |
| 18 | SIR | contained in makeS IRonbridge – definition is ‘feted fellow’ |
| 19 | APPEASE | Actor (first letter of) PP (very quiet) EASE (quiet) – definition is ‘quiet’, to quieten |
| 20 | INSPECTS | INSECTS (flies perhaps) containing (without, going outside of) Parachute (initial letter of) |
| 22 | EQUALS | E (electronic) QUAiLS (game, birds) missing I=the first bit of incertitutde |
| 23 | IGUANA | GUArdIAN (missing RD=road, way) – could be a monitor lizard |
| 26 | FOBS | From One Brilliant Setter (starting letters) – definition is ‘tricks’, old=archaic defiition |
| 27 | SEWN | EW (bridge partners) in School and Navy – definition is ‘joined’ |
| 28 | LEEK | General Robert E. LEE and Knowledge (part 1=first letter) – town in Staffordshire |
*anagram
The ‘others’, as in the Guardian puzzle inappopriately credited solely to me, were Cincinnus/Orlando, Arachne, Loroso/Anax (whose own tribute appears in today’s Telegraph Toughie), Lato/Tyrus and Gozo/Doc, who was responsible for the superb anagram forming the Guardian puzzle’s standfirst.
This puzzle contains a group of ninas, if you fancy a search!
Io/Enigmatist
Unless someone persuades the FT site to put today’s puzzle up, I don’t think you are going to get many comments today! And no, I haven’t looked at the review above, I carefully scrolled down the page with my eyes shut as I don’t want to spoil the fun.
I second the motion @2. What are the FT up to?
Of all the days……..
Thanks John H @1 for prompting me to look for the ninas. I don’t normally look out for ninas much, I feel they usually add interest more for the setters than the solvers. However, this time I am clearly amiss as the ninas are a very relevant and important part of the theme.
I should have twigged by the unusual shape of the grid, but did not get further than looking for a birthday message around the edge.
Thanks again for the prod. I wonder what else I have missed?
Puzzle is on FT website now
It’s online now.
Thanks to PeeDee and setters. Found this one very tough; I guess there’s some fairly intricate wordplay. Good fun, all the same, and the ninas in the (now) completed puzzle are very apt. How many birthdays will the great man need, with all these aliases?
Got the crossword in the end. Took a while but a very enjoyable tribute to a great setter.
What a great puzzle!
Thanks to all of ‘you’.
17ac is just IT.
Nina?
Now you’ve mentioned it, I see in the 6th row ICARUS, in the 10th DANTE and in row no 12 RUFUS.
The 14th row gives us BOWER. Also relevant?
Is there even more?
Bloody hell – this was really a clever crossword.
And looking at the surfaces, a wholly apt tribute.
Just great!
Oops, PeeDee, didn’t read your preamble well enough ….
Was too much focused on John H’s mentioning of there being a Nina (which didn’t get a follow-up in the posts).
Still, a fantastic tribute!!
Hi Sil, what do you mean by 17ac is just IT?
Well, PeeDee, sorry to be a little bit too concise (or confusing) but what I meant was:
This is the clue that says it all.
The anagram is not quite right at 26a. It’s DUL(l) (largely dull) plus LIFE A and S(tultifying).
Thank you Tom_I, fixed now.
Sil – I agree!