We apologise for the late appearance of this blog. This was due to the wrong person having to write it.
We were told in the preamble that this was ‘An anniversary puzzle’ and indeed that is the case since Edward Lear was born two hundred years ago tomorrow. The rest of the preamble indicated the first verse of a poem that had been scattered around the grid, namely:
“How pleasant to know Mr Lear,
who has written such volumes of stuff.
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
but a few find him pleasant enough”.
The full poem can be found here.
Unfortunately, I think the preamble is wrong (unless I can’t see straight, a distinct possibility!). It should read “34 19 28 2, 34(anag) 8 6. 5 7 1ac (we hear) 16 20 4, 3 24 19 27”
In order not to delay matters further, I have kept my comments to a minimum, but if any clarification is required add your query in a comment and I will do my best to answer it.
| Across | ||
| 1 | KIM | K (king) I’M (writer’s) |
| 7 | THIN | THIN[king] (considering he’s not present) |
| 9 | ROUEN | SO ROUENis an anagram of ‘onerous’ |
| 10 | OBOE | O[n] B[o]O[z]E |
| 11 | PSYCHE | hidden in (glugging) ‘tiPSY CHEf’ |
| 12 | ARQUEBUS | [m]ARQUE (top brand) BUS[t] (nearly broke) |
| 13 | PRESERVE | P (penny) RESERVE (book) |
| 15 | EPIPEN | PIPE (container for liquid) in EN (certain space) &lit |
| 17 | WEE | double def. |
| 18 | STOP IT | SPIT (double) around (binds) TO (for) |
| 21 | ROLL ON | double def. |
| 23 | ELF | [sh]ELF (coaxed mum off ledge) |
| 25 | TE DEUM | E (energy) in an anagram (strangely) of MUTED |
| 26 | INERTEST | INTEREST with the T moved backwards (important to incur time delay) – according to Chambers, interest equates with importance rather than important. |
| 29 | SUSPEND | anagram (mistakenly) of UPS in SEND (dispatch) |
| 30 | OAK-NUT | OK (satisfactory) around (describes) A (top grade) NUT (head) |
| 31 | ICON | I CON (admission of the swindler) |
| 32 | EYING | hidden in (bottles) ‘whiskEY IN Green’ |
| 33 | OFFA | OFF (no longer engaged) A |
| 34 | HOW | [s]HOW (the leader’s failing to indicate) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | KNOCKS | KNOCK (rap) [mu]S[ic] |
| 2 | MR LEAR | ‘as if’ MR LEAR is an anagram (lost the plot) of ‘fire alarms’ |
| 3 | BUT A FEW | FAT (stout) U (you) reversed (upset) in WEB reversed (revolutionary trap) |
| 5 | SOME | homophone (gets reported) of ‘sum’ (little problem) |
| 8,6 | HAS WRITTEN SUCH VOLUMES OF STUFF | anagram (output) of EFFORTLESS FUN WITH SO MUCH VAST around (outside) U (university) |
| 14 | ELI | hidden in ‘samuEL Instruction &lit |
| 16,20,4 | ILL-TEMPERED AND QUEER | anagram (mutiny) of QUELL A PREDETERMINED and ILL-TEMPERED (cross) QUEER (camp) |
| 19 | PLEASANT | PEASANT (rustic) around (holding) L (line) |
| 22 | OAR | A in OR (gilt) |
| 24 | FIND HIM | FIN (swimmer) DIM around (out of) H (hospital) |
| 27 | ENOUGH | hidden in (to keep) ‘childrEN OUGHt’ |
| 28 | TO KNOW | OK (sanction) in an anagram (new) of TOWN |
Thanks Gaufrid – not least because I had three hanging out that I couldn’t get. Hope the chicken chasseur was as good as the crossword. I enjoyed what I solved of this one but still remain convinced that of Mr Henderson’s two Lear birthday tributes, the DT Toughie for me is the more outstanding and fun, and I was the lucky soul who got to blog it too. A great day for nonsense poetry and cryptic solvers too.
I have to admit that the preamble meant nothing but I have been educated by the clues and the blog thank you.
Gets my vote. If you knew the poem it was a walk in the park, since (astonishingly) it is all here. (And if you didn’t know it, you could google as soon as you got a signifcant phrase.) Sometimes with a set up like this the ease of entry takes away the enjoyment of solving, but not here because of the superb clueing. Hail to the Chief!