Layers within layers – what seemed at first to be a nice fluffy topical thematic puzzle (I know, we aren’t supposed to give away too much in these first sentences, but there can’t be many people on the planet, let alone among the Indy readership, who aren’t aware of this theme) turned out to have a chilling/sinister undercurrent of a sub-theme…
After a busy weekend I settled down to this on the train to work on Monday, slotted in 9A – OLYMPIC, got 10A ANTWERP with a link between 9A and 11A, and immediately assumed 11A would be GAMES, and then found AMSTERDAM at 12A. Simple enough?
I then sat back, looked at the rest of the clues for the first time, and was struck by that linkage – 9/11 – appearing 8 times. An iconic reference, but a month or so early for an anniversary theme? Then I went to fill in that top left corner and actually solved 2D – SYDNEY from the wordplay and Olympics theme before I re-read it – and stopped in my tracks:
‘Yes, NY devastated about day – 9/11’
Wow. Add to that the clues for 19A – ST LOUIS, ‘9/11 – souls destroyed with it?‘, and 26A – BARCELONA, with ‘collapses’ as the anagram indicator, and you have some powerful images/surface readings leading to answers unconnected with the events of that day, but relevant to the juxtaposition of 9A OLYMPIC and 11A VENUE (not GAMES, as I had by now worked out).
I have no idea if this was intentional, with the linkage of 9/11 decided up front, or just a coincidence of the theme words ending up at 9 and 11 leading to Phi thinking and clueing in this vein, but it certainly adds some depth to an otherwise, dare I say it, routine(?) thematic of 8 Olympic cities, most of which were quite quickly ‘gettable’, and which gave plenty of crossing letters to help with other entries.
Some other sporting/Olympic references – 3D with a man (Roger Bannister) ‘taking mile in record time’; SPORTSMAN at 23A, with the added image of kinky sex in a hospital (oooh, matron!); LANCE at 27A (not sure if Mr Armstrong ever cycled in the Olympics?); TONIC at 21A – hopefully not too many athletes resorting to ‘boosting’ substances this fortnight?; and, at a putsch(?), a German word FELDGRAU at 7D, to go with the MUNICH games at 25D.
Even 1A adds another layer of topicality – referring to the ‘end of euro’ and the ‘situation in Greece’, with an ‘unknown politician in charge’…
I should have known not to expect ‘fluffy’ with Phi, especially in a prize puzzle, and there may be more subtleties that I have missed here. I would say not too difficult a puzzle, as a Saturday prize cryptic crossword, but certainly an interesting one.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 9A | OLYMPIC | End of euro left unknown politician in charge re situation in Greece (7) | re situation in Greece / O (last letter of eurO) + L (left) + Y (unknown, mathematics) + MP (politician) + IC (in charge) |
| 10A | ANTWERP | 9/11 article by fool (7) | Olympic venue / AN (article) + TWERP (fool) |
| 11A | VENUE | Location’s energy supplied by Phosphorus mostly (5) | Location / VENU (most of Venus, or Phosphorus, the morning star) + E (energy) |
| 12A | AMSTERDAM | 9/11 – stream diverted by what could block it (9) | Olympic venue / AMSTER (anag, i.e. diverted, of STREAM) + DAM (what might block a stream) |
| 13A | RHYMESTER | Poet’s rewritten the merry verses at last (9) | Poet / anag (i.e. rewritten) of THE MERRY + S (last letter of verses) |
| 14A | MORAL | Practical lesson – liable to die without it ultimately (5) | Practical lesson / MORtAL (likely to die, without T, last letter of IT) |
| 16A | ARMBAND | Doctor in Irish islands finally identified – addition to jacket? (7) | addition to jacket / ARAN (Irish islands) around MB (doctor, Medicinae Baccalaureus (Latin), Bachelor of Medicine) + D (last letter of identifieD) |
| 19A | ST LOUIS | 9/11 – souls destroyed with it? (2, 5) | Olympic venue / anag (i.e. destroyed) of SOULS + IT |
| 21A | TONIC | Important note, something providing a boost (5) | double defn. / TONIC can be the first note of a musical scale – or a ‘pick-me-up’/boost |
| 23A | SPORTSMAN | Game fellow left to get kinky sex in hospital (9) | Game fellow / SAN (sanatorium, hospital) around PORT (left, nautical) + SM (sado-masochism, kinky sex) |
| 26A | BARCELONA | 9/11 book and article clear on collapses (9) | Olympic venue / B (book) + A (article) + anag (i.e. collapses) of CLEAR ON |
| 27A | LANCE | Weapon corps used in track (5) | Weapon / LANE (track) around C (corps) |
| 28A | SPANGLE | Bridge cement not originally used for decoration (7) | decoration / SPAN (bridge) + GLuE (cement, without U – first letter of USED) |
| 29A | GANACHE | Group endlessly long for chocolate filling (7) | chocolate filling / GANg (group, without last letter) + ACHE (long, yearn, for) |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1D | CONVERSANT | Familiar opposing element finishing off soldier (10) | Familiar (with) / CONVERSe (opposing element, with last letter off) + ANT (soldier) |
| 2D | SYDNEY | Yes, NY devastated about day – 9/11 (6) | Olympic venue / anag (i.e. devastated) of YES + NY, around D (day) |
| 3D | EPHEMERA | Man taking mile in record time – what’s ignored by history? (8) | what’s ignored by history / EP (record) + ERA (time) around HE (man) + M (mile) |
| 4D | OCTANT | Zero tilt around boat’s stern as shown in old navigational device (6) | old navigational device / O (zero) + CANT (tilt) around T (last letter of boat) |
| 5D | PASSERES | Group of birds goes by without hesitation (8) | Group of birds / PASSES (goes by) around ER (hesitation) |
| 6D | STREAM | Flowing water power involving river (6) | Flowing water / STEAM (power) around R (river) |
| 7D | FELDGRAU | Endless material foreign guard has on in German military colour (8) | German military colour (field grey)/ FELt (material, endless) plus (on) anag (i.e. foreign) of GUARD |
| 8D | SPAM | Plans picking up unwanted correspondence (4) | unwanted correspondence / SPAM = maps (plans) backwards (picking up) |
| 15D | LOS ANGELES | Fails to secure one set in 9/11 (3, 7) | Olympic venue / LOSES (fails) around (securing) AN (one) + GEL (set) |
| 17D | MONTREAL | 9/11 – money not involved in actuality (8) | Olympic venue / M (money) + ONT (anag, i.e. involved, of NOT) + REAL (in actuality) |
| 18D | DISCOVER | Find telescope’s view of planet completed (8) | Find / DISC (what a planet looks like through a telescope) + OVER (completed) |
| 20D | LET ALONE | Never mind stock being moved into shelter (3, 5) | Never mind / LEE (shelter) around TALON (stock, of cards, remaining after the deal) |
| 22D | CLERGY | The cloth, transparent and brightly coloured, concealing articles (6) | The cloth / CLEaR (transparent) + GaY (brightly coloured), without ‘a’ twice – concealing articles) |
| 24D | ORANGE | Colour bled – individual upset about that (6) | Colour / OGE (‘ego’, individual, upset) around RAN (bled) |
| 25D | MUNICH | Artist capturing one in 9/11 (6) | Olympic venue / MUNCH (Edvard, artist) around (capturing) I (one) |
| 26D | BUST | Broken item of statuary (4) | double defn./ &lit-ish? / BUST can mean broken, or a statue – many older ones of which are often broken!? |
As you say MC an interesting twist, had the black september thing happened 6 days later it would have been quite some “coincidence” in 25d, but a nice double theme combination from Phi, must have been a bit of a toss up whether to open with Koroibos(Tees) or this last friday.
Some nice non-thematic clues and answers too, for example RHYMESTER, SPANGLE and (my nomination for CoD) GANACHE.
Thanks, Phi and MC
I enjoyed this, but invented a chocolate filling called genache (having shortened gens, which seemed to fit in with the Olympic theme).
And I’ve said this before but it doesn’t get great support because some people think it’s quite OK, but it seems to me that a clue should lead incontrovertibly to the answer. 8dn could as well be MAPS as SPAM.
Yes Wil if anything the way 8d reads to me, leads to maps not SPAM