The usual high-quality clueing from Bannsider, with a varied mix of the old and the new – and no particular theme or nina (that I could see).
The old/classic? References to Levi, Hosea, Eucharist, Coeur de Lion, Russian dissenters and Lilliputians. The new? A recent Manchester United goalkeeper, some hi-tech scanning equipment and a Spielberg film. And a bit in the middle – stamp collectors and a pop star’s daughter.
A bit of a curious mix, and once the long answers round the outside and the four relatively quick-get 3-letter answers were in place, it all fell together maybe a bit too quickly for a Saturday prize puzzle? With a few Xs, Vs and a Z I did wonder if it might be a pangram – but it is at least a Q and a J short of that.
As ever, on closer inspection of the clues for blogging, there are some gems that I glossed over first time round. 1A – suggesting that SCHINDLER’S LIST may be a little overlong?! (I have to admit I have never watched it in full.) 10A with a NEWSSTAND as a ‘Sun’-seeker’s objective. And 11A with Cockney Rebels and The Sweet scoring number ones with their chart music. Sublime! And that is just 3 of the first 4 clues…
My favourite was probably ‘One minute…’ for LILLIPUTIAN at 13D – which was educational as it took a little Wiki-oogling to work out that the setter was not ennobling himself – there really is a Lord Bannside – any relation?! Probably closely followed by Lisa Marie Presley as ‘The King’s daughter’.
One minor quibble (or minsinterpretation by me) would be the homophone(?) of ROWS/ROSE at 5D – which needs a bit of visualisation as well, as ROWS meaning arguments/scraps would sound more like ROUSE than ROSE?
Anyway, in a busy week I was grateful for a relatively uncomplicated solve/blog – either that or I was in too much of a hurry to spot anything fiendishly clever hidden here…
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1A | SCHINDLER’S LIST | Hours into shifting stills, discern picture (10,4) | Picture (Steven Spielberg film) / anag (i.e. shifting) of STILLS DISCERN plus H (hours) |
| 9A | AFFIX | Glue maybe sounds like something addict must have (5) | Glue / sounds like ‘a fix’, which is something an addict (drugs, coffee, crosswords?!) may need |
| 10A | NEWSSTAND | Sun-seekers’ objective perhaps is fresh place to bask, without stone (9) | Sun-seeker’s objective, perhaps (where one might buy the Sun newspaper/comic) / NEW (fresh) + SAND (place to bask, ‘in the sun’), around (without) ST (stone) |
| 11A | PEAR DROP | Listened to Cockney Rebel’s number one, chart music covers and The Sweet (4,4) | (the) sweet / POP (chart music) around (covering) EARD (heard, dropping the ‘h’, as a Cockney might do) plus R (first letter of Rebel) |
| 12A | AMALFI | Earlier Hitchcock, familiarly one showing Italian location (6) | Italian location / AM (morning, earlier) + ALF (familiar form of Alfred – Hitchcock) + I (one) |
| 15A | OLD BELIEVER | Dissenting Russian using daggers to keep lord still (3,8) | Dissenting Russian (vs. the Orthodox church) / OBELI (daggers – symbol used in printing, to indicate a footnote) around (keeping) LD (lord), plus EVER (still) |
| 17A | LEV | Priest almost ready for trip to Sofia? (3) | Ready (money, cash) for trip to Sofia (Bulgaria) / LEV (Bulgarian currency) = LEV(I) (priest, almost) |
| 18A | LOU | Male or female watch that comes with centrepiece for hours or minutes (3) | Male or female (name) / LO (interjection – ‘behold!’ or ‘watch!’) + U (middle letter of either hoUrs or minUtes) |
| 19A | COEUR DE LION | For Richard I talked of separate energy supplier (5,2,4) | (Nickname) for Richard I / French (talked of, in another language) for Lionheart – Richard I’s nickname, and a lion’s heart could be a separate ‘energy supplier’ (?) |
| 20A | CAFTAN | Shirt worn at FA Cup needs returning (6) | Shirt / reversed and hidden word in ‘worN AT FA Cup” |
| 21A | ART HOUSE | Type of cinema seat that engulfs you (3,5) | Type of cinema / ARSE (seat, behind) around (engulfing) THOU (you) |
| 24A | OUT WITH IT | Demand for comment from fool meeting success (3,4,2) | Demand for comment / OUTWIT (fool someone) + HIT (success) |
| 26A | SWISS | Tell, say, Westminster tale Tory overlooked twice (5) | (William) Tell, say / SW1 (Westminster postcode) + S(TORY) twice (tale, without Tory) |
| 27A | FLATBED SCANNER | Dull county person taking stick bringing in new image-maker (7,7) | image-maker / FLAT (dull) + BEDS (Bedfordshire, county) + CANER (one using a stick, or cane) around N (new) |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1D | STAMP COLLECTOR | Rock act promotes fifties clubs: one makes albums (5,9) | one makes albums / anag (i.e. rock) of ACT PROMOTES + LL (Roman numerals, 50s) + C (clubs) |
| 2D | HUFF AND PUFF | Remove from board with great publicity and fuss (4,3,4) | fuss / HUFF (remove e.g. draughts piece, from game board) AND (with) PUFF (great publicity) |
| 3D | NIXED | Team in retreat after lift gets cancelled (5) | cancelled / DEN (retreat, or lair) around XI (eleven, or team) – all lifted up |
| 4D | LONDONIZED | Scrawled on old note one last letter resembling capital? (10) | resembling capital (of England) / anag (i.e. scrawled) of ON OLD, plus N (note) + I (one) + ZED (last letter) |
| 5D | ROWS | Scraps were revolting when picked up (4) | scraps / visual homophone(?) – ROWS (scraps, fights), when pronounced as in rowing a boat, sounds like ROSE (rebelled, revolted) |
| 6D | LISA MARIE | The King’s daughter in fairy story stuff, as one recalled (4,5) | The ‘king’ (Elvis Presley)’s daughter / LIE (fairy story) around ISA MAR – RAM (stuff) + AS + I (one) – all recalled |
| 7D | SPA | First-placer from Aintree’s odds on for Cheltenham? (3) | Cheltenham (spa town) / SP (starting prices, bookies’ odds) on A (first letter of Aintree) |
| 8D | EDWIN VAN DER SAR | Dutch goalkeeper, having arrived, swanned about (5,3,3,3) | Dutch (and former Manchester United) goalkeeper / anag (i.e. about) of ARRIVED SWANNED |
| 13D | LILLIPUTIAN | One minute left, after which I’m going to one place Lord Bannside goes (11) | One minute (as in ‘someone tiny’) / L (left) + ILL (I’ll, I am going to) + I (one) + PUT (place) + IAN (Ian Paisley, aka Lord Bannside) |
| 14D | OVERWRITES | Finished with liturgies, replaces with something new? (10) | replaces with something new / OVER (finished) + W (with) + RITES (liturgies) |
| 16D | EUCHARIST | Bread and wine and tea is breaking the day up (9) | Bread and wine / EUT (Tue, day, up), broken by CHAR (tea) + IS |
| 22D | HOSEA | Good book – one taken to bed to counteract dry article (5) | Good book (of the Bible) / HOSE (something used on a (flower) bed to counteract dryness) + A (indefinite article) |
| 23D | SHOE | Trainer maybe has run out of support (4) | Trainer, maybe / SHO(R)E – support, shore up, without R (run) |
| 25D | TEL | Scaled down fellow’s steeple regularly (3) | Scaled down (diminutive) fellow’s (name) – i.e. short for Terry, which, in turn, can be short for Terence) / regular letters of sTeEpLe |
A hugely entertaining challenge as usual from Bannsider, with lots of imaginative and misleading definitions.
Must say I share mc_rapper67’s unease about 5Dn – to me it seems unfair and illogical that the homophonous wordplay fails to match the definition.
19Ac I took to be a homophone of CURDLE (to separate) + E.ON (German-based energy provider), although I’m not entirely convinced that ‘curdle’ and ‘separate’ mean the same thing.
Thanks for the blog. 19a as per @Richard Heald’s comment.
This was the second ‘who are you and what have you done with Bannsider puzzle’ for me in a row. Either that or I am finally achieving my aim of getting on his wavelength. I solved this in a couple of sessions but all on the same day which is a first. The final penny drop moment being the splendid ‘king’s daughter’ D’oh indeed.
Thanks to Bannsider for an extremely enjoyable challenge. Thanks for the blog too.
5dn was an error for which I sincerely apologise. In future I must read my homophone clues aloud!
Lord Bannside is no relation. He featured in January’s puzzle also so I thought I’d echo that with a further reference …