I used to find Tramp puzzles pretty tricky but I think I must be getting on to his wavelength at last. I have not seen any of the Star Wars movies but fortunately for me it was not necessary to know anything about them to get to the solutions. Thank you Tramp.
Not a double definition or cryptic definition in sight, Rufus must have them all.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SWATCH | At last censors see cutting of material (6) |
| censorS (last letter of) WATCH (see) | ||
| 4 | DEVISER | One scheming Darth Vader primarily is ruler over empire on either side (7) |
| Darth Vader (first letters of) IS ER (the Queen, ruler) containing (over) E (either end of empire) | ||
| 9 | HOOLIGANS | Han Solo flying around close to Jedi — good fighters in crowd (9) |
| (HAN SOLO)* flying=anagram around jedI (last letter of) and G (good) | ||
| 10 | RIOJA | Simpson is captured by broadcast turning round for drink (5) |
| OJ (Simpson, American actor) in AIR (broadcast) |
||
| 11 | OMENS | Swimmer in film, returning at end of Jaws, giving warnings (5) |
| NEMO (fish in film) reversed then S (end of Jaws) | ||
| 12 | DOOLITTLE | Toilet breaks with old Higgins: subject of his bet during play? (9) |
| (TOILET OLD)* breaks=anagram – Eliza Doolitle from Pygmalion | ||
| 13 | SHADOWY | Originally, Star Wars has Yoda struggling on the dark side? (7) |
| anagram of SWH (starts of star, wars and has) and YODA | ||
| 15 | LIPOMA | Flintoff to Ponting, perhaps after line “one Australian Fat Lump” (6) |
| POM (an Englishman to an Australian) following L (line) I (one) then A (Australian) – a fatty growth | ||
| 17 | PULSAR | Star from opening sequence of picture — unusually Luke Skywalker at rest (6) |
| starts of Picture Unusually Luke Skywalker At Rest | ||
| 19 | SEVEN UP | Football manager (European) gets inside Ulrika’s head with quiet drink (5,2) |
| E (European) inside SVEN (Eriksson, football manager) U (first letter of Ulrika) with P (piano, quiet) – a fizzy drink | ||
| 22 | EMBOSSING | James Bond’s superior said what she’s doing getting a rise? (9) |
| EM (sounds like M, Bond’s boss) and BOSSING (what she does) – a raised pattern | ||
| 24 | RECCE | Repeat crackle regularly in early inspection (5) |
| RepEatCraCklE (every third letter) | ||
| 26 | IMAGE | Picture that is providing cover for Vogue, perhaps (5) |
| IE (that is) covering MAG (Vogue for example) | ||
| 27 | BREATHERS | Respites in rehab: rest drunk (9) |
| (REHAB REST)* drunk=anagram | ||
| 28 | OVERSAW | Supervised a midwife in the middle after deliveries (7) |
| A midWife (middle letter of) following OVERS (deliveries, cricket) | ||
| 29 | PINYIN | Chinese letter translator: “Good New Year at home” (6) |
| PI (good) N (new) Y (year) IN (at home) – a way of writing Chinese characters using the Latin alphabet | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCHOOLS | Trains in small church — Holland having lost leader (7) |
| S (small) CH (church) jOOLS (Holland, pianist and presenter) losing leading letter | ||
| 2 | ATONE | Repent immediately, caught out (5) |
| AT ONcE (immediately) missing C=caught | ||
| 3 | CHIP SHOPS | Workers here might batter police in quiet part (4,5) |
| HIP (in) SH (quiet) sepatates (parts) COPS (police) – they fry fish in batter | ||
| 4 | DESPOIL | Director George Lucas ultimately turning cheek, taking Oscar loot (7) |
| D (director) georgE lucaS (last letters of) then O (oscar, phonetic alphabet) in LIP (cheek) reversed (turning) | ||
| 5 | VERDI | Court missing from its decision, he noted (5) |
| VERDIct (decision) missing CT=court – a composer, he wrote notes | ||
| 6 | SPORTSMAN | Tramp’s son playing like Borg? (9) |
| (TRAMP’S SON)* anagram=playing | ||
| 7 | ROAMER | Wanderer picked up in Italian capital (6) |
| sounds like (picked up) ROMA, capital of Italy | ||
| 8 | RAN DRY | Hot over river — what it did? (3,3) |
| RANDY (hot) going over R (river) | ||
| 14 | ADUMBRATE | Outline of a silent figure (9) |
| A DUMB (silent) RATE (figure, calculate) – to create a shadowy outline | ||
| 16 | PAVAROTTI | <span>Father against shortened Nessun Dorma<i>, </i><span>perhaps too much butting in for singer (9) |
| PA (father) V (versus, against) ARIa (Nessun Dorma perhaps, shortened) containing OTT (too much) | ||
| 18 | RAINBOW | Coloured beam from lightsaber finally destroying Obi-Wan (7) |
| anagram (destroying) of R (last letter of lightsaber) and OBI-WAN | ||
| 19 | SAGGED | Dropped something laid up covered in down (6) |
| EGG (something laid) reversed (up) in SAD (down) | ||
| 20 | PRESS ON | Princess not included — acceptable to continue (5,2) |
| PRincESS missing inc (included) then ON (acceptable) | ||
| 21 | DE NIRO | Actor and daughter, topless pair of writers (2,4) |
| D (daughter) with pEN and bIRO (writers, topless) | ||
| 23 | SPEWS | Throws up seat on board (5) |
| PEW (seat) in a SS (steam ship, on board) | ||
| 25 | CHEWY | Like toffee cut inside edges of candy (5) |
| HEW (cut) in CandY (edges of) | ||
*anagram
Thanks PeeDee. Something of a mixture here I thought, the low hanging fruits were picked off quickly but more demanding clues slowed down progress considerably. I never did see the purpose of ‘on either side’ in 4a, the clue would have been complete without these three words if E = Empire as in OBE.
4a D V + IS R[uler] round E[mpir]E, I suspect.
Thanks, PeeDee. All good fun from Tramp with, characteristically, the theme being just for decoration which is the way I prefer them.
Re DEVISER, I guess Tramp had already used the initials of Darth Vader in the clue and was trying not to repeat the device (which does appear a little too often in this puzzle, perhaps) again. Anyway, Biggles A, my mother taught me that that OBE stood for Other B***ers Efforts. 😉
Nitpicking, PeeDee, I don’t think you need to include “all” in your parsing of RIOJA.
Presumably you all saw the NINA?
I liked 19d, 7d, 28a,14d, 1a, 8d with favourites being VERDI & DE NIRO.
New words for me were ‘adumbrate & lipoma’.
I failed to parse 11a & 24a correctly.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
Muffyword @4, it’s mentioned in the annotated solution although they seem to have got it the wrong way round!
NeilW @6:
Do you mean the annotated solution on the Guardian site? I see they have got it more irrespectively than respectively.
I wasn’t being sarcastic, I was just puzzled that there was no explicit mention of the NINA so far, save your allusion to “decoration”.
25d is the abbreviated name of everyone’s favourite Star Wars character. You didn’t need to know this to solve – though I do think it’s something of an achievement never to have seen the film.
And 6d contains (“Borg”) a teasing allusion to Star Trek.
Enjoyed this but missed the Nina. The only times I ever think to look for Ninjas/are when they aren’t there!
Thanks for the blog PeeDee.
I wrote this puzzle in December 2011. I’d previously written clues for HOOLIGANS and RAINBOW but had done nothing with them; the RAINBOW clue was written years ago for one of the weekly clue-writing competitions on the now defunct cryptica.com website. Anyway, I noticed these efforts in my list of ‘clues to use’ and thought maybe I could dust them down and use them in a Star Wars-themed puzzle, getting a few more references in if I could. I knew I would struggle with R2-D2 and C-3PO so I decided to hide them in the rows of unchecked letters in a suitable grid. When I wrote the androids’ names out in full, I realised they were both eight characters long and so I searched for Guardian grids with two rows of eight unchecked down cells: I don’t recall there being too many grids to choose from. I filled a grid, wrote some clues and after asking Tyrus to check it, made a few alterations and sent it to Hugh in January 2012.
After replying to the Manchester Sloggers and Betters invite with, “May the fourth (hope to be) with you”, some time later it struck me that it would be good to have a Star Wars-themed puzzle for that day. I then remembered that I’d already drafted such a puzzle and asked Hugh if he could possibly use it on May 4th. He kindly agreed but it meant my puzzle that was scheduled for (one of my heroes) Wagner’s bicentenary (22nd May) would have to be moved.
I think it turned out ok. Last Saturday was a superb day and I thoroughly enjoyed the Manchester meeting.
BigglesA: you can’t use E = ’empire’ just because it stands for ’empire’ in ‘OBE’: if you look in Collins/Chambers under ‘e’ you won’t find ’empire’ (well, not in the versions I have, anyway).
Anyway, my youngest daughter is three today so we’re off out for the day (in the rain). Have a good weekend.
Tramp
Thanks Tramp & PeeDee. Being a Star Wars fan I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, and of course it arriving on May the Fourth 🙂
I didn’t quite manage to finish but that’s normal for me.
sidey @2 – I tried your parsing first but didn’t like the E’s bing separated in the solution so found another one which avoided that.
I never see Nina’s so no change there. I think it is more of a setter’s thing than a solver’s (though in this case it is nicely theme related, so maybe I should make an exception).
Thanks Tramp for dropping in and enjoy your day out. I’m out for most of the day too so won’t be able to reply to mails until later.
Great puzzle (as always) from Tramp. Fun theme and love the date change – very fitting.
Thanks both!
Ha! I missed the nina too. It’s a particularly clever one.
Very nice puzzle; I’m sorry that I missed the well hidden NINA – makes the crossword even more impressive.
Thanks PeeDee and Tramp for dropping by. I’m going through a second generation of Star Wars with my grandson as Lego make a lot of themed sets these days [and am looking forward to the next edition of the Star Wars film in 2015.] I found this crossword tough, but very satisfying to finish. I loved CHIP SHOPS, which had a very nice misdirection with ‘in,’ which fooled me for a while. DESPOIL was also entertaining.
This was a very enjoyable crossword and I really liked chip shops(I’m a bit too fond of them !)
Colin
P.S. Rorschach @12; you might find a date reference also in my S&B puzzle.
Tramp @ 9. Thank you; point taken. May I respectfully observe though that I can’t find d = director in Collins/Chambers either (well, not in the versions I have, anyway)? Can you use d just because it stands for ‘Director’ in DPP say?
D=Director is listed in Chambers 11th Edition.
Really enjoyed this crossword, and also really impressed with the construction of many of the clues.
Thank you Tramp
Thanks Tramp and Peedee
Interesting and clever (certainly by half for me – cos I didn’t spot it!) theme / nina.
Original thinking with the clues as per normal for Tramp and nice to see a variation on ‘regular’ to every third letter in RECCE. Also thought that the cricket surface of LIPOMA was brilliant.
Last in were DEVISER and ROAMER.
Coming in late, because we get them late in the colonies: why is PI = good in PINYIN? I got it but we can’t see the logic there.
pi is shortened form of pious, good in a religious sense.