A rather surprisingly straightforward Araucaria puzzle, especially for a Saturday Prize, with some very easy clues, eg 5, 9,13, 23, 24ac and 1, 3, 16, 19 and 20dn, with an oddly unseasonal mini-theme for the Spring Bank Holiday, when I was half hoping we might get a jigsaw puzzle.
However, as always, I enjoyed it while it lasted and learned something along the way @26ac.
[I posted an update on Abdul on Thursday evening, in General Discussion.]
Across
1 Neutered drink at work sent back without a smile
PO-FACED
Reversal [sent back] of DECAF[feinated – neutered drink] + OP [work]
5 Concealing weapon, did stretch
DISTEND
DID round [concealing] STEN [weapon]
9 Present monarch on holiday?
OFFER
OFF [on holiday] ER [monarch]
10 Gelignite initially captive entered under explosive
GUNPOWDER
G[elignite] initially + POW [prisoner of war – captive] in [entered] UNDER
11 30 — lime duck (sorry!) after two failures?
THIRD TIME LUCKY
Anagram [sorry!] of THIRTY LIME DUCK
13 Dubious topping of little moment
IFFY
[j]IFFY [little moment] ‘topped’
14 Miles of Longfellow came in first and is heroic
STANDISH
Hidden in firST AND IS Heroic
A reference to Longfellow’s poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish’,
about one of the Mayflower Pilgrims
17 One working in theatre becomes redder in the face about corporal punishment
PRODUCER
PUCER [redder in the face] round ROD [corporal punishment]
8,22 Erode resistance of upland under river
WEAR DOWN
DOWN [confusingly, upland – eg the Downs in SE England] under WEAR [river]
21 Actor (no Scot) to study old comic in US-signed pub
THE SPREAD EAGLE
THESP[ian] [actor minus ian, the archetypal crossword Scot – although, as I remember commenting before, the more usual Scottish spelling is ‘Iain’] + READ [study] + EAGLE [old comic]
I puzzled over the ‘US-signed’ longer than I need have: I knew the US emblem as being a bald eagle but didn’t realise that it was actually a ‘spread eagle’, until I resorted to Chambers, which gives it as ‘a heraldic eagle with the wings and legs stretched out, the emblem of the USA’.
I’m not sure this part of the clue is strictly necessary [although it does make it a double definition]: ‘The Spread Eagle’ is a pretty common pub sign, so ‘to study old comic in pub’ would have satisfied me.
And the ‘no Scot’ is not strictly necessary, either, as Chambers lists ‘thesp’ as ‘actor’. [I don’t really like it, though – and perhaps A doesn’t, either. 😉 ]
23 Dress with skill having scope for residence
HABITABLE
HABIT [dress] + ABLE [with skill]
24 Refuse collector to leave house
BINGO
BIN [refuse collector] + GO [leave]
Either ‘Bingo!’ or ‘House!’ can be called at the end of a Bingo game
25 Student’s first request for insecticide?
SPRAYER
S[tudent] + PRAYER [request]
I’m reminded of Anax’s super clue, ‘Mister Bob Hope’, for this word
26 Time and cause that never prospers?
TREASON
T [time] + REASON [cause]
My initial thought was that this was a rather weak definition – but that was because I hadn’t heard of the quotation from the writings of the Elizabethan courtier, Sir John Harington: ‘Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason’. Apparently, he also invented the flush toilet.
Down
1 Piece of land as pawn to fate?
PLOT
P[awn] + LOT [fate]
2 When to 16 10 26 and 1 down and fob off the vermin with tinkering
FIFTH OF NOVEMBER
Anagram [with tinkering] of FOB OFF THE VERMIN
A reference to the rhyme,
‘Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot… ‘
referring to this famous plot
3 Copper finds unusual poison
CURARE
CU [copper] + RARE [unusual]
4 Fingers said to be missing third?
DIGITS
I’m rather at a loss here. Could it possibly be that, missing the third letter, ‘fingers’ sounds like [‘said’] ‘figures’ = digits? I’m not happy about it but it’s all I have to offer.
[Since drafting the blog, I have, for once, remembered that there’s an annotated solution – albeit rather meagre – which, I find, bears out the above interpretation. Hmm… ]
5 Explosive speech showing possibilities of one in restaurant?
DYNAMITE
This sounds [to non rhotic speakers] like ‘Diner might’ – ‘possibilities of one in restaurant’
6 White area over here for second bird in 9
SNOWLINE
S [second] + OWL [bird] in NINE
7 Dormice with heart reduced cooked in country’s blood suppliers
ENDOCRINE GLANDS
Anagram [cooked] of DOR N ICE in ENGLAND’S [country’s]
I think the explanation is that a lower case ‘n’ is half a lower case ‘m’, so ‘reduced’: I remember Paul doing something similar with v / w;
‘blood suppliers’ must be taken as ‘suppliers ‘to’ [rather than ‘of”] blood’
8 Racehorse in place of rams?
DERBYSHIRE
DERBY [the race being run this very day] + SHIRE [a breed of draught horse]
There is a breed of sheep called the Derbyshire Gritstone but here the Rams referred to are Derby County FC [our Leicester Foxes’ ‘local derby’ 😉 rivals]
12 They may mention kills
DISPATCHES
Double / cryptic definition, referring to the phrase ‘mentioned in dipatches’
15 Work with strings attached on dog, nothing less than the best words
PUPPETRY
PUP [dog] + P[o]ETRY minus O [nothing less]
Reference to the quotation from Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
“Prose, words in their best order. Poetry, the best words in the best order.”
16 Bring to mind what concerns Parliamentarian?
REMEMBER
RE [concerning] + MEMBER [Parliamentarian]
19 What will publicise opening of season
ADVENT
AD [what will publicise] + VENT [opening] – another unseasonal clue!
20 Chance of good walk?
GAMBLE
G [good] + AMBLE [walk]
Thanks, Eileen. I had problems with the same two clues as you, although I was happier than you with “figgers”. (Thanks for your devotion to duty, by the way, staying up until midnight to get the annotated solution!)
Reducing M to N only works in the lower case which seems a little bit off. Finally, it was the only possible explanation, though, so I guess it was fair enough.
Thanks to Eileen for the blog. I had totally forgotten the usage of puce describing ‘red in the face’ so I was scratching my head over 17 🙁
Some people given up to that terrible sin of gambling would have known that 25-May was Derby day but I am innocent! So 8d left me scratching my head – again 🙂
Thanks again Eileen. I had thought recently that either Aracauria was becoming more demanding or that my mental processes were slowing up so it came as something of a relief when a lot of these answers wrote themselves straight in. 4 was a twist in the tail though and I’m still not really convinced.
Sorry Araucaria!
Luckily 16d was one of the early clues that I solved, and after solving 2d, the related clues were write-ins. My favourite clues were 1a, 7d, 18a/22d, 5d (even though it took me a long time to parse it as a homophone), 8d & 6d (last in).
New word for me was CURARE.
I was unable to parse 4d.
Thanks for the blog, Eileen.
Re 7d
The clue is written in lower case so n being m reduced seems perfectly acceptable.
Also, n being half an m is, I understand, a printers term.
Very many thanks Eileen for your analysis & Araucaria for another very enjoyable puzzle.
My eyes always light up whenever I see an Araucaria offering and I am never disappointed.
I also look forward to the research which accompanies the explanations and, as always Eileen, you are up there among the very best.
Thanks Araucaria and Eileen
Enjoyable with the grid filled in more quickly than normal for A – but as usual, a lot of depth when doing the post analysis parsing of the clues. I actually quite liked the take on DIGITS with the double meanings of the fingers and the ‘figures’ when the “missing third” light went on.
Was able to find some of the literary quotes, but still needed Eileen’s brainpower to enlighten me with the 5th of November nursery rhyme, the quote from Coleridge and the Derby Rams.
I was left hanging with the em and en thing, but I think that Richard@6 nails it.
Hi Neil @1
I really can’t let you deceive yourself re the extent of my devotion to ‘duty’ – the annotated solution was available late yesterday afternoon!
And hi chas @2 – just in case you fancy a wicked flutter, it’s Derby Day today! 😉
DIGITS – S a I D T o (take out miss) I n G (taking out a third of the letters – anagram)
Thanks Eileen and Araucaria
A pleasant puzzle. I missed the pun in 4d which my visiting son pointed out to me, though the answer was plain enough.
I ticked 21a, 2d and accompanying mini-theme, and 7d.
Hello – new to commenting on the site but a long standing araucaria fan.
21a – I think he is referring to The Eagle pub in Cambridge which has signatures on the ceiling of RAF airmen from WW2
I, too, am new to commenting. Would someone please comment on whether my working out of DIGITS is correct or way off the mark. Thanks.
Welcome to the site, Carol and Artemis!
I thought your digital work out was very ingenious, Artemis but, as I said, tthe annotated solution gives
“digits double def [FI(n)GERS/figures (hom)]”
Carol, I don’t quite see what makes you think that: can you explain?
Thank you, Eileen.
Hi Eileen
here is the info about The Eagle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eagle_(pub)
I can’t quite work out the parsing but I think it adds another layer to the clue – it is certainly a US (USAF and not just RAF) signed pub!
Thanks, Carol – I think I’ve been there, years ago!
Interesting – but then how do you account for ‘spread’? And why would A specify ‘US-signed’, when the room is called the RAF room, even if there are American signatures? [The annotated solution is no help here – I said it was rather meagre!:
“The Spread Eagle THESP(ian)/READ/EAGLE”].
Thanks Araucaria & Eileen.
I was with Carol re 21ac – the Eagle is always pointed out on tourist tours in Cambridge due to the signatures from US airmen on the ceiling (always a popular thing to point out to US tourists). But I’d mis-remembered the name, and it is just the Eagle rather than Spread Eagle. I hadn’t thought of the spread eagle being a US symbol, and I guess that makes more sense.
Thanks Eileen.
Entertaining, though not as much of a challenge as some of Araucaria’s puzzles.
I didn’t have a problem with FINGERS/’figures’, and, like Richard @6, I reckoned that a printer’s ‘en’ is half an ’em’. The ‘US-signed’ in 21a I just took to refer to the posture of the bald eagle as a symbol of the USA, but I agree that this is rather superfluous. This Anglican clergyman seems to have decided that supererogation is no bad thing.
Re 8,22: Chambers states that the adverb ‘down’ comes, via the Middle English ‘a-down’, from the Old English ‘of dune’, meaning ‘from the hill’. So ‘down’ = ‘hill’ is actually the primary meaning. And is a borrowing from Celtic, incidentally.
Hello Eileen and Sam
I can now see I was wrong about The Eagle pub being part of the answer – memories of misspent student days – maybe I was trying to be too clever and connect up Araucaria’s local knowledge of Cambridge with the clue.
Eileen@9 I have just seen your note. I checked up and found that the Derby race is timed for 1600. That gives me less than 20 minutes to pick a horse, find a betting shop, find out how to place a bet etc. I think I shall give it a miss 🙂
As a Cambridge resident, I know the Eagle on Benet Street quite well. It has a blue plaque on it celebrating the working out of the structure of DNA (not, as often stated, the discovery of it, which was years earlier) by Watson & Crick. The Spread Eagle is a different pub, on Lensfield Road – not that far from the Easgle.