“Four musical CROWNING GLORIES are clued without definition.” So we were celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation. That would explain why she popped up in so many of the clues.
Sixteen clues had a wrong note, in other words a misprint with one note (A to G) replacing another. The initial letters of the affected clues could be rearranged to say something special about one of the unclued entries. Finally, a two-word phrase needed highlighting.
A fairly straightforward solve here, with the unclued thematic entries being identified without too much trouble: CROWN IMPERIAL (Walton), POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE (Elgar), ZADOK THE PRIEST (Handel) and ORB AND SCEPTRE (Walton). Googling “coronation music” led me to a Westminster Abbey page that told me the music played at the Coronation. It even began “* indicates first performance”, and Orb and Sceptre was one of those. The initial letters of the clues with misprints gave me:
E F M O E P A T R N S C F R I
This was, indeed, an anagram of First Performance. Well…almost! It needed another R. The only other available clue that began with an R was 15ac Recall very independent gentleman’s gentleman in city. I can only guess that it should have read gentleman’s gentlemen! Or have I missed something?!
Highlighting VIVAT REGINA in row 4/column 7 completed an enjoyable puzzle from Glow-worm that prompted me to revisit some delightful pieces of music.
Legend:
Definition in clue
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
misprint
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Initial Letter of Clue |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | CROWN IMPERIAL | Replica worn? I’m doubtful! (13, 2 words) (replica worn im)*; undefined thematic |
|
| 9 | OMBU | E | Evergreen orchestral masterpieces — initial letters of Orchestral Masterpieces Bach Unquestionably |
| 11 | LERES | Queen interrupts the French lessons (5) ER (the Queen) in LES (the, French) |
|
| 13 | ORPIN | Plant yellow tree without earth (5) OR (yellow) + PINE (tree) – E (earth) |
|
| 14 | AMATI | Half of daytime performances missed by Anne’s first violin! (5) A (Anne’s first letter) + MATI[NEES] (daytime performances, half missing) |
|
| 15 | TEL AVIV | Recall very independent gentleman’s gentleman in city (7, 2 words) (V (very) I (independent) VALET (gentleman’s gentleman))< |
|
| 16 | AVER | State Bible’s placed before Her Majesty (4) AV (Bible, ie Authorised Version) + ER (Her Majesty) |
|
| 17 | ANIMA | Soul music’s opening pierces Spaniard’s heart (5) M (Music’s opening) in ANIA (heart of spANIArd) |
|
| 18 | ARNOTTA | Queen’s shown in a new oil — colouring (7) R (queen) in A N (new) OTTA (oil) |
|
| 20 | IAGO | F | False-hearted character from in marIA GOlovin |
| 22 | CACHOU | M | Moggie (tailless) having CA[T] (moggie, ie CAt, tailless) + CHOU (bun) |
| 24 | AUGER | Her Majesty on a month’s drill? (5) ER (Her Majesty) on (after) AUG (a month) |
|
| 27 | EFTEST | O | Ozzie’s right E (ozziE’s right letter) + F (foot) + TEST (try-out) |
| 29 | EPOS | E | Edward’s earliest correspondence a E (Edward’s earliest letter) + POS[T] (correspondence a bit abbreviated) |
| 30/12 | POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE | Music prompted can-can? Unlikely! (19, 3 words) (MUSIC PROMPTED CAN-CAN)*; unclued thematic entry |
|
| 32 | MERIT | Desert insect unceasingly biting Her Majesty (5) MIT[E] (insect, unceasingly, ie without end) biting ER (Her Majesty) |
|
| 33 | INRI | Inscription in religious instruction (4) IN RI (religious instruction) |
|
| 35 | AMANITA | P | Peculiar 14, AMATI* (14ac) injesting (containing) A N (piece of Noxious) |
| 37/19 | ZADOK THE PRIEST | Service the dozers kip at? (14, 3 words) (THE DOZERS KIP AT)*; unclued thematic entry |
|
| 38 | OPENS | R | Author wearing “extra PEN (author) wearing OS (extra big) |
| 39 | PLAIT | Pigtail GI’s going to flourish? (5) (PIGTAIL – GI)*; an &lit…just! |
|
| 40 | MSEC | T | Titbit of meat — M (titbit of Meat) + SEC (dry); the entry not in Chambers |
| 41 | ORB AND SCEPTRE | Nobs’ red carpet relaid (13, 3 words) (NOBS RED CARPET)*; unclued htematic entry |
|
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Initial Letter of Clue |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | CONTAINERIZE | No I can’t set in order Her Majesty’s orbs — understood? Load them in a box! (12) (NO I CAN’T)* + ER (Her Majesty) + IZE (sounds like ‘eyes’, ie orbs) |
|
| 2 | OBBLIGATO | Combo belting tattoo regularly as accompaniment (9) regular letters of cOmBo BeLtInG tAtToO |
|
| 3 | NIRVANA | Bliss composed new variant unfinished (7) (N + VARIAN[T])* |
|
| 4 | IMPI | Timid, naked, Philip’s last to infiltrate group of warriors (4) IMI (tIMId naked, ie nothing on outside) holding P (philiP’s last) |
|
| 5 | PENANCES | State of Malaya shortly to receive church’s atonements (8) PENAN[G] (state of Malaya shortly) + CE’S (church’s) |
|
| 6 | ERATO | R | Raising ordinary (O (ordinary) TAR (seaman) + E (Ensign’s capital, ie first letter))< |
| 7 | REMATCH | Second encounter concerning Vesta (7) RE (concerning) MATCH (vesta) |
|
| 8 | ANTE | Stake decapitated poet (4) [D]ANTE (poet decapitated) |
|
| 10 | MAENAD | N | New (N (new) DAME A)* |
| 11 | LIVRE | S | Servilely rising, in sERVILely< |
| 12 | CIRCUMSTANCE | See 30 Across continuation of unclued thematic entry |
|
| 19 | THE PRIEST | See 37 Across continuation of unclued thematic entry |
|
| 21 | AUTACOID | No question: acid quota’s stirred up glandular secretion (8) (ACID QUOTA – Q (question))* |
|
| 23 | HEMIOLA | C | Chorale unfortunately losing (CHORALE – CR (crown))* around MI (third note) |
| 25 | ROMANCE | F | Feeling of excitement affecting old (O (old) CARMEN)* |
| 26 | GOITRE | Perversely, I got Her Majesty to raise thyroid trouble (6) (I GOT)* + ER< (Her Majesty) |
|
| 28 | INAPT | Unfortunately, Andrew’s initial pint is unhappy (5) (A (Andrew’s initial letter) PINT)* |
|
| 31 | PEKAN | R | Rollerball possibly includes two characters from PEN (rollerball) including KA (two characters from KAnt) |
| 34 | NAIR | I | Indian people AIR (bearing) + N (end of monsoon) earlier (ie at the beginning) |
| 36 | MERC | Beemer Charles secures — posh wheels! (4) in beeMER Charles |
|
Thanks for the blog.
I also found this pretty straightforward & enjoyable. & had the same search for the missing R as you – though, being pedantic I thought the change should be ‘gentlemen’s gentleman’ to keep ‘valet’ singular rather than plural.
Yes, we too enjoyed a fairly straightforward solve with the title giving a lot away. We had to Google to find all the titles. That was an enjoyable return to the past. We never found the missing R!
The missing R remains a mystery as the published solution doesn’t mention an error.
I agree with Dave Hennings, the plural form would at least provide the necessary ‘wrong note’ leading to [s]TEL AVIV – the singular would still give the correct answer. It would be nice to know for sure how the R was accounted for. It’s a slight irritation in an otherwise enjoyable puzzle.
I suspect the correct version of the puzzle is unlikely to surface. Let’s just agree the clue to 15ac should have read:
Recall very independent gentleman’s
gentlemengentleman in city (7, 2 words)… that way the clue is parsed as I have it above but has a misprint, so contributes the third R to the jumble of letters.
I suppose the people who know the answer are far too busy to find the time to enlighten us. They are probably blissfully unaware that solvers have been trying to make complete sense of this puzzle for weeks. Maybe someone should have mentioned that there are [lovingly detailed] weekly blogs devoted to their puzzles where information might be passed on. Having raised the possibility of an error in this puzzle some time ago I’m amazed that there hasn’t been some kind of response. Is it arrogance, indifference or ignorance? I don’t know, but it has certainly pissed me off.
I can confirm that the correct version should have been “gentlemen’s gentleman”, as has been suggested above.
The final vetting of Glow-worm’s otherwise excellent puzzle took place subsequent to the sad death of James Leonard, the EV editor, and before my appointment as his successor; however I realise how annoying the error may have been, and apologies to all affected.
Starting in a few weeks time, there should be a message published alongside the puzzle each week inviting any comments and queries to be emailed to me. This should give both a forum for general feedback, and an opportunity for solvers to raise any concerns about errors in a puzzle whilst it is live. Hopefully this will help going forward. Until this is put in place, any queries can reach me on clanca1234@btinternet.com.
Chris Lancaster
EV Editor
Thanks for the confirmation. Errors in puzzles featuring misprints are particularly hard to spot.
I think I would have been more puzzled by the ‘correct’ [misprinted] version of this clue though. In this form it’s the only one of the misprinted clues that leads to the correct solution both before and after adjustment.
Your proposal to deal with future corrections to ‘live’ puzzles is very generous. Thanks again.