A witty and entertaining puzzle from Puck, one of my favourite setters whose puzzles we don’t see so often.
There’s a theme here of the Puck Fair (“Ireland’s oldest fair”) which is having its 400+ anniversary this year, i.e. celebrating that it’s at least 400 years old, I suppose. The rubric expands to:
Puck’s suggestion: Puck Fair four hundred, starting August Tenth in Killorglin
Across
1. A [HUNDRED] visit Greek [ISLAND] to “grow together” (7)
ACCRETE
A + C = “[HUNDRED]” + CRETE = “Greek [ISLAND]”
Definition: ‘to “grow together”‘
5. Catholics disparagingly said to be sanctimonious in earlier times (7)
PAPISTS
PI = “sanctimonious” in PASTS = “earlier times”
Definition: “Catholics disparagingly said to be”
9. Billy’s relatives attempt a way back (5)
GOATS
GO = “attempt” + A followed by ST reversed = “a way back”
Definition: “Billy’s relatives” (referring to a billy-goat)
10. Ban writing in bed? On the contrary (9)
PROSCRIBE
A lovely clue: CRIB = “bed” in PROSE = “writing”
Definition: “Ban”
11. Drug-fuelled Madness member into mad idea (10)
SUGGESTION
E in (“Drug-fuelled”) SUGGS = “Madness member” + (INTO)*
Definition: “idea”
14. Personifying two setters, vocalise strangled cat on record (11)
EPITOMISING
I and I = “two setters” + SING = “vocalise” around (“strangled”) TOM = “cat”, all after EP = “record”
Definition: “Personifying”
18. Heaving cleavage in front of large, born-again Christian? (11)
EVANGELICAL
An entertaining (and rather Paul-esque) surface reading. (CLEAVAGE IN)* after L = “large”
Definition: “born-again Christian?” – you can talk of someone being an evangelical, i.e. using it as a noun
21. Related to 9’s leader, this 6 is 13’s top one (4)
KING
KIN = “related” (as in “being kin to someone”) + G[oat] = “[GOATS]’s leader”
Definition: “this [PUCK] is [KILLORGIN]’s top one” – I think this refers to the tradition at the Puck Fair of crowning a goat as “King Puck”; see Wikipedia and the stories on the official site. Rather a nice reference to the tradition of the fair in the surface reading, obscured by the use of clue numbers.
22. Bill has one horse? Not the case for bums (10)
POSTERIORS
POSTER = “Bill” + I = “one” + [h]ORS[e] = “horse? Not the case” (i.e. without the outside letters). This first synonym reminds me of the old grafitti joke “Bill Posters Will Be Prosecuted / Bill Posters is innocent!”
Definition: “bums”
25. Runner, last of four to get TV role (9)
ANCHORMAN
ANCHOR MAN = “Runner, last of four” – in a relay race the final part is the “anchor” leg, so I suppose that runner might be the ANCHOR MAN
Definition: “TV role” – an anchorman is a news presenter (as in the memorable film of the same name)
26. Grub of spectacular variety (5)
LARVA
Hidden in “spectacuLAR VAriety”
Definition: “Grub”
27. Some guts by cricket side to go in first (7)
ENTERON
ON = “cricket side” (as in the leg side) with ENTER = “to go in” before it
Definition: “Some guts” – Chambers defines ENTERON as “[…] in higher animals, the gut or alimentary canal”
Down
1. Grand Emperor’s ignoring us (6)
AUGUST
AUGUSTUS = “Emperor” without “us”
Definition: “August” (as an adjective)
2,20. Where Father Ted was caught with raging gays, darling (6,6)
CRAGGY ISLAND
(GAYS DARLING)*
Definition: “Where Father Ted was” – the excellent TV series Father Ted was set on the fictional Craggy Island
3. Seasonal fare in [STEERAGE], cooked by galley slave originally (6,4)
EASTER EGGS
(STEERAGE)* followed by G[alley] S[lave] = “gally slave originally”
Definition: “Seasonal fare”
4. Old Irishman, one living abroad (5)
EXPAT
EX = “Old” + PAT = “Irishman”
Definition: “one living abroad”
5. New Cypriot zoo lacks one unknown type of primitive animal (9)
PROTOZOIC
(C[y]PRIOT ZOO)* – the anagram fodder is “Cypriot zoo” without Y = “unknown”, from algebra
Definition: “type of primitive animal”
6,12. Annual event for the Irish setter (nothing at all Irish) (4,4)
PUCK FAIR
PUCK = “setter” + FA (“f*** all”) = “nothing at all” + IR = “Irish”
Definition: “Annual event for the Irish”
7. Indian hunters trek endlessly in their women’s clothes (8)
SHIKARIS
HIK[e] = “trek endlessly” in SARIS = “their women’s clothes”
Definition: “Indian hunters”
8. Emasculated creature facing eternity where the poor Titanic passengers nightly lay (8)
STEERAGE
STEER = “Emasculated creature” + AGE = “eternity”
Definition: “where the poor Titanic passengers nightly lay”
13. Place in West of Kerry one left rolling drunk? (10)
KILLORGLIN
K[erry] = “West of Kerry” + I = “one” + L = “left” + (ROLLING)*
Definition: “Place” (or the whole clue, perhaps?)
15. Some final changes for a [ISLAND] (4,2,3)
ISLE OF MAN
(SOME FINAL)*
Definition: “[ISLAND]”
16. Audacity shown by Bill wearing the French woman’s jewellery (8)
NECKLACE
NECK = “Audacity” followed by AC = “Bill” in LE = “the French”
Definition: “woman’s jewellery”
17. Wood panelling of cask cut in two, accidentally (8)
WAINSCOT
(CAS[k] IN TWO)* – the first part of the anagram fodder is CAS = “cask cut”
Definition: “Wood panelling”
19. Wrong route, right car (6)
TOURER
(ROUTE)* + R = “right”
Definition: “car”
23. Fraction of wine used by hotel (5)
TENTH
TENT = “wine” (a new one for me: Chambers gives “a deep red spannish wine” as one definition of TENT) + H = “hotel” (from the NATO phonetic alphabet)
Definition: “Fraction”
24,28. Odd bits of invective needed — for this CD, that is (4,7)
FOUR HUNDRED
The “odd bits of invective” are I[n]V[e]C[t]I[v]E or IV = “four” + C = “hundred” + IE = “that is”, and the latter part is “CD” = “four hundred” (Roman numerals) + “that is”
Definition: “this”, I suppose – it’s an unusual construction of clue
Thanks mhl. I got there eventually but, though the crossing letters led to the right answer, I had never heard of Puck Fair and had to resort to Google for confirmation. It was downhill from there. I have to confess though that my sheltered upbringing meant I never did account for (nothing at all Irish)other than thinking it was perhaps a disclaimer.
Thanks Puck and mhl
For the first time in ages, actually sat down and did this one last Saturday! Thoroughly enjoyed it … not all that difficult, but witty, well constructed clues and the interesting (and previously unknown Irish fair) made it an entertaining solve.
A couple of new words including, my last in, SHIKARIS and ACCRETE. Did chuckle at the FA in 6, 12 and assumed in a daily paper that he really meant Fanny Adams :).
Thought that the clue for FOUR HUNDRED was original and clever.
Thanks mhl. The Irish ones were puckish and fair, for a prize puzzle. Got there on Saturday in reasonable time, struggling a bit with WAINSCOT and the parsing of 24,28.
An English friend of mine, daughter of Irish parents, Patricia and Michael, known of course as Pat and Mike, had recently to announce in the local paper the death my close friend, her mother. She headed the notice Ex-Pat.
Brilliant Puckish crossword! Thanks, Puck and mhl.
Many thanks mhl
Despite having Irish ancestors – my mother’s grandparents popped out of Cork – I had never heard of PUCK FAIR.
Many thanks, Puck, for this interesting snippet of Irish History.
Moreover, the puzzle was also excellent. SHIKARIS was new to me, too.
Many thanks to mhl for the blog.
I am the same as Biggles @1: I had never heard of the fair but once I had used the internet things went smoothly. I had an answer for 24,28 but failed to parse it.
I had heard of Father Ted but I am one who got rid of the TV years ago so I have never seen it. I never had any clue where it is set.
Thanks, mhl. A fun puzzle and not too hard for Puck, with a bit of totally useless education thrown in! Puck obviously didn’t need to research this – if he had, he would have discovered that this year it starts a day early, to celebrate the 400 years, making his preamble inaccurate, at least for 2013! (Perhaps, like a lot of G puzzles, it was actually composed some time ago.)
I took “13’s top one” in 21ac to be a reference to K(illorglin).
A real fun crossword that I managed to finish, with a bit of help from Google! Thanks Puck and mhl for the excellent blog.
Thanks mhl and Puck
A satisfying puzzle to crack.
The word ‘Puck’ as ‘he-goat’ here reminds me of Finnish ‘pukki’ with the same meaning. Gervase may have more details at his disposal. My assumption is that the Finnish comes from Swedish ‘bock’ which is clearly related to English ‘buck’. I imagine the use in this Irish context has Viking or comparable nordic origins.
It would be nice to hear whether Puck (setter) takes his name from this sense of the word or from the Robin Goodfellow sense of the term.
I ticked 18a, 3d, and 16d in addition to enjoying unravelling the header and theme.
Thanks for the blog. The “special instructions” looked quite daunting at first, but everything seemed to fall into place very quickly, even though I too had never heard of Puck Fair.
I don’t remember seeing many Puck prize puzzles before – does the word PUCK always feature, or was this a rare self- indulgence?
Thanks Puck for an interesting challenge made possible with help from my trusty computer. I didn’t know anything about the Puck Fair or where Father Ted lurked. SHIKARIS was a new word for me.
Thanks mhl, especially for the parsing of FOUR HUNDRED – I really did like that clue.
Thanks mhl. I seldom do the Guardian Saturday puzzle, but our cricket last week was rained off and I do like Puck’s puzzles, so when I saw it was him, I had a go.
The special instructions looked a bit disconcerting, but it was fun to unravel them, once I got going. I had vaguely heard of Puck Fair – and from his setter profile, I find that Puck lives in the West of Ireland, so it’s obviously close to his heart.
Fine puzzle, nicely woven theme. Thank you to Puck.
I needed to resort to Google to get KILLORGLIN because I couldn’t see the anagram fodder, having been thrown by Puck’s clever use of “West of Kerry” to mean both the location of the Puck Fair and the letter “k” to be added to the anagram fodder. SHIKARIS was new but the wordplay seemed clear enough, although I did check it post-solve. CRAGGY ISLAND was a write-in because I have always been a fan of Father Ted.
Re my comment above @10 – The word ‘buck’ in English has ‘male goat’ among its referents and ‘bock’ has a similar meaning in German. There is also ‘bok’ in Dutch/Afrikaans, so ‘Germanic’ might be better than ‘nordic’ as a characterisation of its origins in the present Irish context.
Thanks mhl.
I didn’t spot the special instructions until I’d finished the puzzle. It made it a slightly odd solve with some lateral thinking connections but I wondered whether the instructions might not have actually made it more difficult, set me off looking for specific links? As it was it solved like a ghost-theme, with the connections arriving leisurely, in their own sweet time. The only one that this oversight made fiendish was the King Puck / Goat clue, which I guessed but couldn’t fully explain. When alerted to the Special Instructions on the Guardian site I googled it and all was revealed.
I love Puck’s cluing anyway, so the extra handicap just added to the enjoyment. Without the signpost, though, FOUR HUNDRED was an absolute ******* now I remember…
Thanks, mhl.
Fun puzzle from that shrewd and knavish sprite. I didn’t know of the event or its location, but the solutions were gettable from the word play and Wikipedia confirmed them. I also had to check SHIKARIS before entry.
Some great clues – I especially enjoyed FOUR HUNDRED.
tupu @10, 15: I’m sure you are right that the Irish PUCK = he-goat is a Germanic borrowing, cognate with buck/Bock (as must be the Finnish ‘pukki’, given that language’s lack of voiced stop consonants). But the setter is perhaps more likely to have taken his nom de guerre from Robin Goodfellow. PUCK in this context is equivalent to the Irish ‘púca’ – a shapeshifting goblin, sometimes dangerous, sometimes benevolent, like the English brownie. Curiously, púca is also a Germanic borrowing, presumably from Old Norse; Puck and ‘spook’ are related words.
Many thanks Gervase. I assumed that was the case re the setter. I did not know the roots of ‘puck’ in that RG sense.
Thanks for the blog, mhl, and Puck for the fun puzzle.
Late to the party, so it’s mostly been said.
Like many others, I did have to do research on the Puck Fair and so confidently entered NINTH for 23dn, trusting that there was an obscure wine called NINT but not bothering to try to find out. That gave me serious problems with 22ac.
Hi tupu @10 and Gervase @17- I refer you to one of my favourite clues, Puck puzzle 25,704 http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/25704
– the wonderful &lit: ‘ As I said in 15 27 4 23: “Funny farm? The whole lot are dolts, boss!” (4,4,5,5,7,2)’ .
Thanks for the blog mhl, and others for your comments.
NeilW @8, and Eileen @19 – I did do some up-to-date research on Puck Fair when I originally set the puzzle earlier this year and the start date for this year’s fair was then given as August TENTH, as has been the case for many years (maybe not the whole 400ish). I didn’t think to check it more recently, as it’s always started on the TENTH but lo and behold they went and added in an extra day this year because of the Gathering being held here this year to encourage Irish people from the diaspora to return home to visit. So my apologies for any confusion caused in solving.
tupu @10, Gervase @17, and Eileen @19 – Gervase more or less sums up my reasons for choosing Puck as a pseudonym, ie the combination of the Robin Goodfellow Puck and the Irish púca.
I must admit, I got “four hundred” from elsewhere before spotting the Roman numeral definition. I still got great pleasure from that though.
I’ll let Puck off the local knowledge gripe.
Today’s seemed less challenging than many of Paul’s midweekers, I thought, incidentally.
Re PUCK FAIR I find it a little mystifying that you didn’t Spoonerise there, old boy – especially since you were being quite rude anyway. Maybe too far into Halpern’s territory, who knows.
I have to admit that when I first read the special instructions, I had no idea what they meant and I wondered if it I should even attempt this puzzle. However, it was fun to learn about Killorglin’s Puck Fair. Needless to add, I could never have solved this puzzle without recourse to several internet searches.
My favourite clues were 22a, 25a,11a & 7d
I was unable to parse 17d & 24/28.
New words for me were SHIKARIS, ACCRETE, WAINSCOT, ENTERON.
Thanks for the puzzle, Puck and for the blog, mhl. I solved 6/12 without parsing the “FA” bit of it, so thanks for the explanation.
Nothing much to add really.
An enjoyable enough puzzle. Not so interesting as the theme was unknown to me but it was easy enough to deduce and then Google. It would also appear to be unknown to the majority of solvers but this was a prize puzzle so no major quibble there!
However I was waiting for someone to comment on the “Special Instructions” but nobody has. So I will!
“They are not Special Instructions as I know them. In fact they aren’t even instructions!”
Am I missing something?
I don’t suppose we have a “rule” for what is a valid SI anyway 🙂
Thanks to mhl and Puck.