Radian has given us a good crossword themed around this week’s big golfing event, The Open (at Muirfield, which has attracted adverse publicity because of its exclusion of women). At least I’m pretty sure it’s this week, although yesterday The Times said that there was a week to go before the start of The Open, in which case Peter Dixon might turn up late.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | TEST BAN — def ‘Check on risky race’, i.e. the arms race, and the two rivers are the Test and the Bann, n [= navy] missing from the second one, of which I’d never heard |
| 5 | FORWARD — for = pro, ward = protected minor, a forward is a rugby player |
| 9 | SPO(R)T |
| 10 | AMARYLLIS — (lily)* in Mars as in Mars bar |
| 11 | IN THE SHADE — (in heats he’d)* |
| 12 | FLOG — (golf)rev. — in view of the number of cross-references in this crossword I wonder why Radian didn’t say ‘9’ instead of ‘game’ — perhaps he was being kind |
| 14 | PLAY THE GAME — referring to Sir Henry Newbolt’s injunction in Vitaï Lampada to play up, play up, and play the game — 20dn is ‘play up’ |
| 18 | BOTTLE OF RUM — my parsing of this I’m not absolutely sure of, and perhaps someone will do better: it seems to be def ‘What’s in punch’, and ‘bottle of rum’ is a way of saying ‘the balls [= bottle] that’s shown by someone on the Scottish island Rum’ [What’s in punch balls in Scottish isle?] |
| 21 | OARS — if ‘he’ surrounds this you get ‘hoarse’ [= rough] |
| 22 | WAKE-UP CALL — (a couple walk – o)* — eye-opening in the sense that after sleeping you open your eyes |
| 25 | MOOT POINT — (op too)rev. in mint — ref polo mint, but it’s a Polo mint so shouldn’t the clue say Polo not polo? |
| 26 | RU(G)BY — g = golf — 9ac is SPORT |
| 27 | L(AT IN)OS{t} — boxing in the sense surrounding |
| 28 | A C(TED)UP — Ted as in Ted Heath |
| Down | |
| 1 | TEST(I)S — test matches — I = current |
| 2 | SHO(R)TS — bottom gear can be read as gear that surrounds one’s bottom, for example shorts |
| 3 | BITTER{n} PILL — pill = ball |
| 4 | EveryoNE AT Harlequins |
| 5 | FRAUDSTER — (darts ref)* round U |
| 6 | RAYS — but I wonder if I’m understanding this properly: it seems to be “raise”, so that we have a homophone of ‘raise’ which is ‘rays’, skates, for example, kinds of fish, yet the clue seems to lead to RAISE since the homophone indicator is far removed from ‘bring up’ and surely applies to ‘rays’?? [Bring up skates, for example, during chat] — this seems odd because it could perfectly well have the last two words at the front |
| 7 | ALL CLEAR — 2 defs I think: ‘Understood’ and an old signal to get out of the bunker in which you are hiding — but I’m not sure about this and suspect I’m missing something [Understood old signal to get out of bunker?] |
| 8 | DISAGREE — (said greens – NS)* |
| 13 | TEAM SPIRIT — (mate)* spirit [= bottle of rum, 18ac] |
| 15 | ANOMALIES — (moans)* round (a lie), the anagram indicator being ‘Coach’ |
| 16 | A B(NORM)AL{l} — like 15 is ‘like anomalies’ = ‘anomalous’ = ‘abnormal’ |
| 17 | S(TAR)TOUT — def ‘leave’ |
| 19 | BAGGED — 2 defs, one of them referring to the date of the start of the grouse shooting season |
| 20 | P{oulter} LAY UP — in golf to lay up is to hit short deliberately, typically with the second shot on a par 5 hole that is reachable in two but with risk |
| 23 | EXTRA — 2 defs — an extra is an actor with no lines, no ball as in cricket |
| 24 | O(P{eopl}E)N |
A fairly gentle workout this morning, with a pleasing mix of sporting allusions in clues and answers.
The Bann is a river in Northern Ireland, from which the Revd Ian Paisley took his title as Baron Bannside when he became a life peer, and from which also presumably the Indy setter takes his pseudonym Bannsider.
Thanks, Radian and John.
John, I have exactly the same issue with 6dn as you do. I didn’t know the River Bann, but the answer to 1ac was clear enough one BITTER PILL had gone into 3dn.
‘To sport with Amaryllis in the shade’ is a quotation from Lycidas by John Milton
Well spotted, Heather!
Surely all clear is simply what the siren sounded after an air raid, as a signal to come out from wherever you were sheltering.
Same thoughts here for 6d, this one doesn’t really work, otherwise quite a mixed bag of sports here to annoy the sport hating solvers. 🙂
Thanks John and Radian.
I got through this with copious use of the “check” button, and I found it easier to solve than to parse. I needed to do some internet and dictionary research to parse a few answers.
I liked 10a, 17a, 16d & 12a (last in) and my favourites were 2d SHORTS & 25a MOOT POINT.
New word for me today was BOTTLE = ‘courage’, and I also learnt that grouse shooting season starts on August 12 in the UK.
Thanks for the blog, John. I needed your help to parse 1a & 20d. I parsed 18a as you did with bottle = courage or ‘balls’. For 25a, polo mint is fine, if 10a mars bar is acceptable.
Now that’s exactly the sort of sport themed puzzle there’s nothing to object to in. I hope some of the soccer obsessed setters take note.
Sidey, I hate golf. Can I object?
Seriously, you are right – you didn’t really have to know anything about the wretched ‘sport’ to get to the solution. It was tough though – I nearly gave up a couple of times, but just about managed to get a foothold in each quadrant, and was chuffed to finish, because Radian can be hard.
I especially liked TESTIS today and look forward to a footie puzzle later in the week.
Thanks to S&B.
re #1 (Allan C) yes, I think you can safely remove the “presumably” from your note re the Bannsider pseudonym. I agree with Conrad Cork at #5 re ALL CLEAR. Re golf/soccer/cricket puzzles (obsessive or not), I think the important thing is that the solver should still be able to solve them even if they have no or very little interest in the game.
Well, I think we’ve had our trio of Indy Irish Setters mentioned today: Radian who set the puzzle, Bannsider who was mentioned in passing, and Raich (nms) who commented.
I meant to say earlier that the Bann is pretty well known to those who are into traditional Irish music. There’s a song called The Banks of the Bann, and the second verse goes (in the version I know, anyway)
On the banks of the Bann, it was there I first met her
She appeared like an angel or Egypt’s fair queen
Her eyes were like diamonds or stars brightly shining
She’s one of the fairest in the world that I’ve seen
It’s sung to the tune of a hymn whose name I can’t remember because it’s too hot.
Hi K’s D
I don’t think I know that one but perhaps even more well known is ‘The Star of the County Down’- Radian’s home county, I believe – ‘young Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVk4x0tgbQk
Many thanks, Radian, for a really enjoyable puzzle [I can tke that much sport!] and thanks to John for the blog.
Apologies for 6D – a good example of the danger in making last-minute changes.
I think you are all being rather nice to Radian. 6D is a pig of a clue and doesn’t parse at all well. Sir Henry Newbolt did coin the phrase ‘Play the game’, but needed a fair amount of searching to check out. AND anyone who puts a whole bottle of rum in a punch is unkind to guest’s sobriety and taste.
Only one guest, too. Totally OTT.
Hello Poddy
I’d like to welcome you to this site, as I’m afraid I don’t recognise your name but please forgive me if you have posted before.
If this is your first post, it seems a rather niggardly one.
Certainly, most people have expressed appreciation of the puzzle but have expressed reservations about 6dn, for which Radian had apologised well before any possible crossing with your comment.
I don’t think Sir Henry Newbolt actually coined the phrase ‘play the game’ but the quotation, ‘Play up, play up and play the game’ was certainly his. I was fortunate enough to know this but I’ve just tried a quick google of ‘Play up, Sir Henry’, which anyone could have done after getting the easy clue to 20 and there it was as the first entry – hardly ‘a fair amount of searching’.
As for the proportion of rum in a punch, as Paul B suggests, for one guest’s [sic] share, a bottle would be excessive! [But I’ve only had – and enjoyed – punch at a party, with lots of guests. 🙂 ]
It’s now late and it’s still hot (see K’sD @11).
All seems to have been said anyway but we just wanted to say that we liked 1d! Such childish humour, we should know better at our age!
Thanks Radian and John.
Very enjoyable and smoothly clued as always from Radian – felt slight bump at 6d but no harm done – it was obvious enough what to put in.
The preamble here surprised me a bit mentioning a theme – completely missed it. It still all worked fine.
Many thanks both.