An anniversary puzzle from Gaff.
The problem with this sort of puzzle is that though the theme is topical and the result elegant half the grid is a write-in. I did enjoy this, but am glad we don’t get them every day. Thank you Gaff.
| Across | ||
| 9, 12, 10 | ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL | 14, 17 (3,3,3,7,5) |
| “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” | ||
| 11 | TISANES | Bergamot is an essential ingredient for herbal teas (7) |
| an ingredient of bergamoT IS AN ESsential | ||
| 12 | See 9 | |
| 13 | NAY | Civilisation ended – always in denial (3) |
| civilisatioN (last letter) AY (always) | ||
| 14 | SELF EVIDENT | New feld events not requiring demonstration (4-7) |
| (FIELD EVENTS)* | ||
| 17 | TRUTH | Babe follows the frst gospel (5) |
| T (first letter of the) and Babe RUTH (baseball player) | ||
| 18 | TEL | Small number allowed to return (3) |
| LET (allowed) reversed – telephone number, abbreviated (small) | ||
| 19 | MARCH | 1 started leading demonstration (5) |
| M (first letter of Martin) ARCH (leading) | ||
| 21 | BRAVE PERSON | Hero is proven sabre-rattler (5,6) |
| (PROVEN SABRE)* rattler = anagram | ||
| 23 | EBB | Withdraw heartless barb after emotional outbreak (3) |
| BarB (heartless=no middle) following E (first letter of emotional) | ||
| 25 | FORSOOK | Approval on woman roughly abandoned (7) |
| OK (approval) on F (female, woman) OR SO (roughly ) | ||
| 27 | LINCOLN | City memorial site for . . . . (7) |
| The Lincoln Memorial in Washington | ||
| 28, 22 | I HAVE A DREAM | . . . . Abba’s number 20 (1,4,1,5) |
| Abba song and stiring lines (rhetoric) from MLK’s speech | ||
| 29 | NOVELTIES | Trifes with fresh relationships (9) |
| NOVEL (fresh) TIES (relationships) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1, 15 | MARTIN LUTHER KING | Composer has hand in infatuation involving royal couple’s disobedient preacher (6,6,4) |
| Bohuslav MARTINU (composer) has L (left, hand) inside (in) and THING (infatuation) including (involving) ER and K (royal couple) – definition is ‘disobedient preacher’ | ||
| 2 | BLESS YOU | Mystifed by Seoul’s response to expulsion (5,3) |
| (BY SEOUL’S)* anagram=mystified – response to a sneeze (expulsion) | ||
| 3 | TENNIS SHOE | Jessica wears those loosely for trainer? (6,4) |
| Jessica ENNIS is surrounded by (wears) THOSE* losely=anagram | ||
| 4 | PASS | Approve advance (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 5 | SEYCHELLES | Spots cover chief in mostly golden islands (10) |
| SEES (spots) surround (cover) CH (chief) in YELLow (mostly golden) | ||
| 6 | See 26 | |
| 7 | CUP TIE | Meeting to decide teams’ progress (3,3) |
| cryptic-ish definition | ||
| 8 | OLD DUTCH | Converts nearly cuddle hot Londoner’s wife (3,5) |
| (CUDDLe HOT)* nearly=not finished – East-End slang for wife | ||
| 15 | See 1 | |
| 16 | IMMINENTLY | 2009 disaster in heartless country soon (10) |
| MM (two thousand) and NINE* (anagram=disaster) in ITaLY (counrty, heartless). Naughty but nice! | ||
| 17 | TO BE FAIR | Meaningless qualifcation is requirement for judge (2,2,4) |
| double definition – one of those meaningless things people say when stalling for time | ||
| 20 | RHETORIC | Relocate to richer address (8) |
| (TO RICHER)* – definition is ‘address’ | ||
| 22 | See 28 | |
| 24 | BANISH | Sound annoyed about return to villainy for outlaw (6) |
| BAH (sound annoyed) about SIN (villainy) reversed (returned) | ||
| 26, 6 | OVER HERE | Where US troops were 20 years earlier with money and libido (4,4) |
| “over paid, over sexed and over here…” | ||
| 27 | LIVE | Be active (4) |
| double definition – ‘exist’ and ‘working’ | ||
*anagram
I notice from Andrew’s blog that the Guardian puzzle is also themed today. I suspect we can write in the same answers there too.
Thanks PeeDee,
I thought this was really good fun.
SELF-EVIDENT was very nice.
You are very suspicious!
Many thanks PeeDee although I see that you were unable to complete 23a – What a Gaffe!
I suggest EBB – but don’t ask me why.
Many thanks also to Gaff for outwitting PeeDee.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee [but you’ve guessed the wrong paper!].
And thanks for the great puzzle, Gaff – I don’t think there was any need for the preamble but that seems to be the custom with FT crosswords. I liked SELF-EVIDENT, too, and BLESS YOU and IMMINENTLY.
HI Bryan – intrigued to know what you mean @3? I have EBB for the solution too.
After the indy this was a write in except for 16d where the word play for nine* eluded me.
Thanks PD and for the blogging software which has more than halved my blogging time.