Gosh is it my turn already? Doing the Guardian blog still feels a little strange.
Not done many if any Qaos crosswords before and found most of this quite easy but there’s a few doubts still. Quite a bit of &lit ish clues, there’s a theme folks, was fun to do.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MERCENARY | One happy to include lots of US money with advance? (9) |
| CEN(t) & A(dvance) in MERRY & &lit ish | ||
| 6 | JACK | Card game, no limit (4) |
| Anyone else put in STUD initially? Just me then. JACK(s) without its limit. | ||
| 8 | ANGELICO | Can I go hysterical about the Spanish renaissance artist? (8) |
| EL in [CANIGO]* for Fra Angelico | ||
| 9 | ALMOND | Top politician produced pop in the ’80s (6) |
| Mark Almond of the group Soft Cell. (Alex) (s)ALMOND has been “topped” | ||
| 10 | SCHEME | Edges of space probed by science project (6) |
| CHEM(istry) in S(pac)E | ||
| 11 | SENTINEL | Defender playing table tennis, discarding broken bat (8) |
| BAT* removed from [(tab)LE TENNIS]* | ||
| 12 | VERSUS | Being against rhymes on the radio (6) |
| Sounds like VERSES | ||
| 15 | RENEGADE | Wilder’s comeback in comical Dear Outlaw (8) |
| GENE (wilder) reversed in DEAR* | ||
| 16 | SPECTRUM | Rainbow‘s guitar player left out (8) |
| ‘S & L removed from P(l)ECTRUM | ||
| 19 | SECURE | Confident of Home Counties treatment (6) |
| South East & CURE | ||
| 21 | TRILLION | Number 10 cuts Leveson’s extremes after hearing rejects article (8) |
| TRI(a)L & 10 in L(eveso)N | ||
| 22 | MYRIAD | Countless insides of pyramids are in ruins (6) |
| (p)YRAMID(s)* | ||
| 24 | KNIGHT | Consider turning over good piece (6) |
| G in THINK reversed | ||
| 25 | SINCLAIR | Sir Clive, at first in trouble, accepts 50% of Sugar’s backing (8) |
| [SIR C(live) IN]* “troubled” with AL(an) reversed inserted. | ||
| 26 | LORE | Wisdom‘s extremely likeable with heart of gold (4) |
| OR (gold) in L(ikeabl)E | ||
| 27 | ENTERTAIN | Junket to occupy harbour (9) |
| Triple definition with junket as a verb | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MANIC | Joe’s flaky ice cream, whipped up (5) |
| Not really sure on this one, appears to be MAN (joe) & I(ce) C(ream) but flaky as first letter indicator? [Edit see comment #6] | ||
| 2 | REEFERS | Sailors’ smokes (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | ELITE | Cream, the low-calorie drug? (5) |
| E “LITE” | ||
| 4 | AROUSER | Party ousting leader with resistance may set alarm bells ringing (7) |
| (c)AROUSE & R(esistance) | ||
| 5 | YEARNINGS | Desires Japanese income? (9) |
| Y(en) and EARNINGS | ||
| 6 | JUMPING | Attacking politician’s ego restrained by psychologist (7) |
| MP & I in Carl JUNG | ||
| 7 | CONTENDER | Brando said he could have been one against money (9) |
| CON (against) & TENDER (money) | ||
| 13 | ESPERANTO | Special powers aren’t deciphering old language (9) |
| E.S.P. & AREN’T* & O(ld) | ||
| 14 | SERVIETTE | Struggle to penetrate compound interest? Throw in towel (9) |
| VIE in (in)TEREST* Oops my mistake sorry | ||
| 17 | COLOGNE | Army officer’s gone wandering in Germany (7) |
| COL(onel) & GONE* | ||
| 18 | MINDSET | With MS .NET I’d hack Outlook (7) |
| [MS NET ID]* | ||
| 20 | CORELLA | Australian bird, wow! Everage’s finale has everyone standing (7) |
| COR (wow) (everag)E & ALL rev | ||
| 22 | MINER | Am I nervous? Somewhat, being underground (5) |
| Hidden answer | ||
| 23 | ALIEN | A story on the Nostromo, initially? (5) |
| A & LIE & N(ostromo) The film is set on the Nostromo | ||
For those still looking for the theme see 25a 16a and plenty of titles for it spread around the grid.
Flashling, I think you’ve got 14a wrong – it’s vie in “terest” anagrammed – the “in” needs to be thrown from interest
…and of course I’ve got the clue wrong – it’s 14d
Thanks Catflap, I blame someone phoning me as I wrote that clue up 🙂
Thamks all
I thought that was rather tricky but with plenty of clever clues.
I failed to get 12ac and 14d.
Qaos up to his usual high standards.
I’m a little too old to have had one but my sons had a Sinclair Spectrum (zx??) and played manic miner, jumpin’ jack, and mentioned other answers. I’m sure someine will provide the full lust shortly. It being qaos it will probably be improbably ling!!
1dn – flaky ice cream = ’99’ = IC
Qaos up to his usual high standards.
I’m a little too old to have had one but my sons had a Sinclair Spectrum (zx??) and played manic miner, jumpin’ jack, and mentioned other answers. I’m sure someine will provide the full lust shortly. It being qaos it will probably be improbably long !!
In 27a, I read “occupy harbour” as “enter Tain,” a town not particularly known (as far as I’m aware) for its harbour, but apparently there is one.
@Rhotician #6 D’oh! Thank you.
Clever, clever stuff. Had to cheat on a few; no complaints.
Thanks to flashling, and to Qaos for what I thought was quite a tricky puzzle. I don’t know if I’ve seen “E-lite” before, but it made me laugh anyway. 23d was clever, though perhaps a little obscure if you don’t know the film. Talking of films, it might be worth pointing out that 7d refers to a famous line spoken by Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront.
I originally read 27a as Ian SW3 did, Tain being a place I know well, but it’s quite a stretch to describe it as a port, so I think flashling’s triple definition explanation is probably right.
Thanks, flashling. This didn’t take too long, but I needed the check button more than usual. Clever puzzle and very entertaining.
I missed the theme — have never heard of a Sinclair Spectrum. I was intrigued to find out what other theme words might be in here, so I looked up the games on Wiki and can add Alien, Knight Lore, Elite, Renegade and Mercenary to Manic Miner and Jumping Jack. There may be others but I got a little cross-eyed!
Oh, and there’s a game called Chaos, appropriately enough 🙂
Re 25ac.
Of course in 1986 Amstrad, Alan Sugar’s company, bought Sinclair’s computer business which had indeed got into trouble. But I think it was 100% not 50%! 😉
I really enjoyed this puzzle because I smiled a lot while solving the clues (even if I had no idea there was a theme to this puzzle!). I particularly liked 5d, 13d, 23d, 24a, 21a, 3d and my favourite was 7d CONTENDER
New words for me were REEFER = ‘sailor’, CORELLA, Sir Clive SINCLAIR, Marc ALMOND.
I failed to parse 27a apart from ENTERTAIN = ‘harbour’.
Thanks Qaos and flashling. And congratulations to RCW@4. That was a quick recovery!
Yes,Michelle. After such a long struggle I am quite ((pleasantly) surprised and encouraged at the big change in a short time.
Thanks to flashling for the blog. You explained why I had the right answer for 13d despite being unable to parse it.
I know the name of the film ALIEN but nothing more about it 🙁
Finished in the paper with the help of checking online that we were on the right track. First in was SPECTRUM and the bottom half followed relatively easily. Last in was VERSUS. We discussed various cigarettes suitable for sailors, including Player’s Navy Cut and laughed therefore when we solved REEFERS. Didn’t spot the theme as I owned an Amstrad, used for word processing, rather than a Spectrum.
Thanks Qaos and Flashling. Doing crosswords and coming here provides wonderful opportunity to learn new things. I’m afraid I am leaving my Mum to the Quick Crossword until I visit again after a couple of weeks holiday. Until then happy solving to all.
Thanks to Qaos and Flashling – and Rhotician #6. Trying to parse 1d was driving me, er, manic.
I can add (the) Sentinel to the list of Sinclair Spectrum games – despite lots of time wasted in my youth on that computer, I didn’t spot the theme.
Good puzzle; I was more of an Acorn Electron man, so didn’t really see the theme words, although JUMPING JACK leapt out at me. 😉
Thanks flashling; Wiki revealed Nostromo as a Joseph Conrad novel at first, which caused some scratching of head.
I know that a=advance is in Chambers, but does anyone know the context in which it is used?
Thank you flashling, and liz @ 12.
Is Qaos very young or am I very old?! I was defeated by 9A, as I’d never heard of Mark Almond or Soft Cell, and while I got the rest, the theme was wasted on me as I’d not heard of any of these games. 🙁
Thanks for the explanations for MANIC. JOE = MAN still seems a bit, well, flaky, but I like the 99 link.
TRILLION and MERCENARY favourites.
Hi all,
Many thanks for the comments – always appreciated.
As has been pointed out, the ghost theme revolves around the Sinclair ZX Spectrum with many of it’s classic games hidden throughout the grid. Given the era of its peak in popularity, I thought it fitting to include a few ’80s references in there too.
I’m planning to make John Henderson’s 50th bash in Sheffield next month, so if you’re attending I might bump into you there.
Best wishes,
Qaos.
Enjoyed. But did Qaos HAVe to break his ‘bat’? I think he could have got away with it.’
Cheers
Rowly.
PS did noyt like 25A at all.
In case there are any other non-UK solvers out there still scratching their heads over 1 down, I googled “99 ice cream” and discovered there is an English brand of ice cream called a 99 Flake. Makes sense now.
I enjoyed the clues I understood but the theme and several of the references were lost on me.
Thanks Qaos and flashling.
A real trip down memory lane today – I think I might be just about the same age as Qaos given not just the games mentioned but some of the other references as well. MANIC MINER – wotagame!
Lovely, inventive clueing throughout. I struggled a bit in the NW which was the last section to drop, but when I twigged the wonderful ELITE everything else slotted neatly in to place.
David Mop @20 – I take it the pop charts of the early ’80s held no interest for you at all? Soft Cell’s version of Tainted Love was the biggest selling UK single of ’81, beating Adam and the Ants into second and third with Stand and Deliver and Prince Charming. In those days I really cared about that sort of thing!
Has anybody done 26041 yet? I’m completely stumped.
Mitz @26. You are right. When I was at school in the early 60’s I had a slight interest in the pop charts, but it went when I started work.
Thanks for the info about Soft Cell and Tainted Love. Yes I remember that track, and how difficult it was to avoid hearing it, and how much I hated it!
Olley @27
The prize crossword is only blogged here after the close of entries date – in other words on the Saturday after publication. Boatman is a tough setter, and there is a theme carried throughout – if you are unfamiliar with it then you might struggle.
If you’re really desperate and can’t wait, there are some websites such as answerbank where people will be happy to give you hints on individual solutions to help you along the way.
Bit of a struggle, but great fun. I thought 26a was particularly clever, given that Norman Wisdom had the image of someone with a heart of gold.
He was very famous in Albania too.
To mis quote we are a grand father.
This was a challenge but I got there in the end. The Sinclair Spectrum theme went completely over my head, but it didn’t stop me enjoying some of the clever devices QAOS used.
In 1dn Joe=man would probably be more familiar to US solvers, e.g. in the expression “no ordinary Joe”. I spotted the device for the Flake 99/IC and couldn’t decide if it was very clever or a bit too cute.
ALMOND was my LOI after I finally remembered Marc.
We thought this was a tough one! It took us ages to get started and the theme completely passed us by. We guessed ALMOND but failed to parse it.
Thanks Qaos and flashing.
Tough but finished, partly due to connection problems stopping use of my usual gadgets 🙁
HKColin, FYI nowadays “A 99” has become generic like “biro” and “hoover” etc.
Pretty dire stuff this, couldn’t dig it. I wasn’t persuaded by Flashling’s ‘&littish’ numbers, I didn’t buy a lot of the ‘mechanisms’, many of which I thought were a bit untidy, and there were some mistakes, or at least I reckoned so, in the definitions as we went through. Probably a ‘wavelength thing’, but it was a struggle with no medal at the end, dammit!
Thanks flashling and Qaos
I did not enjoy this but to be fair most of my day was spent setting up and getting to know a new ‘smart tv’ so I found it hard to give my mind to it.
I got everything except ‘Almond’ and tried a1 + ming (campbell).
I missed the theme, and had to guess at 1d, and 14d.
Thanks to Qaos and flashling. Agree with all of Bertandjoyce’s comments. Had no idea about the theme. I do recall being alive in the 80’s but don’t remember any of the related items. Did they make it stateside? Anyway, glad to learn about it now.
Cheers…
I too found this a bit “clunky”. Got there in the end after a good start.
Although I had a Spectrum ZX I never played games on it. Still don’t do “computer games” as I find them mindless!
So no help from any theme.
A = Advance chem = chemistry !!!!????
“throw in” is a step too far for me to get the misdirection with towel. Clumsy IMHO
Didn’t really enjoy this 🙁
Thanks to Flashling who found it easy 😮 and to Qaos.
In my speech ‘versus’ ends with an ‘s’ sound and ‘ verses’ with a ‘z’ sound. And I thought in RP the second vowel is different too. Whatever, I don’t think they rhyme
Brendan NTO well what can I say I had 90% done in ten minutes, that’s mostly easy to me, last few took longer I’ll admit. When blogging I much prefer having most of it largely written in my mind than thirty minutes of thinking what the hell. Still horses for courses, a rufus can take me longer than an enigmatist.
Rather late to the comment thread but I parsed 6a as the game being “jack-in-the-box” and we remove the limits (like “thinking out of the box” as beloved of management speak).