A nice crossword from Eimi today, with no evidence (to me, at any rate) of any football. All much more highbrow, connected as it is with 20ac’s 13ac.
Across the unchecked letters at the top and the bottom can be read two characters who feature in B’s D. There may also be some other references.
Eimi often appears when there is a crossword to celebrate some anniversary. But Boccaccio lived through years that don’t make this a whole number of centuries, and anyway do we know the date on which The Decameron appeared? Surely not. So is there anything?
Definitions in italics.
Across
9 Herb Lear’s middle daughter’s concealed in middle of food (7)
OREGANO
Regan in {f}oo{d} — Regan was the second of King Lear’s three daughters
10 What members of the Sealed Knot do: carry stick around in wet (2-5)
RE-ENACT
(cane)rev. in ret
11 Keep quiet about biblical character’s reluctance to work (5)
SLOTH
s(Lot)h
12 Bury boxer with aggression primarily among other things (5,4)
INTER ALIA
inter Ali a{ggression} — Mohammed Ali the boxer
13 Remove the prime minister’s books (9)
DECAMERON
de-Cameron — refers to 20dn’s Decameron
15 One spot around front of mosque in Turkish city (5)
IZMIT
1 z(m{osque})it
16 Hold murderer without leg restraint at last (7)
CONTAIN
C(on {restrain}t)ain — Cain in the Bible is a murderer, on = leg as in cricket — without = outside
18 Demands to be among first on board (7)
INSISTS
in S(1st)S — in = among, on board = in SS
19 Appraise an important person in ‘ackney, say (3,2)
EYE UP
I couldn’t understand it (beyond assuming that ‘appraise’ was the definition) when I solved the crossword, I couldn’t understand it when I did the initial part of the blog (hoping for eventual enlightenment), but I can’t understand it even now. Help please! As Paul A @1 has immediately pointed out, it’s a homonym of ‘igh-up. Perfectly obvious, really.
20 Verse writer for Bad Co., ABC and 10CC (9)
BOCCACCIO
(Co ABC IO CC)* — Bad Co. refers to Bad Company, these people — I suspected that ABC was also some rock group, not quite sure, perhaps ABC Rock is well-known — even I have heard of 10cc, the group that was around in the 1970s — Boccaccio wrote The 13ac
23 Nomocracy‘s awful role in revolution (4,2,3)
RULE OF LAW
(awful role)*
24 Lofty home that may sound strange to some (5)
EYRIE
“eerie”
26 Not just attending function in amusement park (7)
FUNFAIR
unfair next to f — unfair = not just, f is a function in maths
27 Shades of fish embargoes (3-4)
RAY-BANS
ray bans — shades = sunglasses
Down
1 Self-assured hipster regularly seen in school (6)
POISED
po({h}i{p}s{t}e{r})d
2 Some toreadors getting upset in a bar (4)
AERO
Reversed hidden in tOREAdors — that masterpiece of advertising, persuading people that bubbles of air gave you good value for money
3 Might attempt to draw attention to wilful infliction of injury (6)
MAYHEM
may hem — may = might (although it doesn’t and people often use one when they should use the other; but they’re close enough) — hem as in clearing the throat politely
4 Put forward Weasley as possible contributor to annihilation (8)
POSITRON
posit Ron — posit = put forward, Ron Weasley
5 General whose anger carries some weight? Just the opposite! (6)
IRETON
ire ton — the opposite of anger carrying weight is weight carrying anger — this general, unknown to me
6 Arranged seminar on Sweden that doesn’t quite hit the target (4,4)
NEAR MISS
(seminar)* S
7 The dawn chorus? (5,5)
EARLY MUSIC
CD
8 Place not initially in Atlas it turned out (8)
ATLANTIS
n{ot} in (Atlas it)* — not quite sure why it’s Atlas not atlas — semi &lit. (only semi because ‘place’ has no part in the wordplay)
14 All Connie can cook without nuts at first: pasta (10)
CANNELLONI
(All Connie)* round n{uts}
16 Move all the fielders to the onside? Get lost! (5,3)
CLEAR OFF
If a cricket captain clears the offside of the field then all the fielders are on the onside
17 Dismay about remotely-operated vehicle gaining acceptance (8)
APPROVAL
app(ROV)al — ROV is a fairly obvious abbreviation, although it was unknown to me, and there it is in Chambers
18 Caterpillar heading for Mundesley after Norwich is devastated (8)
INCHWORM
(Norwich)* M{undesley} —Mundesley is a village in Norfolk, which must be pretty small since it isn’t in my Pears Cyclopaedia
20 Dance/ /attire (6)
BOLERO
2 defs
21 Primate/ /seemingly agreeable among sailors (3-3)
AYE-AYE
2 defs, although perhaps I’m missing something: ‘seemingly’? Surely aye-aye is a straightforward form of assent among sailors
22 Some perversely classed oloroso as port (6)
ODESSA
Reversed hidden in clASSED Oloroso
25 Boy one associated with private saving account (4)
RYAN
Rather lost here: it seems to be RY associated with an, but I’m not sure if RY is a private saving account because if I Google it all kinds of stuff appears with these two letters consecutively in it, such as diary and history
*anagram
19ac – Homonym of ‘igh-up, an important person in ‘ackney
Me again, yes ABC was a band (20ac), and 25d my LOI, guessed Ryan, no idea why then light-bulb moment juggling saving and private.
The account is the film – Saving Private Ryan, groan
A fairly easy solve and I spotted there was a nina, but in my ignorance of Italian literature I failed to associate it with 20’s 13. My CoD was DECAMERON for the smile it raised.
Thanks, Eimi and John
A very enjoyable puzzle and I even saw the names at the top and bottom of the grid, although I had to check them post-solve to see their connection to the puzzle. My parsing of 19ac and 25dn was the same as Paul A, and I also remember ABC.
IRETON was only vaguely known but the wordplay was clear enough. IZMIT was my LOI after ATLANTIS.
25d refers to the film Saving Private Ryan.
This was a delightful puzzle – okay, no footie, but I can handle that. There was some inventive clueing, especially with CLEAR OFF, AYE-AYE and RAYBANS. Could’t parse RYAN, though, so thanks to Paul A for that. And I actually saw a theme. Had to go and search online for the details afterwards, but then you learn something, which is a bonus.
Maybe the ghost theme is just something to do with the setter’s love of all things Italian?
And why do we say NEAR MISS, when in fact it’s a NEAR HIT? One of life’s mysteries.
Thanks to eimi for this one and to John for blogging.
Did anybody else spot the NINA? Top and bottom lines – it’s a long time since I read Decameron but I presume these are two of the narrators
25dn – as opposed to that well known porn film, Shaving Ryan’s Privates.
One normally expects a NINA from the occasional Eimi puzzles we see, so I was on the lookout. Sadly neither of the hidden words meant much but I guessed the theme was Decameron when I saw that it was written by Boccaccio. There was some nice populist connection-making with things like the clues for Decameron and Ryan. The SE corner proved the most tricky with the complete certainty that 21dn must be ape man holding me up.
Re KD at 6 surely a near miss is a miss that’s near to being a hit so just as apt as a near hit?
A good puzzle – we were looking for ninas when we saw it was eimi but not being that well up on Italian literature it didn’t help us until our last two in – 22d and 25d.
We googled the two names at the end and guessed the connection to 13a and 20a.
Thanks Eimi for not making it too difficult at this time of night!
Thanks John.
Thanks to John and to all for your kind comments. KD’s right about my love of things Italian though I have to confess to not having read Boccaccio’s Decameron and there are some Italian things I don’t love, notably Berlusconi, Italian TV, Fernet Branca, but I’d be very keen to deCameron so long as it didn’t mean we had to enJohnson.
Why is ret wet please??
And why is mayhem (= chaos) ‘wilful infliction of injury’?
Justin @13 – According to Chambers, ret is a verb meaning to moisten – something I didn’t know, but it had to be something like that.
The same book tells us that mayhem is a legal term for malicious damage – and I didn’t know that either!