Several linked/cross-referenced clues here, which often suggests a theme may be present; and also several references to ‘cardinals’ in the clues – is there going to be some sort of Monty Python/Spanish Inquisition theme? Cardinal Tees – fetch the comfy crossword-solving chair!…
As it turns out, this involved a different period, or periods, of history – the ‘cardinal’s of course being numbers – THIRTEEN, FOURTEEN and FIFTEEN, and the combinations therein give us two battles – BANNOCK/BURN in 1314 and AGINCOURT in 1415.
And there is more thematic material – ARCHERs and BATTLE-AXEs, which could have been used at either engagement, (Shakespeare’s?) Henry V being ANTI-FRENCH on the eve of Agincourt; and various references to ‘knights’, ‘foes’ and ‘ranks’ dotted among the clues.
Aside from the battle theme, there were also several nicely constructed readings to raise a wry smile or two – butter made from ‘zebra milk’; a weird sex book (Exodus?!); a mysterious candidate supplying a brunette with heroin; and a take-away from a Chinese restaurant in Shanghai!
I’m sure other solvers will have had other favourites in this enjoyable puzzle – maybe not the highest level of difficulty once the theme had been established, giving plenty of crossing letters for non-thematic answers, but a worthy Saturday Prize puzzle nonetheless.
My last one in was QINDAR – not least because my older Chambers (mid-90s electronic version) only had that Albanian currency as QINTAR – but it is there in the latest versions with D or T. (There must be a conspiracy here, with setters incentivised to keep using words only available in newer versions, to keep us upgrading?…Answers on a postcard, or Facebook, Twitter, etc. Prize for best answer paid in Bitcoins…honest!)
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 9A | LORD REITH | Third role developed for TV executive (4,5) | TV executive / anag (i.e. developed) of THIRD ROLE |
| 10A | AGORA | Precious metals area in Greek shopping centre (5) | Greek shopping centre (market place) / AG (silver, chemistry) + OR (gold,heraldry), both ‘precious metals’, plus A (area) |
| 11A | NEHRU | Original chicken counter in popular Indian (5) | popular Indian / UR (prefix, primitive or original) + HEN (chicken) – all turned around (counter) |
| 12A | DARK HORSE | Mysterious candidate supplies brunette with heroin (4,5) | Mysterious candidate / DARK (brunette, of hair colour) + HORSE (slang, heroin) |
| 13A | STRIDER | Aragorn, decent chap, one up on Shadowfax for example (7) | Aragorn (from ‘Lord of the Rings’, a.k.a. ‘Strider’) / ST (saint, decent chap – or chap-ess?!) + RIDER (one up, on a horse – Shadowfax, a horse in the Lord of the Rings, being an example) |
| 14A | ETAGERE | Stand before entrance doing twirl (7) | (display) stand / ERE (before) + GATE (entrance) – all ‘doing a twirl’ |
| 17A | RAM | Butter from zebra milk (3) | Butter (as in one that butts) / hidden word in ‘zebRA Milk’ |
| 19A | EXTINCT | Former partner with Hugh reportedly lost forever (7) | lost forever / EX (former partner) + TINCT (tincture/tint, shade of colour, or hue – homophone of ‘Hugh’) |
| 21A | NOW | … immediately regained? (3) | immediately / NOW = WON ‘back’, or regained |
| 22/25D | BANNOCK(BURN) | Knights round in rear controlled fire in conflict of 5 7 (11) | conflict of 5 7 (1314) / BA__CK (rear) around N+N (knights, in chess notation) + O (round), plus BURN (controlled fire) |
| 23A | FIFTEEN | Cardinal takes time in Glenrothes area, having vacated Elgin (7) | Cardinal (number) / FIF_E (Glenrothies area) taking in T (time), plus EN (ElgiN ‘vacated’) |
| 25A | BATTLE-AXE | Aggressive female swinger at 22 25D or 30 (6-3) | double defn / a BATTLE-AXE can be an aggressive/domineering female; and also a weapon probably ‘swung’ in action at Bannockburn or Agincourt) |
| 27A | EVOKE | To summon from past is good in day before event (5) | To summon from past / EV__E (day before an event) around OK (good) |
| 29A | ROUND | Beer for mates? That’s stout (5) | double defn / as a noun, ROUND can be beers bought for one’s mates; as an adjective, stout (of figure) |
| 30A | AGINCOURT | Conflict of 7 23A leads to another general facing justice (9) | Conflict of 7 23A (1415) / AG (leading letters of Another General) + IN COURT (facing justice |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1D | PLAN | Climbing northern mountain affords view from top (4) | view from the top / N (northern) + ALP (mountain), all ‘climbing’ |
| 2D | ARCHER | Turned on by leading one deployed at 22 25D or 30 (6) | one deployed at 22 25D or 30 (Bannockburn or Agincourt) / ARCH (leading) + ER (re – on, concerning – turned) |
| 3D | GROUND ZERO | Devastated scene to get Japanese fighter down (6,4) | Devastated scene / GROUND (bring down to ground) ZERO (Mitsubishi Zero, Japanese fighter plane) |
| 4D | QINDAR | King leaves Queen without clue to find Albanian bread (6) | Albanian bread (money) / Q (queen) + IN DAR(K) – without a clue, K (king) leaving |
| 5D | THIRTEEN | Republican supporter visits weak cardinal (8) | Cardinal (number) / THI__N (weak) ‘visited by’ R (republican) + TEE (support, for golf ball) |
| 6D | BACH | Composer’s address in Wales (4) | double defn / BACH could be a composer (Johann Sebastien, amongst others), or an affectionate term of address in Wales |
| 7D | FOURTEEN | Following youngster we have cardinal (8) | Cardinal (number) / F (following) OUR TEEN(ager) – youngster ‘we’ have |
| 8D | JADE | Stone disreputable woman (4) | double defn / JADE can be a precious stone; or an ill natured/not to be trusted woman |
| 13D | SCRUB | Abandon U-boat with half crew aboard (5) | Abandon / S_UB (U-boat) around CR(EW) – half of crew |
| 15D | ANTI-FRENCH | As Henry at 30, whenever crossing ditch after vergers at Autun (4-6) | As Henry (V) at 30 (Agincourt) / AN (verges, or outer letters, of AutuN) + T_RENCH (ditch) around IF (whenever) |
| 16D | ERWIN | Rommel’s wife in Ireland (5) | Rommel (German WWII general, the Desert Fox) / ERIN (Ireland, archaic or poetic) around W (wife) |
| 18D | MINOTAUR | Pasiphaë’s monstrous child has another carry cross (8) | Pasiphaë’s monstrous child / MINO_R (another child) carrying TAU (cross) |
| 20D | TAKE AWAY | Shanghai restaurant’s offering (4,4) | double defn / to Shanghai can be to kidnap, or TAKE AWAY; and a restaurant, maybe in Shanghai(!), can offer a TAKE AWAY |
| 23D | FOETID | Enemy to order reduced rank (6) | rank (disgusting, smelly) / FOE (enemy) + TID(Y) – order, reduced |
| 24D | EXODUS | Duo writhes, seen in weird sex book (6) | book (of the Bible) / Nested anagrams! EX_S – anag (i.e. weird) of SEX – around ODU – anag (i.e. writhes) of DUO |
| 25D | BURN | See 22A (4) | see 22A / see 22A |
| 26D | LIDO | Cover over bathing beach (4) | bathing beach / LID (cover) + O (over, cricket) |
| 28D | EATS | Pound losing heart, Eliot worries (4) | worries (eats away at) / Two poets: E(ZR)A Pound, losing heart + TS (Eliot) |
I was beaten by QINDAR at 4dn. I don’t mind obscure words when they are fairly clued, but I don’t think this one was. “Without clue” is supposed to lead you to “in dark”, but the correct expressions are “without a clue” and “in the dark”, and it is unreasonable to expect the solver to make the deduction that the wordplay contains an expression with the article removed which will lead to another expression with the article removed. Even when I resorted to Google after I decided I couldn’t make sense of the wordplay I didn’t find the answer because the Wikipedia entry for the Albanian LEK says that its subdivision is 100 QINDARKA (singular QINDARKE).
Other than the above I thought it was a very good puzzle.
All 26 letters of the alphabet present too. A very enjoyable puzzle, though QINDAR took a lot of finding
Also defeated by QINDAR, the clueing of which I found impenetrable; did see qindarka in a dictionary, but it didn’t register.
Otherwise very entertaining, thanks to Tess and mc_rapper.
I was a bit baffled by the parsing of 21a (although my partner got it immediately, and says it’s quite normal). The parsing seems to be (a)look up a word in the clue (“regained”) in the dictionary (b) interpret the dictionary definition as a cryptic clue (“won back”). Is this fair? I don’t remember seeing a clue like this before.
QINDAR was the last one in for me too, but I had a hunch that Tees wouldn’t deprive us of the expected pangram at the end; luckily I remembered that the Albanian for Albanian is Shqiptare (or something v. similar), so I knew where to look in Chambers.
Andrew W: I don’t think the compiler would expect the solver to look up a word that’s in everyday use.
I found this a tough but very rewarding mental workout. Thanks to Tees and mc_rapper.
Thanks for all the feedback – looks like QINDAR touched a few nerves!
Apologies for not spotting this was a pangram – must add that to my blogging chequev-lijszt (;+>)
Andrew W at #4 – I don’t think 21A is particularly unfair – it has a definition (immediately) and an admittedly rather short cryptic indication (regained) – and just requires the solver to think a little obliquely or outside the box…
Thanks Mike (great blog) and all commenters.
The ‘won back’ sort of thing is pretty common in xwds as far as I’m aware, but there is usually (as here) a QM to warn solvers of impending skulduggery. QINDAR I thought might be quite hard, and it seems it was! But there has to be an LOI, and with the pangram it’s slightly easier, I guess.
Glad you enjoyed the weird sex.
I thought this was a really entertaining puzzle. From memory I think it was the possibility of a pangram that helped me with QINDAR, but in any case I have come across far more fiendish clueing in other puzzles that no one seems to object to, and I thought this crossword very fair. Right up my street! Thanks Tees and mc_rapper67
mc_rapper67:
Someone’s heart may have been broken……?
I read your final post, itself (up to the emoticon) a pangram – almost. There’s no X.
I have to wonder – who’s responsible for the stolen kiss?!
Thanks for great blog; and to Tees for wonderful puzzle.
Battle-axe has the X, no?
Hi Tees – and thanks for your kind words at #7.
I don’t think William F P at #9 is questioning that the puzzle itself is a pangram – he is referring to my sentence at #6 – which is almost an (accidental) pangram in itself…sorry William, all I was trying to do was make a weak pun out of ‘check-list’…
“Apologies for not spotting this was a pangram – must add that to my blogging chequev-lijszt (;+>)”