As usual we have a nice, quite difficult but not overly so, crossword from Scorpion. There is one on which I’m quite lost and a couple of others where I’m probably not seeing it all, but as usual …
There seem to be more than the usual number of characters in films and sport, but without any apparent pattern, so I’ll leave it to the eagle-eyed to see if anything’s happening.
Definitions in italics.
Across
9 Cry of pleasure engulfs chamber and vault briefly, finding sacred texts (9)
APOCRYPHA
a(po cryp{t})ha — po = chamber (pot)
11 Both hands grapple excessively redirecting alien plant section (7)
ROOTLET
R and L [right and left] round (too)rev. ET
12 Annual bill settled by Rushdie, heading off (7)
ALMANAC
{S}alman ac
13 Lifting one out of coaches? Consider electrical device (11)
TRANSPONDER
tra{i}ns ponder — was only vaguely familiar with the word, but it does exist
16 Music-maker succeeded with guitar in Nashville (3)
SAX
s ax — in Nashville you would use the US spelling of the informal word ‘axe’ for a guitar — whether it’s Adolphe Sax or the instrument he invented it doesn’t really matter since they are both music-makers
17 Agreement medical section repeated back in theatre (7)
ENTENTE
ENT ENT {theatr}e
19 Early performance seen – it amused some towards the front (7)
MATINEE
Hidden reversed in seen – it amused — it seems that hidden reversed clues are becoming generally more widespread, which I have no objection to at all since they are often, as here, well-concealed and clever
21,10 Actor clipped hooligan in front of French lady (3,5)
VAN DAMME
vanda{l} Mme — Jean-Claude van Damme
22 Speed getting through entry was amazing in fabulous rural attractions (5,6)
WATER NYMPHS
mph in (entry was)* — not the sort of rural attractions I was expecting
25 Hollywood icon, woman inviting page to massage back (7)
HEPBURN
he(p bur)n — bur is (rub)rev. — Katharine or Audrey but more likely the former since Audrey seems to have only gone to Hollywood from time to time
27 Winged insect appearing with Latin translation (7)
ANTLION
(Latin)* on — on = appearing as in ‘Where is Audrey Hepburn appearing?’
29 Clip recalled soul music (5)
POLKA
(lop)rev. ka
30 15 at club getting medal (4,5)
IRON CROSS
15 being ‘ratty’, this is its synonym cross following iron (as in golf club)
Down
1 He painted balls used during match (8)
MAGRITTE
Not at all comfortable here: it looks as if it’s grit [= balls] in mate — OK match = mate is all right, but grit = balls seems very strange: the point of grit is that the little bits are sharp, not rounded like balls — or is it that grit is rubbish and rubbish is balls, so by a process of transposition we have grit = balls?
2 Two occupations, the first requiring shave with a cosmetic oil (6)
JOJOBA
jo{b}job a
3 Singer-songwriter mostly engendered large following (4)
BREL
bre{w} l — Jacques Brel
4 Excited by cricket action? It’s part of a sportswriter’s character (8)
UPSTROKE
up stroke — but what on earth this has to do with a sportswriter I can’t see — help needed here I’m afraid — I have said that the second part is the definition but really don’t quite know
5 Brazil’s midfielders impede tough premiership footballer (6)
HAZARD
h({Br}az{il})ard — the midfielders are the middle letters (well OK then) and the reference is Chelsea’s Eden Hazard
6 Noblewoman promoting English dairy produce (4)
EDAM
Dame with the e promoted, i.e. moved to the top
7 Explorer to divert north around edges of Newfoundland (8)
AMUNDSEN
amu(N{ewfoundlan}d)se N
8 Old sportsman cross with car park’s closure (6)
MERCKX
Merc X {par}k — Eddy Merckx
14 Muscle in, disturbing work with textiles (5)
SINEW
s(in)ew — which is only muscle in a general sense, since its primary meaning is as something attached to a muscle
15 Condition of sewer/ having got the needle? (5)
RATTY
2 defs, one of them requiring you to read ‘sewer’ as ‘syou-er’
18 Camping gear‘s design lacking in extreme terrain (8)
TENTPOLE
{in}tent pole — as in North Pole, extreme terrain
19 French sea boat provided with men, one improving marine navigation (8)
MERCATOR
mer cat OR — Mercator of the Mercator projection
20 After each term in maths, students vacated facility (8)
EASINESS
ea sine s{tudent}s
21 Chevron indicates velocity on M1 bypassing accident close to home (1-5)
V-SHAPE
v {mi}shap {hom}e
23 Animated character can box (6)
TINTIN
tin tin — two synonyms for box — does Scorpion mean that the character is excitable or that he is a cartoon character? If the latter then is this quite right, since the Tintin books were written before the animation, and if the former then I don’t remember Tintin being particularly excitable — my fear is that Scorpion is going down the road of saying that nothing exists while it’s on the printed page: you have to wait for the film or TV series — mind you Michael Flanders said in ‘At the Drop of Another Hat’ that he hadn’t read C.P. Snow’s ‘The Two Cultures’ and was waiting for the play to come
24 Legendary bloodhound returned to shred entertaining ball (6)
POIROT
(to rip)rev. round o
26 Servicemen having guts to push raft (4)
USAF
{p}us{h} {r}af{t}
28 Food/ course (4)
TACK
2 defs
*anagram
Famous Belgians! Including Audrey Hepburn, who was born in Brussels.
PS I think balls equates to grit in the sense of courage.
I took the second part of 4D to be a reference to an upstroke as a part of one of the letters in the word “sportswriter”, however my own handwriting would use upstrokes on several of them (p, r, w).
Thank you, John.
Indeed, as Conrad says, famous Belgians (the phrase has somewhat undeservedly gained something of a reputation as an oxymoron). Unusually, I did see this coming, and we have MAGRITTE, TINTIN, VAN DAMME, HEPBURN, HAZARD, MERCKX, MERCATOR, BREL, POIROT and AMUNDSEN (I made that last one up; he’s Norwegian).
I have been known to be a bit arsey about themed puzzles, but this was one of those where you get halfway through and realise what’s going on, which makes it a bit more fun.
Grit is indeed BALLS. TRUE GRIT; he had the balls to tackle this themed crossword.
Well done, Scorpion.
Slightly tenuous connection but even though Amundsen wasn’t Belgian, he was part of the Belgian expedition that was the first to overwinter in Antarctica.
A thought this was a tough but enjoyable Thursday workout. I struggled mostly in the NW and it was only after my LOI, BREL, that I twigged the “famous Belgian” theme. Good point by Querulous@5, and it is surely no coincidence.
Perhaps I didn’t make that up after all, Querulous … And of course, as is well known, RATTY in Wind in the Willows had Belgian ancestry.
Sorry, my medication kicks in about now, so I’ll just repeat that I thought this was a really pleasing puzzle, and I’ll get me coat.
K’s D@4. I’ve just noticed you don’t have Sax in the list. He invented that ill wind that nobody blows good.
Perhaps I should add that as a former professional on Sax’s invention, my last was meant to be ironic. Someone said insincerity is the spice of life, or maybe I just can’t resist a bad joke.
Is a dame strictly a noblewoman
Tim @10
Mme is the French abbreviation for madame, nothing to do with nobility.
Tim @10
Oops, I was referring to the wrong clue/solution, namely 21,19 French lady.
Missed some of the Belgians as being Belgian but nice puzzle probably more suited to the Tuesday slot.
Oh dear! I’m currently working on a list of 10 Famous(?) Belgians and I missed the theme! The only excuse I can offer is that mine all have to be musical (good thing I spotted SAX!) as the list is for a music society presentation. But I should have got it from MERCKX.
A minor pedantic point about the blog for 23dn. It was ‘Science and Government’ that Michael Flanders said he was waiting for the play of – at least on my recording. But what a brilliant pair Flanders and Swann were. The specific references in their recordings may be dated now, but the general targets of their satire are still very much with us.
Thanks, Scorpion and John.
Nice isn’t a word I’d use to describe this one, John. Found it very difficult to get going and was on the verge of giving up a couple of times. In the end, I needed help only to get 8dn: the name was too deep in my memory to surface. Of course, I never noticed the theme. Curiously, I got 30ac very early just from a couple of crossing letters, long before I got 15dn, by which time I’d forgotten it had been referred to.
Yes you’re quite right allan_c@14, it was indeed ‘Science and Government’. Haven’t listened to it for ages but I seem to remember that ‘The Two Cultures’ was at least referred to.
How on earth did I miss all those Belgians? And lots of them were Googled and it told me where they came from and I still didn’t twig.
We had to finish this one this morning but despite knowing that some of the characters were Belgian, we failed to pick up on the fact that this was a themed puzzle! We’d never heard of BREL and had to ‘hazard a guess’ at 5d – we’re not into football!
Bert was more concerned with looking for a pangram once we had many of the more unusual letters.
Anyway, thanks to Scorpion and John.