It’s Tuesday so we were expecting something slightly out of the ordinary. What’s more – it’s our first blog of an Eimi puzzle!
When we saw that the puzzle was by Eimi we were on the look-out for something – a theme perhaps or a nina. We struggled a bit towards the end and kept looking to see whether there was something we were missing. We wondered about a pangram at one point but realised it couldn’t be one, given the spaces we had left to fill. It wasn’t until the very end that everything clicked into place. Solvers may remember that a famous actor died recently. He was one of our favourites, no doubt one of Eimi’s too. When we checked, we hadn’t realised just how many films we had seen that he starred in. If you want to know more click here. We’ve highlighted his film and TV appearances in the blog. We hope we didn’t miss any!
Thanks Eimi for an enjoyable puzzle – a fitting tribute!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Avant-garde Somalian painting – not 19 | |
| MONA LISA | An anagram of SOMALIAN – anagrind is ‘avante-garde’ | |
| 5 | Supporter with Russian car in World cup venue | |
| BRAZIL | BRA (supporter) + ZIL (Russian car) | |
| 10 | With unfinished strip, attempts to con the ref | |
| DIVES | DIVES |
|
| 11 | Not a saloon, but Capri bulb that’s blown | |
| PUBLIC BAR | An anagram of CAPRI BULB – anagrind is ‘that’s blown’ | |
| 12 | Combats Republican workers perhaps following vehicle | |
| CARGO PANTS | ||
| 13 | Cutting remark from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board | |
| BARB | Could be described as a double definition – if that can include an acronym | |
| 15 | Fish around river for scrap | |
| SHARD | SHAD (fish) round R (river) | |
| 16 | One proposes to include iron filings in song title | |
| MOON RIVER | MOVER (one proposes – as in a formal debate or discussion) around or ‘including’ an anagram of IRON (anagrind is ‘filings’) | |
| 19 | Paintings etc. not marred in reproduction | |
| MODERN ART | An anagram of NOT MARRED – anagrind is ‘in reproduction’ | |
| 20 | Apparently naked president | |
| NIXON | If you have NIX (nothing) ON, you would be apparently naked | |
| 21 | President thanks a newspaper | |
| TAFT | TA (thanks) + FT (newspaper) | |
| 23 | Condition discommoding the orators | |
| SORE THROAT | An anagram of THE ORATORS – anagrind is ‘discommoding’ | |
| 27 | Traveller having a brandy at work and a loo break | |
| MARCO POLO | MARC (brandy) + OP (work) + an anagram of LOO (anagrind is ‘break’) | |
| 28 | Supply an online 13 | |
| EQUIP | An E-QUIP could be a ‘barb’ (13ac) online | |
| 29 | Somehow sail around this country with a dog | |
| SALUKI | An anagram of SAIL (anagrind is ‘somehow’) around UK (this country) | |
| 30 | Fabulous creatures out to disarm me | |
| MERMAIDS | An anagram of DISARM ME – anagrind is ‘out’ | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Note on ‘Denominazione di Origine Controllata’ red wine | |
| MEDOC | ME (note) + DOC (‘Denom……..’) | |
| 2 | Keep flying for ever in Pan’s domain | |
| NEVERLAND | You will NEVER LAND if you keep on flying. Pan refers to Peter Pan. | |
| 3 | Girl concealing rubbish about the German that’s heard in 11 | |
| LAST ORDERS | LASS (girl) around, or ‘concealing’ ROT (rubbish) reversed or ‘about’ and DER (‘the’ in German) | |
| 4 | Gullible person getting direct attention over blood poisoning | |
| SAPRAEMIA | SAP (gullible person) + AIM (direct) EAR (attention) reversed or ‘over’ | |
| 6 | Means of transport supplier of pork pies set up | |
| RAIL | LIAR (supplier of ‘pork pies’ – Cockney slang) reversed or ‘set up’ | |
| 7 | Initially Eddie Izzard turns up with ladies’ underwear item that’s stripy | |
| ZEBRA | E (‘initial’ letter of Eddie) + Z (Izzard – the letter ‘z’) reversed or ‘turned up’’ + BRA (ladies’ underwear item) | |
| 8 | My word, Brydon’s upset with character often mentioned in ‘The Trip to Italy’ | |
| LORD BYRON | LOR (‘my word’) + an anagram of BRYDON’S –anagrind is ‘upset’ | |
| 9 | Touch up with an instrument | |
| ABUT | TUBA (instrument) reversed or ‘up’ | |
| 14 | Edges aren’t seen with this sort of cricket bowling | |
| FRENCH SEAM | ||
| 15 | 3:15, 4:30, 5:45, on and off | |
| SOMETIMES | 3:15, 4:30, 5:45 are SOME TIMES | |
| 17 | Making progress concerning first band played on Radio One | |
| ON THE MOVE | ON (concerning) + THE MOVE (the first band played on Radio One – the single was ‘Flowers in the Rain’. Bert had it in his head that it was ‘Pictures of Matchstick Men’ , but ‘On The Status Quo’ didn’t fit! | |
| 18 | Very neat pupil’s upset about zero for interview with the public | |
| VOX POPULI | V (very) OX (neat) + an anagram of PUPIL (anagrind is ‘upset’) round O (zero) | |
| 22 | Savage time in Florida | |
| FERAL | ERA (time) in FL (Florida) | |
| 24 | Player without an Oscar getting an award | |
| OBOE | O (Oscar) in OBE (award) | |
| 25 | Snacks made from recycled pasta | |
| TAPAS | An anagram of PASTA – anagrind is ‘recycled’ | |
| 26 | Shot a pirate | |
| HOOK | Double definition. Thanks for this one Eimi – we saw Wendy and Peter Pan at the RSC earlier this year. It brought back some wonderful memories. | |
Had a lovely time with this one – and feeling very proud of doing it in well under an hour (that may be par for the course for some, but it isn’t for me!). I enjoy this kind of “hidden” theme, where the knowledge of the theme is irrelevant to solving the puzzle itself.
Thanks a lot to Eimi and to Bertandjoyce!
Re. annotation of 12: it might be appropriate to include the original meaning of GOP as well!
I really liked this one – the usual good range of clues from eimi. Didn’t spot the theme (situation normal) but it is, as you say, a delightful tribute to Bob Hoskins. The only one I couldn’t get without help was SAPRAEMIA.
And Izzard for Z? You learn stuff.
In 14dn it’s FRENCH for ‘sort of cricket’ and SEAM for ‘bowling’, with the definition being ‘edges aren’t seen with this’. I know more about cricket than sewing, btw.
Fine puzzle and blog. Thanks all.
I agree with Abhay @1 that “Grand Old Party” would be a more appropriate and accurate explanation of GOP. I’ve never heard the other one.
Thanks to Eimi, Bert and Joyce.
An enjoyable puzzle, although I’m a little annoyed with myself for not seeing the theme. I agree with the comments @1 and @3 that GOP is “Grand Old Party”. Under competition conditions I’d have failed with this one because I would have entered an unparsed SEPTAEMIA at 4dn. I used aids to get the previously unheard of SAPRAEMIA, although the wordplay is clear enough in retrospect.
Thanks to everyone so far! We’ve been out all morning and have just checked the blog which has now been corrected!
Ian @3, you’ve obviously never heard them talk!
A good puzzle, although I too missed the Bob Hoskins theme. My favourites were 15d and 12a. I’ve never seen this particular expression in a crossword before, so well done on the groundbreaking Mr Eimi.
Thanks to the setters for a fun blog.
I guessed the theme/tribute from 1a, not that it really helped due to searching for ROGER/FRAMED/RABBIT in vain and as for 4d I was looking for septicemia or words like that.
Oh well, thanks Eimi been a while since we saw you and B&J for the blogging.
Thanks to B&J and to those who commented.
Yes, I thought he was a great actor and a throwback to a time when you could get an acting job in this country without a public school education. You also get the impression that he was a nice bloke too.
I tried to keep the theme fairly ghosted so I had to leave out some of his better known films – incidentally I’m pretty sure I used The Long Good Friday in a previous puzzle. But my favourite Bob Hoskins performance was as Mr Micawber in the BBC’s excellent two-part adaptation of David Copperfield a few years back.
Wonderful puzzle. Huge thank you to Eimi. Thought 20ac and 22ac were great clues and 8dn cleverly topical.
B & J – Yet another exemplary blog. Many thanks, particularly for putting me out of my mystery with 5ac. Izzard for ‘z’ was buried deep in memory bank but needed you guys to help dig it out!
Another enjoyable crossword, I struggled with sapraemia, & what theme ?, well done Eimi, a well balanced workout .