Nowadays any day is as likely as the next to throw up a hard one; except perhaps Wednesday, where Dac still holds sway for most of the month. I found this crossword from Jambazi remarkably difficult and it took me ages, although most of the clues seem easy enough after they have been solved.
I get the impression that there is something going on: the members of some band from the 1980s perhaps or some such? [Leonard Cohen, who is 80 today, we are told by Geebs, to whom thanks]
My apologies for frequently mentioning Chambers. I know it is not the dictionary used by this paper, but a) I can’t remember what is and b) it is to hand.
Definitions underlined.
Across
1 Cross artist turns to go out during recording (7)
CRABBED
(RA (ebb)rev.) in CD
5 Favourite Game ultimately taken from Dear Heather (7)
DARLING
D{e}ar Ling — the e comes from {gam}e
9 Old music-maker‘s live record’s entertaining (5)
REBEC
re(be)c — here is a rebec
10 Famous Blue Raincoat — man’s bad inside (9)
MACMILLAN
mac m(ill)an — ref. Harold Macmillan, Conservative Prime Minister
11 Old European stage manager missing a good tour (4,6)
EAST GERMAN
(stage manager – a g)* — the anagram indicated by ‘tour’, OK for some but not all
12 People using drugs (4)
ONES
on e’s
14 Turn to legend, amazingly eighty looms (11)
MYTHOLOGISE
(eighty looms)* — Chambers gives ‘turn into …’ rather than just ‘turn to …’, which may explain the otherwise slightly odd definition
18 Films following opposing arguments? Traditional ones (11)
CONFORMISTS
mists following con/for
21 Students possess ordinary intellect (4)
NOUS
N(o)US
22 Rare completeness of line occupying writer – duet rewritten with it (10)
PLENTITUDE
p(l)en it (duet)* — this word is given in Chambers as a non-standard form of plenitude
25 Canadian cops parking Montreal cycles (9)
PATROLMEN
(p Montreal)* — I suppose the only Canadian cops most people know are the Mounties, so when this didn’t fit I was bewildered, but patrolmen is said by Chambers to be North American
26 Dudes absorbing finale to Beautiful Losers (5)
FLOPS
f(l)ops. the l coming from {Beautifu}l
27 Vest time on record (7)
SINGLET
single t
28,1D Secretive Leonard Cohen performing, back on tour (4-3-6)
HOLE-AND-CORNER
(Leonard Cohen {tou}r)* — a nice anagram because so far as I know Leonard Cohen is rather secretive and recently went back on tour
Down
1 See 28 across
CORNER
2 In the morning, president to attack (6)
AMBUSH
a.m. Bush
3 Champion almost injured leg for game (10)
BACKGAMMON
back gamm{y} on — back = champion as a verb, on = leg as in cricket
4 Hull’s troublemaker interrupts doctor to protest (5)
DEMUR
d(Emu)r — ref Rod Hull and Emu
5 One reads out right-wing piece from Flowers for Hitler and such like? (9)
DICTATORS
dictator {Flower}s
6 Bar makes perjurer rise (4)
RAIL
(liar)rev.
7 State one detailed sound — writer will at beginning (8)
ILLINOIS
(1 nois{e}) with I’ll at the beginning — nothing to do with Shakespeare, as ‘writer will’ may suggest — anyway the clue has will not Will
8 Band member penning number with comedian (8)
GANGSTER
ga(n)gster
13 Load supporting incomplete composition worthy of honour? (10)
WORSHIPFUL
wor{k} shipful
15 Magazine bound to make deadline (4,5)
TIME LIMIT
Time [the American magazine] limit — I had time check for a while, which made 22ac, 25ac and 27ac difficult
16 Tory chairman hugs Conservative (Northern) having split drinks (8)
SCHNAPPS
S(C)h(n)apps — Grant Shapps was made Conservative Party Chairman in 2012 — the fact that C and n are not together is indicated by ‘having split’ — I had always thought Schnapps was just a drink, but Chambers says that it is any of various strong alcoholic drinks
17 Open union, end for independence? (8)
UNBUTTON
Sorry, can’t see this: the definition is presumably as indicated, but what the rest of it is about I can’t see at all — usually in these cases someone explains and it is embarrassingly obvious, so I am expecting the same again — U nuclear button seems a bit far-fetched — as I expected it’s pretty simple (thanks Geebs @2), union with the i [independence] replaced by butt
19 Fizzy drink that’s finished inside vault (round on top?) (6)
CUPOLA
c(up)ola
20 Skilled and wrote poems (6)
VERSED
2 defs
23 Beethoven’s last? (5)
NINTH
Presumably this is a reference to the fact that Beethoven’s last symphony is his ninth, also that the last letter of the word Beethoven is the ninth letter of Beethoven
24 Spin record (4)
ROLL
2 defs, although the first one didn’t come quickly and I’m still unable to think of a sentence where the words are interchangeable
*anagram
Theme is Leonard Cohen. 80 years old today.
17ac is butt (end) replacing i in “union”
Sorry ..17d
Happily, I managed to complete the puzzle today, especially necessary as my name is in it! Thanks to both.
This Sunday it is Leonard Cohen’s 80th Birthday.
The Man (who is from Montreal, 25ac) is currently promoting his newest album “Popular Problems” which will be released on Monday.
So a very apt tribute by Jambazi, the master of themes.
The good thing about this, in my opinion, marvellous crossword was that the theme didn’t dominate the puzzle as much as in other Jambazi crosswords.
Perhaps it sounds a bit vague but it gave more breathing space to the ‘normal’ clues which were generally concise and elegant.
Of the Cohen clues, the constructions of 5ac, 10ac and 28/1D are simply superb.
It is a pity perhaps that Favourite Game (just like Beautiful Losers and Flowers for Hitler) is only a book by Cohen and not a track on the album Dear Heather.
But, as the French say, soit!
I thought the simple 23d (NINTH) was a slick gem.
My LOI was 17d, a clue that wouldn’t have been out of place in last week’s Tramp puzzle (Guardian) with Scotland as a theme.
It took me a while to spot what was going on but once the penny dropped, I admired the combination of the cryptic contruction and the natural surface.
Really, really good stuff!
Thanks John (and Jambazi, ofcourse).
I also found this a tough nut to crack, but I thought it was a very good puzzle. Like Sil@5 UNBUTTON was my LOI after I finally saw how to parse it, and it was a superb clue because of its topicality.
Thanks for the blog John.
I wrote this puzzle in July. The idea for this puzzle was suggested to me by Icelily from the Guardian site who is a big Leonard Cohen fan. Icelily informed me that Lenny would be turning 80 on 21st Sept.
I know nothing on the subject but used Wikipedia to obtain a list of his work.
I’m not sure about the comment for 11ac: “OK for some, but not all”. I presume you mean the choice of “tour” rather than “tours/touring”. What’s wrong with the cryptic grammar for “A + (B missing C) tour”? I suppose you could argue it should be “stage and manager missing a good tour” but I think it’s acceptable.
Thanks for the kind comments.
Neil
Neil in 11ac I was reading ‘tour’ as a noun and referring to the fact that nounal anagram indicators are frowned on by some (not me!) but perhaps you meant it as a verb, possibly imperative, in which case it’s possibly OK but other problems then arise I think (if indicative then should it not be ‘tours’ and if imperative the retro-active effect of the verb is a bit odd).
Thanks Tramp for dropping in- great to solve your puzzles two Fridays in a row. Nice that the theme was not overworked but have to admit missing :Sisters of mercy”, Manhattan etc. Youre a champ!
Well, I finished it, but not without some electronic searches. I even looked up the name of the Conservative party chairman and still couldn’t see 16dn without a search! For some reason, 25ac I could see the anagram could make PORTALMEN and spent ages trying to prove that this was a Canadian word for policemen. I couldn’t parse 17dn either, so thanks for the explanations.
Who else, on getting DARLING at 5ac (my first in) thought there was going to be a referendum theme?
My experience was similar to the blogger. I finished but it took me ages, and in retrospect the clues almost seem too easy. 5 down now looks ridiculously simple, but the presence of the out in the clue had me thinking for such a long time that there must be an anagram of one reads there. I had to look up the Conservative Chairman, having convinced myself that it was William Hague who now held that job, but got the answer immediately once I saw who it was.
Well, I’m feeling slightly chuffed, because I found this one pretty straightforward. The Leonard Cohen references jumped out at me, because I have always liked his music, so it was a stroll down memory lane today. But as others have said, you didn’t have to know anything about him to solve it.
NINTH is excellent and concise; I also admired HOLE-AND-CORNER and MYTHOLOGISE for the setter’s clever use of the theme.
Top puzzle. Thanks to Jambazi and to John for blogging.
We struggled with it – ended up finishing it this morning. As K’s D has already said, you didn’t need to know anything about the theme to finish the puzzle. Good thing really as our knowledge is limited!
Once we had solved the clues, we did wonder why we had taken so long – a couple of searches were needed – including one for 16d. Our last one in was also 17d.
Thanks Jambazi for dropping in and giving us the background to the puzzle – always interesting!
Thanks John.
I’m with Sil on this. An outstanding puzzle. Jambazi must have been paroxysmal when he came across LC’s song “Famous Blue Raincoat” since it makes a cryptic clue for “mac” on its own!
For those who don’t know Leonard Cohen, you should check him out; his lyrics alone make him one of the greatest poets of modern time in my opinion. From the painfully beautiful song ‘Suzanne’ the line “For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.” still haunts in spite of hearing it dozens of times (at least!). The rest of that song is just a wonderful poem. When you add the music and his unique deep voice I know you will appreciate the genius of the man (as Sil clearly does).
So it’s an inordinately huge thanks to Jambazi (Swahili for Tramp?!). And many thanks to John.
Thanks for all the kind comments.
Neil
Great puzzle.
John @8 ‘tour’ rather than ‘tours’ in 11a is correct because there are 2 components to the anagram fodder.
This was my first encounter with Jambazi, and l hope the last. Most of the answers were lost on me, another puzzle in my opinion not suitable for the general readership of the i in 2019, only for super brains.