I loved every minute of this puzzle but for me it was over far too quickly – because I was enjoying it so much. I would never say a puzzle was ‘too easy’ – I was just on the wavelength for this one and the theme was very congenial and so it didn’t present any problems.
Knowing Crucible’s love of a theme – and music – and mindful of the date, I saw 9,8, LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS, immediately, from the enumeration. And then I realised what a brilliant clue it was – what a pity that, with the enumeration, it revealed its secrets so soon. That’s often the way with long clues with several words. The same thing happened with another inspired clue – 4dn – where a few crossers and the enumeration gave the game away rather too readily for me. There’s an argument for cluing these by the number of words, rather than the enumeration, but I’m not sure where I stand on this: what do you think?
Anyway, a delightful puzzle with some lovely clues and surfaces. Many thanks to Crucible.
Across
1 Trust managed church without priest (8)
RELIANCE
RAN [managed] + CE [Church of England] without [round] ELI [ the traditional crossword priest – I commented just last week that we hadn’t seen him for a while and here he is again]
5 Solo contribution from Ontario soprano (6)
ARIOSO
Hidden in OntARIO SOprano
9,8 Gosh, isn’t the platform busy tonight! (4,5,2,3,5)
LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS
Splendid anagram [busy] of GOSH ISN’T THE PLATFORM – and if this isn’t a briliiant &lit … well! [The platform was indeed very busy at the beginning, with the BBC Symphony Orcestra and Chorus and the BBC Singers all there]
11 For joint performance both undressed (5)
GIGOT
GIG [performance] + [b]OT[h] [both undressed]
12 Perhaps saunter on at middle C, modulating to [3-4,5]
OLD-TIME DANCE
Anagram [perhaps] of ON AT MIDDLE C + [modulating to] E
You can see a saunter here
15 GW Russell holds service for composer (4)
ARNE
GW Russell wrote with the pseudonym Æ, or AE, so it’s RN [Royal Navy – service] in AE, for Thomas Arne, the composer of Rule Britannia, sung every year at the last night of the Proms
16 Blowpipe exercises with a small horn (10)
PEASHOOTER
PE [exercises] + A + S [small] + HOOTER [ horn]
18 No time to record an attempt to cover number recently (3,4,3)
NOT LONG AGO
Charade of NO + T [time] + LOG [record] + A GO [an attempt] round [to cover] N [number]
19 Musical faux pas by Mike (4)
SPAM
Anagram [faux] of PAS + M [Mike – Nato alphabet]
But I thought the musical was Spamalot [?]
21 Sorceress’s inner sanctum’s poor condition (12)
CIRCUMSTANCE
Anagram [poor] of SANCTUMS in CIRCE, the sorceress who turned Odysseus’ men into swine and delayed him for a year on his homeward journey
24 Is this playing in Rossini composition for strings? (5)
ROSIN
IS + ROSIN produces an anagram [playing] of Rossini – one of my favourite clues
25 Spy cases hotel on river in Cornish port (9)
MOUSEHOLE
MOLE [spy] round [cases] H [hotel] after [on] OUSE [river] for this delightful Cornish port, which I’ve visited several times
26 R Strauss bad? Silly not using stars, ludicrous! (6)
ABSURD
An anagram [silly] of [strUSs BAD] [minus ‘stars]: the programme included Richard Srauss’s ‘Taillefer’, telling the story of the Battle of Hastings and the heroic deeds of William the Conqueror’s minstrel Taillefer.
27 Safe to slate young piper in play (5,3)
PETER PAN
A simple charade of PETER [safe – which I learned from crosswords] + a double definition: PAN [slate] and the god Pan, the young piper, for J.M. Barrie’s play about the boy who never grew up.
Down
1 Nice way to retain line in exhortation to Britannia (4)
RULE
I’m just about geared up to recognising Nice and Nancy at the beginning of clues like this – here it’s RUE [French way] round L [line]: Rule Britannia again
2 Composer picked up record (4)
LIST
Sounds like [picked up] Liszt [composer – but he didn’t feature in the programme]
3 At the intervals matrons ogled composer (6)
ARNOLD
Alternate letters [at the intervals] of mAtRoNsOgLeD – what a lovely picture!
The programme included the world première of the choral version, with lyrics by Sir Tim Rice, of the ‘Peterloo’ Overture by Sir Malcolm Arnold
4 Come to our gigs dressed up — it’s René’s big idea (6,4,3)
COGITO ERGO SUM
Anagram [dressed up] of COME TO OUR GIGS
René Descartes’ philosophical proposition: another give-away because of the enumeration – but another lovely surface
6 Musical’s opening snubbed for 12 (8)
RIGADOON
[B]RIGADOON [musical] minus its initial letter – opening snubbed] for a lively, gig-like dance for one couple
7 Pipe controls medical emergency? (5,5)
ORGAN STOPS
it would be a medical emergency if an organ stopped!
10 Daily, one with good character, figures on staff (4,9)
TIME SIGNATURE
TIMES [daily – newspaper] + I [one] + G [good] + NATURE [character]
13 A short way to a new school turns up in old document (5,5)
MAGNA CARTA
Reversal [turns up] of A TRAC[k] [short way] + N [new] + GAM [a word that I learned from crosswords, along with ‘pod’, for a school of whales]
14 College shows signs of decay? Times probes funds (4,6)
UNIT TRUSTS
T T [Times] in [probes] UNI [college?] + RUSTS [shows signs of delay]
17 Like Fingal’s Cave in paper format (8)
COLUMNAR
Double definition: Fingal’s Cave is ‘formed entirely from hexagonally jointed basalt columns within a Paleocene lava flow, similar in structure to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland and those of nearby Ulva.’ [Wikipedia]
20 Woman stealing Catholic writer’s plot (6)
SCHEME
SHE [woman] round [stealing ] C [Catholic] + ME ][writer]
22 Brief report describes prom’s final ceremony (4)
POMP
POP [brief report] round proM – a beauifully allusive clue, as POMP and CIRCUMSTANCE [21ac] is almost the final ceremony in the Last Night of the Proms
23 Scots know about royal composer (4)
KERN
KEN – Scots ‘know’ round R [royal]: the programme included ‘Ol Man River’ from Jerome Kern’s ‘Showboat’.
Thanks to Eileen for the blog. You explained several cases where I had the answer but not the parsing.
On 19 my memory agrees with you: the musical is Spamalot.
15 had me baffled since I did not know the name GW Russell – and failed to look him up! The service was clearly Royal Navy so the composer was obviously Arne.
Thanks, Eileen.
Once (or twice) a year Crucible does a puzzle on classical music which usually means (for me) lots of write-ins.
Not this time, though.
15ac’s AE was unknown to me/us.
And, yes, what a gem 9,8 is.
Just like you we got it straightaway but such an impressive clue!
Can’t see how you can clue this better.
We agree that, perhaps, Crucible made a mistake at 19ac.
Spamalot is a musical, actually the only musical I wanted to see (because I hate musicals) and I wasn’t disappointed a few years ago.
But Spam?
Googling, there is something like Spam the Musical.
But I am afraid that isn’t what Crucible meant.
And if that’s the case, the editor should have seen.
Perhaps, I’m wrong.
All in all, nice puzzle.
Thanks Eileen. Like you I found it was all over too quickly. I wasn’t aware of the evening’s programme and missed some of the theme items so appreciate your elucidation.
This was a Perfect Prize Puzzle which has now been fully explained by a Beautiful Blog.
Many thanks Crucible & Eileen. You make a Great Team.
Thanks Eileen. Some sitters like 1D and readily-gettable anagrams including many Across clues meant that even for those not in the know it was straightforward. Except 17D last in, which required checking.
Many thanks, Eileen. As usual you have explained one or two that I had solved but not been able to parse.
I agree about Spam/Spamalot. Rather mystifying.
Thanks all
I’m not quite as ecstatuc as some of you but still a decent puzzle,
My brief acquaintance with LNotP suggests that it should have been a Monty Python sketch!
Favourites were 11 ac, 3 d and 17 d.
PS
If anyone wishes to experience alternatives to the enumeration before deciding, try Azed on Sunday.
An enjoyable puzzle even though, as happened to several of you, it was over a little quickly. I didn’t notice Spam/Spamalot while solving, and the only answer that took a while to tease out was ROSIN because I’d forgotten the word if I’d come across it before.
Thanks to Crucible for a good puzzle and to Eileen for a comprehensive blog – you have been busy recently. 🙂
The original 2005 Broadway production of Spamalot was directed by MIKE Nichols, so I think that was what was meant. As Sil says, there is a strange Spam the Musical, but I doubt whether Crucible was referring to that.
I didn’t immediately see the answers from the enumeration, so just had to solve in the usual way. GW Russell needed a Google to parse and it took me a while to realise that OLD TIME DANCE was an anagram. There were of course two intersecting TIMEs but although a bit surprising it did not detract from the overall enjoyment.
Hi Robi
Thanks for the Mike connection – I missed that. I, too, googled ‘Spam, musical’and decided not to go there!
[I haven’t really been that busy: this blog was done a week ago. My four-weekly Prize slot just happened to come the day after my weekly blog. However, the way the weekly rota works – advancing by one day a week, as you’ve probably noticed – means that it’s me again on Monday. 😉 ]
Thanks Crucible, and especially thanks Eileen for the explanations.
I could guess many of the answers, but could only parse a few of them.
24a I thought I had parsed this. I read it as “is” playing in Rossini should be taken out, leaving ROSIN!
PS took it as a question, answer si, yes, “is” should be removed.
PPS ROS(s)IN(i). Sorry for the mess
I,too, got LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS quickly which proved to be the key and the rest followed quite quickly. I enjoyed the puzzle. I’m not quite so fussy about parsing as some others appear to be so I had no problems with this.
Thanks Crucible!
Thanks Eileen,
A very enjoyable puzzle although I couldn’t totally make sense of ROSIN although I could see that all the letters were contained in Rossini.
I particularly liked CIRCUMSTANCE and spent ages trying to find a sorceress with the anagram of inner sanctum. Thanks to Crucible.
I agree with everything Eileen says – enjoyed this a lot but didn’t find it difficult. Thanks for the explanation of GW Russell = AE – I couldn’t check that from the Scottish Highlands because I hadn’t taken any Wifi devices. ARIOSO and RIGADOON were also less than familiar.
Thanks to Crucible and Eileen
List was my LOI as I did not see the way it worked. Why does ‘picked up’ mean ‘sounds like’?
Brianjp
Collins – ‘pick up: to receive [electrical signals, a radio signal, sounds, etc.]’
Yes a nice seasonal offering, and the warm evening took me back to LNOTPs in my youth, when we had a run of Indian summers.
We’d watch Malcolm Sargent do his stuff, sweating almost as much as he was, on the B and W telly.
It’s what you did if your mum was a patriot…
Many thanks all.
I’m sure everyone’s moved on by now, but I’ll comment anyway.
It’s odd to think that I’ve now been doing British crosswords (and generally interacting with British people online) long enough that a Last Night of the Proms theme is actually easy for me.
The concert is unknown here (and of course un-broadcast–well, I guess unless you subscribe to a cable package that carries the BBC). So, after “Last Night of the Proms” went in (early, though not my first clue by any means, since I always start with a few shorter answers), my thought process was, “Huh–guess the concert must be tonight–er, wait–two hours ago or something.” (It was late Saturday afternoon, U.S. central time, when I was solving.)
And then, of course, then I started looking for things like Pomp and Circumstance, Rule Britannia, Jerusalem (didn’t appear, but I was looking), etc. Reverse solves–“that’s the answer, now let’s decipher the clue” are actually kind of fun sometimes.
@16 across, although I doubt Crucible meant it (apologies if I am wrong), there is a lovely musical double meaning. Peashooter is a colloquial word for a rare type of trombone, the smallest of the family, I think; hence a small horn. It’s a small bore, but let’s not get tangled up with that double entendre!
There is no doubt that Eileen’s parsing is correct but for me at least, having learned all of two notes on the instrument in order to get through Tiger Rag in a band I was in 20 years ago, it was this meaning that gave me the answer and not the intended reading of the clue.
And this from a guy who has spent the day at a rally of 400+ buses and coaches. Back to the small bore…
Mrpenny: I had half an ear on France Inter while pottering, and I thought they referred to a series of seasonal orchestral concerts as “randonnages” which would mean “pleasant strolls”. If they’re a similar thing to the proms, it’s comical they use a different word from the one we borrowed from the French. Perhaps someone knows whether I’m right?
Thanks Crucible and Eileen
Actually completed this last weekend, but only got to blog with it now.
Although I’d picked up the theme of classical musical works and their composers, was not aware that they were all directly linked to the most recent LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS – makes it all the better.
Good variety of clues and my favourites were the last couple in for me – RIGADOON and PEASHOOTER. Took the time to read the synopsis of Brigadoon which I had not previously known – interesting work.