As Brad Pitt once said: ‘The first rule of Fight Club is that you do NOT talk about Fight Club.’ Well, to paraphrase…’the first rule of EV Club is that you DO read, re-read and dissect the preamble…otherwise you waste time chasing up blank alleyways…’. OK, not as macho, but your correspondent should have followed it.
The rather long preamble – which is probably why I missed a vital piece of information – tells us that a quotation (minus two words at the end) runs around the perimeter, and that TWO THIRDS of answers must be ‘treated’ before entry – to ensure ‘compliance’ with the quotation. One unclued entry must be deduced to complete the QUALIFICATION added by ‘the singer’, when challenged. Initial letters of clues to normally entered answers (the remaining third) ‘may prove helpful’. This last bit was what I didn’t register on first (or second, or third) reading!…
So, on to solving…with chances of 2:1 that a clue will be thematic:normal. Several early solves seemed a bit too long for their allotted place, first a few with one extra letter, but then some with two.
At first I thought the approach was that duplicate letters should be discarded after the first occurrence – i.e. RIDICULED to become RID(I)CULE(D)…but this didn’t seem to match with the few ‘normal’ entries I thought I had got.
After much rubbing out and head scratching, it eventually occurred to me that it was the ‘D’s in the answers that were extraneous – so RIDICULED became RIICULE, and SEEDED became ‘SEEE’ – this would have been SED from my first theory.
So far so goo_, and I managed to fill a large proportion of the gri_ by applying this rule…but what of the quotation? Assuming it started in the top left corner, the first word looked like THOUGH, the second maybe BETTER or BITTER? Then something short, then MAY(?) and something else, then …AYIN… – maybe SAYING?
Suffice to say, it took a fair amount of Wiki-oogling and ODQ checking before I found what should have been much easier to find from those other first letters: HMS PINAFORE.
This is a part of Captain Corcoran’s aria:
‘…
‘Bad language or abuse,
I never, never use,
Whatever the emergency ;
Though ” bother it ! ” I may
Occasionally say,
I never use a big, big D — .
All. What, never?
Capt. No, never !
All. What, never?
Capt. Hardly ever
So the singer is the Captain and, when challenged, he admits to using the ‘big big D’ (damn, darn, drat?) HARDLY EVER – with ‘HARDLY’ containing the only D in the whole puzzle.
I’m not a huge G&S fan, and certainly wasn’t familiar with this part, so this was both enjoyable and educational. Thank-you Nutmeg.
(It also reminds me of a friend who told me a few years ago that their young child returned from school proudly announcing (s)he had learned ‘the F-word’…cue dread and worry from the parents, only for the child to confidently tell them it was ‘FART’!)
One thing I couldn’t explain – I’m sure I may have missed or mis-interpreted other nuances – was why ‘RIVER’ in 29A was a ‘Victorian banker’? I know ‘banker’ is often an indicator for ‘river’, or vice versa, but not sure why specifically Victorian? The Thames along Victoria Embankment? Maybe a Mr River was a noted banker in Victorian times? Grateful for any enlightenment…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Length | Solution | Entry/first letter | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 9 | (6) | GALAHA(D) | GALAHA | Man of integrity taken in by a jailbird from the East (6) / GALA (A LAG, or a jailbird, ‘from the East) + HAD (taken in) |
| 10 | (6) | (D)ROPLET | ROPLET | A small tear, poor service following surgery by doctor (6) / DR (doctor) + OP (operation, surgery) + LET (poor service, in tennis) |
| 11 | (7) | REFERRE(D) | REFERRE | Passed over angry manager’s complaint after match? (7) / double defn. REFERRED can mean ‘passed over (to)’; and an angry manager of a losing sports team might say that the ‘REF ERRED’ |
| 13 | (5) | BOOBE(D) | BOOBE | Chap receiving award dropped a clanger (5) / BO_D (chap) around (receiving) OBE (award) |
| 15 | (7) | GROGRAM | H | Hollywood’s TV show finally opting for page of coarse material (7) / (P)ROGRAM (American, i.e. Hollywood, spelling of TV programme), with G (last letter of ‘optinG’) replacing P (page) |
| 16 | (8) | LENINGRA(D) | LENINGRA | Soviet city inclined to overlook a small dose of radiation (8) / LE(A)NING (inclined, without A) + RAD (small dose of radiation) |
| 17 | (8) | (D)ESTROYER | ESTROYER | Refit restored navy’s latest warship (8) / anag (i.e. refit) of RESTORED + Y (latest letter of ‘navY’) |
| 19 | (4) | (D)OPEY | OPEY | Sleepy associate’s work tackled by elderly milkmaid (4) / D_EY (obsolete, or elderly, for milkmaid) around (tackling) OP (opus, work). Dopey being one of the seven dwarves, along with Sleepy! |
| 20 | (4) | SEE(D)E(D) | SEEE | Withdrew, having no clubs expected to do well in tournament? (4) / SE(C)EDED – withdrew, having no C (clubs) |
| 22 | (8, two words) | (D)EVILS FOO(D) | EVILS FOO | Very tempting kind of cake – roughly five sold before retro party (8, two words) / DEVILS FO (anag, i.e. roughly, of FIVE SOLD) + OD (do, or party, ‘retro’) |
| 26 | (8) | UNPROVEN | M | Monsieur’s an extremely popular Lear for one not yet established (8) / UN (French, i.e. monsieur’s, for ‘an’) + PR (extreme ltters of PopulaR) + OVEN (lear, or lehr, is an example – i.e. ‘for one’ – of an oven) |
| 29 | (7) | RIVETER | S | Shipwright’s tool the heartless Victorian banker’s impounding (7) / RIVE_R (Victorian? banker) around (impounding) TE (T(H)E, heartless) |
| 31 | (5) | SALIC | P | Pouch worn by learner, one of Frankish origin (5) / SA_C (pouch) around (wearing) L (learner) + I (one) |
| 32 | (7) | RI(D)ICULE(D) | RIICULE | Jeered at plain wheels during bumpy ride (7) / RI_ED (anag, i.e. bumpy, or RIDE) around DICUL (lucid, or plain, ‘wheeling’ round) |
| 33 | (6) | VELVET | I | In short dance, very little material’s needed (6) / VEL_ET(A) (veleta, ballroom dance, ‘short’ of a letter) around V (very, abridged, or little) |
| 34 | (6) | EATERS | N | Note placed in till by society’s consumers (6) / EA_R (till, as in corn) around TE (note, in sol-fa notation), by S (society) |
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Length | Solution | Entry/first letter | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | (5) | HAROL(D) | HAROL | Historical leader, a king of former times (5) / Cryptic Definition? – H (leading letter of Historical) + A + R (rex, king) + OLD (of former times) |
| 2 | (6, two words) | (D)OLE(D) OUT | OLE OUT | Distributed shares due to old criminal (6, two words) / anag (i.e. criminal) of DUE TO OLD |
| 3 | (5) | GHEES | A | Asian types of butter melting each time temperature rises basically (5) / last letters (bases, or basically) of ‘meltinG eacH timE temperaturE riseS’ |
| 4 | (6) | HARDLY | See preamble (6) / thematic deducation – contains the only D in the puzzle! |
|
| 5 | (6) | BARGEE | F | Forbid entry to my boatman (6) / BAR (forbid entry to) + GEE (interjection, my!) |
| 6 | (7) | TOROI(D)AL | TOROIAL | What might make idolator like doughnuts? (7) / anag (i.e. what might make) of IDOLATOR |
| 7 | (4) | EL(D)ER | ELER | Bush senior? (4) / double defn. |
| 8 | (6) | REGAR(D)E(D) | REGARE | Saw mounted quadrupeds go slowly inside (6) / DE_ER (quadrupeds) around DRAG (go slowly) – all ‘mounted’ |
| 12 | (7) | AGNOSIA | O | One ditty recalled after accident primarily a result of brain damage (7) / A (primary letter of accident) + GNOSI (I, one, plus SONG, ditty – all recalled) + A |
| 14 | (7) | BOR(D)ERER | BORERER | Marcher’s command to cut ale half-hearted (7) / B_(E)ER (ale, half-heartedly) around ORDER (command) |
| 18 | (7) | (D)OROTHEA | OROTHEA | Articles found behind door unsettled Casaubon’s wife (7) / DORO (anag, i.e. unsettled, of DOOR) + THE + A (articles) |
| 21 | (6) | (D)ENIZEN | ENIZEN | Inhabitant of French province with faith of a sort (6) / DE (‘of’ in French) + NI (Northern Ireland, province) + ZEN (faith, religion) |
| 23 | (6) | VERIFY | R | Recover if your nurses prove to be good (6) / hidden word (i.e. nursed by) in ‘recoVER IF Your’ |
| 24 | (6) | INFI(D)EL | INFIEL | He doesn’t believe in reformed life with God ultimately at its centre (6) / IN + FI_EL (anag, i.e. refomed, of LIFE) with D (ultimate letter of God) at its centre. |
| 25 | (6) | FALLEN | E | Everyone caught in morass killed in battle (6) / F_EN (morass, marsh,bog) around (catching) ALL (everyone) |
| 27 | (5) | (D)ISCAL | ISCAL | Like most coins, low-grade money’s replaced by cents (5) / DIS(M)AL – low grade – with M (money) replaced by C (cents) |
| 28 | (5, two words) | TIE RO(D) | TIE RO | Retired men entering restricted bar meant to keep together (5, two words) / TIE_D (restricted) around (entered by) RO (OR, Other Ranks, men, retiring) |
| 30 | (4) | VALI(D) | VALI | Six dead guards almost all fulfilling requirements (4) / VI (six, Roman numerals) + D (dead), around (guarding) AL (almost ALL) |
Chambers gives “Banker” = river (full to its banks) as an Australian usage, so it’s Victoria the State.
I enjoy a bit of G&S myself, although less than perhaps I should — horrified to see that you don’t enjoy it. Give Pirates of Penzance a try, for example (in a Primary School production I was the Major-General, but to my horror even then I couldn’t sing his patter song at full speed…), or the wonderful patter song “My eyes are fully open” from Ruddigore.
Anyway, it was a fun puzzle and did not take too long to see the trick. I’ve actually missed HMS Pinafore myself but my Dad recognised the song lyrics when I read them out — thanks Nutmeg for an amusing puzzle, that encouraged me to get more acquainted with the work. Thanks Nutmeg.
I am a G&S fan so I particularly enjoyed this one. I remember an EV that appeared in 2011, 100 years to the day since Gilbert died and the setter managed to incorporate into the grid: “This particularly rapid unintelligible patter isn’t generally heard and if it is it doesn’t matter”, which is from “My eyes are fully open”. Very clever stuff.
Thanks to Jaguar for pointing out the Australian connection with ‘banker’…I should have thought to check Chambers.
And sorry to have ‘horrified’ you that I am not a particular fan…I’m sure I’ve been to the odd am-dram production and seen a few on telly, but I’m certainly no aficionado…although I did wander around for a few days with ‘what never?’ and ‘hardly ever!’ counterpointing in my head, so maybe I’ll catch the bug one day…
Tony – well remembered – it was EV969 and I blogged that one as well, although it is now a dim and distant memory!
I suppose I should say that I’m not really horrified and it was sarcasm. Obviously everything is to different people’s tastes and there’s not a problem with that. I’d say it’s a shame if people haven’t heard of it, because they have some lovely jolly stuff, but “horrified” would be an over-reaction really.