As soon as we saw that it was Scorpion today, we thought there might be a hidden theme.
When we started looking at the clues, it was clear that there was a theme, but it was definitely not hidden! As we worked through the clues we realised what an achievement this puzzle is, with all but one of the across clues having a connection with the theme.
We’d be interested in others’ thoughts on the parsing of the gateway clue at 26ac.
We hadn’t come across three of the thematic entries before, so it was something of a learning curve for us – all-in-all a really good ‘slurp and guzzle’!!! It was also a pangram.
If there are any errors or omissions we will not be able to sort things out until much later. As we said in our Saturday blog, we are walking half the Coast to Coast and will be arriving in Grasmere this afternoon – hopefully we won’t be too wet!
| Across | ||
| 6/21 | A feature of Noel’s eyes in 26 | |
| MINCE PIES | The first thematic entry – a sort of double definition – MINCE PIES are a feature of Christmas (Noel) and is Cockney Rhyming Slang for ‘eyes’ | |
| 7 | Thief in 26 performing feat disrupted by grass | |
| TEA LEAF | Another thematic entry – an anagram of FEAT (anagrind is ‘performing’) round or ‘disrupted by’ LEA (grass) – Cockney Rhyming Slang for ‘thief’ | |
| 9 | Much water flowing after Oswald’s killer curry in 26 | |
| RUBY MURRAY | Yet another thematic entry – the MURRAY River is the longest in Australia (‘much water flowing’) after RUBY – Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald, who is believed to have killed John F Kennedy – Cockney Rhyming Slang for ‘curry’ – although this was a new one for us, as non-Londoners – Ruby Murray was a very popular singer in the UK and Ireland in the 1950s | |
| 10 | See 27 across | |
| See 27ac | ||
| 11 | Cockney’s abruptly moving jacket | |
| JERKIN | Apart from their use of Rhyming Slang and dropping their Hs at the beginning of words, Cockneys are also renowned for also dropping the G at the end of the present participle verb form – a Cockney might therefore say JERKIN for ‘jerking’ (abruptly moving) | |
| 13 | European gentle with ridicule over time in 26 | |
| BIRD-LIME | Another thematic entry – E (European) MILD (gentle) RIB (ridicule) all reversed or ‘over’ – Cockney Rhyming Slang for ‘time’, as in a prison sentence. Another one we hadn’t come across before, but presumably the origin of ‘bird’ for ‘doing time’ | |
| 15 | Victorian novel delivered by mouth in 26 | |
| NORTH AND SOUTH | Another thematic entry, and yet more for us to learn! We hadn’t heard of it before, but a quick google revealed that NORTH AND SOUTH is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell published in 1855 – it is also Cockney Rhyming Slang for ‘mouth’ | |
| 18 | In 26, face snake and react stupidly | |
| BOAT RACE | Another thematic entry – BOA (snake) + an anagram of REACT – anagrind is ‘stupidly’ – Cockney Rhyming Slang for ‘face’ | |
| 20 | It contains beat that’s unknown, and it sometimes rhymes | |
| STANZA | SA (‘it’, as in sex appeal) round or ‘containing’ TAN (beat) Z (unknown – in algebra) | |
| 21 | See 6 across | |
| See 6ac | ||
| 23 | Starving in 26, drive back with wine to accompany unopened cut of meat | |
| HANK MARVIN | Another thematic entry – RAM (drive) reversed or ‘back’ + VIN (wine) after or ‘accompanying’ |
|
| 26 | Where’s right for Londoner? | |
| EAST END | We’re not really too sure about this Gateway clue – the answer cannot be anything else, especially with all the Cockney Rhyming Slang entries. We think that the parsing might be either: that the EAST is on the right side of a map, so the EAST END is ‘right for Londoner’, or (less likely?): E (EAST) is the ‘right’ hand letter and END of ‘where’. We’re not convinced by either – maybe the clue would work better if ‘Londoner’ were in the plural? Or have we missed the plot entirely? | |
| 27/10 | Yell about pots being ruined by edge of knife and fork in 26 | |
| ROAST PORK | Last thematic entry – ROAR (yell) around an anagram of POTS (anagrind is ‘being ruined’) + K (first letter or ‘edge’ of ‘knife’) – Cockney Rhyming Slang for ‘fork’ – another new one for us! | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Just left with twenty-five pounds to go round (no pressure) | |
| ONLY | We’re not out of the Cockney theme yet! L (left) with |
|
| 2 | Elaboration of dancer having supply nipped between partners? | |
| SEQUIN | EQUI |
|
| 3 | Agitate can | |
| STIR | Double definition | |
| 4 | Teased Ryan wearing boy’s cords | |
| LANYARDS | An anagram of RYAN (anagrind is ‘teased’) in or ‘wearing’ LAD’S (boy’s) | |
| 5 | Slash with power and produce tears | |
| WEEP | WEE (slash – another slang term!) + P (power) | |
| 6 | Woman, always with uniform, turned into bloke | |
| MAUREEN | E’ER (always) with U (uniform in the phonetic alphabet) reversed or ‘turned’ in MAN (bloke) | |
| 8 | Discussion held here’s beneficial to rising character in Marathon | |
| FORUM | FOR (beneficial to) + MU (Greek letter, or ‘character in Marathon’) reversed or ‘rising’ | |
| 12 | Soul artist the latest to invest amount of gold in US | |
| KARAT | KA (soul) RA (artist) T (last or ‘latest’ letter in ‘invest’) | |
| 13 | Job in Germany camouflages fling | |
| BINGE | Hidden or ‘camouflaged’ in joB IN GErmany | |
| 14 | He circulated tracks, given praise by audience primarily | |
| LAUDA | LAUD (praise) + A (first or ‘primary’ letter of ‘audience’) – a reference to Niki Lauda, Austrian Formula 1 World Champion | |
| 16 | Female black grouse’s warm at edges of hutch with little space | |
| HEATH-HEN | HEAT (warm) + HH (first and last letters or ‘edges’ of ‘hutch’ + EN (little space – in printing) | |
| 17 | Literary critic finding unknown works in Derby perhaps | |
| HAZLITT | Z (unknown – as in 20ac) LIT (works – of a literary nature) in HAT (Derby perhaps) – a reference to William Hazlitt, apparently a renowned literary critic in the early 19th century – another new one on us! This was our LOI. We were only able to it on Google because we had seen the possibility of a pangram. | |
| 19 | Quadruped tiddler regularly checked in compound | |
| OXIDE | OX (quadruped) + alternate or ‘regularly checked’ letters of |
|
| 20 | Gloomy doctor probes causing annoyance | |
| SOMBRE | MB (doctor) in, or ‘probing’ SORE (causing annoyance) | |
| 22 | Band playing amid silence | |
| SASH | AS (playing – we think – as in an actor ‘playing’ Hamlet?) in SH (silence) | |
| 24 | A top sportsman upset FA | |
| NADA | A DAN (top sportsman, in judo) reversed or ‘upset’ | |
| 25 | Cut down on computer programs (half needed) | |
| REAP | RE (on) AP |
|
Thanks, both. Hope you’re not getting too wet …
This was a lot of fun. I got the gateway clue early (like you, I just took it to be that looking at a map, the EAST END would be on the right, but it could well be more subtle than that). Several themed clues that I didn’t know, but the clueing was clear (and of course the fact that it’s rhyming slang helps).
You have been coy, I think, in your parsing of NADA at 24dn. For lurkers, I will just elucidate that NADA is the Spanish word for ‘nothing’, and FA is f*** all, or euphemistically, Sweet Fanny Adams. Good old Fanny. And a great surface from the setter.
Bravo, Scorpion.
Thanks as always to bloggers and setter.
For what it’s worth, I parsed 26 as right side of “wherE” = EAST END.
Ah, no, not another themed puzzle where knowledge of the subject makes it much easier… except it was fun! I very much enjoyed this, the inherent humour of cockney slang made the whole puzzle lighter.
I was familiar with about half of the rhymes, but the others weren’t too hard. I just guessed at 26A, the answer was obvious after a while, but I didn’t understand the clue.
Thanks to Scorpion for some fine fun and for alerting me to the fact that the slang “bird” for “prison sentence” is actually a cockney derivation. and Thanks to Bertandjoyce for such diligent documentation.
16D heath-hen was my last answer, not a term I knew before today.
If you’re 23A and you’ve got your 6/21 on a 9A, don’t waste your 13A, stick your 27/10 in and get it in your 15A before some 7A steals it right in front of your 18A?
I think I’d better stop there 🙂
East End the first one in, so a rapid start but a few stutters later.
Spotted the pangram, which helped with the V in Marvin, but maybe the H should have been missing 🙂
Re 16 down: an en is also a dash (–), as is an em (—), the terms being derived from the width of a capital N and M respectively in the font being used.
Thanks Scorpion and B&J. I found that a tough workout, but all very fair. I resorted to Google for Lee Harvey Oswald, literary critics and starving Cockneys.
I would count all the across clues as thematic. 20a is the odd one out, but I think its surface reading is meant to be a definition or description of Cockney slang.
I really enjoyed this puzzle. Count me as another who wasn’t aware of all the themed entries and I had to work the following answers out from the wordplay; BIRD LIME, ROAST PORK and HANK MARVIN. I was only vaguely aware of HAZLITT so I was grateful for the wordplay, and SEQUIN was my LOI which I initially biffed but then parsed it post-solve. I interpreted the clue for EAST END the same as K’s D@1 because the alternative interpretation of it would lead to “East Ender”, IMHO.
Many thanks, Bertandjoyce, and Scorpion.
Now that you have found North and South, I urge you to read it. It is much under-rated in the shadow of Dickens. Obviously not the origin for the cockneys – an adam bede for a good read, anyone?
Yes, this was good fun even if the gateway clue was a bit unsatisfying. For 9a, unfortunately not too “much water flowing” in the River Murray these days, or at least not as much as there was, thanks to climate change. 15a instantly brought to mind the classic recorded by Tommy Steele “What a mouth, what a mouth, what a north and south” containing the memorable lines “Jim poor soul’s got a tummy full of coal And he coughs up lumps of coke. Oi!”. Hardly sophisticated and thank goodness for that.
Thanks to Scorpion and B & J.
Thanks Scorpion and Bertandjoyce.
A fun puzzle. 26a, Where’s right for Londoner? For a Cockney it is to be born within earshot of Bow Bells, but I can’t really tie this in. Cockney was originally a perjorative applied to all city dwellers, then restricted to Londoners, particularly the ‘Bow Bell Cockneys’, and recently to all working class Londoners, especially those of London’s East End.
As a not quite Cockney (but my grandmother used a lot of rhyming slang) this wasn’t too hard. ROAST PORK was the only one I hadn’t come across before, although I had to dredge up from my memory the BIRD LIME/doing time connection.
Not that long ago there was a TV ad for some foodstuff, burgers I think, where a young lad and all his friends all have glasses and slicked hair. Then his mother serves him up the food. The slogan was “For when you’re Hank Marvin.”
http://mattessons.co.uk/wild-things/tv-ad-2/
I enjoyed all this and thought it was very good. One mini-quibble: Scorpion clueing of the z in 20ac and the z in 17dn each time by the use of ‘unknown’, to which Bertandjoyce refer. Now I know that it’s difficult for a setter when there is a z in the word, but twice in the same crossword?
Sorry, that was me, forgot to log out after doing the Wednesday blog.
Where’s right for Londoner ? Another idea I played with yesterday was “whErE’s”, “e’e”, cockney pronounciation of “here”, the R for right being between the two Es…
Captcha nine – ? = 0, so probably no help !