This year’s Christmas puzzle was a double alphabetical jigsaw with a twist: half the clues lacked a definition.
It has become traditional for Maskarade to follow in the footsteps of his mentor Araucaria and provide us with a Christmas puzzle, and it has been my good fortune to be the allocated blogger once again. Last year he challenged us with a double grid, but this year it was a single one, but of larger dimensions than usual at 21 x 21. (Incidentally, on my iPad mini the extreme right hand column doesn’t display fully: apologies if you have the same problem, I can’t see any way to remedy it. It does display correctly on a laptop). The grid was carefully constructed so that there was only one example of a pair of across and down clues starting at the same square, in the top left hand corner as it happened. Finding such a combination is essential for getting started in filling the grid and luckily (or kindly, perhaps) there was only one possible combination that would fit (starting with B). After that it was just a question of solving as many clues as possible and testing out where they could go.
I tackled this puzzle with my occasional solving partner Timon, and with my wife’s assistance we solved about 75% of the clues on our first pass. Bartholomew had yielded immediately, so at first it seemed that we might be looking for saints, but pretty soon it became clear that the undefined answers were simply proper names – if there’s any other link between the names, I don’t know what it is. The essential thing in starting an alphabetical jigsaw is to try and establish where the long answers go, and this proved challenging as the clues for both H and C (both 13 letters) were essentially just cryptic definitions with no wordplay to assist. However, after a second session it proved possible to complete the grid. It seemed to me that the wordplay was perhaps on the easy side for a Maskarade puzzle, but this was perhaps only fair, given the additional challenge involved in knowing where to insert the answers. I should perhaps add that some knowledge of French and German came in useful. Thanks as ever to PeeDee for his superb software which makes a blogger’s job much easier.
Many thanks to Maskarade for a satisfying challenge. A Happy New Year to all setters and solvers.
| Across | ||
| Down | ||
| A | ALEWIFE |
Landlady’s fish (7)
Cryptic definition: it’s a fish found off the NE American coast, related to the herring. It also has an earlier meaning as a woman who sells ale! |
| A | ALLEGRA |
Unfinished movement — Palestrina’s last (7)
ALLEGR(o) (Palestrin)A. The first undefined proper name. |
| B | BARTHOLOMEW |
What bloomer is cooking? (11)
*(WHAT BLOOMER). A nice straightforward anagram to enable the jigsaw assembly to start. |
| B | BEADLE |
College official taking beer and sleep regularly (6)
Alternate (“regular”) letters of “BeEr AnD sLeEp”. |
| C | CAITLIN |
Two other theme words on the radio (7)
Sounds like “Kate” “Lynn”. |
| C | CARTRIDGE CASE |
Charge carrier? (9,4)
Cryptic definition with no wordplay; cartridge belt or clip would have been equally valid, so this was one of the last ones in: it was only possible to be sure of the answer once the grid was otherwise complete with the crossing letters. |
| D | DEIRDRE |
Rider falls during dressage, losing heart (7)
*RIDER in D(ressag)E. |
| D | DRY AIR |
It lacks water vapour in dull state (3,3)
A simple charade, unless I’ve missed something. |
| E | EBULLIENT |
Enthusiastic sign that is seen in hospital department (9)
BULL (the astrological sign of Taurus) IE in ENT. |
| E | EZEKIEL |
Wind hasn’t half gone over canal (7)
(bre)EZE KIEL (a canal in Germany). |
| F | FALSE EYE |
Fictitious sleuth’s replacement organ? (5,3)
Another simple charade of FALSE and EYE. |
| F | FRANCIS |
He splits and leaves US sports team (7)
FRANC(h)IS(e) – thanks to my wife for parsing this one. |
| G | GAFFES |
Foremen’s outright blunders (6)
GAFFE(r)S. |
| G | GODFREY |
New Ford appearing in spring — not half! (7)
*FORD in GEY(ser). |
| H | HEATHER |
Male — one-time female (7)
A charade of HE A T HER. |
| H | HIGHEST BIDDER |
He’s got the lot! (7,6)
Cryptic definition & lit. |
| I | ILONE |
Maskarade isolated (5)
I LONE. |
| I | INOCULATE |
Wild lion with a cute jab (9)
*(LION A CUTE). |
| J | JEREMY |
Top — not second — taking in last bit of acclaim (6)
JER(s)EY with an M inserted. Jersey refers to the item of clothing, not the cream on the milk as I first supposed. |
| J | JOINS UP |
Signs on with links to the dotted line? (5,2)
Another cryptic definition. |
| K | KARATE |
Independent left strict Jewish sect in self-defence (6)
KARA(i)TE; the Karaites are a strict Jewish sect. |
| K | KAREN |
One thousand by sports ground — amateur has left (5)
K AREN(a). |
| L | LEA-RIG |
Unploughed land and river lass circling round (3-3)
EA in GIRL(rev). An ea is a dialect term for a river, more usually found in Azed than in a Guardian puzzle, and indeed LEA-RIG is perhaps more obscure than might be expected, but easily deduced from the wordplay and crossing letters. |
| L | LUCRETIA |
Short break and topless maître d’, perhaps, came back (8)
LUC(k), (w)AITER (rev). Not quite sure that break = luck, but it’s clearly related. |
| M | MEDIATIONS |
Contemplative discourses lacking these peace-making actions (10)
Not sure about the wordplay here: it looks like MEDITATIONS without the middle T, but that doesn’t equate to “these”. |
| M | MIKE |
One for the commentator before November (4)
Phonetic alphabet: M comes before N. |
| N | NANETTE |
Advanced during 10-all frolic (7)
*(A TEN TEN). |
| N | NOUVELLE VAGUE |
Cinematic movement from long short story that’s blurred (8,5)
A simple charade, if of course you know that a “nouvelle” is a long short story. |
| O | OLIVER |
Love fanciful Scouse bird (6)
O LIVER. |
| O | OVERALL |
Cooker, not new, slowing down on the whole (7)
OVE(n), RALL(entando). |
| P | PASCALE |
Dad’s appointment list cut in half (7)
PA’S CALE(ndar). |
| P | PLENTEOUSNESS |
Abundance of poteen sipped first, unless ordered (13)
*(POTEEN S(ipped) UNLESS). |
| Q | QUADRATIC |
Rectangular small ecological area cordoned off by one leading conservationist (9)
QUADRAT, I C(onservationist). I didn’t know that a quadra |
| Q | QUENTIN |
Query about tune that’s popular (7)
Q(uery) *TUNE IN. |
| R | RELACHE |
Give in partly to the pain and rest in France (7)
REL(inquish?) ACHE. I was surprised to find this word in Chambers, but it is there and is of course French for relaxation. |
| R | ROGER |
Conceit running around in fine car (5)
EGO(rev) in RR (Rolls-Royce). |
| S | SCARED SILLY |
Cadres cryptically are terrified (6,5)
Self-referential clue: CADRES cryptically (or in a silly way) equates to SCARED. |
| S | STEPHEN |
Small recording brought in again (7)
S, EP in THEN. |
| T | TEMAZEPAM |
Sedative, note, having to confuse Jack (9)
TE MAZE PAM. I didn’t know that pam can mean the jack of clubs in the game of loo. |
| T | TRACEY |
End of cabaret’s risqué, we’re told (6)
T RACEY. Sounds like “racy”. |
| U | ULYSSES |
Most of the month witnesses are heard (7)
(J)ULY SSES(sounds like “sees”). |
| U | UTILISE |
Exploit in Paris — he is in pick-up (7)
IL IS in UTE. Strictly this abbreviation for ‘utility’ is an Australian or New Zealand usage, but it crops up reasonably often in crosswords. |
| V | VESTA |
Goes round East, in France (5)
EST in VA. |
| V | VINAIGRETTES |
More than one dressing in vogue for a starter, wearing plumes (12)
V(ogue) IN AIGRETTES. The derivation is from egret, which bird presumably supplied the feathers used for the headdresses. |
| W | WARRANTIES |
Guarantees goods train enters, going off the rails (10)
*TRAIN in WARES. |
| W | WINIFRED |
Jam and Jerusalem ladies and eccentric friend (8)
WI *FRIEND. |
| X | XANTHE |
Articles by cross (6)
X AN THE. |
| X | XEMA |
Turnover in plastic gulls? (4)
AMEX (rev); Xema is the gull genus. |
| Y | YOSEMITE |
Greeting Middle Eastern fellow in park (8)
YO SEMITE! |
| Y | YVETTE |
Youth leader and doctor out- side of temple (6)
Y(outh) VET T(empl)E. |
| Z | ZEBEDEE |
Last letter to ecclesiastical historian in middle of week (7)
BEDE in Z (w)EE(k). |
| Z | ZEITVERTREIB |
Pastime at spot outside Europe, with green carriage coming back (12)
E in ZIT, VERT BIER(rev). This time it’s a German word which is to be found in Chambers. |
Thanks bridgesong and Maskarade. Getting Winifred and Zebedee on the first pass gave me the theme. It was a good slog after that with only limited resort to aids for a couple of the names plus XEMA. Struggled with a LEA- word, and wondered like you about the thinness of DRY AIR. The final one was the last one in, dredged up from school German from aeons ago.
Thanks Maskarade and bridgesong
Although this looked daunting at first, it all went in surprisingly steadily, despite some obscure words. To finish I had L?A-?I? – I guessed LEA and looked it up in Chambers, and there LEA-RIG was!
I finally finished this last night after a rapid start. It was satisfyingly challenging, but I was ultimately disappointed in the ‘link’ between the undefined clues – I solved lots of names quite quickly, but was looking for a stronger connection than just names, which wasted a fair bit of time.
btw the ecological area is a QUADRAT, not quadrant. It is a metre square – often a physical frame – placed on the ground, then speices within it are identified and counted. It aids sampling a larger area.
I enjoyed this although I began assuming that the undefined were saints too-BARTHOLOMEW and WINIFRED were first in-and I felt a little cheated that they turned out to be merely first names. In fact I berated Mrs PA for suggesting it! Still it became clear that she was right-collapse of stout party!
After the domestic subsided this yielded quite satisfactorily until ZEITVERTREIB which I’ve never previously encountered and needed assistance to get.
But I thought this an excellent puzzle.
Thanks Maskarade.
I finished this over the festive period but to be honest it was an effort to continue to the end.
Although, like others, I soon knew what the undefined clues were and had the Bs and most of the NW quadrant in place it was just a bit dull.
The cluing was a little pedestrian and lacking in festive humour so there were no real chuckles or great aha moments. Just searching for yet more slightly obscure names. Sorry but to me this became a chore.
The great A’s festive offerinngs were always amusing.
Thanks to bridgesong and Maskarade
Muffin@4, thanks for the explanation. i’ve corrected my typo.
Anyone have any suggestions as to how to parse MEDIATIONS? I still don’t see how “these” equates to “t”.
Thanks to Maskerade – this made for a very satisfying solve, substantially elongated by the unhelpful grid. Failed on LEA-RIG, RELACHE (had to be something like that but couldn’t be bother to look up an obscure word that I won’t use again) and – depressingly after s lifetime’s real ale drinking! – ALEWIFE. Liked the succinctness of several witty clues; thanks also to Bridgesong for disentangling a couple of them.
We enjoyed this – seemed about the right level of difficulty, and completed on Christmas Eve before we got too busy!
I agree that the connection was a bit loose, but then it probably would have been impossible to fit in 26 Saints’ names. But a couple of the more unusual names verged on the unfair, I thought – in particular ILONE could equally have been ISOLE – neither are common English names, but both are (apparently) familiar in different European countries, so it was hard to choose between them.
Re MEDIATIONS, I assumed T was simply the first letter of ‘these’, though this is unindicated, and I can’t think of any acronyms where this happens, no doubt someone somewhere knows better…
As always from Maskarade, this was an impressive feat of grid filling and quite an entertaining challenge which took me about five hours to complete, despite the headstart in grid filling given by BARTHOLOMEW, which I saw very early and which (along with XANTHE) helped me establish the theme. CARTRIDGE CASE was last in, ZEITVERTREIB, LEA RIG and XEMA needed the big red book, and I’m not sure I’d ever seen the name ILONE though that was clear from wordplay and crossers.
Thanks to Maskarade and bridgesong, Happy New Year to all
Like Pw I finally finished this last night after nearly throwing it away several times. The main problems were the unhelpful grid and the 18 seven-letter answers. Very frustrating !. Loads of answers but nowhere to put them. So I took a gamble and entered answers where I thought they might go and it all worked out fine. The north west was the real problem and I just could not think of an answer to “He’s got the lot”. My last one in was LEA-RIG which strangely is also two rivers ( Lea and Rig) and also a Scottish dance.
I sometimes think that I’ve done more than enough crosswords to last a lifetime but I suppose it keeps the old grey matter going. I did like ALEWIFE which is an improbable name for a fish.
Can someone elaborate on VESTA !. Why does VA=goes ?. It may be obvious to most but not to me.
Thanks to bridgesong and Maskarade. It must have taken ages to produce this puzzle.
Davy @11
VA is “goes” in French
Was no-one else stalled for ages by putting SCARED STIFF in early instead of SCARED SILLY. STIFF even now seems to fit better with CADRES. Enjoyable in the end once JEREMY told me that STIFF must be wrong!
dior @13
……but I don’t think “stiff” could be an anagram indicator, though!
I had ‘scared about’ until there was somewhere to put it; also carelessly slipped up with ‘dry ice’ on the first pass. Otherwise good!
I have to agree with Brendan (not that one), dull. And Ilone, really?
Thanks Bridgesong. I am perched on the edge of the sofa awaiting a response to your query @ 7 regarding the t.
I was going to ask about AMEX but think I’ve just twigged. Refering to a credit card I guess.
Pex@17: yes, Amex is short for American Express (other credit cards are available!)
And I too await an explanation of how MEDIATIONS is parsed. Perhaps Maskarade will drop in at some point?
I do like Alphabeticals (and, in the past, Araubeticals in particular).
I do not like festive puzzles with two 15×15 grids.
And, to be honest, I do not like double Alphabeticals either.
Just a bit over the top.
But.
Yes, there’s a but.
This setter produced two similar puzzles for the Christmas break, this one and one for the FT (as Gozo).
I started with the Gozo, got the theme there early on and finished it in about one afternoon.
[please don’t comment on that puzzle as the deadline is midway next week!]
Then I tackled this one, hoping for a similar not too challenging challenge.
Oh how wrong I was.
This one was much harder.
After a first session I was on the point of giving up.
I resumed solving (still at my Mum’s place in Holland, with no books or internet connection) and finished the puzzle after EasyJet’s safe trip home.
Finished it?
I did not understand how FRANCIS worked, so I wasn’t sure it was that name or FRANCES.
Like others, I also had SCARED ABOUT (which I didn’t like), then SCARED STIFF (which I couldn’t justify) and ultimately SCARED SILLY.
Yes, the cryptic clue for CARTRIDGE CASE was weak – I considered ‘belt’ and ‘clip’ too.
This long one should have been clued more unambiguously.
Some names were rather obscure.
Bible names like EZEKIEL and ZEBEDEE, for example.
I don’t know anyone with these names.
The same for VESTA.
It’s a goddess, but a name like Karen or Heather?
Saw it straightaway but was reluctant to accept it.
I was also not happy with TRACEY.
TRACIE would have been just as fine.
From a ‘technical point of view’ I cannot help with the T that’s deleted from MediTations.
In ULYSSES, I think ‘are’ is technically not right: ‘sees’ is heard.
And, ILONE?
Chambers had ‘mediatress’ as a word and that could have given us IRENE.
Despite my minuses, altogether a real Tour de Force by Maskarade.
I enjoyed it.
Thanks bridgesong. I found this very difficult and needed most of the two weeks on and off to complete the grid. Even then there are explanations that defeated me and I am grateful for elucidation of FRANCIS and QUADRATIC. The NW corner provided a ready access and the 12 and 13 letter solutions fitted in well enough but progress soon faltered. LOIs were in the SW corner.
I’m not too happy about the use of foreign words – ZEITVERTREIB, RELACHE, NOUVELLE VAGUE – even if they are derivable enough from crossing letters and even if they do appear in some dictionaries as imports. I know that modern babies are given Christian names that are unrecognisable to previous generations and I had to seek confirmation of ILONE, ALLEGRA and PASCALL.
Still, if the object was to while away the time over the Christmas break then the mission was accomplished successfully.
I’ve just noticed PASCALL is wrong, I had rationalised it away as half of CALLINGS.
Well, that took up more of the Christmas break than I thought it would, having got the theme quite quickly, but I really rather enjoyed the challenge. I was as impressed as I was last year by the technical accomplishment – take a bow, Maskerade! – but definitely preferred this one (I remember thinking last year was a bit of a slog towards the end, which I didn’t feel was true of this). I failed to parse JERSEY, OVERALL, and MIKE, so many thanks for that, bridgesong. I wasn’t completely happy with QUADRATIC as ‘rectangular’ but it was clear enough once I discovered what a quadrat was. I was a bit surprised by the amount of French and German required – ZEITVERTREIB is well beyond what’s needed to order a beer in Germany, even if it is in Chambers, and part of it was clued in French! (As was all of VESTA, of course.) But I thought it was fun, and I learnt a few things.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Sil @19. Zebedee was a well-known character in the BBC TV series Magic Roundabout and Vesta Tilley was a famous music hall performer (usually as a male impersonator).
This wasn’t too difficult once I got started but the name theme was a bit boring – would have been more interesting if they had been – say – characters in Mozart operas!
In response to all those who had a bit of trouble with MEDIATIONS, like I did, I think it must be just an unfortunate mistake. A simple correction like
Contemplative discourses lacking time for these peace-making actions (10)
might have been what Maskarade intended. I got the answer all right, but I delayed putting it in because it didn’t work.
I enjoyed this. I also thought the theme was a bit ‘flat’, but, to be fair, there must be very few categories whose members include at least one instance of every letter of the alphabet to start the word. (I can think of one other that I would call more interesting than this one, but I might keep that for my own crossword!)
I think Maskarade did well to create this puzzle. ILONE was ok for me (the setter was probably stuck with the crossed letters, and it is a known name).
Thanks to both compiler and blogger.
Thanks, Bridgesong, it was great fun tackling this initially with you and Mrs B. Your eclectic knowledge of foreign terms v impressive.
Like others, I preferred Scared STIFF to ~ SILLY, the reference to crypts being irresistible.
Can’t help wondering if anyone still plays Loo – is the use of “Jack” to indicate “Pam” a known device? New one on me.
Thanks to Maskerade for a good workout.
Thanks to Maskarade and bridgesong. I did start off well with BARTHOLOMEW and BEADLE and did properly place PLENTEOUSNESS but after that I got lost and had most of the missteps noted above (e.g., SCARED stiff) plus more of my own (no point in listing them). This puzzle was definitely out of my range.
Thanks Maskarade and bridgesong. I enjoyed this a lot more than the last (I think) Maskarade holiday special, which I thought was unreasonably difficult. My only problem here was with Ilone – Isole works just as well, and both are obscure names. Shouldn’t this have been resolved in editing?
Correction, re my comment @27. The puzzle I thought “beyond the bounds” was way back at Easter 2014 – so I must compliment Maskarade on having hit the right level of difficulty on several occasions since then!
I suppose, on reflection, that ISOLE is equally possible, although the use of the word “isolated” in the clue makes it unlikely. The annotated solution is due to be published tomorrow so we shall find out then.
Curses ! Just got to see this blog after a few days offline.
Got it all done and sent off in time, but just realised that I had HESTHER rather than HEATHER. Ironically I had HEATHER in first, but though (still do !) that HESTHER parses better.
1 letter wrong from about 364 (52 clues with average 7 ?), make me want to go home and kick the cat (not that I have a cat, animal-lovers ! )
Still very enjoyable and thank to Maskarade and bridgesong.! I am indebted to my father who was visiting us this Christmas, has never knowingly solved a crossword or even a clue in his life ( 4-score years during 2016), for astutely suggesting it was not saints or storm names or anything else but just plain and simple given names that was the theme. That made things a lot easier.
Only found this blog today on seeing the solution in the paper. Enjoyed the puzzle; kept me busy until 30th. Had ISOLE like some others. First undefined answer was OLIVER so thought it was going to be all about musicals! Thanks to all concerned.
Thanks bridgesong and Maskerade.
I had ISOLE like others and needed your help to understand XENA and the EA in LEA-RIG.
Otherwise quite straightforward although I felt that having proper names was a bit of a cop-out compared to what was the theme in the FT (no give-aways)!
Frankly it seems that anything goes in proper names. I recall that when I was in New Zealand in the late 80’s there was a furore because one couple had christened their child KZ7 after that year’s Americas Cup entry.
Still, a good challenge so thanks again.
My sister and I spent hours over the holidays struggling with this and we were defeated by the long Z word and, like many others, got off on the wrong foot with SCARED STIFF. As the television had stopped working and we were battered by storms making it impossible to go for walks it was a very enjoyable way to pass the time.
My only reason for going for ISOLE rather than ILONE was that surely no setter worth their salt setter would give iSOLaled as a clue for SOLe. Perfect challenge to keep coming back to in idle moments over Christmas, I thought. LOI was FRANCIS which I found hard to ‘parse away’ from FRANCES, so to speak.
Nick@35: I think that you must have ISOLE and ILONE the wrong way round. I had exactly the same reason for preferring ILONE. I can confirm, having now read the annotated solution, that ILONE is correct. Unfortunately, the annotated solution still does not explain how “these” in the clue for MEDIATIONS equates to “t”, while confirming that the clue does require the subtraction of the letter t from MEDITATIONS. Alan Browne’s suggestion @24 seems the best explanation.
I enjoyed this, but was defeated by RELACHE. REL short for RELinquish or whatever seems a bit tenuous, but I can’t see anything better. I thought this was an excellent level of difficulty, enough to occupy one over Christmas whilst still being accessible to all.
I was held up a little at the end by entering ZEITVERTRIEB as is misspelled so in my Chambers 1983 edition.
Maskarade (aka Gozo, Doc etc) sets themed puzzles all the time. He must have set hundreds of them. I wonder if his choosing given names rather than a more specific category (names of saints for example) is that he has already done all the well-known sub-categories and doesn’t want to repeat himself.
Thanks to bridgesong and Gozo.
Slow to get started since the first two proper names I found seemed to suggest a biblical theme. Like others, I was misled for a while by SCARED STIFF – “cryptically” suggesting, I convinced myself, both an anagram of “cadres” and a wonderful punSTIFF. I also convinced myself that the Ds were DERRICK and DRY ARC – they fit but don’t quite work.
Thanks Maskarade and bridgesong
I’ve tended to put these special puzzles to one side for one reason or another in the past, but I actually tackled this one during the Christmas break and completed it over four sessions across two days – about 5 hours in all.
Accepted the BARTHOLOMEW / BEADLE Christmas gift from the setter and after getting MIKE next, decided that they were just names to be found. With the leading letters generated by the two B’s, it wasn’t as important to get the long words this time. The hardest challenge was to deal with the plethora of 7-letter solutions at the end (by that time, the crossers reduced the pain quite a deal tbough).
There were many new terms that popped up and some unusual names. ILONE didn’t present too many issues – there was a lady across the road from where I grew up whose name was Ilona – so I just took it as a variation on that. No additional thoughts on the T = these – unless there is a word missing, such as: ‘… these [initial] peace- making actions’
Finished with PASCALE as the last word in … and so ended the enjoyable journey. I think that M has ably stepped into the huge gap left by Araucaria very well. He might not have that special way about him yet that A did, but I have found all of his specials top notch.