This was 1ac to solve…
…and I haven’t managed to complete it. I’ve put in guesses for 24 ac and 18dn, and have no idea how to parse 21 ac.
The top half was fine and went in very quickly (I particuarly liked 13ac), but I don’t have the time (nor any longer the energy) to try to get the bottom half right.
This was an unsatisfactory experience for me. In my opinion, the setter has hit upon an idea, and then has had to use obscure references such as the Christie Hospital to make it work in the grid. The theme is expanded upon by Pelham Barton in the comments below. As a fan of Agatha Christie, I should have picked up on it, but was becoming frustrated towards the end, and had my day job to do too. Had I identified the theme earlier, I’m convinced that I’d have enjoyed the puzzle more. In my defence, I solved online, and didn’t have the preamble about this being a 40th anniversary puzzle.
Over to my esteemed fellow solvers, bloggers and superiors to help me out, I’m afraid! (Muffyword and Prantle have stepped up to the plate – see below)
| Across | ||
| 1 | MURDER | Crows about National success (6) |
| <=RED RUM
As in a “murder of crows”. |
||
| 4 | VICARAGE | Church leader tucked into mixture of Viagra and Ecstasy in his home (8) |
| C(hurch) in *(viagra E) | ||
| 10 | CANASTA | Pelican as tall as some game (7) |
| Hidden in “peliCAN AS TAll” | ||
| 11 | EXPECTS | What England does first time old muscles seize (7) |
| T(ime) in EX PECS
As in Nelson’s famous speech on HMS Victory before the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. “England expects that every man will do his duty…” |
||
| 12, 25 | REEF KNOT | Reduce speed of maritime connection (4,4) |
| REEF + KNOT
I’m assuming that REEF = “reduce” here, as in sailing, to “reef” is to “reduce the size of a sail” |
||
| 13 | HALF-GERMAN | Like Victoria’s children to wave flag carried by Albert? (4-6) |
| *(flag) in HER MAN (Alfred being Victoria’s man) | ||
| 16 | ORIENT | Determine position of Asia (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | EXPRESS | Certain to mean rapid discharge (7) |
| Quadruple definition | ||
| 20 | ADMIRAL | Car holds the edge when backed by fleet manager (7) |
| <=LA(RIM)DA | ||
| 21 | WEAPON | One cause of MD being fired may be used in part of 9 18 23 down, 27 1 across (6) |
| The clues referred to give (n)AGAT HA(uled in) CHRISTIE MURDER, but I can’t work out the wordplay. See comment 2 below for a possible explanation. | ||
| 23 | COR ANGLAIS | Company called City is producer of windy flats etc (3,7) |
| CO + RANG + L.A. + IS | ||
| 24 | OTTO | Oil drunk a lot (4) |
| (bl)OTTO – thanks, Muffyword. | ||
| 26 | RETREAD | Rough tarred surface ultimately gives better grip (7) |
| *(Tarred + (surfac)E) | ||
| 28 | KINSMAN | Relative once removed confused on nicknames (7) |
| *(niknams) (ie “on nicknames” less “once”) | ||
| 29 | SLEEPING | Dormant fish brought round by sonar (8) |
| <=EELS + PING
In Chambers, “pinger” is a type of sonar, but I can’t find PING being synonymous with “sonar” |
||
| 30 | STRAFE | Could be faster to make fire from air (6) |
| *(faster) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MACAROON | Accountant dressed with abandon to get biscuit (8) |
| AC in MAROON | ||
| 2 | RANGE FINDER | Grinned with fear, adjusted rifle sight (5,6) |
| (*grinned fear) | ||
| 3 | EASY | No problem when you turn around (4) |
| AS in <=YE | ||
| 5 | IDEE FIXE | I mostly leave meal when retired; it’s an obsession (4,4) |
| I + <+EXI(t) FEED
I suppose FEED and MEAL could be synonymous in a phrase such as “a good feed”. |
||
| 6 | APPLE TREES | Gala producers say “Pretty Please”, regrettably not “Thank You” at first (5,5) |
| *(pret please) (first letters of Thank You removed from “pretty please”)
Gala is a type of apple, originally from New Zealand. |
||
| 7 | ABC | Letters from a bygone age (3) |
| A + B.C. (Before Christ = “bygone age”)
Shouldn’t the annotation be (1,1,1)? |
||
| 8 | ESSEN | Being north of city (5) |
| ESSE (“being”) + N
Essen is a German city on the Rhine (more famous in Crosswordland than anywhere else?) |
||
| 9 | NAG AT | Badger cull even Noah grants (3,2) |
| N(o)A(h)G(r)A(n)T(s)
The even letters have been culled. |
||
| 14 | MESOPOTAMIA | Target bearing in order to return to cradle of civilisation (11) |
| <+AIM AT O(POSE)M
Took a little while to work the parsing out, as I saw bearing as SE, not POSE, initially. |
||
| 15 | INDIAN HEMP | Diminutive independent politician holds an open house for pot plants (6,4) |
| AN H(ome)E in INDI MP
Isn’t it Indy rather than Indi? |
||
| 18 | HAULED IN | Turn in healthy and sound when brought on board (6,2) |
| Has to start with HA so am assuming HAULED IN or HAULED ON. Wordplay could indicate HAILED IN (homophone of HALE DIN), but I don’t recognise that phrase. Again, thanks to Muffyword for the parsing of HAULED IN. Definition is “brought on board” (as in fish hauled in in a net?) | ||
| 19 | ANNOUNCE | A cat called Blaze (8) |
| Homophone of “an ounce”. | ||
| 22 | LINKS | Chain with holes (5) |
| Cryptic/double definition.
A links course is a golf course by the sea, especially in the UK |
||
| 23, 27 | CHRISTIE | Skier’s turn in hospital (8) |
| Double definition?
Not sure if I have this right, but a christie is a turn in skiing, and, according to Wikipedia, the Christie NHS Trust is a renowned cancer hospital in Manchester. This seems too vague for me, so assume I may be wrong? |
||
| 25 | See 12 | |
*anagram
Thanks loonapick and Gaff,
I always enjoy Gaff’s puzzles.
I think 24 is (bl)OTTO.
18d is HAULED IN (hale around u + din) definition is “brought on board”.
I don’t understand WEAPON either.
Could 21 down refer to W(MD) (Mass Destruction) and murder weapon?
I was totally misled on the theme, 14d being Mesopotamia and this being the 40th anniversary of the Security Council vote (11 to 1) on admitting the PLO to the UN !
Thanks Gaff and Loonapick
To clarify the theme, today is the 40th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s death. Her works include Murder on the Links (22dn), The Murder at the Vicarage (4ac), Murder on the Orient Express (16ac, 17ac), The ABC Murders 7dn), Murder in Mesopotamia (14dn), Murder is Easy (3dn), A Murder is Announced (19dn), and Sleeping Murder (29ac). I needed the Wikipedia list for 22dn and 3dn.
Thanks to all who made supplementary comments, espeially Pelham Barton who gave me a headslap moment!
Thanks, Loonapick.
I found this hard going to begin with and, on the first run through, I had one entry: VICARAGE. I was pushed for time, as I had a friend coming for coffee, so, as I always enjoy Gaff’s puzzles and wanted to make something of it, I confess to breaking my usual habit and googling 12th January 1976 and there was the Agatha Christie reference on the first page – fitting in perfectly with my one entry! 1ac quickly followed [clever to get them – and ORIENT EXPRESS – on the same line] – and soon afterwards I had to leave it. We went out to lunch, so there was rather a long delay in getting back to it.
I found the rest of it totally absorbing and very enjoyable. I think I’ve probably read all of the books, over the years. It was quite a feat to include so many. Some really ingenious and witty clues helped the solving along: even after latching onto the theme, there was a lot to think about.
I read 12,25 as Loonapick did, having learned that meaning of REEF from Gaff’s last Prize puzzle.
I failed to see HER MAN = Albert [doh!] but did find an American actor/film director called Albert Herman, so I thought I’d parsed it.
I thought the enumeration of 7dn was OK: both Collins and Chambers give ABC [sic] as ‘the alphabet’ and there’s the expression ‘to learn one’s letters’.
I’m afraid I still don’t really understand WEAPON.
Many thanks to Gaff – it was fun!
21ac
One cause of M(ass) D(estrution) = weapon ref. WMD
Being fired may be used in “agatha christie murder” = weapon
Found it tough – even cheating!
Too difficult for me. The solutions explained above infintely more entertaining than trying to solve the crossword itself.
Loonapick, I thought you did a great job with the parsing, despite not enjoying the puzzle first time through. All the additional comments, including peterj @7, are what I intended.
I’m puzzled by the comment that you didn’t see the preamble because you solved it online. http://www.ft.com gives an image of the puzzle as it appears on the page, including the preamble, so there must be another resource out there. Another 225 blogger made the same comment recently. It’s a shame, as the preamble, though brief, was carefully worded to give just enough extra help. Advance warning – my next puzzle has an important preamble, too!
But I’m glad that the obscure references made sense once you’d slapped your head!
Gaff
Thanks for dropping in. I solved the puzzle using a third party website that makes formatting the blog easier (www.crosswords.drurys.org). Sometimes preambles appear – sometimes they don’t.
I have read virtually all of the books mentioned, so that’s why I slapped my head!
Loonapick
Setters put the same amount of careful thought into the exact wording of a preamble as we do into the wording of the clues. In this case, you say you would have got the theme and therefore enjoyed the solving and blogging more if you’d seen the preamble that all the solvers saw.
I’m sorry you didn’t see it. Setters want to bring enjoyment to everyone, including 225 bloggers!
If drurys is a resource that is widely used by 225 bloggers, is there a way to prevail upon them to make sure they reliably pick up any preamble?
By the way, john@3, I have every confidence that the late, great and much missed Araucaria would have been able to construct a puzzle about UN Security Council resolutions, But no. Not me!
The FT crossword appears on its website around about midnight leading into the day of publication. It’s in exactly the same form as in the paper so for example it included the preamble in this case. So maybe worth a look esp on a blogging day – I’ve the link saved on my computer for a long time and look at it pretty much every day. It shows puzzles going back a couple of months.
Thanks Gaff and loonapick
Enjoyable as ever from Gaff and found it quite a stiff challenge for most of the journey – taking a few sessions on and off throughout yesterday to complete it. Didn’t spot the theme until quite late into the piece when I was able to get the CHRIS and TIE clues. It helped to correct 1a from an unsatisfactory MERLES to MURDER. Was able to find four of the books, but MESOPOTAMIA, EASY, ANNOUNCED and LINKS went undiscovered. A good feat to include this number of them. For some reason, I have not read any of her work.
Lots of interesting clues but could also not parse WMD and missed the HER MAN in 12, 25.
Parsed KNOT as speed of maritime and the REEF KNOT as the connection. Collins online dictionary has:
Ping:
noun
a short high-pitched resonant sound, as of a bullet striking metal or a sonar echo.
Finished down in the SE corner with ANNOUNCE (which stubbornly held out for no known reason), WEAPON (unparsed) and OTTO (which I found rather oblique as both the definition and the word play).
Thanks loonapick and Gaff (the latter for both setting and further explanation above).
This took all of last night’s train journey and a bit more this morning, but still failed on ANNOUNCE and OTTO and HAULED IN where I had (wrongly) opted for HAILED IN.
This was hard going. I had many of the same parsing problems as others above – including resolving 13ac on the basis of HERMAN ALBERT to start with but then seeing the real parsing during a flash of inspiration as I was writing the solution in.
The fact that I got the theme late probably made little difference. I found most Agatha Christie mysteries somewhat irritating because an intelligent reader would often be unable to solve the murder due to some revelation held for the denouement. I always preferred Ngaio Marsh because of her concentration on opportunity and therefore solve ability.
However, nobody can criticise her prodigious output.