A themed offering from GAFF
The puzzle’s preamble reads “60 years on, 30 across 1 across problem results in 7 solutions being entered incorrectly in the grid.
I quickly worked out that 30 across 1 across was “My Fair Lady” aspiration, so I was looking for seven solutions where an “h” was dropped from or incorrectly added to the beginning of a word.
In the end, six clues required the former, and only one the latter treatment.
While I applaud Gaff for succeeding in the most part, some of the non-themed clues were a little strained (see comments for 11ac, 5dn and 18dn). My favourite clues were 13ac 29ac, 2dn and 3dn.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ASPIRATION | Hope Portia’s in a play (10) |
| *(portia’s in a) | ||
| 6 | IDLE | Do little turn over (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 10 | ARDLY | Scarcely is Middle England gripped by obscure author (5) |
| THEME ENTRY – (h)ARDY gripping (eng)L(and). “obscure author” refers to Thomas Hardy, writer of “Jude the Obscure”. | ||
| 11 | URRICANES | Speed of sound punishes planes (9) |
| THEME ENTRY – (h) URRI + CANES
“Hurri” is clued as “speed of sound”, but I think it’s more “the sound of speed”? |
||
| 12 | DERELICT | Abandoned the German extract Gaff’s forgotten (8) |
| DER + ELIC(i)T | ||
| 13 | TERSE | Brief Peter Sellers appearance (5) |
| Makes an appearance in “peTER SEllers” | ||
| 15 | ODORANT | Humming a rondo variation takes time (7) |
| *(a rondo) + T | ||
| 17 | DORMANT | Stepped back, admitting race is suspended (7) |
| <=TROD admitting MAN | ||
| 19 | ERTFORD | Town we back in gallant way (7) |
| THEME ENTRY – <=FT (“we back”) in HERO RD | ||
| 21 | EREFORD | Lower heads before crossing (7) |
| THEME ENTRY – (h) + ERE + FORD
Hereford is a breed of cattle, hence “lower” (“that which lows” = a cow) |
||
| 22 | APPEN | Take place of a very soft lining layer (5) |
| THEME ENTRY – APP in (h)EN | ||
| 24 | AMPSHIRE | Test county that’s cut addition to rent (8) |
| THEME ENTRY – (h)AM + P.S. + HIRE | ||
| 27 | REFRESHER | Tonic, of course? (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | VIPER | Dodge back-stabber (5) |
| Double definition – a Dodge Viper is a sports car. | ||
| 29 | WISH | Maybe well-made goal (4) |
| Refers to a wishing well. | ||
| 30 | MY FAIR LADY | Woman from W1 missing a show (2,4,4) |
| M(a)YFAIR LADY | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | AJAR | Slightly gaping from a shock (4) |
| A JAR (“shock”) | ||
| 2 | PADDED OUT | Made long,long face about extra (6,3) |
| POUT about ADDED | ||
| 3 | RHYME | Lines from The Frost Report (5) |
| Homphone of RIME | ||
| 4 | TOURIST | Visitor to ancient city is prime target (7) |
| TO UR IS + T(arget) | ||
| 5 | OERSTED | Ring deters wanton magnetism (7) |
| O + *(deters)
An oersted is the unit of the auxiliary magnetic field H in the CGS system of units. Apart from it being named after a Danish phycist, that’s all I know about it, so don’t know if it can be clued as “magnetism” or whether it should be “a unit of magnetism”, which would not work in the surface of the clue. |
||
| 7 | DONOR | Academic has alternative organ supplier (5) |
| DON + OR | ||
| 8 | EASTERTIDE | Dieters eat frantically in festal season (10) |
| *(eaters diet) | ||
| 9 | SCOT FREE | Queen Mary was not unpunished (4,4) |
| Double definition – Queen Mary was a Sxot imprisoned, therefore not SCOT FREE | ||
| 14 | BONE MARROW | Skeleton’s inside Spooner’s grouse burial mound (4,6) |
| MOAN BARROW to Spooner | ||
| 16 | ANOINTED | Smeared rear of Old Etonian liberally (8) |
| *(D Etonion) where D = rear of “old” | ||
| 18 | APOCRYPHA | Head of Apple deliriously happy restriction of reading text works (9) |
| A(pple) + O.C.R. in *(happy)
O.C.R. stands for Optical Character Recognition, therefore “reading text” (I think it’s more a means of reading text) |
||
| 20 | DEATHLY | Fatal mistake by the lady (7) |
| *(the lady) | ||
| 21 | EMPORIA | Upliftingly broadcast work Gaff markets (7) |
| <=AIR + OP + ME (“Gaff”) | ||
| 23 | PUFFS | Plugs featuring faulty leads discharge kettles (5) |
| F(eaturing) F(aulty) “kettled by” PUS
Plugs and puffs are (not quite?) synonymous in advertising circles. |
||
| 25 | HEVER | Always central to false verdict (5) |
| THEME ENTRY – an “h” added to EVER (central to “falsE VERdict”) | ||
| 26 | PRAY | Hear victim’s appeal (4) |
| Homophone of PREY | ||
*anagram
Thanks Gaff and loonapick
Agree with your comments on a few of the clues, but contrived or not, this was cleverly thought out and a lot of fun to do ! After initially being daunted by the rubric, the first aspirated word – ‘APPEN, as it turns, out immediately sent me to 30a where MY FAIR LADY was the obvious answer and away we were with the theme. Not to say that the other six were easy to find after that – with HEVER, in fact, being my last clue in.
This context of BARROW was new to me at 14d. Liked the allusion used with ‘obscure’ at 10a, ‘Test’ at 24a and ‘Queen Mary was not’ at 9d.
Did spend a fair bit of time trying to get the last two in – VIPER (wasn’t aware of the car) and as said HEVER as last in.
Thanks for the blog, Loonapick.
When I saw Gaff’s name, knowing his liking for themed / anniversary puzzles, I wondered whether we might be in for a Julius Caesar one today!
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, having seen the show soon after it opened in London and then the film, several times, so I know it quite well! I was delighted to find this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVmU3iANbgk to accompany the solve, as it’s from the show, rather than the film, which my recording is.
Lovely clues throughout but I particularly liked the allusive EASTERTIDE, with its picture of Lent-deprived chocaholics tucking into their Easter eggs.
Many thanks to Gaff, for a nostalgically entertaining solve.
[Three excellent puzzles today – I’m very happy. 🙂 ]
Thanks Gaff and loonapick.
This was very close to being brilliant.
The special instructions looked impenetrable to begin with and my first in was 30ac. It then took another 5 sessions to complete – that’s put me back!
My only quibbles are “speed of sound” in 11 should be – as you have pointed out – the other way round and in 14dn I think a homophone indicator is surely needed too to justify BONE as part of the spoonerism for MOAN.
Needed your help to parse AMPSHIRE and VIPER so thanks for that too.