A brain-twisting experience from Gaff, more so since I didnt see the FT site version which has the preamble (that Geoff later pointed out to me). Made steady progress through the grid until I ground to a halt in the SE quadrant. Needed the prop up from Gaufrid to fill in the blanks.
The preamble leads us to the phrase “A glory that shines upon our tears” which I had no clue about so googling helped. Its from a poem called “For the Fallen” by Robert Binyon, who composed this after British casualties in Battle of Mons and Battle of Marne in 1914, World War I.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 8 | SVELTE | Large Steve could be slim (6) |
| L (large) STEVE* | ||
| 9 | LAH DI DAH | Heard Fatty had turned posh (3-2-3) |
| Sounds like LARDY (fatty) DAH (reverse of HAD , turned) | ||
| 10 | RAPTURES | Rhapsodies are a substitute for elite strains (8) |
| RuPTURES (strains, with ‘A’ replacing ‘U’ {elite} ) | ||
| 11 | MALAGA | Hearts of dames greatly swelled by silver – Casanova’s last resort (6) |
| MAL (hearts i.e. central characters of “..daMes greAtly sweLled…”) AG (silver) A (casanovA‘s last) | ||
| 12 | ARCH | Head of leaderless procession (4) |
| mARCH (procession, leaderless) | ||
| 13 | SPLASHIEST | Rough pelt sash is most likely to cause spots (10) |
| PELT SASH IS* | ||
| 14 | EXTINCT | No longer seen with old partner before time in court (7) |
| EX (old partner) T (time) IN CT (court) | ||
| 16 | MERGERS | Unions causing big concerns (7) |
| &lit, cryptic. | ||
| 19 | TABULATORS | Alas, turbot scattered groupers (10) |
| ALAS TURBOT* | ||
| 21 | POOH | Bear band’s return (4) |
| reverse of HOOP (band) | ||
| 22 | RECIPE | Instructions grocer’s largely rejected (6) |
| EPICiER (grocer, largely i.e. not all characters, reversed). Its unusual for ‘largely’ to suggest removal of a letter from the middle. | ||
| 23 | CONFETTI | Paper’s coverage of parade (8) |
| cryptic clue | ||
| 25 | UPROOTER | Problem with Euro port may stump removal man (8) |
| EURO PORT* | ||
| 26 | NEATEN | With a bit of sunshine, a tendency to clear up (6) |
| hidden in “…sunshiNE A TENdency…” | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | AVIATRIX | Flier addressee opens by 3:10 (8) |
| A (Addressee, starting letter) VIA (by) TRI (~3) X (10 in roman numerals) | ||
| 2 | GLITCH | Gruel ends hunger problem (6) |
| GL (GrueL, ends) ITCH (hunger) | ||
| 3 | LEER | Watch rock climbing (4) |
| reverse of REEL (rock) | ||
| 4 | OLD SALT | Hearty primitive cure (3,4) |
| OLD (primitive) SALT (cure) | ||
| 5 | RHYMESTERS | Welshman hides merest irritation for poor poets (10) |
| RHYS (welshman) hides MEREST* | ||
| 6 | YIELDING | Giving (up) (8) |
| cryptically telescopic clue; means both GIVING and GIVING UP | ||
| 7 | TANGOS | Dances with beat and turns (6) |
| TAN (beat) GOS (turns) | ||
| 13 | SACRAMENTO | Cameras not adjusted for US capital (10) |
| CAMERAS NOT* | ||
| 15 | IN UNISON | With or without harmony (2,6) |
| cryptic clue; harmony can be achieved either within notes in the same octave or notes separated by exact octaves | ||
| 17 | ROOFTREE | Top deal maybe produces high level support (8) |
| ROOF (top) TREE (deal maybe) | ||
| 18 | KOI CARP | Turned up final stretch catching ten Japanese swimmers (3,4) |
| [ P (uP, final) RACK (stretch) ] containing IO (ten), all reversed (turned) | ||
| 20 | ALEPPO | Maybe bitter uprising works in war-torn city (6) |
| ALE (maybe bitter) PPO (works = OPP?) | ||
| 21 | PIETAS | Greek characters mourning figures (6) |
| PI ETAS (greek characters) | ||
| 24 | NON U | Unfashionable improper noun (3-1) |
| NOUN* | ||
*anagram
I interpreted “grocer’s largely” in 22 as EPICERie.
I took the “anniversary” of the preamble to be that of the Battle of the Somme, which began 100 years ago today, though Binyon’s poem dates from 1914. It is of course most famous for the stanza (well-known from Remembrance Day ceremonies):
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
I agree with Coby Lubliner about “epicirie”.
Nice puzzle – on the easy side for Gaff most of the way through – then, having cracked the Nina I wondered how I would have managed to finish without it.
A well chosen snippet – very apt.
Thanks all round.
Thanks Turbolegs and Gaff.
This was the 3rd FT toughie in a row after Io and the hard-to-parse Alberich of the previous day.
I struggled and failed to complete.
I did get the quote but failed on 16ac – I entered LEAGUES which sort of works but left me floundering for 17dn and I also missed POOH and PIETAS.
And to make things worse I couldn’t parse RAPTURES or RECIPE properly.
Must try harder!
Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs
Found this one tough in places – even after spotting the nina around the edge before the half way mark. Wasn’t smart enough to link the poem to July 1 though !!
RAPTURES was one that held out for ages and still couldn’t parse it before coming here. Hadn’t heard of ‘epicerie’, so RECIPE would have remained unparsed for all time as well.
For the record, OPP is the abbreviation for opus when referring to more than one work – it took a while to track down.
Some nice clues, including OLD SALT when the penny dropped with it and AVIATRIX for its tricky construction.