Oxymoron puzzles vary in difficulty from ‘not too tricky’ to ‘fiendish’, and I wondered what degree of difficulty the gods had given me this week. But before I go any further, apologies for the late appearance of this blog.
We had corrections to single letter misprints to identify. These would spell a message which would describe the theme and what was to replace the clashes in some cells. Numbers in brackets referred to length of grid entries, so either some letters were to be omitted or some cells contained more than one letter.
I guessed that I was in for a fiendish puzzle this week, since the only across entry I got was EGOISTICAL. However, with 9dn ALI BABA and 28dn ARSONITE, both too long for their entry space, at least I knew that I was dealing with lots of letters in indivual cells that would probably spell out members of the theme.
Of course, if I had any clue that this was the anniversary of England’s 1966 World Cup win, I would have got a grip on this puzzle sooner, especially given its title. Even the CHAR from 17ac RICHARD failed to help. It was left to the corrections to misprints to get me out of my hole, first with E•G•AN• and then with T•••RY immediately before it. Unfortunately, I was only half out of my hole since I assumed we were dealing with another First World War centenary. Eventually W••LDCU… got me on the right lines.
The full message was World Cup Final half centenary. England’s shirt numbers. The clashes spelt out the names of the eleven English players in that game and their shirt numbers had to replace their names in the final grid. They were, of course, in their correct positions on the field, with goal-mouth at the bottom and the half-way line at the top. This enabled the two Charltons to be identified correctly. In order, we had the following (with thanks to Mike @1 for pointing out that Banks wore a green top, not red like his team mates, and to Brian @3 for pointing out it was yellow):
| 21 | Roger HUNT |
| 10 | Geoff HURST |
| 16 | Martin PETERS |
| 9 | Bobby CHARLTON |
| 7 | Alan BALL |
| 4 | Nobby STILES |
| 3 | Ray WILSON |
| 6 | Bobby MOORE |
| 5 | Jack CHARLTON |
| 2 | George COHEN |
| 1 | Gordon BANKS |
A superb piece of grid construction from this masterful setter. As I had suspected, it was a tough week.
Solving time: over 4 hours.
Legend:
Definition in clue
X = Corrections to misprints
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Corrections to Misprints |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | TRANTERS entered as TRA21ERS |
W | R (rupees) in TR (transactions) ANTES (advanced payments) |
| 6 | BORSTALL entered as BO10ALL |
O | Suffolk’s neighbour to stop youth’s BOR (neighbour, East Anglia) STALL (to stop) |
| 12 | OPSIMATH | R | Old OP (operator) + MA (mother) in SITH (time) |
| 14 | TIPT | L | TIT (bird) about P (prince); tipt = tapering |
| 15 | VITAMIN E | D | (VIETNAM + I (iodine))* |
| 16 | TAPETA entered as TA16A |
C | Recording advanced after intro to Tubular TAPE (recording) A (advanced) after T (intro to Tubular) |
| 17 | RICHARD entered as RI9D |
U | Name of a RICH (wealthy) AR (Arabian) D (democrat) |
| 18 | SELLER entered as SE7ER |
P | sounds like CELLAR (vault) |
| 19 | EGOISTICAL | F | Are ties involved with logic (A (are) TIES LOGIC)* |
| 24 | NIGGARD | I | Daring German sabotaged a (DARING G (German))* |
| 25 | HERCULES BEETLE entered as HERCUL4 BEETLE |
N | Belgian detective’s facing scowling South American HERCULE’S (Poirot’s, Belgian detective’s) BEETLE (scowling) |
| 28 | AEROSOL | A | LO< (look, back) on A (absolute) EROS (god) |
| 32 | DOG’S-TONGUE | L | DOGS (infests) TONGUE (isthmus) |
| 33 | WILDFIRE entered as 3DFI6 |
H | Welsh corgi finally runs into field spreading a disease of some W (Welsh) + I (corgI, finally) + R (runs) in FIELD*; hog = yearling sheep |
| 35 | ASHTON entered as ASH5 |
A | Australian HAS* + TON (fashionable people); reference to Julian Ashton |
| 38 | RUSHEN entered as RUS2 |
L | Made of stalks ( sounds like RUSSIAN (picked up from Moscow, perhaps) |
| 39 | IOLANTHE | F | (A (accepted) IN HOTEL)* |
| 40 | ELAM | C | Old E (Egypt, first letter) + L (left) AM (in the morning) |
| 41 | CALCEATE | E | Contralto wearing fancy lace destroyed C (contralto) in LACE* + ATE (destroyed) |
| 42 | ENTERA | N | ENTER (admit) A (associate) |
| 43 | BACKLESS entered as 1CKLESS |
T | Bill of sale covering pulleys out of Thailand BS (bill of sale) around TACKLES (pulleys) – T (Thailand) |
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Corrections to Misprints |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | TOTTER | E | ROTTER (cad) with T (time) instead of R (reading, one of the three Rs) |
| 2 | ASPERSOIR entered as ASP16OIR |
N | Sprinkler used by a holy PER (person) in A (one) SOIR (evening, French) |
| 3 | HUTAIN entered as 21TAIN |
A | Poem’s HUN (barbarian) around T (‘t, it, the other) AI (arboreal creature, sloth) |
| 4 | EMIR | R | Independent E (Established, initially) + MIR (farming commune) |
| 5 | STILTON entered as STI9 |
Y | Long-legged bird willing to participate STILT (long-legged bird) ON (willing to participate) |
| 7 | OKAS | E | Satisfactory like some OK (satisfacory) AS (like) |
| 8 | HUMMEL entered as 10MMEL |
N | HUM (impose) + ME (Maine, capital Augusta) L (league) |
| 9 | ALIBABA entered as ALI7BA |
G | A liberal sailor accepted poor woodcutter who took A LIB (liberal) AB (sailor) A (accepted) |
| 10 | LINEARLY | L | Pool low in a LIN (pool) EARLY (low) |
| 11 | LEERED | A | Sheltered anarchist looked like a LEE (sheltered) RED (anarchist) |
| 13 | AVITAL | N | A lively grandfather’s no A VITAL (lively) |
| 20 | INSTILLS entered as IN4LS |
D | IN (Indiana) STILL (not sparkling, as water) + S (sun) |
| 21 | AGEE | S | Mature European off the straight for AGE (mature) E (European) |
| 22 | KEEP DOWN | S | Look up ready to pounce, stay out of PEEK< (look, up) DOWN (ready to pounce) |
| 23 | HUSO | H | America goes in primarily hand over US (America) in H (Hand, first letter) O (over) |
| 26 | BETHEL | I | Old BE (to remain) THE (so much) L (latitude) |
| 27 | TEGULAE | R | Sheep north of tree keeping active — they rest on a TEG (sheep) on ULE (tree) containing A (active) |
| 28 | ARSONITE entered as AR3ITE |
T | Fire SON (boy) in A (adult) RITE (ceremony) |
| 29 | REFLET | N | Nancy’s RE (‘re, are) LEFT*; Nancy refers to French city |
| 30 | UNREEL | U | NERVULE* – V (volume) |
| 31 | BECOMES entered as BE2MES |
M | Is SOME* under BE (live) C (colt) |
| 32 | DIANE | B | European retaining independent DANE (European) around I (independent) |
| 34 | MOONER entered as 6NER |
E | He presents MO (second) ONER (expert) |
| 36 | SHANKS entered as SHA1 |
R | Chinese king wearing extremely spacious long HAN (Chinese) K (king) in SS (SpaciouS, first and last letters) |
| 37 | CHARLOCK entered as 5OCK |
S | I have yellow LOCK (jam) after CHAR (tea) |
Surely Banks wore a green shirt?
Mike, when it comes to football, the word ‘surely’ doesn’t resonate with me. But it looks like you’re right… it’s a FIFA rule it should be different from the rest of the team. Apologies.
You’re both wrong; in the final, Banks wore a yellow shirt!
Excellent grid construction from Oxymoron.
So I see … but the wiki page I looked at to confirm the names of the players displayed them in red with Banks in green. I am aware that wiki is not
without fault, but that seemed sufficiently reasonable to be trustworthy. Oh dear!
In those days, goalkeepers in England always wore green shirts but when playing for England it was always yellow. Gordon Banks would have worn a yellow shirt for all the England games, not just the final. These days, of course, they wear all sorts of colours and designs.