A themed offering from Gaff…
Freddie Mercury (20,18) died on this day 25 years ago (edit for typo), and Gaff has offered us a puzzle themed around him.
The first four across solutions on the left hand side of the puzzle (REAL LIFE, FANTAY, LANDSLIDE, REALITY) are the last words in the first four lines of Bohemian Rhapsody, and there are also mentions for QUEEN (KILLER(s) QUEEN) and CABALLE, as well as reference to his wearing a vest on stage. There may be other references I am missing?
Generally, the setter has succeeded, but has had to rely on some vague words and references (RETY, EMBRASURE, INDWELLER) etc. All forgiveable as the end result is excellent.
I have been unable to parse 26dn (ECLAT), and wonder if maybe it’s the wrong answer? (see comment 8 below for a plausible explanation and sorry, Jolly Swagman, if that means that you think “I’m out of my depth”)
| Across | ||
| 1 | REAL LIFE | Rent free everything I found in non-fiction (4,4) |
| ALL I “found in” *(free) | ||
| 5 | INVEST | Risk money on how 20, 18 performed (6) |
| Freddie Mercury often wore a vest when he performed. | ||
| 9 | FANTASY | Fizz with extremely sexy dream (7) |
| FANTA (carbonated drink brand, therefore “fizz”) + S(ex)Y | ||
| 10 | PARABLE | Maybe land on skyscraper’s eighth story (7) |
| ARABLE (“maybe land”) on (skyscra)P(er) | ||
| 11 | LANDSLIDE | Slip laptop into part of airport (9) |
| L(ap) in LANDSIDE | ||
| 14 | HOARD | Reportedly drove to pile up (5) |
| Homophone of HORDE | ||
| 15 | REALITY | Some TV shows boxer in French commune (7) |
| ALI in RETY (a commune near Paris)
RETY is really vague, but just about gettable. |
||
| 18 | See 20 | |
| 19 | LOB | Upshot of rally (3) |
| Cryptic definition – when playing a rally in tennis, a shot played up in the air would be a lob | ||
| 20, 18 | FREDDIE MERCURY | Did wrong invading uninhabited planet or star (7,7) |
| *(did) in FREE MERCURY
Freddie Mecury was the lead singer of Queen, who famously sang “Barcelona” with Montserrat Caballe (see 28ac) |
||
| 21 | RAYLESS | Charles maybe not so gloomy (7) |
| RAY (Charles) + LESS
Refers to the singer and songwriter, Ray Charles. |
||
| 24 | ADDLE | Become confused and go into the water topless (5) |
| (p)ADDLE | ||
| 25 | GROTESQUE | Strange request – go bananas (9) |
| *(go request) | ||
| 28 | CABALLE | Montserrat has plot with celery hearts (7) |
| CABAL (“plot”) + (ce)LE(ry)
Refers to Montserrat Caballe, the opera singer. |
||
| 29 | KILLERS | Terrible risk taking elbow back to butchers (7) |
| *(risk) “taking <=ELL (the shape of an “elbow”) | ||
| 30 | DREARY | Dull being back for a day (6) |
| DAY with the A repaced by REAR (“back”) | ||
| 31 | LISTEN IN | Remove wings from shiny bug (6,2) |
| (g)LISTENIN(g) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | RIFFLER | One who turns leaves quickly in file (7) |
| Thanks to Dis @ comment 1 below. I wasn’t aware of the file. | ||
| 2 | ANNAN | An old relative who kept the peace (5) |
| AN + NAN
Kofi Annan was secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006, but I would argue that he didn’t exactly “keep the peace”, when you consider some of the conflicts which happened in that period. |
||
| 3 | LOADS | Stacks of boys retain nothing (5) |
| L(0)ADS | ||
| 4 | FRY | Fish and chip (3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 6 | NORTHERLY | Heading for a pole, then lorry turns (9) |
| *(then lorry) | ||
| 7 | EMBRASURE | Opening letter supporter composed (9) |
| EM (“letter”) + BRA + SURE
An embrasure is an opening designed to allow a weapon to shoot out of for, for example, a ship or armoured vehicle. |
||
| 8 | TUESDAY | Weld actress to graceful child (7) |
| Refers to Tuesday Weld, the actress and the poem that says that Tuesday’s child is full of grace. | ||
| 10 | PREEMBRYO | Unattached person potentially excited by Rome rep (9) |
| *(by rome rep)
Refers to human egg cells (ova) that have been fertilized but not yet implanted into a uterus, according to Wikipedia. |
||
| 12 , 22 | DALLAS | Where Cowboys play pulses and notes (6) |
| DAL (“dried pulses”) + LAS (“notes”)
Dallas Cowboys are an American football team. |
||
| 13 | IVY LEAGUE | I have disruptive guy leave athletics conference (3,6) |
| I + *(guy leave)
The Ivy League’s university sports teams are very competitive. |
||
| 16 | AMENDABLE | Response to Dominica’s first island uprising may be varied (9) |
| AMEN (“response”) + D(ominica) + <=ELBA | ||
| 17 | INDWELLER | Resident will find we’ll erect houses (9) |
| Hidden in (“housed” by) “fIND WE’LL ERect” | ||
| 20 | FLACCID | Figurehead set out to retain capacity to limp (7) |
| F(igure) + LA(CC)ID, where CC is “capacity” | ||
| 22 | See 12 | |
| 23 | STEPSON | Old man’s earlier issue with squashes (7) |
| STEPS ON = “squashes” | ||
| 26 | ECLAT | Make large part of audience flourish (5) |
| 27 | QUEEN | Group leader (5) |
| Double definition – Queen, of course, being the group that Freddie Mercury fronted. | ||
| 29 | KOI | Back long-distance swimmer (3) |
| <=10 k | ||
*anagram
1d is a dd; RIFFLER (sculptor’s file).
Can’t help with 26.
26d, if you “make” a large part of the audience, thing have gone with ECLAT ?
Thanks Loonapick.
Freddie Mercury died 25 years ago – time flies, doesn’t it?
Thanks also to Dis.
Just like Loonapick I had ‘ruffler’ (to ruffle can also mean ‘to turn leaves quickly’, I think) but I couldn’t make it work.
I’m afraid that I failed in the SE.
No ECLAT for me, no explanation either.
When I saw 10d (PREEMBRYO) I thought, mmm, ‘Rome rep’ is an anagram of ’emperor’.
Gaff could have used that.
While I saw that 5ac had to be INVEST I hesitated to enter it in the grid.
I don’t remember Freddie Mercury as performing in a vest.
It was more someone who I recall as being ‘bare-chested’.
Anyway, nice puzzle.
The four words of Bohemian Rhapsody neatly positioned in the NW.
Many thanks to Gaff.
addendum @2, “make” has several synonyms that indicate “success”, for example win, reach, draw, net, gain…
Thinking further, 26d could be a double definition, when a performance does not go well in France it is reported in the revues to have been “sans éclat”.
Thanks Gaff and loonapick
ECLAT puzzled me too, and I can’t explain it (hmm, got a Who reference in there!)
Sil @ 3: the graun has a Freddie Mercury quiz today. On the picture/link FM is shown in a (yellow) singlet/vest, which I remember often seeing pictures of him wearing. Presumably he removed it later in his performances.
26d, the COED gives éclat 2 conspicuous success, universal approbation (with great éclat), surely that ties in with “Make large part of audience”…
In 26d I think “audience” is a homophone indicator. ECLAT sounds like part of “mAKE LArge”.
Tom_I, brilliant, I have probably been barking up the wrong tree, my last captcha was two – 2 = ?
Tom_I @8 – I think I could have looked at the clue and solution all day without coming up with that!
Thanks Gaff and loonapick
Found this pretty tough, taking four sessions totalling > 2 hours. Scary how quickly time flies – who’d have thought that he’s been gone that long ! Hadn’t heard the “Barcelona” duet with Señora CABALLE and it was interesting to see rock mix with opera like that !
Eventually came up with the same logic as Tom@8 for ÉCLAT after playing the sound of it’s pronunciation at least 3-4 times – it’s a device that stretches the boundaries of fair play a bit and have not seen it before. Always interested in new tricks by setters though.
HOARD was the other one that caused me a lot of problems and I think that one could put up a reasonable justification for HEARD (‘reportedly’ and ‘reportedly drove’= HERD, ‘reportedly pile up’ = HERD)).
Initially had RUFFLER at 1d but couldn’t justify the ‘file’ and eventually found RIFFLE and RIFFLER. Never heard of RETY either and am sure that he could’ve clued REALITY differently if he had of chosen to – again good to learn something new ! Thought that the clueing for KOI was quite cute.
Difficult for me but very satisfying to get it all out and properly parsed.
Phew – found that very tough. Got good entries but left a few parsings dangling.
Great stuff once resolved.
Thanks to S&B.