One for Ls of themed puzzles!
The preamble to this puzzle reads “L has the same meaning throughout”, so once you work out what L stands for, this is a fun puzzle.
L stands for “lover”, so we are given 5 pairs of classic lovers (HEATHCLIFF & CATHY, HERO & LEANDER, ROMEO & JULIET, ORLANDO & ROSALIND, and GUINEVERE & LANCE/LOT).
Some excellent clues here. although STAR-CROSSED wasn’t very cryptic, unless I’m missing some wordplay, and a couple of others took a while to parse, so I hope I got them all right!
Thanks, Wanderer
| Across | ||
| 9 | CANTONESE | Style of cooking Chekhov perhaps used for a gas in Cheddar? (9) |
| ANTON (Chekhov) replacing HE (helium, so “gas”) in CHEESE (“Cheddar”) – Thanks, Brian, for correcting my parsing | ||
| 10 | LANCE | Chap wanting good peep shows (5) |
| (g)LANCE | ||
| 11 | ORLANDO | L drunk as a lord? No! (7) |
| *(a lord no) | ||
| 12 | THESEUS | Greek 4 from area around 11? (7) |
| Orlando (the solution to 11ac) is in THE S.E. U.S. (the South East of the United States) | ||
| 13 | LOT | Those flying westward from right to left (3) |
| <=TOL (“to left” westward from the right)
LOT is a Polish airline, thus “those flying” |
||
| 14 | STAR-CROSSED | Dogged by ill luck, as Ls may be (4-7) |
| Lovers (L) are often described as “star-crossed”, but apart from the L device, I don’t think this clue is particularly cryptic. | ||
| 17 | ROMEO | L spelt with a capital O (5) |
| ROME (“capital”) + O | ||
| 18 | LEI | In Bucharest, readies some incredible instruments (3) |
| Hidden in “incredibLE Instruments”
Lei is the plural of leu, the unit of currency in Romania. |
||
| 19 | CATHY | Yacht rigged for L (5) |
| *(yacht) | ||
| 21 | STICK SHIFTS | Endure periods working gear levers in the US (5,6) |
| STICK (“endure”) + SHIFTS (“periods working”) | ||
| 23 | RAJ | Initially 17 across and 24 rule in India (3) |
| Initial of R(omeo) A(nd) J(uliet) | ||
| 25 | LEANDER | Boss around new L (7) |
| LEADRE (“boss”) “around” N | ||
| 27 | SPOUSAL | Like committed Ls, Paul’s so bubbly (7) |
| *(pauls so) | ||
| 28 | NOMAD | Fellow coming round in the morning? That’s flipping Wanderer! (5) |
|
<=D(AM)ON
|
||
| 29 | GUINEVERE | L from African republic, almost always seen cycling around (9) |
| GUINE(a) “seen around” EVER | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCHOOL | Coach second half of train lost (6) |
| S(econd) + CHOO (choo) + L(0st) | ||
| 2 | UNCLE TOM | Revolutionary column about extremely ebullient slave (5,3) |
| *(column) “about” E(bullien)T | ||
| 3 | JOINT-STOCK | Type of company Scot takes home before opening time? Drunken sot! (5-5) |
| JOCK (“Scot”) “takes” IN (“home”) and T(ime) + *(sot)
Being a Scot, I’m not keen on JOCK |
||
| 4 | HERO | Drug not 15 for L (4) |
| HERO(in) | ||
| 5 | HEATHCLIFF | L showing passion, over Henry and Richard? (10) |
| HEAT + H(enry) + CLIFF (Richard) | ||
| 6 | ALOE | Plant gangster next to L regularly (4) |
| AL (Capone, so “gangster”) + (l)O(v)E(r) (“L regularly”) | ||
| 7 | ANGELS | One sets gems (6) |
| AN (“one”) + GELS (“sets”) | ||
| 8 | FEAST DAY | Fellow, say, getting off with date? It’s time to celebrate (5,3) |
| *(f say date) | ||
| 15 | ALL THE RAGE | Very cool heart? Legal troubles! (3,3,4) |
| *(heart legal) | ||
| 16 | OCCASIONED | Gave rise to new journalist following rising firm (an electronics company) (10) |
| <=OC (rising “firm”) + CASIO (“electronics company”) followed by N(ew) ED (editor, so “journalist”) | ||
| 17 | ROSALIND | L featuring in a Lord’s game (8) |
| *(in a lords) | ||
| 20 | THRASHES | Broken hearts, including hearts with primarily strong beats (8) |
| *(hearts), “including” H(earts) + S(trong) | ||
| 22 | IN ARMS | Prepared to fight, as brother might be (2,4) |
| As in “brother in arms” | ||
| 24 | JULIET | L with project involving romance (6) |
| JUT (“project”) “involving” LIE (“romance”) | ||
| 26 | DADA | Movement lawyer repeated (4) |
| D.A. twice | ||
| 27 | SUIT | Fit one of 4 in costume (4) |
| Triple definition | ||
*anagram
Thanks, loonapick.
A really lovely puzzle! As you say, some excellent clues, the pick of the bunch, I think, being THESEUS [cleverly juxtaposed to ORLANDO] – except that it set me looking for Ariadne!
I think 14ac is fine – fittingly, it comes from the Prologue to ‘Romeo and Juliet
Chorus:
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
Many thanks to Wanderer for a most enjoyable start to a wet morning.
Enjoyed this immensely – layers of cross-references and varied clues. I failed on LOT- so thanks loonapick
Thanks to wanderer
Minor correction, but I believe the gas replaced in 1ac needs to be helium (HE), not hydrogen (H) to make the wordplay work.
Great puzzle. I could only do about 80%. I love 12a and 27d (the last of which I didn’t get). For 28a I could only think of ‘named’, as in the setter being named, but clearly ‘nomad’ is right. Thanks Wanderer and loonapick for filling in my blanks!
Thanks Wanderer and loonapick
I thought this puzzle was tremendous…stared at it for ages before getting a toehold, then once I had the L I was still diverted, as I thought I was looking for characters in As You Like It, but soon realised my error and things flowed smoothly thereafter. Laughed out lud at CANTONESE & THESEUS. Great stuff!
Thanks Wanderer and loonapick
Excellent puzzle that took most of the day on and off, to battle through. LEANDER was the first of the themed clues to fall but it was only when JULIET followed that the meaning of the L was clear. Saw that there were a couple of pairs but failed to find them all – didn’t see the split up LANCELOT and I thought CATHY was the daughter of CATHERINE, the true love of HEATHCLIFF.
As has been said, lots of interesting clue types with CANTONESE and THESEUS my favourites as well.
Finished with LOT (very tricky having never flown Polish), LANCE (would have been a big help if I had of realised that there were doubles) and ANGELS (another excellent clue that took ages to finally see the ‘one sets’ bit (very clever) – had toyed with JEWELS prior to getting 10a but obviously couldn’t parse that).