Monday Prize Crossword / Mar 20, 2017
Gaff and ‘Happy Birthday’ are almost synonymous.
March 20? Now, let’s see. Can only be one, surely.
Dame Vera Lynn reached a fabulous century!
A fine piece of grid-filling from Gaff with the Birthday Girl herself being present in 23ac, 27ac.
I don’t think 9,24ac and 11ac were very cryptic, a bit bordering on general knowledge.
Pierre may have liked the bird references, though.
Some (however, not many) ‘I do not like that very much‘ moments in e.g. 27ac and 4d were amply compensated by some gems.
All in all, a nice and thoughtful crossword.
Many thanks to Gaff.
And let’s raise a glass to Dame Vera.
Well, I will.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BURMA STAR | Spar with a lump outside for medal (5,4) |
| BURR (lump) around {MAST (spar) + A} A military medal awarded to those who made a difference in the Burma Campaign (1941-1945) like, indeed, Vera Lynn. Burma was one of the countries where our birthday child toured, so one might say she was a ‘Burma star’ in her own right. |
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| 6, 3 | SMART ALECKS | Know-alls are told lie during kisses (5,6) |
| R (homophone [told] of ARE) + TALE (lie), together inside SMACKS (kisses) | ||
| 9, 24 | WHITE CLIFF | One of a group from 19, 12 that’ll be beneath Sialia (5,5) |
| Sialia are bluebirds, and Vera Lynn (i.e. 19,12) sang: “There’ll be bluebirds over the white cliffs over Dover”. The solution is one of the group of ‘white cliffs’. I read somewhere that bluebirds are not to be found in the UK …… |
||
| 10 | AT A CANTER | Easily change a reactant (2,1,6) |
| (A REACTANT)* [* = changed] | ||
| 11 | BERKELEY SQUARE | Where 19, 12’s Luscinia made notes (8,6) |
| Lusicinia are nightingales, and “A nightingale sang [made notes] in Berkeley Square”. Performed by Vera Lynn (once more 19,12) and many others, e.g. Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett and Rod Stewart. |
||
| 13 | WELL | Source of sound (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | MEET AGAIN | Just one proceeds to attend reunion (4,5) |
| MEET (just, in the sense of ‘suitable’) + A (one) + GAIN (proceeds) Neat to have “We’ll Meet Again” in the seventh row – one of Vera Lynn’s most famous songs. |
||
| 17 | EIGHT BALL | Big and tall he’s flailing around last in pool (5,4) |
| (BIG + TALL HE’S)* [* = flailing around] In pool (actually ‘eight-ball pool’) the black ball, the ‘eight ball’, is the last to be played. |
||
| 18 | OMEN | Sign that clownfish is back (4) |
| Reversal [is back] of NEMO (clownfish) The hero of Finding Nemo (2003), making a return in Finding Dory (2016). |
||
| 20 | HARD ASTARBOARD | Extreme right turn more difficult when reported by celebrity panel (4,10) |
| Homophone [when reported] of HARDER (more difficult) + STAR (celebrity) + BOARD (panel) | ||
| 23 | AVERAGING | Welcome to wild evening out (9) |
| AVE (welcome) + RAGING (wild) I like simple but oh so effective clues like this. |
||
| 24 | See 9 | |
| 26 | TERSE | Clipped trees badly (5) |
| (TREES)* [* = badly] | ||
| 27 | KING’S LYNN | Film Gandhi missing the latest news of Norfolk town (5,4) |
| KINGSLEY (film Gandhi, i.e. Ben Kingsley who played the title role in ‘Gandhi’) minus [th]E, plus N,N (news) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BOW | Dip front of weapon (3) |
| Triple definition | ||
| 2 | RAISE | Lift top off stew (5) |
| BRAISE (stew) minus the first letter [top off] | ||
| 3 | See 6 Across | |
| 4 | TRAIL | Story-teller starting to reject dog (5) |
| Reversal [reject] of: LIAR (story-teller) + T[o] | ||
| 5 | READY MEAL | Stew made early? (5,4) |
| (MADE EARLY)* [* = stew] Despite all the fuss about Dame Vera, this full-blooded &lit was my absolute favourite. |
||
| 6 | SEA SQUAB | A Basque’s cooking blowfish (3,5) |
| (A BASQUE’S)* [* = cooking] | ||
| 7 | AUTO-ALARM | Protection for car wing-like in 50% of automatics (4-5) |
| ALAR (wing-like) [I had here something that was far too complicated] inside AUTOM[atics] | ||
| 8 | THREE IN ONE | Trinity’s chair holding regular redesigns (5,2,3) |
| THRONE (chair) around the even letters [regular] of ‘redesigns’ | ||
| 12 | See 19 | |
| 14 | LAGER BEER | Drink up like king and live with queen (5,4) |
| Reversal [up] of REGAL (like king) + BE (live) + ER (queen) | ||
| 15 | MEAN TRICK | A number imprisoned by post-Imperial king in cruel deceit (4,5) |
| A + N (number), together inside METRIC (post-imperial, think: measurements), plus K (king) | ||
| 16 | STRABANE | Simpson turns up in sound border town (8) |
| Reversal [turns up] of BART (one of the Simpsons) inside SANE (sound) Just about a week ago we had an incident in Strabane again. Let’s hope that yesterday’s ‘historic event’ will not put the peace process at risk after all ‘the troubles’ of the past. By the way, another famous Vera Lynn song was “There’ll always be an England”. I would say ‘yes’ but I wouldn’t go beyond that in this day and age. |
||
| 19, 12 | FORCES SWEETHEART | Newton Dyne could be love song performer (6,10) |
| FORCES (Newton and Dyne could be [are examples of] units of forces) + SWEETHEART (love) The solution being Dame Vera Margaret Lynn’s nickname. |
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| 21 | REGAN | Victim of Goneril’s terrible anger (5) |
| (ANGER)* [* = terrible] Goneril is Regan’s sister, in Shakespeare’s King Lear. |
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| 22 | RAINY | Start off bright with showers (5) |
| BRAINY (bright) minus the first letter [start off] A clue that’s a bit similar to 2d. |
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| 25 | FAN | Cool sort of club (3) |
| Double definition Not sure whether ‘sort of club’ is a proper definition for ‘fan’ but I see what Gaff does. My late father, born in 1922, was a great FAN of Vera Lynn! |
||
*anagram
Many thanks to Gaff for an excellent puzzle. A very enjoyable challenge.
Sil – many thanks for the blog. In 7d I think the parsing of ALAR is simpler than you have it – “alar” as a single word means “relating to or resembling a wing or wings” (from the Latin word “ala” for wing). I believe the term is used in zoology.
Yes, you’re quite right, Giudice.
I didn’t take the time to check.
Now corrected.
I have to confess I love Vera Lynn, so I really appreciated this puzzle and am not going to engage in any nit-picking whatsoever.
Would just like to say thanks to Sil for the blog and special thanks to Gaff for a fitting cruciverbal tribute to arguably England’s greatest ever singer.
Thanks Gaff and Sil
A fitting tribute in a very good puzzle that took a lot longer than the usual Monday offering. Wasn’t really across too many of her other songs other than “WE’LL MEET AGAIN” so there was a bit of electronic assistance required to check off some of the answers. Also didn’t know her nickname until I went to Wikipedia to read up more about her. Saw the hidden LYNN at 27a but not the VERA in 23a – a nice touch.
Finished with the really clever EIGHT BALL and STRABANE