A tribute puzzle from Gaff…
It’s a year today since the fantastic Victoria Wood died, and as the preamble to Gaff’s puzzle says, she is “sadly missed”.
Gaff has presented us with a puzzle referencing the amazing Ballad of Barry and Freda, which is really worth a listen to (it’s readily available on YouTube). I recall a similar theme being offered in a puzzle, possibly in the Guardian, soon after Victoria’s passing.
Themed answers include WOMANS WEEKLY, AVOCADO, NIGHTIE, TUFTED WILTON, HOSTESS TROLLEY, MALE VOICE CHOIR and BALACLAVA.
Gaff has done well to get these references in to the grid, although I do have a couple of minor quibbles. I have commented on 16dn below, but I’m also unsure about 21 ac, where “start to” implies the first letter of the next word, rather than the next three words, which would require “startS“; this could have been easily resolved without changing the clue too much.
My favourite clue was 25ac, but I also liked 10ac, 27ac, 4dn and 22dn.
Thanks, Gaff
| Across | ||
| 1 | TOWPATHS | Ways to give boats horsepower (8) |
| Cryptic definition – towpaths at the side of canals were where horses were used to pull barges along the waterway. | ||
| 5, 2 | WOMANS WEEKLY | Country’s tiny capital city featured in extremely worthy publication (6,6) |
| (OMAN’S (country’s) + WEE (tiny) + K.L. (Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia)) in W(orth)Y | ||
| 10 | FIESTAS | Selfies tastelessy expose celebrations (7) |
| Hidden in “selFIES TAStelessly” | ||
| 11 | AVOCADO | Green party follows a detail of speech (7) |
| A VOCA(l) (of speech, “detailed”) + DO (party) | ||
| 12 | EULER | Euclid’s first rule confounded by mathematician (5) |
| E(uclid) + *(rule)
Leonhard Euler was an 18th century Swiss mathematician and engineer, although in theory the clue could also be referring to his son, Johann. |
||
| 13 | ELEMENTAL | Basic loss of mass from the Spanish cheese (9) |
| EL (the Spanish) + E(m)MENTAL | ||
| 14 | GOES FOR BROKE | Risks all and attacks chap who’s changed sides (4,3,5) |
| GOES FOR (attacks) B(l)(R)OKE
The L in bloke is changed to an R, thus swapping from “left to right” , and “changing sides”. |
||
| 18 | RICHTER SCALE | Loaded short container of coal (none left) with a measure of shaking (7,5) |
| RICH (loaded) + TERSE (short) “containing” C(o)AL | ||
| 21 | APOSTOLIC | Like followers of trashy soap to start loving its characters (9) |
| *(soap) + TO + L(oving) I(ts) C(haracters) | ||
| 23 | CROCI | Rejected some plastic orchid flowers (5) |
| Hidden backwards in “plastIC ORChid” | ||
| 24 | NIGHTIE | Close connection provides protection for retired woman (7) |
| NIGH (close) + TIE (connection) | ||
| 25 | ON A DIET | Slimming aid – Eton mess (2,1,4) |
| *(aid eton) | ||
| 26 | CUDDLE | Comfort from dead ends in tricky clue (6) |
| D(ea)D in *(clue) | ||
| 27 | TRIAL RUN | Hearing score in rehearsal (5,3) |
| TRIAL (hearing) + RUN (score, in cricket) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1, 20 | TUFTED WILTON | Carpet relaid – the edges wouldn’t fit (6,6) |
| *(te wouldnt fit) where TE is T(h)E (edges of “the”) | ||
| 2 | See 5 across | |
| 3 | AFTERMOST | Broken foremast with its end near the stern (9) |
| *(foremast t) | ||
| 4 | HOSTESS TROLLEY | Change to oyster shells for presentation of Meals On Wheels (7,7) |
| *(to oyster shells) | ||
| 6 | OZONE | Natural defence is down under cardinal (5) |
| OZ (Australia, so “down under”) + ONE (cardinal (number)) | ||
| 7 | ADAPTION | Paid Nato loose change (8) |
| *(paid nato) | ||
| 8 | SMOULDER | Smoke joint when leading man replaces drug (8) |
| S(M)(h)OULDER – m for “man” replacing “h” (heroine) | ||
| 9 | MALE VOICE CHOIR | Singers fast leaving harmful intensive care and ringing Ireland (4,5,5) |
| MALEVO(lent) + I.C. (intensive care) + ECHO (ringing) + Ir.(eland) | ||
| 15 | BALACLAVA | Battle mask (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | ARMAGNAC | Insular Magna Carta spirit (8) |
| Hidden in “insulAR MAGNA Carta”, although there is no indication that we are looking for a hidden answer? | ||
| 17 | ACT OF GOD | Maybe making light of natural disaster (3,2,3) |
| Double definition, the first slightly cryptic, as (some would believe) God made light. | ||
| 19 | COPIER | Dangerous gas support for reproductive equipment (6) |
| CO (carbon monoxide, so a “dangerous gas”) + PIER (support) | ||
| 20 | See 1 | |
| 22 | TOTAL | Result of adding to central Italy (5) |
| TO I(TAL)y | ||
*anagram
loonapick, I think that the ‘hidden’ indicator in 16 is ‘In’ in ‘insular’.. It’s a trick Araucaria used quite a lot. (Ultimately self-defeating I always though because all you had to do was look for words – like ‘insane’ – beginning with ‘in’ and the clue was basically solved.)
Thanks Gaff for a lovely tribute to a lovely lady. I agree with loonapick that it is a considerable achievement to have included so many references.
Thanks for the blog Loonapick. Failed to notice the Victoria Wood reference, so now get the ‘sadly missed’ reference. May have noticed had I not failed to get ‘woman’s weekly’ (drat). I agree with your reservations. I felt that ‘insular’ was doing double duty in 16d, but never like this technique.
Thanks conrad@1, that explains 16d. I’m ok with ‘lift and separate’ clues, but missed it here.
Thanks, loonapick – a great blog of a great puzzle, celebrating a truly great lady, sadly missed indeed.
I read 16dn as Conrad did and I had no problem with 21ac: the clue reads ‘start loving its characters’, not ‘start to …’.
Some brilliant clues – my favourites were ETON MESS, TUFTED WILTON and HOSTESS TROLLEY. Many thanks to Gaff – I really loved it.
[loonapick – we usually avoid giving anything away in the first paragraph of the preamble: some of the enjoyment of this was spoiled for me through knowing what the theme was in advance. I logged on to the site to check the blog for the Guardian puzzle before starting Gaff’s and so saw the beginning of your preamble on the home page.]
PS: Here’s the link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNU5KVa_Tu8
Point taken, Eileen – I’ve edited the preamble.
I kind of assume that people come to the blog after solving at least some of the puzzle, but take the point, and will try to be more careful in future.
What Eileen said in her first three lines (now there’s a surprise!)
Thanks to Gaff and Loonapick – great crossword and a lovely earworm to keep me company during my lunchtime crossword solving.
Loved this – a smashing tribute to a great entertainer so thank you very much, Gaff. Thought of VW as soon as I saw the “trolley” at 3d but put “dessert” instead of “hostess” at first so made life difficult for myself as I was thinking of another sketch for a while. Speaking of wrong sketches, kept wanting “Two soups” to appear!
Apart from the theme there was much to enjoy – lovely surfaces with plenty of misdirection. Thanks again to Gaff for the entertainment & to Loonapick for the blog.
Thanks Gaff and loonapick
I started this with some trepidation, as I’d seen the early version of the preamble, and, while I’m well aware of Victora Wood and have heard the song in question a couple of times, I don’t have detailed knowledge of her work. That being said, it’s a tribute to the quality of Gaff’s setting that I was able to complete the puzzle. I have to confess that TUFTED WILTON was a complete guess, and I was amazed that it was correct.
Thanks Gaff and loonapick
Had a good struggle with this one on publication day – been flat out house painting since, which reinforced again that it is never a joy – and hence the delay in posting about this puzzle.
Had no knowledge of the lady of the theme and obviously knew nothing of the particular song but that only came into play after the grid was filled and was looking to find the meaning of the rubric.
Enjoyed working through the convoluted word plays of WOMAN’S WEEKLY and RICHTER SCALE.
TUFTED WILTON was my last one in and was only derived by googling my anagram guesses.