Egbert’s crossword has as its subtitle ‘Time flies’ which obviously means there’s something going on here.
Haven’t seen the puzzle and still want to give it (or yourself) a chance? Here it is: Egbert @ York 2017
In Crosswordland ‘time’ is sometimes ‘bird’, as in prison sentence. And a bird flies – get it?
In every Across clue the name of a feathered friend is part of the solution.
But they should be thrown in the bin before entering the remainder into the grid.
For me, the clueing itself is usually the all-important thing.
(but in S&B blogs I promised to stay neutral)
However, filling the grid like Egbert did is quite impressive.
It’s not just the sheer number of entries (it does remind me of Gozo) but (a) what remains are normal words (made easier by using some compound words, true), and (b) the Down answers are normal too.
To avoid legal action from Pierre’s solicitors, I decided not to include pictures of the 18 birds.
In the blog below the birds are highlighted in PINK but only what’s BLACK should be entered.
The completed solution can be found at the very end.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | JAYWALK | Don’t use 25, OK? German youth leader overturns rule by king (7) |
| JA (OK, ‘yes’ in German) + Y[outh] + reversal [overturns] of LAW (rule) + K (king) When you ‘jaywalk’ you cross the road at a red light, so you don’t use a ‘pelican crossing’ (answer to 25ac). |
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| 4 | DOVETAILS | Carry out check on pains in joints (9) |
| DO VET (carry out check) + AILS (pains) | ||
| 7 | SHAGPILE | A bundle of tobacco on the carpet, perhaps? (8) |
| PILE (a bundle) of SHAG (tobacco) | ||
| 9 | RAVEN-HAIRED | Unusually, heads of radio network have broadcast a description of “Black Beauty” (5-6) |
| (R[adio] N[etwork] + HAVE)* + AIRED (broadcast) [* = unusually] I assume that ‘Black Beauty’ is the horse from Anna Sewell’s 1877 novel. And not referring to just any person who’s black and beautiful. |
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| 10 | FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE | Nurse campaigning against porter engages old Italian actress with twisted short neck (8,11) |
| FIGHTING (campaigning against) + ALE (porter, beer), together around {LOREN (old Italian actress, Sofia Loren) + (NEC[k])*} [* = twisted] Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) is probably the most famous nurse of all time. Not everyone knows that she helped popularise the graphical presentation of statistical data:  |
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| 11 | PIGEONHOLE | I have initially gone crazy inside post box (10) |
| (I + H[ave] + GONE)* inside POLE (post) [* = crazy] | ||
| 12 | BRITISH RAIL | UK version of Irish Bar once notorious for its sandwiches (7,4) |
| Egbert wants us to see BRITISH / RAIL as a ‘UK / Bar’ , as opposed to an Irish Bar | ||
| 13 | CANARY ISLANDS | Could a disheartened runaway finish up aboard international ship somewhere in the Atlantic? (7,7) |
| CAN (could) + A + R[unawa]Y + {LAND (finish up) inside I (international) SS (ship)} | ||
| 15 | KITEMARKS | A thousand articles about treasure chest reveal signs of quality (9) |
| K (a thousand) + ITEMS (articles) around ARK (treasure chest) As one keen on walking in the countryside I am very familiar with ‘kites’. However, ‘Kitemarks’ are new to me (probably because it’s a British thing). |
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| 17 | TOWER CRANE | Keep cocaine near – pulverised it will give you a big lift! (5,5) |
| TOWER (keep, as in a castle) + C (cocaine) + (NEAR)* [* = pulverised] | ||
| 19 | PENGUIN BISCUIT | Exercise in using bin cut off when note is dropped – p-p-pick it up! (7, 7) |
| PE (exercise) + (IN USING BIN CUT)* minus N (note) [* = off] Penguin Chukkas, Wing Dings, Flipper Dipper, Splatz – from McVitie’s, p-p-pick it up! |
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| 21 | PARROT FASHION | Normal rubbish trend in clothing created by mechanical repetition? (6,7) |
| PAR (normal) + ROT (rubbish) + FASHION (trend in clothing) | ||
| 22 | SWANSONG | Final performance of melody receives weak, brief response (8) |
| SONG (melody) around {W (weak) + ANS (response, abbreviated)} | ||
| 25 | PELICAN CROSSING | Road safety feature I’m able to go over in government following parking manoeuvre completed by learner (7,8) |
| I CAN CROSS (I’m able to go over) + IN G (government), coming after {P (parking) + [manoeuvr]E + L (learner)} Pelican crossings have nothing to do with birds. It was originally a kind of acronym: PE[destrian] LI[ght] CON[trolled] (crossing). |
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| 26 | DUCK-BOARDS | Dodge management teams used to get over difficult conditions (4-6) |
| DUCK (dodge) + BOARDS (managements teams) | ||
| 27 | CROWS-NEST | Swirling snow found in summit lookout point (5-4) |
| (SNOW)* inside CREST (summit) [* = swirling] In a way, this one’s a bit the odd one out as the plural of ‘crow’ has to be deleted. |
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| 28 | HOBBY-HORSE | Recreational activity with hard drug results in obsession (5-5) |
| HOBBY (recreational activity) + HORSE (hard drug, heroin) | ||
| 29 | GOOSE-STEP | March goes out around zero, initially setting temperature record (5-4) |
| (GOES)* around O (zero), then + S[etting] + T (temperature) + EP (record) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ANATOMIST | One skilled in dissecting a small particle is team leader (9) |
| AN ATOM (a small particle) + IS + T[eam] | ||
| 3 | KARTELL | Marx perhaps allowed revolution within German consortium (7) |
| KARL (Marx, Karl Marx) around reversal [revolution] of LET (allowed) I was surprised to see this German word (for ‘cartel’) in Chambers. |
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| 4 | TIDY | Smart cartoonist (4) |
| Double definition The cartoonist is Bill Tidy, more about him here . |
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| 5 | INFORMS | Gives notice of the way schools are organised (7) |
| IN FORMS (how schools are organised) | ||
| 6 | SHOWTIMES | Keep it quiet – second of the penultimate tournament matches is put back when entertainments begin (9) |
| SH (keep it quiet) + reversal [put back] of SEMI TWO (second of the penultimate tournament matches, the second semifinal) | ||
| 7 | PRESSER | One strongly urging travelling salesman to return round about 1st September with last of orders (7) |
| Reversal [to return] of REP (travelling salesman) around {RE (about) + S[eptember] + [order]S} | ||
| 8 | LUCK | Braveheart’s fate (4) |
| The middle section [heart] of PLUCKY (brave) | ||
| 14 | NORTHWICH | Cathedral city envelops half of this Cheshire town (9) |
| NORWICH (cathedral city) around TH[is] | ||
| 16 | SET ON EDGE | Excited by muscular German during date (3,2,4) |
| TONED (muscular) + G (German), together inside SEE (date) | ||
| 18 | WHATSIT | Gadget comedian keeps headgear in (7) |
| WIT (comedian) around HATS (headgear) Gadget? But I can’t remember what it was ….. |
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| 19 | BLOGGER | Leftover scrambled egg – 12 sandwiches for 225 contributor? (7) |
| L (left) O (over) + (EGG)*, together inside BR (12 = 12ac, British Rail) | ||
| 20 | UNSEATS | What new MP does to old one stuns organisation covering the essence of sleaze (7) |
| (STUNS)* around [sl]EA[ze] [* = organisation] | ||
| 23 | TREE | Where you might find 27 in the middle of the street (4) |
| The middle of (the) STREET 27 (= 27ac) is a ‘crows-nest’ which can be found in a ‘tree’, can’t it? |
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| 24 | ABLE | Expert turned up in a wheelbarrow (4) |
| Hidden answer [in] in: a wheelbarrow, then reversed [turned up] | ||
Got round to this one at last. Quite a challenge but a steady solve once the theme became apparent, though I didn’t at first make the time = bird connection and wondered if it was references to time that had to be eliminated (particularly as it was the weekend when the clocks went back).
As bird links seem to be taboo at present here’s a poem instead about one of those eliminated in the puzzle.
Well done, Egbert, and thanks, Sil, for the blog.
A nice, well-constucted puzzle. Once I had got the theme, it took me a while to solve some of the across clues but, once I had, the parsing was very sound. I was briefly perplexed by 13A which was labelled (7,7) instead of (6,7) but soon realised the bird had to be CANARY. LOI was 16D.
Good fun! Thanks to Egbert & Sil.
Had a go at this on the way back from yesterday’s Times Crossword Championship and was well defeated. Of course, solving with a hangover and on a train with no electronic help had me up against it even before we get to my meagre solving skills. Just couldn’t break in enough and, having looked at the blog, wished I had’ve tried it at in better environs as it was a nice feat of setting. As with the last Egbert I did, lots of nice surfaces and constructions and I thought the theme and implementation really well done. Fave clue was obviously 17a! Thanks to The Berster for the puzzle and to The Silster for the blog.
Finally finished this one tonight having done the first half early last week. An impressive gridfill and quite accessible once the theme became clear.
Thanks to Egbert & Sil