A smashing puzzle from Gaff. There is a lot to go at here. Thank you Gaff.
CHEMICAL is an anagram of MICHAEL C, or Michael Caine. Hidden in the grid are some Caine films that either won or were nominated for OSCARS. We have: HANNAH and HER SISTERS, The QUIET AMERICAN, EDUCATING RITA, CIDER HOUSE RULES, ALFIE and SLEUTH. There may well be more Caine references in here too, please leave a comment of you spot any.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TRANQUIL | Collected and drank tequila shot left by dike (8) |
| Hum. This looks to me like an anagram (shot) of DRANK TEQUILA missing DAKE, but that’s not what the clue states. Was Gaff originally thinking of DRINK TEQUILA left by dike perhaps? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? | ||
| 5 | OSCARS | Hammerstein’s ceremony? (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 9 | CHEMICAL | Reaction to cooking chic meal (8) |
| anagram (cooking) of CHIC MEAL – definition is by example, a type of reaction | ||
| 10 | PROFIT | In favour of appropriate gains (6) |
| PRO (in favour of) FIT (appropriate) | ||
| 12 | EVICT | Old theatre constrained by extremely exuberant turn out (5) |
| VIC (The Old Vic, theatre) inside (constrained by) ExuberanT (extreme letters of) | ||
| 13 | UNDERWEAR | Basque maybe one of French woman’s first in the end (9) |
| UN DE (one and of, in French) then Woman (first letter of) in REAR (the end) | ||
| 14 | HANNAH | Daryl or Gordon? Either way (6) |
| Daryl Hannah (US actress) or Hannah Gordon (UK actress) – “either way” indicates the name comes either first or second, and also that it is a palindrome read either way round. | ||
| 16 | SISTERS | Family members that may be kept in order (7) |
| double/cryptic definition – a religious order | ||
| 19 | CHANCER | Opportunist ultimately lost in court (7) |
| CHANCERy (a court) missing last letter (ultimately lost) | ||
| 21 | DISCUS | Cut short debate about event (6) |
| DISCUSs (debate) cut short | ||
| 23 | SCHEMATIC | Drawing catechism out (9) |
| anagram (out) of CATECHISM | ||
| 25 | REACH | Get to quarter final without exception (5) |
| quarteR (final letter of) and EACH (without exception) | ||
| 26 | OPUSES | Works round application in footnote (6) |
| O (something round) then USE (application) in PS (footnote) | ||
| 27 | ADELAIDE | Singer retains support in southern capital (8) |
| ADELE (singer) contains (retains) AID (support) | ||
| 28 | SLEUTH | Hustle danced in Marple, maybe (6) |
| anagram (danced) of HUSTLE – Miss Marple, solver of crimes | ||
| 29 | PRESAGED | Foresaw heart of supreme artist returning (8) |
| suPREme (heart, middle letters of) then DEGAS (artist) reversed (returning) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TICKET | Check visitor’s pass (6) |
| TICK (check) and ET (Extra Terrestrial, a visitor) | ||
| 2 | AMERICANA | Yank collection of kids away from maniac – risked a beating (9) |
| anagram (beating) of MANIAC rISKeD A missing KIDS | ||
| 3 | QUIET | Stop holding end of note for piano (5) |
| QUIT (stop) contains (holding) notE (end of) | ||
| 4 | IN A RUSH | Pressed uniform’s hard after rain storm (2,1,4) |
| U (uniform) then ‘S H (hard) all following anagram (storm) of RAIN | ||
| 6 | SURPRISES | Starts over with levers (9) |
| SUR (over, as prefix) with PRISES (levers) | ||
| 7 | ALFIE | Boy from the coalfields (5) |
| found inside (from) coALFIElds – nice! | ||
| 8 | SATIRIST | Deriding writer who’s posed with flower on table top (8) |
| SAT (posed) with IRIS (flower) on Top (top letter of) | ||
| 11 | ODDS | Possibility of directing dramatic society’s leading characters (4) |
| first letters (leading characters) of Of Directing Dramatic Society | ||
| 15 | NO COMMENT | Refusal to answer memo cannot avoid a disaster (2,7) |
| anagram (disaster) of MEMO CaNNOT missing A | ||
| 17 | EDUCATING | Increasing knowledge of consumption overwhelms French noble (9) |
| eating (consumption) contains (overwhelms) DUC (French noble) | ||
| 18 | SCISSORS | Implement move on horse (8) |
| double definition | ||
| 20 | RITA | Woman’s inheritance (4) |
| found inside inheRITAnce – a nice companion for Alfie | ||
| 21 | DECIDER | Does holding 28s create a point to settle? (7) |
| DEER (does) containing CID (sleuths) – the decider will settle the matter | ||
| 22 | SHREWD | Tamed Kate with daughter’s cunning (6) |
| SHREW (tamed Kate, from The Taming of the Shrew) with D (daughter) | ||
| 24 | HOUSE | Put up with bend in pipe (5) |
| U (a bend) in HOSE (pipe) | ||
| 25 | RULES | Decides code (5) |
| double definition | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Always a little scared by anniversary puzzles but completed without getting the theme. Perhaps, in 20d, blog should say ‘found in heritance’, a lift and separate. Reading 10a, the cryptic part led me to ‘forget’, which didn’t work. Agree 1a is a slip and, more than likely, should have been ‘drink’ not ‘drank’, though that doesn’t read as well. Thanks to S&B.
Hello Hovis – I wondered about 20dn but as far as I can tell heritance isn’t word, so I went with the inclusion indicated more obliquely by the apostrophe. Some sense of the inheritance belonging to RITA as she is part of it, she belongs to be in there. In the context of the puzzle the solution is clear and unambiguous anyway so I don’t think the inclusion has to be spelled out explicitly. One can take one’s pick, they all work for me.
Thanks PeeDee. You didn’t mention that the “anniversary” in question is that it’s Michael Caine’s 85th birthday today. (Not a lot of people know that.)
Plural of opus is opera.
Thanks to Gaff and PeeDee. I missed the RITA in inheritance and resisted OPUSES as a plural for some time even though it did parse. Ditto for SCISSORS as “move on horse” until I thought of gymnastics. A challenge for me but fun.
Loved the crossword – fairly new to the FT; only did it rarely on paper before the labs pages arrived. Enjoyed many clues, but completely missed the theeme!
Oleg @ 4
Chambers gives OPUSES as a valid plural. Usage is as usage is, whether we like it or not.
Loved this challenge, but did not see the anniversary theme. But now that it stands revealed, I had to look for a few more Michael Caine references. I found one possible link: Last fall, “The Adelaide Screenwriter” blog featured Caine’s book and video documentary “Acting in Film”. Also, surely, “profit” must have some link with his unforgettable Scrooge.
Ditto jvector @6 I’m also fairly new to FT cryptics, and this is my first post on this site, so hello all. I checked Gaff out online and found that he is a theme specialist, so I was expecting to see something emerge from the gridfill; Oscars, Hannah, Sisters and Alfie (was Chancer a ref to this I wonder?) pointed to MC, though I wasn’t aware of the birthday connection. I didn’t spot the anagram of Chemical, what a lovely touch. Quite a few of his many Opuses found their way cleverly into the grid and I’m duly impressed. I looked for references to being “only supposed to blow the bloody doors off” but alas, no. Very much enjoyed doing the online puzzle (thanks FT) and warm applause to PeeDee and Gaff for the blog and the crossword.
Welcome to the site SB59.
I solved an on-line version of this puzzle that didn’t show the anniversary preamble, the first I knew of it was reading these comments. I saw that the last Private Eye published an extract from the diary of Michael Caine so I suppose I should have guessed.
Thanks Gaff and PeeDee
Always enjoy Gaff and his anniversary themes – spotted this ghost one after completing the puzzle when I saw HANNAH and SISTERS across the centre – didn’t immediately connect it to Michael Caine but then saw ALFIE and SLEUTH to flesh him out. Didn’t know a couple of the others but think that it is special that he was able to include his Oscar nominated ones into the grid – his anagrammatic name at 9a (which I didn’t spot) was the icing on a very rich cake !
A belated Happy Birthday to the subject and a warm congratulations to the setter for putting this together!