Egbert’s crossword can be found here: Egbert @ Derby 2018 (as a PDF), or here: https://crossword.info/S_and_B/Egbert_Derby_2018 (interactively).
Again, don’t read any further yet if you think ‘let’s try this one, why not’.
Clearly a themed crossword, built around 5ac (LOCAL DERBY).
All Across clues represent football teams [didn’t know Egbert had it in him!], 5 couples of local rivals actually.
17ac is doing double duty for Sheffield and Manchester while 29ac is a bit the odd one out.
In the middle row we see ‘Celtic’ and ‘United’. Had to think of Rod Stewart (You’re In My Heart).
A clever piece of grid-filling, even if there’s perhaps, in places, room for discussion – some original indicators, and I expect purists to comment on clues like 9ac, 11ac or 14d.
The completed grid is added at the end of the blog.
I thought of using colours, at some point at using the main colour of their home outfit of each club.
But that would have left Tottenham invisible ….. Wouldn’t have gone past the editor of the Independent!
So, I left it as it is.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 5 | LOCAL DERBY | Rivalry between neighbours at “The Brunswick Inn”? (5,5) |
| The Brunswick Inn, is a LOCAL (pub) in DERBY … and the venue for today’s gathering. |
||
| 7 | CITY | Reproduction involves sex in place of work in the financial district (4) |
| COPY (reproduction) with IT (sex) replacing OP (work) | ||
| 9 | ARSENAL | Aeroplane’s radar picks up location of ammunition dump (7) |
| Hidden answer [location of]: Aeroplane’s radar, then reversed [picked up] Robbie Savage thought they were the better team, not sure. |
||
| 10 | COUNTY | Rather like a European noble’s province? (6) |
| COUNT is the ‘European noble’ and if you are ‘rather like’ him you may be COUNT-Y | ||
| 11 | WEDNESDAY | 24 hours for you and I to send back first delivery? Yes! (9) |
| WE (you and I) + reversal [back] of SEND + D[elivery] + AY (yes) | ||
| 13 | SPURS | Urges sudden bursts of energy – no time for that! (5) |
| SPURTS (sudden bursts of energy) minus T (time) | ||
| 16 | CELTIC | Mistakenly let in military leader of druids (6) |
| Anagram [mistakenly] of LET going inside CIC (military leader, Commander in Chief) | ||
| 17 | UNITED | Married college hooligan (6) |
| UNI (college) + TED (hooligan) ‘Uni’ is short for university and ‘Ted’ is short for Teddy Boy. Long before my time, both of them. |
||
| 21 | NOTTS | 10 short books described by Scottish conservationists (5) |
| OT (books) inside NTS (Scottish conservationists, National Trust for Scotland) I once had a colleague in Holland (!!) who was a fan of Notts County. Can you believe it? |
||
| 24 | SHEFFIELD | Woman following contestants in Snooker Championship venue (9) |
| SHE (woman) + F (following) + FIELD (contestants) The Crucible. |
||
| 26 | FOREST | Warning! Play for time when removing all trees (6) |
| FORE (warning), followed by STALL (play for time) in which ALL is removed | ||
| 27 | RANGERS | Park officials‘ initial response is very annoying (7) |
| R[angers] + ANGERS (is very annoying) | ||
| 29 | REDS | Two teams playing here – 100s miss the first half (4) |
| HUNDREDS (100s) minus its first half (i.e. HUND) One of the teams ‘here’ is obviously Liverpool FC. Some might possibly think the other one is Man United. Wrong – they’re sometimes called the Red Devils. However, one of Nottingham Forest’s nicknames is The Reds, too. |
||
| 30 | MANCHESTER | Staff applause overwhelms soprano and tenor appearing here at Bridgewater Hall maybe (10) |
| MAN (staff) + CHEER (applause) going around S (soprano), T (tenor) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | VOCALESE | Jazz singer’s improvisation unusually leaves Oscar cold (8) |
| Anagram [unusually] of: LEAVES + O (Oscar) + C (cold) Bit of a strange word but it is right. I’m not into jazz, that explains it. |
||
| 2 | BASSINET | Cradle baby’s head and bottom in Egbert’s clothing (8) |
| B[aby] + ASS (bottom) + IN + E[gber]T | ||
| 3 | PRELOAD | Going on the town? Shortly before starting to leave, order another drink (7) |
| PRE (before, shortly) + starting letters of: Leave Order Another Drink Not an &lit but the clue as a whole should be seen as the definition. |
||
| 4 | LYNCH | Church supports line taken by reactionary US city to undertake execution without trial (5) |
| L (line) + reversal [reactionary] of NY (US city, New York), coming before [supported by] CH (church) | ||
| 6 | DEN | Study essential for gardeners (3) |
| Hidden answer [essential for]: gardeners | ||
| 7 | CHUMP | Dummy president has trustee replaced by Conservative hothead (5) |
| TRUMP (president) with TR (trustee) replaced by C (Conservative), H[ot] He’s popular, isn’t he? |
||
| 8 | TATER | Toast periodically given to King Edward? Could be! (5) |
| The odd letters [periodically] of TOAS T, followed by ER (King Edward, Eduardus Rex) |
||
| 12 | SECT | Caught in strict religious order (4) |
| C (caught) inside SET (strict) | ||
| 14 | SOD | Poor fellow’s overdrawn (3) |
| S (the s of apostrophe-s) + OD (overdrawn) | ||
| 15 | TURF | Not one fruit compote, but 14 (4) |
| Anagram [compote] of FRUIT missing I (one) ’14’ = ’14d’ = the previous clue. ‘Turf’ = ‘sod’. Wonder whether Egbert had an ellipsis in mind. |
||
| 16 | CON | Learn about performing a trick (3) |
| C (about) + ON (performing) Two definitions, one at the beginning, one at the end. There where they should be, don’t they? |
||
| 18 | ICINESS | Primarily, inheritance tax is to circumvent popular indifference (7) |
| I[nheritance] + CESS (tax) aroung IN (popular) | ||
| 19 | ENLISTED | Engaged in steel industry department (8) |
| Anagram [industry] of IN STEEL, followed by D (department) | ||
| 20 | SHARING | Energy wasted in cutting allotment (7) |
| SHEARING (cutting) minus E (energy) | ||
| 22 | OZONE | Gas emanating from Australian drug addict (5) |
| An OZ ON E might be seen as an ‘Australian drug addict’ | ||
| 23 | TIERS | Those drawing lines (5) |
| Double definition Two definitions, sounding differently. |
||
| 25 | STEMS | Stops and shoots (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | NOH | Theatrical presentation of “Hamlet” as announced in the East End? (3) |
| In the East End “Hamlet” would be announced with the H at the start, therefore: NO H | ||
Go, Egbert! When we were chatting today I had only dabbled a bit with your puzzle. I got further into it later. Excellent use of the theme. Being based in Nottingham, I particularly liked 5.
another belter. UTB (24 17)
Very clever Egbert. I’m amazed by using all the across clues like this, I didn’t notice at first. Another quality crossword. Enjoyed the mention of the brunswick. I think in 8d you might avoid the double duty if the definition is simply “could be”. Shouldn’t 3d have starts or startings, or is that just me? Very enjoyable
Thanks Sil
Sadly I couldn’t make it to the S&B, but it was some consolation to be able to download the puzzle to solve at home with the Apprentice.
We twigged early on that it was themed around football clubs but took a wee bit longer to realise the relationship between them and anchor 5ac as LOCAL DERBY rather than (a) Derby Local.
An enjoyable solve, so we’re not going to indulge in purists’ quibbles. Thanks, Egbert and Sil.