A reasonably straightforward puzzle from Brummie this morning.
We usually expect a theme from Brummie and so I was on the lookout from the beginning. I was pleased to see SESAME STREET and GRANGE HILL early on and relieved that it was a familiar – and agreeable – theme, to add to my enjoyment. Other children’s TV programmes included are GRANDAD, POSTMAN PAT and STINGRAY – but I looked in vain for the other halves of magic ROUNDABOUT, HORRIBLE histories and PLAY school.
Many thanks to Brummie for a nostalgically enjoyable puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
8 King enters affair with army corps backing -? he has weapons (8)
ARMOURER
R [king] in AMOUR [affair] + a reversal [backing] of RE [Royal Engineers – army corps]
9 Novel serving of mashed potato? (5)
SCOOP
Double definition – novel by Evelyn Waugh
10 Racing driver family ‘s rise (4)
HILL
Double definition – initially, I couldn’t see what ‘family’ was doing and then I remembered that Graham and Damon Hill were father and son
11 Dry sort of northern £1 note across the sea (3-7)
NON-DRINKER
N [Northern] + ONER [pound note] round DRINK [sea]
12 Energy produce by sun in equivalent type of oil (6)
SESAME
E [energy] + S [sun] in SAME [equivalent] I wonder if this is a misprint – ‘produced’?
14 Hand back old man left in Gap (8)
APPLAUSE
A reversal [back] of PA [old man] + L [left] in PAUSE [gap]
16 Church doorkeeper moved to Syria (7)
OSTIARY
Anagram [moved] of TO SYRIA
18 Shrink one spoils (7)
ATROPHY
A [one] + TROPHY [spoils]
21 High Tory capers will do (6-2)
RIGHTY-HO
Anagram [capers] of TORY HIGH
23 When to be rejected by wind god (6)
SATURN
A reversal [to be rejected] of AS [when] + TURN [wind]
24 Neglect your garden plants? Not on the surface (10)
UNDERWATER
Double definition
26 Suffering light that’s pronounced (4)
PAIN
Sounds like [pronounced] ‘pane’ [light]
27 Hastings has, on the outside, abandoned incense (5)
STING
[ha]STING[s]
28 A people fit and willing (8)
AMENABLE
A MEN [people] + ABLE [fit]
Down
1 Footwear riddle (opening’s moved to heel) (8)
TRAINERS
STRAINER [riddle] with the initial S moved to the end – so much for the editor not allowing repetition of a word within a few days: just yesterday, we had not only [practically] the same word but also a [practically] identical device
2, 26 Bird sound, piano and song ?- it’s murder! (4,4)
FOUL PLAY
FOUL [sounds like fowl – bird] + P [piano] + LAY [song]
3 Grand farmhouse fruit, good for nothing (6)
GRANGE
oRANGE [fruit] with G [good] substituted for o [nothing]
4 Go in pursuit of pleasure without currency, old man! (7)
GRANDAD
GAD [go in pursuit of pleasure] round RAND [currency]
5 Nation of Trump senior, a major power no more (4)
USSR
US [nation of Trump] + SR [senior]
6 Play area feature? Not exactly (10)
ROUNDABOUT
ROUND ABOUT – not exactly
7 Drugs that are incorporated into shoes (6)
UPPERS
Double definition
13 Tai chi term for development work on figures (10)
ARITHMETIC
Anagram [for development] of TAI CHI TERM
15 Reverse dancing? Precisely (3)
PAT
Reversal of TAP [dancing]
17 Name a god ending in Y (3)
RAY
RA [god] + Y
19 Thigh or rib lead housing far from attractive (8)
HORRIBLE
Hidden in thigH OR RIB LEad
20 Bringer of tidings needs support ? Mother Nature, primarily (7)
POSTMAN
POST [support] + MA [mother + N[ature]
22 Produce charged particles and celebrate topless (6)
IONISE
[l]IONISE [celebrate]
23 Way a good sort nurses Rowan, perhaps (6)
STREET
ST [good sort] round TREE [Rowan, perhaps]
25 Wife, decline to carry on! (4)
WAGE
W [ife] + AGE [decline]
Thanks Brummie and Eileen
Not a lot of fun. You’ve made the points I was intending to, Eileen – a pity about the missing MAGIC HISTORIES!
I didn’t parse NON-DRINKER or GRANDAD, and I thought the clue for RAY was a bit feeble.
[Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop! contains the classic line “feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole” – an example of the sort of prose that the reporter sent out to get the story in Africa usually had come up with!]
Non-drinker was my LOI…
I was held up a bit by SPIKES for 7D.
Thanks Brummie and Eileen, and good morning.
Nice theme, but some iffy surfaces – 11 (what was that all about?), 14 (why the capital G in Gap?) and 19, which is horrible.
I got it all down but unpleasurably, like the 4th unwanted pint.
Return of the riddle already!
Greensward@4: G in Gap is just a distraction, isn’t it, possibly making one think of the town in France. Thanks Brummie and Eileen and a good weekend to all.
Greensward @4
I think it’s fair to say that Brummie is not renowned for his surfaces – but I did rather like 13dn.
I think the capital G is intended to suggest the store. [I heard a news item the other day about aged relatives being abandoned.]
Re 11ac, I’ve no idea and, yes, of course, 19 is HORRIBLE – but neatly hidden, I thought.
Better idea, Martin – we crossed.
There was Hill Street.Shame there was no Magic for Roundabout.Was there a Foul Play in TV?
I forgot about Graham and Damon ,which I was reminded of on the Graun site and I found a great article by Richard Williams(top bloke) about thye whole thing.
Some have complained about 19d but for me 17 is the worst offender.
I didnt think it was too bad but you get spoilt by a Picaroon such as yesterday’s.
Thanks Martin and Eileen, makes more sense now.
Grandma seems to equate to ‘grand-ma’ so perhaps grandad is ‘grand-ad’ or possibly ‘gran-dad’. Me, I’m just a ‘granddad’ and very happy to be so. Good weekend to you all.
Tak til E and B.
chargehand @11: Me too. Never understood the other spelling.
Not a lot to bring a smile to the end of the week, here. All a bit ploddy with dodgy surfaces. Greensward @4 beat me to the same comment about NON-DRINKER.
Hey-ho, a fair enough puzzle to close an excellent week.
Nice weekend, all.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen. A slow but steady and enjoyable solve by me and of course missed the theme. Last one sting because I often miss hidden words. Lots of nice and, I thought fair, clues and thanks again to Brummie and Eileen.
muffin@1 up to a point, Lord Copper.
Missed the theme – never had a telly. Not a problem, though. 16 was a perfect clue amongst some slightly dodgy ones. 27 (LOI) has three unnecessary words, I think.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen.
I made the mistake of putting in PAR instead of PAT at 15d, thinking the reference to dancing was about RAP, even though PAR did not really fit the parsing, so that held me up for a time.
I enjoyed solving 21a RIGHTY-HO, 2,26d FOUL PLAY, and 7d UPPERS.
Didn’t see the theme either…
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen.
Thanks both. Anyone else held up by with Tory=RIGHT in the parsing of 21a?
I totally missed the theme – the only one I know is Sesame Street.
New for me were OSTIARY and the driver Graham HILL.
I could not parse the ONER part of 11a.
My favourite was UNDERWATER.
Jason@3 I also put in SPIKES at first for 7d
Thank you Eileen and Brummie
Apart from a couple of clues whose surfaces took rather too much imagination to make sense of (as pointed out already), I found this crossword enjoyable to solve, with a lot to appreciate in the wordplay and some neat definitions: ‘spoils’ for ‘trophy’ in ATROPHY, ‘will do’ for RIGHTY-HO and ‘hand’ for APPLAUSE.
The repetition of the device used in yesterday’s clue in today’s TRAINERS was unfortunate and presumably coincidental. (But a watchful editor would surely have acted – as you implied, Eileen.) It made today’s clue more straightforward, but I thought it was a good clue, surface and all!
Curiously, WAIL may be as valid as WAGE for 25d, but clearly 27a STING rules it out.
‘produce’ for ‘produced’ was indeed surely a misprint, which, again, should have been picked up.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen.
All pretty straightforward but quite enjoyable. Spotted most of the theme (I don’t remember GRANDAD) but only after completion, so it didn’t help.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen
I wouldn’t call it easy, but it did yield bit by bit from an unpromising start, which always gives a sense of satisfaction. Never thought to look for a theme; I’ve solved Brummie often enough to know better.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen. I’m another who could not parse NON-DRINKER and, knowing only SESAME STREET, I would never have caught the theme, but I did enjoy the puzzle.
Rather a pity that TRAINERS came only a day after TRAINS with the same wordplay, as Eileen has noted: I think it’s just coincidence and oversight here. At least TRAINERS went in quickly, which is more than I can say for TRAINS yesterday!
Other than that, a good puzzle – not the toughest. I started to look for the theme after I put down STREET soon after SESAME, so POSTMAN PAT, GRANGE HILL and STINGRAY soon fell in place. And I too was searching for a MAGIC, a HISTORY and a SCHOOL which aren’t there! Is there some sort of hidden Hogwarts-ish message here?
Had to check on OSTIARY though the word sounded familiar, though I had no idea what it meant (I was wondering whether it was something to do with bones, but maybe that’s OSSIARY? 😀 )
And my grid looks untidy with lots of crossings-out: partly due to my writing one of the solutions in the wrong light (it happens!). Perhaps I should go over to doing the puzzle on-line. Also, for some reason, I put down GRANDPA instead of GRANDAD and wondered what on earth to make of “GPA”. And I had SHIRE [HaS rev. + IRE] in place of STING for a while, but thought to myself, Hastings surely isn’t a ‘shire’, it’s a town?
Overall, very good; thanks to Brummie and Eileen.
Reading some of the other comments, on reflection, I have to agree. Didn’t like RAY much – too obvious (themer, but surely there are lots of ways of clueing RAY!). And a few poor surfaces – that “thigh or rib” one was, indeed, HORRIBLE. Maybe that was the point…?
SCOOP brings back memories – they did a TV drama on it many years ago, with comedian Harry Worth (who else remembers his shop-window stunt?) in the principal role. The book is very un-PC by today’s standards, with lots of taboo words in it – but well worth a read if you’re prepared to overlook that.
Laccaria @23 – I guessed OSTIARY from the crossers and from ostium, an entrance/exit, hence Ostia, the port of Rome. I think the word you’re thinking of is OSSUARY – a charnel house.
Yes, I remember Harry in the window – oh dear. 😉
I think now that Brummie was just having us on with those missing words.
Not sure about this. I’ve been enjoying this setter’s puzzles recently but I thought this disappointing. I didn’t like RAY or PAIN for that matter. The answer for the latter was obvious from the definition but I don’t see how PANE = light. Quite liked UNDERWATER and RIGHTY HO. I didn’t know OSTIARY and found some difficulty in working it out despite it being an anagram. That,however, is my fault not the setter’s. I was pleased to be able to dredge up (Graham) HILL. Oh, and I.didn’t get the theme.
Thanks Brummie
Peter A @26
Panes in a multi-pane window are sometimes known as “lights”.
I’m puzzled about the northern £1 note – can’t find any reference to a ‘oner’ and it sounds a bit vague. But Scottish notes didn’t bear the Queen’s portrait after 1966 – I’m not sure they ever did. I’d suggest the northern £1 note was ‘non-ER’.
Hi endwether @28
It’s nothing to do with Scottish pound notes. The parsing is N [Northern] + ONER [£1 note, which , of course, we no longer have.] We do still have £5 and £10 pound notes, referred to generally as fivers and tenners. I don’t remember ever seeing ONER used like this but [sorry] Chambers does have it as ‘a £1 note’.
Peter Aspinwall @26 – think skylights and fanlights.
I don’t think this was my favorite Brummie puzzle ever, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. I think STING and ROUNDABOUT were my favorites.
I thought it was pretty amusing to see TRAINERS (from riddle for strainer) only one day after TRAINS (from riddle for strain). I began searching around to see if DITHYRAMB or VINGT-ET-UN or EMINENCE GRISE might be somewhere in the puzzle as well.
Having caught on, a few Brummies ago, that he typically does ghost themes, I stood back and looked at the completed grid and only then spotted POSTMAN PAT and SESAME STREET, at which point I started trying to find other children’s TV programs in there as well. I though SCOOP might have been a reference to the character from Bob the Builder. By luck, I googled GRANGE and HILL together and saw that there was actually a program of that exact name. The only “GRANDAD” I found in my brief search was the character from Only Fools and Horses, so I figured that wasn’t the right Grandad. HORRIBLE (Histories) I know, but PLAY (School) I do not. I should have remembered (Magic) ROUNDABOUT, not because of any familiarity with the show — I have none — but because fairly recently, as I recall, one of the Guardian setters (Qaos, maybe?) did a ghost themed puzzle that was all about that show.
I should have spotted STING RAY, but alas, didn’t see it at all. The closest I got to either STING or RAY was to think of Bilbo’s little Elvish sword for the former and the name of the Sun in Bear in the Big Blue House for the latter. [I figured it was unlikely that there might be children’s shows called NONDRINKER RAY or UNDERWATER STING PAIN.]
I spotted MEL B hiding in one of the corners, but I’m sure that was random happenstance!
Many thanks to Brummie and Eileen and the other commenters. Have a nice weekend, all (and for those in the US and anywhere else who may be celebrating Mother’s Day this weekend, H.M.D.!).
Grandad was played by Clive Dunn if I’m not mistaken.
Anyone else put WAIL at 25d?
I knew ostiary was a word. Now I know what it means- Goodo!
A very late response as PVB and I did not finish until this morning, but thanks for the blog Eileen and if by any chance you see this
We must add that it was lovely to meet you at S and B last Saturday.
Spotted theme early on as Brummie’s trademark is familiar and as soon as I saw SESAME I looked for STREET. Agree with most of above comments and thought RAY possibly the worst clue of all time. Looks like one he meant to come back to. But enjoyed overall, so thanks Brummie.
PVB
PS put speeds in instead of UPPERS. Could be a type of shoe, and certainly drugs.
Hello Job @34 – We bloggers get emails of all comments on our blogs and so it’s never too late. It was lovely to meet you and Pauline and good to see you commenting. 😉
I recounted your conversation with your daughter to my daughter yesterday and she rolled her eyes heavenward. She thinks we’re all mad. York is a wee bit further for you but it’s always a very good do.
17d is actually somewhat remarkable in its awfulness. You take a word like RAY, which has many meanings, and the best definition you can come up for is “Name”? Then in the wordplay you need to indicate that a Y goes on the end and, in a fit of inspiration, you come up with “ending in Y”.