The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27569.
The very up-front theme of (mainly F1) racing drivers was not my forte, so for that reason, and the general difficulty, I found the puzzle quite a struggle. If it is the same for you, the various names scattered about the clues and answers follow the theme, and are all to be found in Wikipedia. Thematic or otherwise, there are a good number of excellent clues here, so thanks to Tramp.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ABDOMEN | Middle of day, flyers put over sign (7) |
| A charade of ABD, a reversal (‘put over’) of D (‘day’) plus BA (British Airways, ‘flyers’) plus OMEN (‘sign’). | ||
| 5 | RANSACK | Search led to fire (7) |
| A charade of RAN (‘led’ – as in “He led/ran an efficient organisation”) plus SACK (‘fire’) | ||
| 10 | POST | Pole position (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 11 | TERRA FIRMA | At start of Monza, Ferrari made up ground (5,5) |
| An anagram (‘made up’) of ‘at’ plus M (‘start of Monza’) plus ‘Ferrari’. | ||
| 12 | BUTTON | It might make fast driver (6) |
| Double definition; the ‘driver’ is probably Jenson (since F1 seems to be the theme), or perhaps father John. | ||
| 13 | SYMMETRY | Correspondence reflecting awards for TV judge (8) |
| A charade of SYMME, a reversal (‘reflecting’) of EMMYS (‘awards for TV’) plus TRY (‘judge’). | ||
| 14 | SLOWDOWNS | Information in two seconds shows decreases in speed (9) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of LOWDOWN (‘information’) in S S (‘two seconds’). | ||
| 16 | SMASH | Male wearing belt across shoulder for collision (5) |
| An envelope (‘wearing’) of M (‘male’) in SASH (‘belt across shoulder’). | ||
| 17, 8 | SPEED CAMERAS | They might catch drivers heading for pit as a Mercedes goes out (5,7) |
| An anagram (‘goes out’) of P (‘heading for Pit’) plus ‘as a Mercedes’. | ||
| 19 | CANAANITE | A man, essentially occupying ancient ground? (9) |
| An anagram (‘ground’) of ‘a’ plus A (‘mAn essentially’) plus ‘ancient’, with an &lit definition. | ||
| 23 | HALLOUMI | Cheese in every round — mostly moist sandwiches (8) |
| An envelope (‘sandwiches’) of ALL (‘every’) plus O (’round’) in HUMI[d] (‘moist’) minus the last letter (‘mostly’). | ||
| 24 | SALOON | Alonso crashing car (6) |
| An anagram (‘crashing’) of ‘Alonso’. Fernando Alonso is a prominent Formula One racing driver. | ||
| 26 | MARATHONER | One in race to drive around another that’s struggling (10) |
| A charade of MAR, a reversal (‘around’) of RAM (‘drive’) plus ATHONER, an anagram (‘that’s struggling’) of ‘another’. | ||
| 27 | MOSS | Racing driver once seen with model (4) |
| 28 | ADVERSE | Unfriendly one next to back of grid veers off (7) |
| A charade of A (‘one’) plus (‘next to’) D (‘back of griD‘) plus VERSE, an anagram (‘off’) of ‘veers’. | ||
| 29 | TANNOYS | They announce pioneering car model has troubles (7) |
| A charade of T (Ford, ‘pioneering car model’) plus ANNOYS (‘troubles’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | BIOFUEL | Substitute for gas boiler’s top half working with flue (7) |
| An anagram (‘working’) of BOI (‘BOIler’s top half’) plus ‘flue’. | ||
| 3 | OCTET | Group love to see races around Spain (5) |
| An envelope (‘around’) of E (IVR, ‘Spain’) in O (‘love’) plus C (‘see’; that one often seems to generate some discussion) plus TT (Tourist Trophy, various ‘races’ for motorcycles, particularly those held in the Isle of Man). | ||
| 4 | EAT INTO | A shade over: European first to go through (3,4) |
| A charade of E (‘European’) plus ‘a’ plus TINT (‘shade’) plus O (‘over’, cricket summaries). EAT INTO, as a strong acid. | ||
| 6 | ALARMS | Fears drivers overtaking left and right, primarily Michael Schumacher (6) |
| A charade of ALA, an envelope (‘overtaking’) of L (‘left’) in AA (Automobile Association, ‘drivers’); plus R (‘right’) plus MS (‘primarily Michael Schumacher’). | ||
| 7 | SPIDERMAN | Pride’s hurt by one following Mark Webber? (9) |
| A charade of SPIDER, an anagram (‘hurt’) of ‘pride’s’ plus M (‘Mark’) plus AN (‘one’). | ||
| 8 | See 17 | |
| 9 | PRESENTATIONS | Shows Prost and Senna tie when racing (13) |
| An anagram (‘when racing’) of ‘Prost’ plus ‘Senna tie’. | ||
| 15 | WHEELBASE | Measure of car‘s weight (tip to centre) (9) |
| A charade of W (‘weight’) plus HEEL (‘tip’) plus BASE (‘centre’). | ||
| 18 | PLACARD | Notice record spinning on part of deck (7) |
| A charade of PL, a reversal (‘spinning’) of LP (‘record’) plus A CARD (‘part of deck’). | ||
| 20 | AUSTRIA | Place for Grand Prix? Like to go around bend on short dry run (7) |
| A charade of AUS, an envelope (‘around’) of U (‘bend’) in AS (‘like’) plus TRIA[l] (‘dry run’) minus the last letter (‘short’). | ||
| 21 | TROTSKY | Red Bull racing team going after time (7) |
| A charade of T (‘time’) plus ROT (nonsense, ‘bull’) plud SKY (‘team’, referring to Team Sky, the British cycling team). The Red Bull racing team is a real F1 (what else?) équipe, which makes for an excellent clue. | ||
| 22 | RUSHES | Manoeuvres to win hard races (6) |
| An envelope (‘to win’) of H (‘hard’) in RUSES (‘manoeuvres’). | ||
| 25 | LEMAN | Old lover of endless car race (5) |
| LE MAN[s] (24 hours, ‘car race’) minus the last letter (‘endless’). | ||
27a: Stirling Moss, not Sterling. And incidentally a typo further on in the same line: substantial. Moss – like the other Moss – remains a fair element of GK rather than specialist knowledge, after all these years (now 88) – not so sure about Button, but in general this one bore out what people have regularly said about Tramp: you don’t need to be an expert on the theme, because of the precision of the cluing and the avoidance of the excessively esoteric. Another testing but satisfying puzzle; thanks to PeterO as well as to Tramp
Quite liked the theme. I knew a little bit about it via osmosis from having a partner and son who appreciate car and motorbike racing. As my interests lie more with such subjects as history, though, 21d TROTSKY was my favourite. However I got it because I think Valentino Rossi’s Moto GP team is also called Sky. Also solved 25d LEMAN despite it being an unfamiliar term for an ex-lover, because I had heard of Le Mans in the context of racing.
Thanks to Tramp and PeterO.
[Good points made, quenbarrow@1- we crossed. I thought you were more of a cricket buff but you clearly have other fortes. I impressed myself with having heard of both Jenson Button and Stirling Moss as I actually groaned a bit once I saw the theme.]
I was expecting Alain Prost to be used as fodder for 10a POST but the I guess that would have spoiled the anagram for 9d PRESENTATIONS which was a clever piece of misdirection.
6d ALARMS made me feel rather sad as Michael Schumacher is not doing any overtaking these days…sigh!
Even though I’d rather watch grass grow than the brrm brrms, even I know Moss (old-timers would say of a hoon driver “Thinks he’s Stirling Moss”) and Le Mans. Otoh, dnk Button or Sky, but pretty clear from good cluing, although I couldn’d think of how to replace ‘evey’ with ‘all’ but I’m probably being dense.
All in all quite fun, thanks Tramp and PeterO.
Julies @3: cricket, yes, well remembered! Motor-racing has never been much of an interest, in fact, but I was a 26ac in my time, in a very modest way. It’s always good to have a sport-themed puzzle, or even just the odd clue, though many would disagree…
@5: I of course meant Julie singular (though you did post two messages)
I meant replace ‘every’ with ‘all’ [thick fingers]
Hi Julie, I think leman is an old term for lover rather than an ex.
As I said to a friend, I don’t think much F1 GK is required here.
And the Moss could as well have been Pat, his sister.
At 10ac, “Driver’s no right to make pole position”?
Thanks Tramp and PeterO
Difficult, with NW and SE taking ages. I did think there was too much GK here; MOSS in particular requires two pieces of GK with no other way of getting a solution. “Place for Grand Prix?” was very loose as a definition for AUSTRIA – yes, there is a Grand Prix there, but also in lots of other places, and lots goes on in Austria that’s nothing to do with Grand Prix.
On the other hand there was lots to like. LOI POST, SYMMETRY (where I first thought that I might lack the GK of TV prize programmes!), and LEMAN were favourites.
Muffin@10 yes ditto re Austria, more Mozart than motor I thought.
I think that Tramp was probably forced into AUSTRIA by his crossers (if you see what I mean) and thought “Well, it’s a GP themed puzzle, and there is a GP there…”
I spent time trying to find the name of a GP circuit to fit.
I always like the way Tramp does a riff. Very little GK needed-everyone has heard or both Stirling and Kate.
Button was about the only one but he’s English innit?
Lovely clues, even the misdirects are a a fine art.
thanks PeterO and Tramp.
No problems with the motor racing, but halloumi beat me; I’m not a foodie.
A few tricky ones (eg 13a) making it a DNF for me.
9d brilliant!
And as PeterO says, the excellent 21d.
Found one across impossibly complicated, as the red lights went out one by one. The rest fairly straightforward.
DNF here too, I’m sorry to say.
Had to cheat on LEMAN and completely failed on ABDOMEN – very nicely concealed.
Trovatore @9: Very nice, I expect Tramp will like it, too, if he drops in.
Not a huge fan of themes as a rule but this one lay over the puzzle like the faintest of skeins.
Tricky but enjoyable, many thanks both.
Nice week, all.
…sorry forgot to add ticks at TROTSKY & CANAANITE – brilliant.
Thank you Tramp and PeterO.
I found this hard going, and was rather sad thinking of Schumacher at his home by Lac LEMAN. The clues though were excellent, too many good ones to pick out favourites.
Another masterly exploitation of a theme as we’ve come to expect from Tramp.
Lots of ticks. TROTSKY especially was brilliant and really liked Webber for SPIDERMAN.
Thanks to Tramp and PeterO.
Only time for a cursory scan of this one this morning and not on the wavelength at all so dnf. Have to admit that I went into reverse gear once I’d spotted the theme – another grass-watcher here (grantinfreo@4). But much to admire as has been noted by others. LEMAN was news to me. Big tick for SYMMETRY.
Ran out of time so DNF …but almost. Lots of fun I thought (even though F1 bores me). Re: MOSS; I read it as ‘Racing driver once seen’ (an old time racing driver) and ‘with model’ which seemed to indicate a double definition immediately? SPIDERMAN was first in and was one of a series of excellent clues I thought.
Thanks Tramp; thanks PeterO
Thanks to PeterO for the blog and thanks to others for the comments.
I don’t like F1 but I think it makes for a decent theme for a crossword. I only wrote this puzzle a few weeks ago, so, unusually for me, the ideas are still fresh in my mind. I had a clue for ROT kicking around which was: “Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull (3)”, but, he went and changed team and selfishly made my clue redundant. Anyway, when I was filling the grid, I saw that TROTSKY fitted and I could see potential to use “Red Bull”. I think I got lucky with the SKY bit. When I thought of using Mark Webber in a clue, I searched for spiders whose name contained an M. I thought I’d struck lucky when I thought of HUNTSMAN, with Hunt being a former F1 driver. However, after consulting Wikipedia I realised huntsman spiders don’t make webs and so my thoughts turned to Spiderman. Initially, the clue for RANSACK was: “Hunt led before fire (7)”, but, this was hard as it relied on an unusual definition of hunt (which is in Chambers).
Overall, I think it turned out quite well. Thanks as ever to Vlad for checking it and offering some improvements and thanks, as ever, to Hugh for using it.
Neil
My spidey senses are warning of a numeration error in 7d – should be (6-3).
Excellent puzzle. Being a big F1 fan didn’t help me much which is as it should be. Both the ‘Webber’ and ‘Prost and Senna’ clues were fun and many of the non-thematic clues were even better.
The complicated &lit CANAANITE was my last in and satisfying to finally solve but I’ll go for the very first, simple looking word, ‘Middle’, in 1a as my pick.
Thanks to our non-F1 loving setter for dropping in and for such an entertaining puzzle and to PeterO. .
Thanks to Tramp and PeterO. I struggled with HALLOUMI (my LOI), did not know Button the driver, and did not parse ABDOMEN but, as noted above, the cluing was always there.
Thanks to Tramp for joining in here. It is so interesting to glimpse the way the clues come together.
The theme is my least favourite sport, but I can’t blame that for my struggles with this one, because the GK was all familiar. I would never have finished this without the check button. Why does Tuesday always have to be a difficult day?
Thanks to Tramp and PeterO
Enjoyed this, but haven’t got anything to add to the appreciative comments on puzzle and blog. One tiny point relating to 4d: an ‘0ver’ in cricket is a series of six deliveries by the bowler. On the radio you might then get a summary.
Like Hedgehog I appreciate it when setters comment, especially when they provide some extra insights like Tramp did here.
As for my effort I had more ?s than ticks initially but some became ticks with PeterO’s help. I still think ABDOMEN is pretty obscure, I didn’t get the Kate bit of Moss but it’s obvious now, I didn’t see races as TT in 3d, only parsed the W in 15d, and missed the ROT part of 21d. All in all not one of my better efforts, but as always with Tramp’s clues the shortcoming is mine. Favourites were SYMMETRY and SPIDER-MAN (which spell check has hyphenated and appears to support a Van Winkle’s comment.)
Thanks Tramp and PeterO.
Thanks to Tramp and PeterO. Struggled with this but got there in the end. I got held up in the NW because I put a partially parsed get into at 4. Eventually clicked and it all panned out in the end. I could not parse abdomen but did like Spider-Man (sorry auto spell will not let me change it to one word) and marathoner. Thanks again to Tramp and PeterO.
I was expecting this to be awful- motor racing is another sport I know zilch about- but I gradually got into it and there were some goodies here. I liked SPIDER-MAN and CANAANITE also I had heard of HALLOUMI. I did find the SW corner something of a trial and I couldn’t see RUSHES, but I quite enjoyed the puzzle.
Thanks Tramp.
Another DNF for me, weather too hot for concentration, but again appreciated the great skill of the setter, to whom many thanks for dropping in, and of course to PeterO and all other contributors.
Harhop @30
I am not sure what point you were making about 4D, but I was obviously thinking of written summaries, where the abbreviation O would be used.
Tramp, I am very glad Vettel changed team because I thought the clue to Trotsky, right up there with your best.
copmus @13
Yes, I accept that many – most even – will have heard of the Mosses. My point was more than if you hadn’t heard of one (or both), there was no fair way to solve the clue.
Like others I really struggled with this, but finally got there with ABDOMEN LOI. I thought it was a great puzzle, with lots of outstanding clues such as TERRA FIRMA, SLOWDOWNS and SPIDERMAN. Many thanks to Tramp and PeterO.
I enjoyed the puzzle, but I am sure I would have appreciated Tramp’s handiwork even more, particularly with respect to the surfaces, if I knew more about racing and racers. But even without the GK, there was an abundance of fun and clever wordplay, and the answers were gettable, with patience and persistence. I ticked many entries, including PRESENTATIONS, PLACARD, TROTSKY, SPIDERMAN (with or without the hyphen!), SLOWDOWNS, and SMASH, and my top three were CANAANITE, SPEED CAMERAS, and TERRA FIRMA. I struggled on my last two in, both of which were unfamiliar words to me and were solved strictly on the crossers and the wordplay (with Google-follow-up to confirm they were each a Thing): HALLOUMI and TANNOY.
I also did not know LEMAN, but, like Julie in Australia @2, I knew Le Mans and felt this had to be the correct answer [although, when I looked it up afterward to confirm, I was not expecting to fine a dictionary word (common noun), but rather, one-half of a couple from a classic love story, like Hero and Leander, Pyramus and Thisbe, Geraint and Enid, Tristan and Isolde, etc. Come to think of it, I think someone may have told me once that “Ignatz and Leman” was Shakespeare’s early working title for Romeo and Juliet . . .].
Many thanks to Tramp and PeterO and the other commenters.
This was hard. I don’t like words such as marathoner and spellchecker agrees. You can add -er to just about any noun and get another, e g piano becomes a pianoer. Horrible!
As I’ve said before, please direct complaints about dictionary entries to the expert lexicographers that compile them. If PIANOER were in a dictionary and it fitted in a grid I was struggling to fill, I might consider clueing it.
Tramp @41
“Expert” lexicographers? Might I just say “epicentre”? (Not to mention “alibi”!)
Too tough for me, glad I stopped when I did and in retrospect proud of my 40%! I still can’t see 19A, which word is the anagram indicator?
Stuart @43
“Ground”, but it’s also &lit, as PeterO says (“and literally”)
Thanks muffin. The &lit clues not always easy for us learners … nicer when you can spot the start or end as the definition!
Many thanks to both for the entertainment and elucidation. A great way to finish lunch.
As a F1 fan my thoughts were not charitable when I saw the theme as I feared my knowledge would be too great to enjoy the exercise but I soon found that fear groundless as this is a very well constructed crossword which had me smiling all through the solve. I suspect the two more specialised knowledge answers are BUTTON and LEMAN but everything is, as others have said, eminently gettable.
TROTSKY was my problem as Red Bull also spsonosr another F1 team named Toro Rosso and that kept wanting to insert itself into my solving process. Took some time for the fog to lift and normal service to resume there. Thanks again.
Thanks both.
Beeryhiker@29 A wise friend once remarked, ‘It isn’t a sport if it involves music or petrol’.