Yikes! This was hard
I got 6 answers after the first pass of the clues, but 2 of them turned out to be wrong.
After a further struggle I got a total of 14 – essentially halfway – but was then very stuck indeed and had to put it aside so that I could come back to it fresh after a sleep.
With fresh eyes I realised that 7 was OYSTER, which meant the very first thing I had entered THE WORKS was something else.
And much, much later I found another early answer 27 RHINE had to be RHEIN – the German name – to allow 14D TURNTABLES
You won’t be surprised that I had to resort to word searchers on t’internet to complete it.
Hob is known for being tricky and also for often hiding a theme in the grid.
The grid design’s perimeter looked like a likely candidate for a message but I can make nothing from it.
Similarly, I have scrutenised all the answers looking for connections. There are some German and French people and places, but also some Latin, Scottish and American – and Paul Klee was Swiss. Nothing I can imagine into a theme…
.. hang on …
Maybe Boak K Boid and Mike Demytsek directed the cult classic Good Health Pastor Pierre (normally known just as GHPP) set in the centre of Berlin Unter den Linden involving a young Georges Pompidou meeting Klee and gaining his life long love of modern art – thus the Pomidou Centre modern art gallery/museum.
That’s enough clutching at straws.
Oh yes. I need help with the wordplay for 22D
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 9 | ELEGY | Lament for one in city (5) E.G. (for one, example) inside ELY (city) |
| 10/26D | PAUL KLEE | A skull damaged after decapitation, captured by No.1 painter (4,4) (A [s]KULL)* AInd: damaged, inside PEE (No. 1) |
| 11 | PIANO | A noted architect? (5) Ref Architect Renzo P |
| 12 | ASTI | With fellow female wanting a stiff drink (4) A STI[ff] That is, F[ellow] F[emale] being removed (wanting) from A STIFF |
| 13 | HIATUS | Bonk setters, without a break (6) A inside HIT US (bonk setters) |
| 15 | THE SHARD | Initially thrilled by His Excellency’s firm, large erection (3,5) T[hrilled] HE’S HARD (firm). First one in (!) but wrote in THE WORKS which I still think is a reasonable answer for the clue |
| 16/8 | GEORGES POMPIDOU | Former PM, having ordered more soup, pigged out primarily (7,8) (MORE SOUP PIGGED O[ut])* AInd: ordered. Early pondered SPENCER PERCEVAL as the only (British) PM that fitted the enumeration |
| 18 | ZENTRUM | President briefed on Japanese school in Berlin’s 22 (7) TRUM[p] on ZEN (Japanese school). 22 is Centre. Berlin’s Centre is Zentrum. Last one in (I don’t speak German) |
| 21 | SCOTTISH | Just like Sean Connery, bed model back in small hotel (8) COT (bed) SIT< (model, back) inside S[mall] H[otel]. One of the easier clues |
| 23 | MUMBAI | Not a word used by those regularly flying to one Asian city (6) MUM (Not a word – ssh), BA (those regularly flying), I |
| 24 | KNOB | On the rebound, have sex with boss? (4) BONK< |
| 25 | TOTES | Conveys completely (5) Double Definition. The word used to mean completely is, shall we say, a modern usage. |
| 26 | KIRK | Alcoholic drink finally drunk in church (4) KIR (alcoholic drink) [drun]K |
| 27 | RHEIN | German banker gets in her pants (5) Not RHINE like I wrote in first – we need the German for the river from (IN HER)* AInd: pants |
| 28 | EAU DE VIE | Aroma said to rival brandy (3,2,3) Homophone: “Odour V” |
| Down | ||
| 1 | BONA FIDE | Real supporter turns up in bed with 10, stupidly (4,4) FAN< (supporter, turns up) inside (BED IO)* AInd; stupidly |
| 2 | OPEL | Car bound to have learner driver changing from top to bottom (4) LOPE (bound) shift L to bottom |
| 3 | ADOPTS | Assumes spat developed outside party (6) (SPAT)* AInd: developed. around DO |
| 4 | KUWAITI | Arab needs to remain in place in queue, said newspaper (7) Homophone “Queue wait” then I from “i” (newspaper) |
| 5 | KEROSENE | One reeks after changing oil (8) (ONE REEKS)* AInd: Changing |
| 6 | BETA RHYTHM | Brainwave shaping the content of urban myth (4,6) (THE [u]RBA[n] MYTH)* AInd: shaping. We’re only asked to use the _content_ of urban |
| 7 | OYSTER | Very uncommunicative person in Tolstoy’s terminology (6) Hidden in tolstOY’S TERminology |
| 14 | TURNTABLES | Shot Bill with the French revolvers (10) TURN (shot) TAB (bill) LES (the, French) |
| 17 | EXISTENT | Current first found in River Tyne, oddly backed up (8) IST (First, 1st) inside EXE (river) T[y]N[e]< |
| 19 | UNAFRAID | Intrepid Girl Friday contracted out (8) UNA (girl) (FRIDA[y])* AInd: out |
| 20 | WHITNEY | Short holiday brought up longing for Houston? (7) WHIT (short holiday) YEN< (longong, brought up) |
| 22 | CENTRE | Heart unit’s lost time, by losing its heart (6) The definition must be heart, be it at the start or end of the clue, and with C-N-R- the answer must be CENTRE. I cannot see the wordplay. Penultimate clue answered. |
| 23 | MUSEUM | Relative taking employment in the Louvre? (6) USE (employment) in MUM (relative) |
22d is CENtimeTRE (unit losing ‘time’.
I found this quite hard as well and was fooled by the non-Nina perimeter. There is an architectural theme I think but it’s not my strong suit but certainly Renzo PIANO, THE SHARD, POMPIDOU CENTRE seems connected and ZENTRUM can’t be there as a grid-filler, methinks
Thanks to Hob and beermagnet
Always find Hob at the very limit of my solving ability, if not beyond it. I remember a while back, he did a puzzle themed on Hull and I only managed 4 answers. Nearly finished this one but didn’t get ZENTRUM (a bit unfair imo). Lots of lovely, and naughty, clues. A few answers I had to check as I’d not met them before but managed to correctly work them out.
So thanks to Hob for a great and amusing challenge and to beermagnet for the blog.
Thanks, beermagnet, for the blog and Hob for an enjoyable challenge.
I held myself up, too, by entering RHINE – it was a long time before I saw my mistake. And it was a long time, too, before I found the other meaning of TOTES.
I parsed 28ac as ‘odour’ + VIE [to rival].
I can’t see a theme, either, beyond what baerchen says – but I enjoyed your suggestion, beermagnet. 😉
a google of Renzo Piano buildings reveals the Paul Klee Zentrum, the Whitney Museum of American Art. Potsdamer Platz (mind-bogglingly ugly imo) is also one of his, in Berlin Zentrum.
He also did the Fondation Beyerler building which is a very high-end art gallery in Basel which I keep meaning to visit
Thanks, baerchen – well done!
@beermagnet
just for your info, you’ve made a bit of a Horlicks of the into…it’s very spoilery on the homepage
As indeed are the Shard and the Pompidou Centre. A prolific architect and a fine puzzle.
The parsing for CENTRE had defeated me too – well spotted Hovis!
Or rather the Centre Georges Pompidou, I suppose.
baerchen @7
Thanks for the heads-up. I have edited the post to remove the spoilers from the home page.
Thank you Gaufrid for fixing the first para so not too much shows
I’ve been caught by that before (I think it shows the first para but it goes and shows more when the para is short).
And thanks too to baerchen for pointing it out and particularly for spotting the theme which defeated me.
Hovis: How did you spot cen[time]tre? Well done
On holiday at the moment very happy to be in a decent pub in Dartmouth after taking the lovely steam train from Paignton. So limited to commenting by phone.
I just noticed that tomorrow’s Observer will feature an article in which Piano – a Genovese – describes his readiness to offer his services to rebuild the collapsed Autostrada bridge.
Nice city, Genoa. We visited the fantastic aquarium there which is also one of his designs
Almost got there – couldn’t get the ‘beta’ part of 6dn and hence didn’t get 12ac either. We did twig that 27ac could be either the English or German version but plumped initially for the wrong one till 14dn had to be TURNTABLES – and that then helped us get EXISTENT.
Some rather racy surfaces; 15ac of course, but also 13ac, 21ac and 24ac, plus some drink references – we began to think it was a different setter, one whose pseudonym alsi begins ‘Ho—–‘. CoD has to be 15ac.
Thanks, Hob and beermagnet.
So it wasn’t just me. I was wondering if jetlag from my recent holiday was affecting my solving abilities. I’ve only managed to get about half of it.
I did see some Klees in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art a couple of weeks ago, but they didn’t make much of an impression on me. (The Magritte exhibition they had, however, was very good.)