If you would like to solve the puzzle before continuing to the blog, it can be found here: Dalibor @ York 2018
or an interactive version is available at https://crossword.info/S_and_B
Dalibor’s York puzzle this year has a preamble to be taken into account while solving:
Eleven solutions, all proper nouns, have a thing or two in common. Their definitions may be vague, clumsy, insufficient, perhaps even unfair.
We struggled with the puzzle for a while – we expect some tricky clueing from Dalibor, but the rather vague preamble covering eleven entries made the solve that much more of a challenge.
The first proper noun we uncovered was 19ac – unfortunately this turned out to be a red herring, as it was not one of the eleven thematic entries. Once we had a few crossing letters, we started to realise that the proper nouns were surnames, all beginning with C.
We struggled with the parsing of 28ac, which we solved fairly early on, along with 8d, so we wondered (fearfully!) whether the theme might be football related, with Bobby Charlton and David Coleman. We then found that there is an artist called Victoria Coleman, so we were really struggling to find the connection. Having solved a few more thematic entries, we realised that most of the individuals we recognised from the ‘vague’ definitions had forenames beginning with J – thus revealing the ‘two things’ they have in common – the initials JC. Initially we assumed that 22d was Joe Cocker (a character from our era), but couldn’t see the connection with the definition, but then Bert remembered Jarvis and the relevant track. We also needed some help with 3d, as we were not familiar with the composer.
Across
9 Prostitute with nothing on flashes in Cheers (7)
HOORAYS
HO (prostitute – American slang) O (nothing) RAYS (flashes)
10 Surprisingly, I flash too, ultimately having not much to do (7)
LOAFISH
An anagram of I FLASH and O (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of ‘too’) – anagrind is ‘surprisingly’
11 Soldiers sleeping around have children with those very close (7)
INBREED
RE (soldiers – Royal Engineers) with IN BED (sleeping) around
12 It’s disgusting to split eggs, Ramsay’s beginning to become more agitated (7)
ROUGHER
UGH (it’s disgusting) in or ‘splitting’ ROE (eggs) + R (first letter or ‘beginning’ of ‘Ramsey’)
13 Ancestors at sea lost half a fish there! (3,6)
TEN ACROSS
An anagram of ANCESTORS – anagrind is ‘at sea’ – 10ac is ‘loafish’ – half of LO(st) A FISH
15 Small majority of Leave in Britain, time to complain (5)
BLEAT
LEA(ve) (‘small majority of leave’) in B (Britain) T (time)
16 Alexis Sanchez shows endless quality – quick thinker, awesome at central positions (7)
COLLINS
Central letters of (San)C(hez) (sh)O(ws) (end)L(ess) (qua)L(ity) (qu)I(ck) (thi)N(ker) (awe)S(ome) – Joan Collins played Alexis in ‘Dynasty’
19 Nothing very new about soprano, Birgit from Sweden? (7)
NILSSON
NIL (nothing) SO (very) N (new) round S (soprano)
20 Classical music? (5)
LATIN
Double definition
21 Apparently shaving went a bit wrong in pursuit of original hairstyle (6,3)
URCHIN CUT
CHIN CUT (‘shaving went a bit wrong’) after UR (original)
25 The three leading members of Arcadia inspired by, oddly, Blondie’s Parallel Lines (7)
BARCODE
ARC (‘three leading characters of arcadia’) inside the ‘odd’ letters of B(l)O(n)D(i)E
26 Filmmaker expressed what’s essential to Black October (7)
COCTEAU
Homophone (‘expressed’) of the middle or ‘essential’ part of ‘blacK OCTOber’ – Jean Cocteau was a film director, poet, writer, designer, artist and playwright
28 Victoria Coren’s not right to keep mum about Mitchell’s backside (7)
COLEMAN
CO(r)EN without the ‘r’ (right) round or ‘keeping’ MA (mum) round L (last letter or ‘backside’ of ‘Mitchell’) – Jenna Coleman played the young Queen Victoria in the ITV series
29 Say it’s wrong to be enthralled by mega-selfies? (7)
EGOISTS
EG (say) + an anagram of ITS (angrind is ‘wrong’) in or ‘enthralled by’ OS (out-size, or ‘mega’)
Down
1 Former tennis player always lost, many still believe in him (6)
CHRIST
CHRIS (Ever)T (former tennis player) ‘losing’ ‘ever’ (always) – Jesus Christ
2 Lord Mandelson, finally describes initiation of Brexit: “unknown future for Labour?” (6)
CORBYN
COR (Lord!) N (‘final letter or ‘Mandelson’) round or ‘describing’ B (‘initial’ letter of ‘Brexit’) Y (unknown) – Jeremy Corbyn
3 John Milton‘s pen (4)
CAGE
Double definition – apparently the American composer’s full name is John Milton Cage
4 Familiar with American tax officer nailing journalist (4,2)
USED TO
US (American) TO (tax officer) round or ‘nailing’ ED (journalist)
5 Jeremy‘s escapades will impress Tory (8)
CLARKSON
LARKS (escapades) in or ‘impressed by’ CON (Tory) – Jeremy Clarkson
6 CIA sadly about to arrest inventor for having WMD? (5,5)
CASUS BELLI
An anagram of CIA (anagrind is ‘sadly’) round SUS (arrest) BELL (inventor – Alexander Graham Bell)
7 Expensive time of year but not on to make waves (4,4)
HIGH SEAS
HIGH SEAS(on) (expensive time of year) without ‘on’
8 Defending World Cup winner to rabbit on about both sides (8)
CHARLTON
CHAT (rabbit) ON round R L (right and left – both sides) – Jack Charlton was a defender in the England team that won the World Cup in 1966
14 Range of vehicle types, including one without gas (10)
CAIRNGORMS
CAR (vehicles) NORMS (types) round or ‘including’ I (one) and round (‘without’) G (gas) – we’re not sure about G=gas – it’s not in chambers, but we have found it in online dictionaries
16 Crashing a bicycle, then keeping away from it (8)
CELIBACY
An anagram of A BICYCLE – anagrind is ‘crashing’
17 All current terms changed, millions deported as unwanted characters (8)
LITERALS
An anagram of ALL I (current) TER(m)S without the ‘m’ (millions) – anagrind is ‘changed’
18 Drink and thereafter go as being told (8)
SAUTERNE
A homophone (‘being told’) of SO (thereafter) TURN (go)
22 One of the common people has private storage space initially doubled (6)
COCKER
(l)OCKER (private storage space) with the ‘l’ (50) doubled to C (100) – Jarvis Cocker was the lead singer of Pulp, whose biggest hit was ‘Common People’
23 Hotel manager accomodates 150 with ease, they say (6)
CLEESE
CL (150) + a homophone (‘they say’) of EASE – John Cleese was the infamous hotel manager in Fawlty Towers
24 Trump almost protects terrorists? That’s a cliche (6)
TRUISM
TRUM(p) (‘almost’) round or ‘protecting’ IS (terrorists)
27 Dangerous gas no problem for adventurous Yorkshire lad (4)
COOK
CO (carbon monoxide – ‘dangerous gas’) OK (no problem) – Captain James Cook, the 18th century explorer, was born in Marton, Yorkshire
I found this to be a well-constructed crossword with an unusual but uncannily accurate preamble. Among the clues to the themed answers I really did find something vague, something clumsy, something insufficient and something unfair! It was all great fun to suit the occasion.
I needed help from someone who knew what an ‘urchin cut’ was to solve 21a. I had ‘skin’ rather than ‘chin’ inside my potential solution, and it was suggested to me that I rethink that part of the clue.
22d COCKER fooled me for a while. I vaguely knew the reference to Common People, but I was put off by the remarkable discovery that the wordplay for COCKER would also yield an alternative answer with the same crossers: CACHED (‘cache’ as the private storage space and ‘d’ as ‘initially doubled’). But the clue as a whole, of course, worked perfectly for Jarvis (not Joe!) Cocker.
Although I saw the ‘C’ that connected the eleven proper names, I regrettably failed to see the ‘J’ connection, despite knowing that 9 of the 11 names were JC. I even got the reference to Jack Charlton, not Bobby, when solving that clue, because he was a defender.) But I didn’t know who J Coleman was. That could be my excuse for missing the ‘J’ connection.
Of many excellent clues I would highlight CORBYN, INBREED, TEN ACROSS and CHRIST as the cream of the cream. I also liked very much the device used in BLEAT, ‘small majority’ being spot on to indicate the LEA of ‘leave’, and there were other examples of neat and well-chosen ways of using standard cryptic devices.
I enjoyed solving this rather challenging puzzle after a similar experience (albeit of a non-themed puzzle) by this setter in the Indy recently.
Thanks to Dalibor (Sil) and Bertandjoyce.
I was pleased to see a puzzle from Dalibor among the offerings from the York S&B, as I enjoyed his debut offering recently in the Independent. But sadly I was defeated by this one, which I found very tough. I ended up with only a little over half of the clues solved.
I saw the link between the J.C. names from getting 23d CLEESE, 5d CLARKSON and 26a COCTEAU reasonably early on, though I was a bit worried about the instructions which made me second-guess myself. My concern was whether “perhaps even unfair” might mean that the pattern was not going to be consistently carried through. I had to use google to get the unfamiliar Swedish soprano NILSSON, and was aware that her initials did not fit the pattern. And of course “looking things up” always makes me feel like I have let myself down by “cheating”.
By the time I gave up I still had an almost completely blank SW, which I could not seem to get a toehold into, and in the other quadrants I missed 9a HOORAYS, 3d CAGE (I had heard of him but not his second name), 6d CASUS BELLI (unfamiliar) and 8d CHARLTON (also unfamiliar except for the snooker player who did not fit at all!). When I came here, I also realised that I had LOAFING for 10a instead of LOAFISH, so I would never have solved 8d in a month of Sundays anyway.
Nevertheless I was pretty chuffed to get 1d CHRIST (my favourite clue), 2d CORBYN and 22d COCKER (the younger). In the latter clue, I thought the clever use of LL meaning 50×2 to make 100 (C) was ingenious!
BTW, I was hoping for Julius CAESAR to appear somewhere but that was not to be.
Thanks for a clever puzzle, Dalibor (Sil). I wish now that I had held my nerve and persisted with the wordplay, which as I see from the solve was entirely fair throughout (despite the preamble!) and made each answer, when tackled logically rather than intuitively, quite gettable.
In sum, I was actually pleased that I progressed through it as far as I did. I also appreciate all your work, Sil, in uploading the puzzles so that I could print them off from Australia, as well as lending your solving skills to the blogs.
Thanks and well done also to Bertandjoyce for explaining some of what was at the time seemingly inexplicable, and to Alan B for sharing his take on the puzzle.
I started this on paper at the event and on the train home, and got about two or three of the thematic answers, but then mislaid the sheet and started again online. Fortunately I remembered some of the entries, which gave me a start, but getting the rest proved a bit of a struggle. I did know of composer John Cage (he of 4′ 33″ fame) but not his middle name, and some of the others also proved difficult to parse. Failed to spot the doubling of L to C, despite having encounterd that or a similar trick with Roman numerals before.
I did complete but only with frequent use of the check button and occasionally the ‘reveal letter’ one, so I’d probably still be struggling with the DTV.
Thanks, Dalibor for the challenge, and B&J for explaining it all.
Thanks Dalibor and Bertandjoyce
This was the last of the five S&B puzzles that I did … and by far the hardest, taking an elapsed 3 weeks where I’d pick it up and get a couple before putting it away again ! Was very pleased to eventually fill the grid and to discover that it was all correct, but …
After eventually twigging to the ‘proper nouns’ starting with C, I didn’t see that they were in fact characters with the initials, JC.
Lots of varied devices used (and if, as I assume from the comments above, the setter is Sil) then he certainly practices what he preaches with technical correctness !!! Found it a very tough puzzle but ultimately fair and would be in the top ten crosswords that I’ve done in 2018 !
Finished in the NW corner with CAGE (not seeing that John Milton were his names) and the very clever CHRIST as the last one in !