The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27949.
Plenty of amusement, and not too difficult – what more could you ask for? It is Qaos, and there are too many references to compositions by Elgar to be accidental: I count The APOSTLES, FALSTAFF, DREAM CHILDREN (no Gerontius), ENIGMA VARIATIONS , SERENADE (several of them), LAND of HOPE and GLORY (well, GLORIOUS; I have used a different, paler colour for this as it does not match exactly, and, even more tenuously, with STRING, for various pieces). And, GLORIOUS though it is, I can hardly include Janet BAKER for Sea Pictures.
| Across | ||
| 8 | CHILDREN | Cold bird caught by young people (8) |
| Sounds like (‘caught’) CHILLED WREN (‘cold bird’). | ||
| 9 | LEANT | Inclined to be stylish, doffing cap after giving away £1,000 (5) |
| [e]LE[g]ANT (‘stylish’) minus its first letter (‘doffing cap’) and also the G (‘after giving away £1,000’ – a grand was originally $1,000, but it has been transferred to Sterling). | ||
| 10 | HOPE | Long for oxygen during hard exercise (4) |
| An envelope (‘during’) of O (chemical symbol, ‘oxygen’) in H (‘hard’ e.g. pencil grade) plus PE (physical ‘exercise’). | ||
| 11 | ALGORITHMS | Former vice president wants Spain to condemn Smith’s rules (10) |
| A charade of AL GOR[e] (‘former vice president’) minus the E (‘wants Spain’) plus ITHMS, an anagram (‘to condemn’) of ‘Smith’. | ||
| 12 | MONTHS | Parts of the year (days?) involve taking holidays, primarily (6) |
| An envelope (‘involve’) of TH (‘Taking Holidays, primarily’) in MONS (Mondays, ‘days?’). | ||
| 14 | APOSTLES | America’s new topless messengers (8) |
| A charade of A (‘America’) plus POSTLES, an anagram (‘new’) of ‘topless’. | ||
| 15 | STRINGS | Lines of holy men receive halo (7) |
| An envelope (‘receive’) of RING (‘halo’) in STS (‘holy men’ – to object to this as an unannounced indication by example is only part of the story). | ||
| 17 | ASHIEST | Building site has the most grey (7) |
| An anagram (‘building’) of ‘site has’. | ||
| 20 | FALSTAFF | Shakespearean character‘s strong metal rod (8) |
| A charade of F (forte, ‘strong’ musically) plus AL (chemical symbol, aluminium, ‘metal’) plus STAFF (‘rod’). | ||
| 22 | BAKERY | Shop like a Doctor Who actor? (6) |
| A whimsical BAKER-Y (‘like a Doctor Who actor?’ – referring to Tom Baker). | ||
| 23 | VARIATIONS | No aviarist adapts to changes (10) |
| An anagram (‘adapts to’) of ‘no aviarist’. | ||
| 24 | LAND | Country network’s down (4) |
| A charade of LAN (Local Area ‘Network’) plus D (‘down’). | ||
| 25 | OCCUR | Gold-plated carbon and copper exist (5) |
| An envelope (‘-plated’) of C (‘carbon’) plus CU (‘copper’, both chemical symbols) in OR (heraldic ‘gold’). | ||
| 26 | SUCCEEDS | Follows from what parrots are said to do? (8) |
| Sounds like (‘said’) SUCK SEEDS. I wish I were wrong. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SHOOT-OUT | Gunfight that might be so hot … (5-3) |
| Wordplay in the answer: an anagram (OUT) of SHOOT is ‘so hot’. | ||
| 2 | ELSE | … in Chelsea or otherwise (4) |
| A hidden answer ‘in’ ‘ChELSEa’. | ||
| 3 | DREAMS | West road rises above base of clouds in visions (6) |
| A charade of DREAM, a reversal (‘rises’ in a down light) of MAE (‘West’, film star of a while back) plus RD (‘road’); plus S (‘base of cloudS‘; again as we are vertically inclined, the ‘base’ can be taken as the last letter). | ||
| 4 | ENIGMAS | Setter’s upset over good answers to puzzles (7) |
| A charade of ENIGM, an envelope (‘over’) of G (‘good’) in ENIM, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of MINE (‘setter’s’).; plus AS (‘answers’; perhaps a little cheeky to form a plural of an abbreviation). | ||
| 5 | GLORIOUS | Noble government peer endlessly promises to pay (8) |
| A charade of G (‘government’) plus LOR[d] (‘peer’) minus its last letter (‘endlessly’) plus IOUS (‘promises to pay’). | ||
| 6 | PARTY TRICK | Bash fool — it’s performed to entertain others (5,5) |
| A charade of PARTY (‘bash’) plus TRICK (‘fool’). | ||
| 7 | STYMIE | I’m yet to move under small block (6) |
| A charade of S (‘small’) plus TYMIE, an anagram (‘to move’) of ‘I’m yet’, with ‘under’ giving the order of the particles in the down light. | ||
| 13 | TRIP SWITCH | Rewrite script with safety device (4,6) |
| An anagram (‘rewrite’) of ‘script with’. | ||
| 16 | GRAFTERS | They work hard on Greek desserts (8) |
| A charade of GR (‘Greek’) plus AFTERS (‘desserts’). | ||
| 18 | SERENADE | Song composed to win lady’s heart (8) |
| An envelope (‘to win’) of AD (‘lADy’s heart’) in SERENE (‘composed’). | ||
| 19 | OF NO USE | Worthless old 13 — no parts? (2,2,3) |
| An envelope (‘parts’) of ‘no’ in O (‘old’) plus FUSE (’13’ TRIP SWITCH i.e. a circuit breaker – the word FUSE is still used loosely in this sense – you would still go to the fuse box to find them). | ||
| 21 | AMAZON | English extremists kidnap mother on river (6) |
| A charade of AMAZ, an envelope (‘kidnap’) of MA (‘mother’) in AZ (‘English extremists’ – i.e. the ends of the English alphabet); plus ‘on’. | ||
| 22 | BISECT | Little over a second to divide (6) |
| An envelope (‘over’) of SEC (‘a second’) in BIT (‘little’). | ||
| 24 | LEER | Suggestive look at electronic tablet held in both hands (4) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of E (‘electronic’ – common prefix) plus E (‘tablet’ of the drug ecstasy) in L R (left and right, ‘both hands’). | ||
So here’s a question for you all. If you’re not particularly familiar with the works of Elgar (or generally, the topic du jour), yet you are convinced there is a theme, but expect it will probably only involve less than half of the entries, is there an ALGORITHM to figure it out?
Speaking of which, my only quiblet is that “rules” is as correct a definition of “algorithms” as it would be for “recipes”. Not wrong, but not exactly correct either.
Very enjoyable puzzle to solve.
My favourites were AMAZON, DREAMS, ENIGMAS, BAKERY, LEANT, ALGORITHMS.
Thanks Peter and Qaos.
My Elgar amounts to Land of Hope and Glory and the cello concerto, so not enough for the neurons to fire. A few clues earned a Christmas cracker ‘der!’ in the margin: chilled wren, Baker-y and suck seeds (which I doubt parrots do). Fun all the same. Amusing and cruisy, thanks P and Q.
… meant to add that I didn’t parse 8ac leant, and was very slow to remember good old “Is that a gun…?” Mae in 3d dreams.
Thanks for the prompt and thorough blog, PeterO, which explained a couple of clues I also hadn’t fully parsed (like 9a LEANT and 3d DREAMS as afore-mentioned by gif@4!).
I hardly know anything of classical music but have recently completed another puzzle where Elgar was the theme (quite a coincidence), so once I got 4d ENIGMA(S) and 23a VARIATIONS I was onto this one. Not that I got all the references, but I knew enough to spot the common thread.
I liked the little humorous touches included by Qaos – his plays on words always bring a smile to my dial. I loved the visual of the “topless messengers” at 14a – the APOSTLES – and really appreciated SUCCEEDS at 26a and PARTY TRICK at 6d.
Thanks very much to Qaos for this offering: today’s puzzle was time well-spent, I thought.
[PeterO, I didn’t really understand your Janet BAKER comment – sorry to be a bit thick.]
[It’s okay, PeterO, google came to the rescue and I now know a lot more about that U/F cellist. I really appreciate this hobby, as I learn new things every day.]
Nice one Qaos so thank you for a good start to the day. Ashamed to say that I missed the theme despite Elgar’s being a favourite of mine (my excuse this time is that it’s rather early in the day!). Many thanks for pointing it out, thereby increasing my enjoyment, PeterO. [By the way, the reference to “Sea Pictures” has given me an earworm of Janet Baker singing “Where Coral Lies” – not a bad thing to have!].
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
No theme for me, of course! Generally straightforward. Favourites were DREAMS and SERENADE.
A couple of quibbles: “on” in GRAFTERS seems to put the components in the wrong order. BAKERY relies on GK, and anyone with the requisite GK will know that two different actors called Baker have played the Doctor (not “Doctor Who”!) – Tom and Colin – so making the answer BAKERS.
I thought this was a cracker of a crossword. Although, true to form I missed the theme despite having most of the referenced works in my LP/CD (remember them) collection. When I came here and was enlightened by PeterO it added to the pleasure. Favourites were ALGORITHMS, the delightful idea of Polly sucking his seed and ASHIEST ‘cos I had no idea the word existed. Many thanks to Qaos and Peter!!
I, too, had BAKERS not BAKERY. And it seems to me to be the better answer.
Elgar wrote “Serenade for strings”, so all of STRINGS counts.
It is, of course, OK to specify “an actor in Doctor Who”, as that refers to the programme rather than the character.
I remembered the joke in 26a differently:
What succeeds?
A budgie with no teeth!
11ac: I wonder if Qaos was tempted to pun on “Elgar rhythms”, but had second thoughts.
Thanks for justifying my BAKERS muffin :-). I enjoyed the puzzle but it was over much too soon with many clues going straight in – although I didn’t parse SERENADE as I thought it was a weak not very cryptic definition. APOSTLES was my favourite as I needed all the crossers before I saw it as an anagram – great surface as JinA says.
I didn’t look for a theme – I might have got ENIGMA VARIATIONS but no further without help from Google.
Thanks to Qaos (where was your trademark number clue?) and PeterO.
Great crossword, this, favourites being MONTHS, STRINGS and AMAZON. Wonder if Enigmatist has seen it?
@muffin 9&12 I always find the Doctor Who quibble a bit odd. The lead actor of the programme, up to and including the first Baker, was always credited on-screen as playing ‘Dr. Who’ or ‘Doctor Who’ for the first 19 years of its existence!
Thanks for the blog, PeterO.
I did see the theme about half way through and spent much of the rest of the time looking for THE MUSIC MAKERS, which my choir is rehearsing for a concert next month..
My particular favourites today were ALGORITHMS, APOSTLES, SHOOT-OUT and SERENADE – beautiful surface.
I can’t see how BAKERS could be a better answer for 22ac. The clue specifies A Doctor Who actor – and we need the Y to indicate ‘like’.
Many thanks, Qaos, for a lovely puzzle.
I rarely disagree with Eileen, but I think that ‘bakers’ is a justifiable answer for 22a – though, I agree, not better than the intended ‘bakery’. I would often refer to a baker’s shop, and it would not be too unusual for a solution to ignore the possessive apostrophe.
I agree with Eileen that the clue as written leads to bakerY. The point I meant (but totally failed to put over!) was that changing the clue to give BAKERS unambiguously would have made a better clue.
Dr Who actors’ shop? (6)
for instance?
George, I don’t think we are disagreeing: I didn’t say it was not justifiable – just not better. 😉
We crossed, muffin – I still think the clue as it is is the best option.
These slipped in quite quickly today, but not entirely sure of the parsing in several cases, LAND and MONTHS, for instance.
Did actually see theme = HOPE was FOI and then LAND put me on track, though did spend a little time looking for GLORY before solving 5d, while 3d did get me looking if GERONTIUS had been fitted in somehow, but then got 8a. Of course 24a gave 4d, and 18d 15a. I knew 20a, but didn’t recall 14a till I was looking for other thematic items.
So thanks to Qaos for a good puzzle (except for 26a)
This was too easy for a Friday though I didn’t get the theme. Twenty minutes to solve.
Thanks both,
What a host of comments so early. Is everyone sleepless on Fridays as well a me, or to bed late on Thursdays? So much to like in this, esp. 11, 9, 14. I had ‘lane’ for ‘land’ at 24a. They do form a network in the country and you go down them, but ‘land’ is clearly what is intended.
Fast and fun. I really liked the English extremists. A fuse is not a switch, as the switch can be reset – but it was an enjoyable clue regardless.
Thanks P and Q.
BTW, my favourite is 18d, brilliant clue and an &lit.
I went through the Doctor Who actors in reverse chronological order and bunged in SMITHY. Just me then?
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
It took me a while to see the parsing of CHILDREN as ‘Cold bird’ could have been C HEN, leaving the rest as a mess though.
I looked for the theme but failed – assumed it was Shakespearean or some such.
I did put BAKER’S at first, but I agree BAKERY fits the clue better.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
I too found this a smooth solve, and spotted the theme too! Another variant on the possible Dr Who answer, and what I put in first, was SMITHY. My thinking was that it referred to Matt Smith, who played the Doctor, and that a smithy is a blacksmith’s ‘shop’. Though with hindsight, BAKERY is the far more probable answer. Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
Thanks Bullhassocks, so it wasn’t just me!
Oh, so sorry Paul@30, should have spotted your earlier reponse; I even searched the page first for ‘Smith’ just to check no-one else had said the same, and still missed it!
Just wondering what My Henderson thought of this.
As others have said a quickish, but nonetheless enjoyable solve. Knowing it was Qaos I went looking for a theme to no avail (Elgar not my forte). Succeeds has to be my favourite because my late father used to tell the joke as muffin@12 put it all the time (along with many other bad dad jokes). I also liked Amazon and bakery and thanks to both Qaos and PeterO.
I think Bakery as an adjective can be found in the Uxbridge English Dictionary, but I’m sorry I haven’t a clue where I’ve put my copy.
I’d just read the Guardian review of a French film based on Shakespeare’s Henry plays, including some discussion of Falstaff, then turned to the crossword and 20a leapt out at me. Serendipity.
PeterO, you’ve underlined “Song” at 18d (SERENADE) but surely the definition can also be the whole clue. I thought it was brilliant.
Many thanks both.
When I finally remember to look for a theme when it’s Qaos, I couldn’t find one. Now seeing what it is, I know why.
muffin@9 I have no general knowledge about Dr Who, but when it occurred to me that “like a Dr Who actor” could mean something-y, and I had the initial B, the shop in question had to be BAKERY.
Keyser@25-ish, my problem is about the ‘o’; ‘old trip switch’ is ok for ‘fuse’ (they do the same job) but then you can’t re-use the o for ‘o f (no) use’. Apols if this has been said and, if not, someone might help.
Lord Jim @35
I underlined ‘song’ in 18D since it does not contribute to the wordplay, and forms an adequate definition by itself; but I might well have pointed out that the clue has an extended definition (or, to put it another way, the clue is, by my lights, a semi-&lit), as it is that feature which makes it such a brilliantly constructed clue.
18d is both ‘song’ alone and ‘Song composed to win lady’s heart’, ie, as Ong’ara says, an &lit (a total one).
grantinfreo @39 – expect a rap on the door from the &lit police. “Song” is not part of the wordplay, so the clue fails the strict &lit criterion of wordplay and definition being the same. Still an elegant clue, though.
For info: if anyone is interested, there is an extremely interesting article on pg17 of today’s Guardian about one of our setters, Philistine. Let’s just say I am in awe.
I agree with Ong’ara – dead easy for a Friday, but I like puzzles I can finish whatever the day of the week so no complaints. Like others my knowledge of Elgar’s works was insufficient for the theme to reveal itself despite several minutes of starting at the completed puzzle, even though it had crossed my mind after filling in 23ac. Thanks to Peter and to Qaos
I didn’t think this was as easy as all that but I enjoyed the puzzle anyway. I,sort of,saw the theme as well.ENIGMAS and VARIATIONS couldn’t have been a coincidence with this setter but I didn’t recognise all the Elgarisms. I did like CHILDREN once I finally got it.
Thanks Qaos.
Wow! Have just seen PetHay’s comment @41, and have indeed now read that remarkable story. Makes me wonder what other day jobs our splendid Guardian setters have…might make interesting reading.
PetHay @41 and Ronald @44 – I heartily recommend Philistine’s book, ‘The Angina monologues’, as I did here.
Ah yes of course, Van Winkle, I am duly chastened.
We like puzzles we can finish in time to attempt a blog within 48 hours – this has been the first for a while. Looked hard for the theme and totally missed it. Enjoyed the “chilled wren” , the parrot and “Al gore” – having spent some time working out how to get “EX Pence” into the answer….
I met Tom Baker about 40 years ago when he was filming near the Anchor Pub in Southwark – the area then was very dark and creepy – rather different to now. He was incredibly polite to my very drunk friend!
Thanks QAOS and everyone.