Tees and I often seem to meet in my Monday blogging slot. It’s always an enjoyable encounter, though sometimes trickier than one might expect for a Monday.
As usual, Tees draws on a wide range of subject material; for today’s puzzle it helps to have a little knowledge of French (9d, 26a), Latin (21a – a term I think I’ve seen in crosswords before, 23a – perhaps the most obscure phrase but clearly clued), and music (18a, 14d). Lots of good clues, but I’ll call out 8a and 17d for the surfaces, 11a for the inventive definition, and 21a for simple neatness. Thanks Tees for another great puzzle.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | FOREIGNER | Stranger supporting unknown number held in mountain (9) |
| FOR (supporting, as in votes for and against), then N (unknown number) within EIGER (mountain in the Swiss Alps). | ||
| 8 | GIANT | Gargantuan Scotsman stuffed into sports car (5) |
| IAN (typical Scottish man’s name) in GT (Gran Turismo / Grand Tourer, a name applied to sports car models). | ||
| 10 | ARMED | Marine brought into A&E died with weapon (5) |
| RM (Royal Marine) within A + E, then D (d = died). | ||
| 11 | WHALEBONE | It could make stay with British hosts healthy one (9) |
| W (with) + B (British), containing (hosting) HALE (healthy), then ONE. Stay = a stiff bar forming the rigid shape of a corset or strapless dress; early versions were made from whalebone. |
||
| 12 | See 21 Down | |
| 13 | ROCKETS | Spades needed after salad plant shoots up (7) |
| S (abbreviation for spades in playing cards) after ROCKET (salad leaves, botanical name Eruca, otherwise known as arugula or rucola). | ||
| 15 | SHEEN | Polish husband spotted outside (5) |
| H (abbreviation for husband) with SEEN (spotted = observed) outside it. Polish (noun) = sheen = gloss. |
||
| 17 | TIN | Money–box? (3) |
| Double definition: tin = slang for money, or tin = container (for example biscuit tin). | ||
| 18 | RONDO | Start to record playing the same piece (5) |
| Starting letter of R[ecord] + ON (on a sports pitch = playing) + DO (do = old abbreviation for ditto = the same). | ||
| 20 | SPOILER | Destructive person causing flap (7) |
| Double definition: one who spoils (damages or destroys), or a movable flap to change the aerodynamics of an aircraft wing. | ||
| 21 | DONATES | Party behind gifts (7) |
| DO (slang for party, as in “a posh do”) + NATES (Latin name for buttocks, for which one of the more civilised slang terms is “behind”). Gift, as a verb = give freely = donate. |
||
| 23 | PARI PASSU | Dancing pair get through, united together (4,5) |
| Anagram (dancing) of PAIR, then PASS (get through, for example an examination) + U (united, as in football team names). Pari passu = together, moving at the same pace, or in equal shares. (Latin for “with equal step”.) |
||
| 25 | LLAMA | Animal guerrilla maybe tethers (5) |
| Hidden answer (… tethers) in [guerri]LLA MA[ybe]. | ||
| 26 | RUPEE | Money made from gym in Parisian street (5) |
| PE (Physical Education lessons in school = “gym” short for gymnasium / gymnastics) in RUE (French, and therefore Parisian, for a street). Currency of India and various other South Asian countries. |
||
| 27 | MILLINERY | Labourer dressing badly with yen for hats (9) |
| MINER (labourer in a mine), containing (dressing = covering) ILL (badly, as in ill-fitting), then Y (abbreviation for the Japanese currency yen). Millinery = the design, manufacture and sale of hats. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TRUMAN | Bronzed look to accommodate bizarre President (6) |
| TAN (suntan = bronzed look) containing (to accommodate) RUM (odd = bizarre). Harry S. Truman, 33rd US president. The surface might suggest a later holder of the office perhaps? |
||
| 2 | WIND TUNNEL | Nun dwelt in terribly draughty place (4,6) |
| Anagram (terribly) of NUN DWELT IN. | ||
| 3 | ONE-WAY | As some streets joined still without width (3-3) |
| ONE (joined) + AY (still = continuously until now), without (in its older sense of outside = containing) W (width). | ||
| 4 | TRIAL RUN | Officer holding show got up and organised rehearsal (5,3) |
| LT (short for lieutenant = officer), holding AIR (show, as in an air of defiance), all reversed (got up, in a down clue); then RUN (organised, as in well-run / well-organised). | ||
| 5 | OGRE | Flesh-eating monster revealed in Progress (4) |
| Hidden answer (revealed) in [pr]OGRE[ss]. | ||
| 6 | NAPOLEON | Sleep with old man who dominated Europe (8) |
| NAP (a short sleep) + O (old) + LEON (a man’s name). | ||
| 7 | FRANCES | Girl right to replace home in her money situation? (7) |
| FINANCES (money situation), with R (right) replacing IN (home, in the sense of at home). Frances, in English generally a woman’s name (the male equivalent is Francis), though there are occasional exceptions and possible confusion. (Anyone who knows the film / musical Calamity Jane will remember Francis Fryer.) |
||
| 9 | TRESS | Nancy’s very small plait (5) |
| TRES (très = “very” in French, for example in the French city of Nancy; this use of “Nancy’s” is an old trick in crosswords) + S (small). Plait = tress = an arrangement of long hair. |
||
| 14 | COR ANGLAIS | Instrument in amazing article on processed signal (3,7) |
| COR (cor! = amazing! = expression of surprise) + A (the indefinite article) + anagram (processed) of SIGNAL. Cor anglais, larger relation of the oboe. The name appears to be French for “English horn”, but it’s neither English nor a brass instrument like a horn. It seems the original German name meant “angelic horn” because it looked like the instruments played by angels in mediaeval paintings; but “engellisch” at the time could mean either “angelic” or “English”, so it all got a bit lost in translation. |
||
| 16 | EGO TRIP | Note books required in understanding narcissistic episode (3,4) |
| E (a note in the musical scale), then OT (Old Testament = books) in GRIP (understanding, as in to get a grip of something). | ||
| 17 | TIRESOME | Remote is broken — it’s annoying (8) |
| Anagram (broken) of REMOTE IS. | ||
| 19 | OSSUARY | Dicky says our bones are here (7) |
| Anagram (dicky = faulty) of SAYS OUR. Ossuary = a container for human skeletal remains. |
||
| 20 | SUPER | Very fine evening meal down by a piano (5) |
| SUPPER (evening meal), missing (down by) one letter P (p = piano = quiet in musical notation). | ||
| 21/12 | DOUBLE CENTURY | 200 assembled in lecture by don round university (6,7) |
| Anagram (assembled) of LECTURE BY DON, containing U (university). Double century = a score of 200+ in cricket. |
||
| 22 | TRACE | Hint from artist leaving daily grind (5) |
| RAT-RACE (daily grind), with RA (Royal Academician = artist) removed (leaving). Hint = trace = a very small amount. |
||
| 24 | POET | Bard uses Old English in reduced part (4) |
| OE (Old English) in PT (pt = abbreviation for part, so “reduced part”). | ||
I do like a Tees Monday – can I just ask whether the 21/12 solution is significant?
I too only knew 23a from crosswords.
Thanks to Tees and Quirister
crypticsue @1 I don’t think two ton tees is accidental
Thanks (& congrats) Tees, Quirister
crypticsue, James: well spotted, I hadn’t thought of that. I can find nearly 200 blogs on this site for Tees puzzles, so my guess is that you’re correct; perhaps a few early ones didn’t get blogged or don’t show up in the search for some reason.
Tees, if this is really your 200th puzzle: congratulations, and we wish you many happy returns!
Congratulations Tees, and thanks for clueing so many excellent puzzles. I needed to check ‘spoiler’ as (a) I didn’t know the aircraft part and (b) ‘destructive person’ seems a bit excessive, otherwise all very neat. The very strange grid indicated that something special lay in the top and bottom unches. Thanks too to Quirister.
Memo to self – always check to see if a grid like this one has a message as this would have confirmed my thoughts about the 21.12 – congratulations to Tees – looking forward to the next 100
Never even occurred to me that DOUBLE CENTURY might have some significance.
Took a while to get the last few, and there were a couple I couldn’t parse. Especially thanks for explaining 22dn. I don’t think I’d come across 23ac before.
Incidentally, in American orchestras, the COR ANGLAIS is usually called the English Horn, but the instrument that is sometimes referred to as the French Horn, is usually just the horn in British orchestras. There’s also a type of bass oboe called a Heckelphone, which I think is a lovely name for an instrument. (Named after Herr Heckel, and nothing to do with heckling.)
Dormouse: yes, it used to be called the French horn, but there were two rival designs (French and German) and the German version eventually became the standard, so now orchestral players just call it a horn. (I don’t play it but I know a few people who do.)
I once said to an American that in the UK it’s just a horn, and they wanted to know what we call an English horn, so they seemed to think the term was French horn in the US.
Hello Quirister et al, yes, this was my 200th puzzle for the Indy, so many thanks to Mike H for allowing me to inflict them upon you guys for so long.
Hence TWO TON TEES (not as good as two ton Ted from Teddington) and DOUBLE CENTURY (a cheap sherry I think). For the hundredth one a while back I did an acrostic, which took ages, and which people didn’t immediately notice, so unsubtle and easy to set were the markers here.
Sorry I didn’t get in yesterday, but the lurgee has grabbed me, and I’m doing lots of kipping and watching films with Jack Hawkins in.
Thanks again all, cheers Tees.
Thanks Tees for checking in – you’re not the only one to go down with a pre-Christmas bug, but I hope you feel better soon. And congratulations again.