Filbert has provided today’s cruciverbal teaser, and since it is Tuesday, there has to be a theme of sorts, and today it is immediately identified at 32.
I found this to be a challenging and highly ingenious puzzle, which kept me guessing right until the end. I realised, thanks to spotting Yehudi Menuhin early on, that we were looking for the names of violinists, but my general ignorance of the world of music prevented me from spotting any of the others unaided. By using the homophone material and searching Google, I think that I have managed to identify the individual musicians, the hardest of which was Heifetz, since I only solved 1 very late in the solve. Of course, solvers could have completed the puzzle without taking the trouble to track down all the names, since the mention of “scrapers” in the clue would have been enough to allow them to enter FIDDLERS with confidence.
As to my favourite clues, I liked 12 and 14, both for making me smile when the penny dropped; 5, 19 and 27, all for surface reading; 24, for the cheeky device around “yard”; and & lit. at 28, for sheer concision.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07 | DIASPORA | Exiles observed returning quietly over Russia’s borders
DIAS (SAID=observed, pointed out; “returning” is anagram indicator) + P (=quietly, i.e. piano) + O (=over, on cricket scorecard) + R<ussi>A (“borders” means first and last letters only are used) |
| 09 | YOU WIN | I quit that entertaining university women’s group
[U (=university) + WI (=women’s group, i.e. Women’s Institute)] in YON (=that, in poetry or dialect) |
| 10 | ESCARPMENT | Campers must move – tent’s beginning to fall off a cliff
*(CAMPERS- + <t>ENT (“beginning to fall off” means first letter is dropped); “must move” is anagram indicator |
| 11 | ECHO | Some of the chosen live on in audio
Hidden (“some”) in “thE CHOsen”; cryptically, a sound that echoes “lives on in audio” |
| 12 | TYPIST | Office worker‘s formal attire wasted on the phone
Homophone (“on the phone”) of “tie (=formal wear) + pissed (=wasted, drunk)” |
| 14 | MARITIME | Virgin loses virginity at last; on one occasion involving sailors
MAR<y> (=Virgin, i.e. the Virgin Mary; “loses virginity at last” means letter “y” is dropped) + I (=one) + TIME (=occasion) |
| 17 | CHAGALL | Jewish artist needs tea and chutzpah
CHA (=tea) + GALL (=chutzpah, cheek); the reference is to Russian-French artist Marc Chagall (1887-1985) |
| 19 | ONESELF | Without others coming over, a little trifle’s enough
Hidden (“a little”) and reversed (“coming over”) in “triFLES ENOugh” |
| 23 | COPY-EDIT | Check work you did mostly in court
[OP (=work, i.e. opus) + YE (=you, in poetry or dialect) + DI<d> (“mostly” means last letter is dropped)] in CT (=court, in addresses) |
| 26 | ODESSA | Port does badly when in recession
*(DOES) + SA (AS=when, in time clauses; “in recession” indicates reversal); “badly” is anagram indicator |
| 27 | STAR | West end of soccer pitch is fans’ favourite
S<occer> (“west end of” means extreme left-hand letter only) + TAR (=pitch, e.g. for surfacing roads) |
| 29 | EXPATRIATE | Order Peter a taxi to drive from home
*(PETER A TAXI); “order” is anagram indicator |
| 31 | IN TOTO | Completely fascinated by Hebraic books, written from right to left
INTO (=completely fascinated by) + TO (OT=Hebraic books, i.e. Old Testament; “written from right to left” indicates reversal) |
| 32 | FIDDLERS | 15 18 30, 6 1, two 4 18, 8, 16 28 and 13 25 9 sounded divine among scrapers
The combinations of grid entries provided homophones (“sounded”) of a number of virtuoso violinists (“divine among scrapers”): the American ISAAC STERN (1920-2001); the Russian-American violinist Jascha HEIFETZ (1901-87); the two OISTRAKHs, i.e. the Soviet David Oistrakh (1908-74) and his Russian son Igor Oistrakh (1931-); the Polish-Mexican Henryk SZERYNG (1918-88); the American Nathan MILLSTEIN (1904-92) and the American YEHUDI MENUHIN (1916-99) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | FITS | Kick-off for Spurs after attack goes in
FIT (=attack of e.g. epilepsy) + S<purs> (“kick-off for” means first letter only); cf. The phone fits (=goes in(to)) the case |
| 02 | HOSPITAL | Maybe Guy’s house is mine, all bar the contents
HO (=hospital) + ‘S (=is, abbreviated) + PIT (=mine, e.g. for coal) + A<l>L (“bar the contents” means middle letter is dropped) |
| 03 | PALERMO | Not such a bright flash a few hours’ drive from Etna
Cryptically, “not such a bright flash” could be (a) paler mo(ment)! |
| 04 | OYSTER | Funny story about English native enjoyed by the carpenter?
E (=English) in *(STORY); “funny” is anagram indicator; the reference is to “The Walrus and the Carpenter”, a poem by Lewis Carroll”; a native is a type of oyster raised in an artificial bed |
| 05 | LUCENT | Bright copper keeping head down during 40-day trial period
UC (CU=copper, i.e. chemical formula; “keeping head down” means first letter becomes last letter) in LENT (=40-day trial period, i.e. Christ’s period in the wilderness) |
| 06 | HIGH | Stinking piece of chicken, maybe time for the bin?
<t>HIGH (=piece of chicken, maybe); “time (=T) for the bin” means letter “t” is dropped |
| 08 | SHARING | Being unselfish, mum gets a token of love
SH (=mum, as in to keep mum) + A + RING (=token of love) |
| 13 | YAHOO | Philistine always knocked over? Goliath finally ducks
YA (AY=always, archaic) + <goliat>H (“finally” means last letter only) + O O (=ducks, i.e. 2 x zero score in cricket) |
| 15/18 | ICE AXE | Current business partner of Goldman reported a hacker
I (=current, in physics) + homophone (“reported”) of “Sachs (=partner of Goldman, in investment banking)”; an ice axe can be used to hack your way through ice, hence a “hacker” |
| 16 | MILLS | Much trouble accompanies married crushes
M (=married) + ILLS (=much trouble, i.e. in plural); to mill peppercorns is to be grind, crush them |
| 20 | NOONTIDE | 12 running back and forth, drink going to and fro
ON NO (on=running, in progress; “back and forth” means in both directions) + TIDE (=drink – i.e. the sea – going back and forth) |
| 21 | SPECIAL | Large, top-quality mushrooms served up in dish of the day
L (=large, in sizes) + A1 (=top-quality) + CEPS (=mushrooms); “served up” indicates vertical reversal; cf. Today’s special is vegan chicken kiev |
| 22 | STUPEFY | Numb doctor upset with Friday’s case
*(UPSET) + F<rida>Y (“case” means first and last letters only; “doctor” is anagram indicator |
| 24 | YARROW | Herb‘s 27-inch racket
YAR<d> (=27 inches is three quarters of a yard, hence three of four letters) + ROW (=racket, din) |
| 25 | DAEMON | Supernatural presence moaned when disturbed
*(MOANED); “when disturbed” is anagram indicator |
| 28 | TINE | Metal point
TIN (=metal) + E (=point, i.e. east); & lit., since a tine is a metal point on e.g. a fork |
| 30 | TURN | Performer runs through short musical piece
R (=runs, on cricket scorecard) in TUN<e> (=musical piece; “short” means last letter is dropped); cf. She is pretty good for a pub turn |
Thanks RatkojaRiku and chapeau to Filbert for a virtuoso piece of setting.
Excruciating ‘homophonic’ wordplay, but the smiles raised made it all worthwhile.
Deepest admiration for RatkojaRiku for spotting that, and to Filbert for the fiendish ingenuity. I hadn’t a clue, though I now see how it was arrived at and have heard of all the fiddlers. It didn’t help that I entered ‘Digs’ at 1D, but don’t suppose I would have seen it if I had put ‘Fits’.
Apologies for the space I’ve occupied – my finger rested on the return key too long!
Tatrasman @3
Unwanted space removed.
Thanks to RatkojaRiku and Filbert
Excellent.
There is a second wordplay in 32a of course – DD in FILERS
I assume the theme is specifically Jewish violinists of the Diaspora.
Not sure about “without others” = “oneself”, but otherwise spot on.
Well, we almost got there. We got 32ac as FIDDLERS but couldn’t make head or tail of the numerical part of the clue even with ‘sounded’ as a homophone indicator. We weren’t helped either by putting ‘rich’ (as in stinking rich) for 6dn, nor could we get 1dn.
And though we thought 28dn had to be TINE we thought it an unsatisfactory clue in that ‘point’ has to do double duty as definition and part of the wordplay – and as it’s only part of the wordplay the clue can’t be an &lit. But had there been a question mark at the end to suggest double duty there would have been no problem.
Some ingenious clues though – we liked ESCARPMENT, MARITIME, NOONTIDE and YARROW. And we hadn’t encountered EXPATRIATE as a verb before.
Thanks, Filbert and RatkojaRiku.
Thanks to everyone who’s commented and RatkojaRika for the fine blog and for winkling out all the fiddlers.
I wrote this after after the bow discussion on a Monk FT puzzle led to Isaac Stern. On his wiki page is this quote, in relation to US/Russian cultural exchanges: ‘They send us their Jews from Odessa, and we send them our Jews from Odessa.’ Nathan Milstein and David Oistrakh were both from Odessa. My boyhood fiddle teacher was not Jewish, but I always got the impression he thought that was a handicap for his playing. All these guys were his heroes.
Sorry about the difficulty over FITS which looks hard in retrospect for an important piece of the jigsaw. I had another clue originally which gave the F but it had to go.
Fortunately I knew all the violinists so getting the theme helped me complete the puzzle. I think it was getting 16 28 and realising it sounded like Millstein that led me to get 32 and identifying the theme.
Great blog and puzzle. Fantastic work.
Beautifully groanworthy puns, all. Unfortunately, I had never heard of any of the scrapers except Yehudi Menuin (and it still took me an age to get YOU WIN), but somehow or another I managed to solve the whole thing with a bit of goggling and a bit of wordsearching.
I thought 28d was rather unsatisfactory for the reasons stated by allen_c @6, plus the fact that a TINE isn’t necessarily made of metal (so add another QM for dbe) and I don’t think it is the point itself, just a thing that has a point, isn’t it? I did get it quite quickly, but felt a little unsure about it, which was not ideal since it played a part in naming the scrapers. My LOI was FITS and it was difficult to think od=f a word meaning both ‘attack’ and ‘go in’, even though the S was clear enough (and cleverly clued). Still, it seems that was a clue ‘with a history’.
Nevertheless, quite a tour de force and I see now that the reason for the difficult grid with all those sticky-outs was not, as I initially expected, to accommodate a nina, but to make it easier to get all those theme-related words in.
Thanks to Dansar @5 for pointing out the wordplay DD in FILERS which did go straight over my head as I quickly wrote in FIDDLERS from the crossers I had + “scrapers”.
[Btw, the story of the jews from Odessa reminds of what Eisenhower was allegedly told by the head of the US space programme to explain how the Russians had got there first: “Their Germans are better than our Germans”.
https://youtu.be/QEJ9HrZq7Ro ]
Absolutely brilliant! Like Dormouse I knew all the fiddlers and this helped with the solve.
I can’t see a problem with TINE at all. TINE appears as one of the definitions of POINT in Chambers and tines are usually made of metal. Perhaps a QM would have allayed all quibbles but in a puzzle this good I wasn’t bothered.
Filbert, take a bow!
@cruciverbophile
Perhaps I was being a bit picky. I didn’t object violinly to the clue; after all, I got it quickly enough. I did look up TINE in Collins before commenting, but if ‘point’ is defined as TINE in Chambers, that seems the next best thing to vice versa. It was beautifully compact, it must be said.
Brilliant.