What a high-class crossword: smooth surfaces which all fit together well and plenty of original and excellent clues. I found that often I was sure what the answer was but couldn’t explain it at first, but then it all became perfectly clear; which is a sign of good clueing.
Definitions in brown, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
Nina? I think it’s something to do with the top and the bottom answers, and most of (all?) the acrosses, at any rate, seem to be connected with it. I’m afraid my knowledge of Macbeth is rather thin: I know the Blackadder thing (linked in 1ac), but not an awful lot more.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | THE SCOTTISH PLAY | French tea shops tacitly involved in unmentionable work (3,8,4) |
| thé [the French for tea] (shops tacitly)* — according to actors’ superstitions one must never mention Macbeth by name. | ||
| 9 | THUNDER | Report that goes with 11th subsidiary (7) |
| ’11th’ is split and you get th under [subsidiary] — it goes with 11, which is lightning | ||
| 10 | DUDGEON | Resentment of first couple in club going for date (7) |
| bludgeon [club] with its first couple of letters replaced by d | ||
| 11 | LIGHTNING | Inside of jacket keeps hot amid great burst of energy (9) |
| li(g(h)t)ning | ||
| 13 | BLADE | Pupil, feeding, asked for knife (5) |
| B(L)ade — to solve this we have to ignore the commas | ||
| 14 | RECORDED | Chalked up line in grass (8) |
| re(cord)ed | ||
| 17 | AUGURS | Signs given by a teacher cycling south (6) |
| a, then guru with its u moved to the front, then s | ||
| 19 | BLOODY | Emphatically hoping for children to change sides (6) |
| broody [hoping for children] with its r changed to an l | ||
| 20 | MURDERER | One ending life of racehorse retired by the Queen (8) |
| (Red Rum)rev. ER — a nice variation on an old chestnut | ||
| 24 | ROUSE | Start trouser pockets (5) |
| Hidden in tROUSEr — so simple, and there I was trying to think of a trouser which contained ‘begin’ | ||
| 26 | MESSENGER | Relatively confused, Italy turns to English news provider (9) |
| messIer [relatively confused] with its I becoming Eng | ||
| 28 | NOTHING | Nix Olympica’s western extremity (7) |
| The western extremity of Olympica is O, or 0, or nothing, or nix | ||
| 29 | DIAMOND | Card game done naked finished outside (7) |
| di({g}am{e} {d}on{e})d | ||
| 31 | THE WEIRD SISTERS | Twisted, withered women in theatre (3,5,7) |
| *(withered) sisters [women in theatre of the hospital sort], &lit. The Weird Sisters are the three prophetic witches in Macbeth. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TITULAR | Pivotal bit of Christening ritual performed in name only (7) |
| The pivotal bit, ie the core, of ‘Christening’ is the letter t, then (ritual)* | ||
| 2 | EMU | Bird bone’s bitten off at both ends (3) |
| {f}emu{r} | ||
| 3 | CADET | One training pet to catch adder, ignoring the odds (5) |
| ca(de)t, the de being {a}d{d}e{r} — training intransitive in the definition although it’s transitive in the surface | ||
| 4 | TURBINE | Serve up dry plonk – after starting it’ll provide you with energy (7) |
| (brut)rev. {w}ine | ||
| 5 | INDIGO | Richard’s red gave green in this! (6) |
| I’m not sure what’s happening here: ‘Richard of York gave battle in vain’ is a mnemonic for remembering the colours of the rainbow, but it does seem — to me, anyway, and I’m probably not understanding it fully — a bit loose: presumably Richard = red, gave = green, and in = indigo | ||
| 6 | HIDEBOUND | Traditionalist nomadic Bedouin assuming the mantle of husband (9) |
| *(Bedouin) in h{usban}d — traditionalist and hidebound are both adjectives | ||
| 7 | LEELA | Sterile elastic masks – a Doctor’s best friend? (5) |
| Hidden in SteriLE ELAstic — Leela is or was Tom Baker’s assistant in Doctor Who | ||
| 8 | YANKEES | Every fourth of July Canadians make the same mess as their neighbours (7) |
| The letters which are the fourth, eighth, twelfth, etc of ‘July Canadians make the same mess’ spell out YANKEES. Very clever. | ||
| 12 | GECKO | To start with, grey parrot caught small lizard (5) |
| g{rey} “echo” | ||
| 15 | RIDGE TILE | Apex piece tops off river and wall crossings (5,4) |
| {b}ridge {s}tile — a bridge and a stile are used to cross a river and a wall | ||
| 16 | DIM | Not clear? Write up its position in grid (3) |
| 16dn being in the middle of the grid, ie mid-grid, mid is reversed (write up) | ||
| 18 | UNRIG | A French girl briefly stood up to strip on boat (5) |
| un [A in French] (gir{l})rev. | ||
| 19 | BARONET | Singer, a bass, lifted title … (7) |
| a b (tenor)rev. | ||
| 21 | UPSIDES | … plus points for winning teams (7) |
| Winning teams are sides that are up, or up sides — I can’t see why there is an ellipsis between this clue and the previous one, unless it’s some sort of a link in that a winning team lifts the title | ||
| 22 | REREDOS | Taking time, restored tattered screen (7) |
| (res{t}ored)* | ||
| 23 | IMAGER | Picture created from this one time in gentleman’s address (6) |
| 1 M(age)r | ||
| 25 | UNTIE | Twist near end of knot to loosen (5) |
| knot = unite, and the ‘it’, which is near the end of the word, is twisted so we have un(ti)e | ||
| 27 | EXAMS | Many questions asked of the newly professional? (5) |
| Exams contain many questions and the newly professional are ex-amateurs, or ex-ams | ||
| 30 | ORE | Metal in half-finished state (3) |
| Ore{gon} — some &littery going on — perhaps the definition as I’ve given it is inadequate | ||
I found parts of this quite tough but it was a superb puzzle – very enjoyable. I struggled to parse a couple of clues and needed to phone a friend to understand them although between us we still couldn’t quite untie UNTIE.
I spotted many links to that play whose name mustn’t be spoken but stupidly it didn’t occur to me that it might have been a theme!
Many thanks to Maize and to John. I think your interpretation of 5d is correct, John. Once I understood it I didn’t think it was at all “loose”, and it was probably my favourite of a fine selection.
Took ages to solve but all completed satisfactorily without cheats.
Had no problem with 5d but thought 28 was a poor clue. Maybe there’s more to it than I’m seeing?
Lots of very tricky clues – which I like (especially when I eventually get them).
Thanks to Maize and John.
It has been a while since we had a Maize crossword and this was worth waiting for. A theme even I noticed and lots of good clues.
Thanks to Maize and John
Four or five I couldn’t parse, including INDIGO which I never would have worked out (my mnemonic is the more basic ‘Roy G Biv’) and I failed on AUGURS, for which I was stuck on cues for ‘Signs’. Also not helped by initially bunging in ‘The Three Witches’ for 29a.
Good fun all around. I look forward to being further educated about the ‘Macbeth’ references.
Thanks to Maize and John
Hovis @2. I too was puzzled by 28a until I found that NIX OLYMPICA was the former (pre-1973!) name for Olympus Mons, the highest mountain on Mars. Somewhat obscure GK.
RD @5. Thanks for that.
Great puzzle by Maize, and thanks to ds for the blog. Haven’t read Macbeth since O levels in Sheffield in the early 70s but lots of references here… eg dagger speech: “and on thy blade and dudgeon were gouts of blood” etc…
I thought that was quite brilliant. Tough to get into, but well worth the effort. Some really clever and well disguised clues and, as usual, I only spotted the theme when I had finished! Not being a fan of Doctor Who, I didn’t know Leela, but it couldn’t have been anything else. I don’t think I have seen French tea before – lovely.
High class stuff. Many thanks to Maize and John.
I look forward to Maize’s all too infrequent appearances in the Indy. His themes are always strong and his clueing inspired … but why on earth did he not leave out the commas in 13ac? The surface reading doesn’t need them, and their inclusion makes a nonsense of the cryptic reading.
Guessed the theme very early on which probably did me no favours as I then, like WordPlodder, bunged in The Three Witches at 31a.
Certainly took me some time to sort out all the parsing and I wasn’t at all sure I’d got there with UNTIE.
Favourite, despite the sentiment expressed, was MURDERER.
Thanks to Maize for the challenge and to John for the review.
It took me more than one session to complete the grid.
Meaning, I found it very hard.
I couldn’t fully explain five entries, including 5d which was way beyond me.
But, yes, looking back at the crossword, having had a re-run through the clues, I thought this was really high-quality.
The theme as such left me cold (Shakespeare, ya know, or is that sort of blasphemy?) but it was well worked out.
Surprised to see the split in 9ac (without any indication): the Indy going Guardian?
When I see the name Maize I always think ‘pangram’ – but not today.
Many thanks to John (for the blog) & Maize (for a superb puzzle).
Thanks for the blog, John – a ‘high-class’ puzzle indeed.
Like baerchen @7, I did The Scottish Play for O Level [and enjoyed teaching it, briefly, thereafter] which means I remember it better than what someone said to me the day before yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed the solve.
Many thanks to Maize – I’ve come late to your puzzles but I’m looking forward to the next one.
[@Eileen
I can still quote decent chunks of it from memory but don’t ask me why I went into the kitchen or where my bl**** glasses are]
baerchen @13 – exactly! 😉
Got 1a straight off-reminded me of Blackadder when he kept saying “you mean Macbeth” I think Robbie Coltrane was one of the actors.
I slowed down as I got lower I didnt know LEELA but easy to get from the clue
Great puzzle-thanks all.
It being Tuesday we were on the lookout for a theme and spotted it early on. A trawl through the play turned up several thematic words – although some of them were not in memorable quotes – plus a few that could be related to the theme.
An excellent puzzle with lots to like. Not unusually for us our favourites were two non-themed entries, INDIGO and RIDGE TILE.
Thanks, Maize and John.
Copmus @15, the two superstitious actors in Blackadder the Third were played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Connor. Robbie Coltrane, of course, gave a definitive – not to mention anaspeptic, phrasmotic and compunctuous – performance as Dr Samuel Johnson.
copmus @15 you will see it all if you follow the link in 1ac.
Hugh Paddick played Jules (or was it Sandy?) in those sketches with Kenneth Williams in Round the Horne.
I also had trouble parsing a few, 5d being one of them as I didn’t know the mnemonic. Not keen on Spokeshave, my nickname for the bard when I was at school.
Somehow, I managed to finish this, and spotted the theme early on, but have to say I didn’t really enjoy it, as there were too many clues that I solved (or rather guessed) correctly but couldn’t parse. Thanks anyway to Maize and John.
Thanks for the blog John and to all those who took time to comment. Love that Blackadder sketch and I’m sure we can forgive you for mentioning the real name of 1a John. 🙂
Just in case anyone’s interested, and for the record in any case, here are all the references:
Act1 scene i: When shall we three meet again, In THUNDER, LIGHTNING or in rain; 1.ii What BLOODY man is that? 2.i This DIAMOND he greets your wife withal; I see thee still, and on thy BLADE and DUDGEON gouts of blood; 3.iv Though you UNTIE the winds and let them fight against the churches; AUGURS and understood relations have brought forth the secretest man of blood; I will tomorrow to THE WEIRD SISTERS; 5.v My fell of hair would at a dismal treatise ROUSE and stir; To the last syllable of RECORDED time; A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying NOTHING.
MURDERER and MESSENGER are two of the characters in the play.
5d is what I think Don Manley would call an ‘improvised’ or ‘zany’ clue – which is always going to be a bit Marmitey I suppose.
If anyone’s near Cornwall in late November, do come and see St Austell Players performing 1a – hopefully! We had been due to open at the end of March until wider events intervened.
Thanks, Maize, for the rundown on the thematic words – there were a few we didn’t find but thought might be there, or at least words with similar meaning. And, of course, the stage direction at the very beginning of the play is “Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches”.
Very good puzzle. Thought 5dn a superb clue.
I found this quite tough and it took me ages to the the two long clues. I kept thinking of Chekov’s Three Sisters for 31ac. In the end I needed to cheat a lot to get the bottom left corner.
Many thanks Maize, that was a pleasure. Like others, I studied the play at O Level, and it sparked something. I can still quote whole sections (including those with BLADE and DUDGEON, and RECORDED and NOTHING) and would still rank it in my top five of the Bard, having read all, and seen most staged. I must own about ten versions of the Scottish, either stage recordings or films. Not a theme I was going to miss!
Thanks, Maize. New setter to me, brilliant puzzle.