Hob provides Tuesday’s entertainment.
There’s usually a theme on Tuesday’s Independent. Today, Hob celebrates [maybe not the right word] the MURDER of THOMAS BECKET in CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL which led to him being hailed as a MARTYR and a saint. The murder took place 850 years ago today on 29th December 1170. The words THOMAS, MURDER, MARTYR and BECKET can be seen in the unchecked letters in the outer rows and columns as shown in the graphic below. CANTERBURY and CATHEDRAL can both be found in the grid. We could probably work the entries HALO and OBIT into the theme as well given that THOMAS was considered to be a saint and no doubt any supportive ‘media’ that existed in 1170 carried references to his life. History is not my strong point, but Wikipedia states that THOMAS was venerated by both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches and clue 13 encompasses this fact along with reference to the MURDER
The clues mention Henry II a number of times. THOMAS BECKET had many differences of opinion with King Hentry which eventually led to his MURDER by supporters of the King. There are probably some more subtle allusions that I have missed in the grid and clues (e.g. the reference to cloth, assassins, protest and violent assassins /head of state at 27 across, 30 across, 15 down and 26 down respectively), but I’m impressed by how Hob has woven everything together in both the clues and the entries.
There is one entry that I can’t parse and that is TRAUMATA at 1 down where I seem to be short of a T as explained in the detailed blog below. I’ll be interested to see what I have missed.
I enjoyed this puzzle. Thanks to Hob
The grid looked like this
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 7 | Money backing writer? A bloomer there, perhaps (5,3) |
BREAD (slang for money) + NIB (writing point of a pen; writer) reversed (backing) BREAD BIN< |
BREAD BIN (a BLOOMER is a type of loaf, which you might find in a BREAD BIN) |
| 9 | Glowing, having drunk ale during annual event (6) |
Anagram of (drunk) ALE contained in (during) AGM (Annual General Meeting; annual event) AG (LEA*) M |
AGLEAM (shining or glowing) |
| 10 | Stripped cell giving impulse to get ready for change? (4) |
EURO |
EURO (currency used in many countries of the European Union. EURO notes and coinage can be used as change) |
| 11 | Verity, a model Moabite woman (5) |
T (reference Model T Ford car) + RUTH (in the Old Testament, Ruth is described as being from MOAB) T RUTH |
TRUTH (verity) |
| 12 | Some nude content that’s seen on lots of web pages (4) |
MENU (hidden word [content] in SOME NUDE) MENU |
MENU (many web pages include a MENU to allow you to navigate to other parts of the same site or to external sites)
|
| 13 | Suspect death is within recall of heads of some leading Anglican and Roman Catholic churches (10) |
Anagram of (suspect) DEATH contained in (with) SLARC (first letters of [heads of] SOME, LEADING, ANGLICAN, ROMAN and CATHOLIC) reversed (recall of) C (ATHED*) RALS< |
CATHEDRALS (churches) |
| 17 | Utterly dreadful Spurs & England footballer (4) |
DIER (sounds like [spoken; uttered; utterly] DIRE [dreadful]) DIER |
DIER (reference Eric DIER [born 1994], Tottenham Hotspur footballer) |
| 18 | Coolness shown during pressure cooking of some pork and lamb (6) |
Anagram of (cooking) PO (first two letters of [some] PORK) and LAMB APLOMB* |
APLOMB (coolness under pressure) |
| 19 / 29d | See form of nectar with little fruit, say (10) |
Anagram of (form of) NECTAR + BURY (sounds like [say] BERRY [a small fruit]) CANTER* BURY |
CANTER [BURY] (reference the Archbishopric or see of the same name) |
| 22 | Floor couple used in back office, reportedly (4) |
KAYO (sounds like [reportedly] KO [hidden letters in [used in] BACK OFFICE) KAYO |
KAYO (KO [knock-out; floor]) |
| 24 | Bishop is admired, performing role at wedding (10) |
Anagram of (performing) B (bishop) and IS ADMIRED BRIDESMAID* |
BRIDESMAID (an important role at a wedding) |
| 25 | Amphibians seen around during most Februaries (4) |
EFTS (reversed [around] hidden word in [during] MOST FEBRUARIES) EFTS< |
EFTS (newts [tailed amphibians]) |
| 27 | Story involving knight? Mortification, ultimately, for the cloth (5) |
(LIE [story] containing [involving] N [notation for knight in chess moves]) + N (last letter of [ultimately] MORTIFICATION) LI (N) E N |
LINEN (cloth) |
| 29 | Ordered wrong drug (4) |
BAD (wrong) + E (ecstasy; drug) BAD E |
BADE (commanded ; ordered) |
| 30 | Unimportant details of short journey involving four assassins originally (6) |
(TRI TR (IV) I A |
TRIVIA (unimportant details) |
| 31 | Associate bully with decapitated young pig (2-6) |
COW (frighten; bully) + CO W ORKER |
CO-WORKER (colleague; associate) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | A mature adult extremely short of energy, having suffered wounds (8) |
I can’t see how the wordplay works here as I seem to be short of a T if I parse it as an anagram of (suffering) A MATUR TRAUMATA* |
TRAUMATA (wounds) |
| 2 | Henry the Second in control? That has a good ring to it! (4) |
HAL (Henry) + O (second letter of [second in) CONTROL) HAL O |
HALO (a ring of light or colour around a good or holy person) |
| 3 | Short description of Life of Brian: it’s tremendous for starters (4) |
OBIT (first letters of [starters] each of OF, BRIAN, IT’S and TREMENDOUS) OBIT |
OBIT (OBITuary [brief description of one’s life published after death) |
| 4 | Old woman’s hot brew (4) |
MA’S (mother’s [the old woman’s]) + H (hot) MAS H |
MASH (brew; MASH is a North of England dialect word meaning to brew tea) |
| 5 | Pakistani cricketer, an opener Lamb bowled out (4) |
A (first letter of [opener] AN) + LAM A LAM |
ALAM (There are at least two Pakistani test cricketers with the surname ALAM – Intikhab ALAM [born 1941] and Fawad ALAM [born 1985]) |
| 6 | Maybe Schwarzenegger is after small 21 item? (6) |
S (small) + ARNIE (shortened first name of Arnold Schwarzenegger [born 1947], film actor and politician) S ARNIE |
SARNIE (sandwich, an item that is frequently served at a PICNIC (entry at 21 down) |
| 8 | Sweet, sweet FA, needing Henry to be Arsenal’s No 1 (6) |
NOUG NOUGAT |
NOUGAT (hard, chewy confection made of a sweet paste filled with chopped almonds, pistachio nuts, cherries, etc.; sweet) |
| 14 | Magazine shows Henry the Second in league with fellow few ignored (5) |
H (henry; unit of inductance) + E (second letter of [the Second] LEAGUE) + H E LLO |
HELLO (name of a glossy magazine focusing on celebrity and royal news) |
| 15 | Protest before leader of bishops put out of action?(5) |
DEMO (DEMOnstration; protest) + B (first letter of [leader of] BISHOPS) DEMO B |
DEMOB (DEMOBilisie; take out of action) |
| 16 | Overused story following saint primarily (5) |
S (first letter of [primarily] SAINT) + TALE (story) S TALE |
STALE (overused) |
| 17 | Bit of information lawyer’s given by corporation (5) |
DA ([American] District Attorney; public prosecutor; lawyer) + TUM (TUMmy; stomach; corporation) DA TUM |
DATUM (singular of data; bit of information) |
| 20 | One German river joining two others? Donner & Blitzen, it might be (8) |
(EIN [German for one] + DEE [name of a number of rivers]) contained in (joining) (R [river] + R [river] i.e. two other rivers) R (EIN DEE) R |
REINDEER (topical reference to two of Santa’s REINDEER, Donner and Blitzen) |
| 21 | Almost choose and cut a piece of cake (6) |
PIC PIC NIC |
PICNIC (food; an undertaking that is mere child’s play; a piece of cake is a similar phrase to describe something easy) |
| 23 | Adult female, strong and stable witness (6) |
A (adult) + F (female) + FIRM (strong and stable) A F FIRM |
AFFIRM (support; testify; witness) |
| 26 | God sees ill-advised violent assailant at first being primed by head of state (4) |
S (first letter of [head of] STATE) + IVA (initial letters of [at first] each of ILL_ADVISED, VIOLENT and ASSAILANT) S IVA |
SIVA (the third god of the Hindu triad, destroyer and reproducer) |
| 27 | King Henry is missing from composer’s characters (4) |
LE LEAR |
LEAR (reference Shakespeare’s tragedy, King LEAR) |
| 28 | At present time, e.g. West Riding FA? (4) |
NOW (at present) + T (time) NOW T |
NOWT (Yorkshire [West Riding] expression meaning nothing [f_ all {FA}] |
| 29 | See 19 across | See wordplay at 19 across | [CANTER] BURY |
For 1d, take “adult extremely” as AT.
As per Hovis @1, I parsed TRAUMATA as an anagram of ‘A mature’ without the e (‘short of energy’), plus ‘adult extremely’ = first and last letter of ‘adult’ = AT. I think that works.
Otherwise, I liked the the theme which helped with a few, but alas not with the NHO DIER (for which I plumped for ‘Dyer’) and KAYO which well, just plain floored me.
Thanks to Hob and Duncan
I was struggling to finish when I saw MARTRYR MURDER and ooh that likes THOMAS and BECKET
And of course Canterbury Cathedral. I read the play and remember a Python moment but I’ve never seen it.
Thanks Hob and Dunc
I guessed DYER as well. This is a surname of somebody I know but never heard of Dier. Didn’t bother googling.
Hovis @ 1 and Wordplodder @ 2
Thanks for showing how to parse TRAUMATA. I should have seen that myself!
I really enjoyed this. I don’t normally spot Ninas and even when I do, it’s not normally until after everything’s done and dusted. This might well be the first time I’ve ever spotted it mid-solve and been able to take advantage of it. Perhaps i absorbed Quirister’s resolution from yesterday?
It was ALAM that tipped me off. Never heard of the cricketer(s) but easy to parse… but such a deliberate choice when so many other options would fit ?L?M. Luckily, at that point I had ?HOMAS on the top row and the T nudged me into solving 1D.
Similar things happened with the other edges, filling in MUR???, BEC??? and ????YR ahead of solving the clues to confirm them helped a great deal.
3D, my favourite.
copmus @3: This might be what you remember. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3dp281 The sketch comes at 14min 30 secs. It’s a bit of an old clip so quality isn’t great.
Lovely theme which I got but, unlike Bluth today – and like Bluth normally – only at the very end when searching for that Tuesday device. I’d spotted the CANTERBURY/CATHEDRALS connection and the repetition of Henry II.
I worked out the anagram fodder for TRAUMATA but needed a bit of help identifying the solution and I stupidly put in PEAL for HALO (the second of Henry in PAL which appears to be a sample control system and a peal has a good ring to it) which led to subsequent confusion – and failure – with EURO. By contrast, I wondered whether KAYO might be a solution to 22a but couldn’t parse it for the life of me, ended up not entering it and pressed Reveal, kicked myself.
Particular favourites included BREAD BIN for using bloomer for bread for once, NOUGAT and SARNIE which both made me laugh, REINDEER for its delightful construction and my COTD – NOWT for the brilliant definition (which reminded me of a witty contribution recently made by another poster on the Guardian pages who defined ‘herbivore’ as ‘deja vu on Merseyside’)
Thanks Hob and Duncan
I did know about the anniversary – Radio 4’s Sunday Worship came from Canterbury Cathedral – but I didn’t register / remember that today was the actual day, until the (King) Henry the Second clues leapt out at me at the first scan.
I thought the puzzle was just brilliant, with so many subtle allusions (one more – v 30ac – is that there were four assassins, the knights Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy, and Richard le Breton), making it a delight to solve from start to finish.
Huge thanks to Hob for a real tour de force and Duncan for a masterly blog.
As always the Nina passed us by until we looked up the blog! That would have been helpful… We were similarly KAYO’d by 22a like WordPlodder. New words for us today are EFTS, a cricketer and a composer.
At least there were no fish and the football related clues didn’t require any football knowledge.
Thanks to Hob and Duncanshiell for a lovely puzzle.
What more can I say? Although the theme revealed itself quite early on, this made it all the more enjoyable for me, and all the clues were admirably clued. Thanks Hob and Duncan.
Having learned about Ninas yesterday I was pleased to find one! I was worried when I saw bloomer as I’m rubbish at flowers but much stronger on bread! Traumata stumped me as did Euro (thanks for the explanation)
Thanks Hob and thanks Duncan
We actually saw the Nina for once. That helped us towards kayo though I’ve never seen or heard of it being spelt out like this and don’t really get the second half of the clue ,even when you parse it for me. But the rest was fun and reasonable,
very much with Bluth@6! made a proper difference to quite a few clues.. so thanks agaion Quirister!
many delights..
thanks
Hob n duncansheill
Another one where the nina was a great help (still not enough for me to get KAYO though). I thought this was brilliantly constructed. Thanks to Hob and duncansheill!
I had one left to get, 10a, when I spotted the nina, so it helped me finish. No problem with DIER, heard the name on the box many times. I always say “that was dire” when he mistimes a shot at goal.