Hypnos provides our Tuesday challenge: there are a few slightly obscure references, but clear clues make most of them guessable.
Tuesday normally means some sort of theme or hidden message. A few weeks ago, Leicester City Football Club won the FA CUP for the FIRST TIME, with the only goal in the match scored by YOURI TIELEMANS. Our crossword setter clearly thinks this is worthy of celebration, and has managed to arrange it round the edges of the grid: neatly done.
I enjoyed the surfaces, particularly 8a and 16d. And I love the idea of a YAH-BOO PARTICLE: someone should discover another one just so they can use this name. Thanks Hypnos for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | YAH-BOO |
Defiant expression from boorish lout around bar’s entrance (3-3)
|
| YAHOO (boorish lout) around the first letter (entrance) of B[ar]. | ||
| 9 | PARTICLE |
Pressure a daily feature, maybe? Just a bit (8)
|
| P (scientific symbol for pressure) + ARTICLE (maybe a feature in a “daily” = daily newspaper). | ||
| 10 | ONE-LINER |
Northern priest engaged by big story as source of humour (3-5)
|
| N (Northern) + ELI (Old Testament priest), inserted into (engaged by) ONER (as in one-er: can mean “something extraordinary” = big story). | ||
| 11 | NETFUL |
Skinned tuna left to be distributed as a quantity of fish (6)
|
| [t]UN[a] (skinned = outer letters removed) + LEFT, all anagrammed (to be distributed). | ||
| 12 | URGERS |
Those strongly pressing get fast food but no starter (6)
|
| [b]URGERS (fast food), without the first letter (starter).
The sort of word that crossword setters find to fill an awkward slot: it’s perfectly valid, but probably not very useful in real life. |
||
| 13 | INDUCTEE |
One admitted to organisation, say, in debt leaving Britain – cue for reform? (8)
|
| Anagram (for reform) of IN DE[b]T + CUE, leaving out the B (Britain). | ||
| 15 | RHEE |
Ambassador occupying middle of area is former Asian president (4)
|
| HE (His Excellency = title for an ambassador), inserted into (occupying) the middle letters of [a]RE[a].
The former South Korean president Syngman Rhee. |
||
| 16 | AHEAD |
Leading poster about male article (5)
|
| AD (advertisement = poster) around HE (male) + A (indefinite article). | ||
| 17 | ROAM |
Go without fixed purpose in pilgrimage site reportedly (4)
|
| Homophone (reportedly) of ROME, a place to which a pilgrim may travel. | ||
| 19 | IMPOTENT |
Young troublemaker, ordinary figure close to delinquent lacking strength (8)
|
| IMP (youhg troublemaker) + O (ordinary, as in O-level exams) + TEN (figure = number) + closing letter of [delinquen]T. | ||
| 21 | PROTEA |
Top area almost cultivated for south African shrub (6)
|
| Anagram (cultivated) of TOP ARE[a] (almost = last letter dropped).
Shrub also known as sugarbush; features in the badge and nickname of the South African cricket team. |
||
| 22 | TAI CHI |
A slow system of exercises? Excellent champion in it making a comeback (3,3)
|
| AI (A1 = excellent) + CH (short for champion), in IT reversed (making a comeback). | ||
| 24 | DARKBORN |
Dim element deprived of love the second time in a fantasy trilogy (8)
|
| DARK (dim) + BOR[o]N (an element) deprived of its second O (zero = love in tennis scoring).
Trilogy of science fiction novels by Alison Sinclair. No, me neither, but easy enough to guess-and-check. |
||
| 25 | IAN SMITH |
This man surprisingly tours India, a former settlers’ leader (3,5)
|
| Anagram (surprisingly) of THIS MAN around (touring) I (abbreviation for India).
Former Prime Minister of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) when it was ruled by white settlers. |
||
| 26 | EREBUS |
European detective in underworld location (6)
|
| E (European) + REBUS (fictional detective created by Ian Rankin).
In Ancient Greek literature, a “region of darkness” in the underworld. I remember it from the passage in the last act of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, set to music by Vaughan Williams in the Serenade to Music, which includes these lines: “The motions of his spirit are dull as night, |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FAR NORTH |
Nervously ran into river in very cold region? (3,5)
|
| Anagram (nervously? = shaking, I suppose) of RAN, in FORTH (river in Scotland). | ||
| 2 | I BELIEVE SO |
I love bees flying around second of hives? That’s fairly sure (1,7,2)
|
| Anagram (flying) of I LOVE BEES around the second letter of [h]I[ves]. | ||
| 3 | ROUNDS |
Reasons not good for sets of drinks (6)
|
| [g]ROUNDS (reasons, as in “grounds for dismissal”) without the G (good).
As in “a round of drinks” = one for each member of your group. |
||
| 4 | SPAR |
Fight in holiday resort, reportedly (4)
|
| Homophone (reportedly) of SPA (holiday resort). | ||
| 5 | TRINIDAD |
Northern Ireland director among a group of three in Caribbean location (8)
|
| NI (Northern Ireland) + D (director), inserted into (among) TRIAD (a group of three). | ||
| 6 | TINT |
Colour encapsulated by Fauvist in theory (4)
|
| Hidden answer (encapsulated) in [fauvis]T IN T [heory]. For the surface, Fauvist = one of a group of early 20th-century painters who used strong colours. | ||
| 7 | ILL-USE |
Bullies first off put in order for rough conduct? (3-3)
|
| Anagram (put in order) of [b]ULLIES with the first letter taken off.
Ill-use (or ill-usage) = harsh treatment or abuse. |
||
| 13 | INEPT |
Foolish patient forgetting a time for treatment (5)
|
| Anagram (for treatment) of P[at]IENT, forgetting A + T (time).
Inept more often means “clumsy”, but Chambers also gives “foolish” as a synonym. |
||
| 14 | CORDON BLEU |
Gracious fellow beginning to buy foreign bread of a very high culinary standard (6,4)
|
| COR (cor! = gracious! = expression of surprise) + DON (fellow = university academic) + beginning letter of B[uy] + LEU (currency unit of Moldova or Romania = foreign money = “bread” in slang). | ||
| 16 | APERITIF |
I fear tip improper for champagne, perhaps (8)
|
| Anagram (improper) of I FEAR TIP.
A drink before a meal, for example champagne. |
||
| 18 | AGE GROUP |
Trouble about Spain raised for a demarcated demographic? (3,5)
|
| AGGRO (aggravation = trouble) around E (abbreviation for España = Spain), then UP (raised). | ||
| 20 | MCADAM |
One hosting man in garden is Scottish engineer (6)
|
| MC (Master of Ceremonies = one hosting) + ADAM (man in the Garden of Eden).
John McAdam, who refined the method of making road surfaces from layers of broken stone, now known as “macadam”. |
||
| 21 | PARSEC |
Critically analyse constant astronomical measurement (6)
|
| PARSE (critically analyse) + C (c = scientific symbol for the speed of light, or mathematical symbol for a constant generally).
A measure of distance used in astronomy: 3 and a bit light-years. A very long way. |
||
| 23 | CASE |
Argument, something that’s unpacked in lawsuit (4)
|
| Triple definition. As in “make a case for . . .”; short for suitcase; or proceedings in a law court. | ||
| 24 | DOHA |
Admission of stupidity by American in Middle East capital (4)
|
| D’OH (an exclamation acknowledging that one has done something stupid; popularised by the cartoon series The Simpsons) + A (abbreviation for American).
Capital of Qatar. |
Sorry Eileen (that should be a song!) if you pop in later but I don’t follow Leicester City closely enough to know the name of their goalscorer. Which meant I was left with FIRST and FA CUP but also with YOUR and LE MANS which left me absolutely befuddled!
Some nicely crafted clues in this: particular favourites include PARSEC, the lovely triple CASE and the joy-to-assemble CORDON BLEU which, for some inexplicable reason (not sure i’d describe him as gracious) made me think of Keith Floyd. YAH-BOO is fun; INDUCTEE not a favourite word.
Thanks Hypnos and Quirister
As a Leicester City supporter I soon worked out what was going on around the perimeter. I had to do a lot of online searching to eventually find DARKBORN. Great stuff (as Chris Packham says too often) but thanks Hypnos and Quirister.
Motored quite happily through the RH side but came to a grinding halt with the likes of INDUCTEE, DARKBORN and EREBUS. No help from the nina as I could only find the same random words as PostMark discovered.
I did eventually fill the grid with help from Mr Google but it certainly wasn’t my finest hour!
Thanks nevertheless to Hypnos and to Quirister for the review.
I saw FIRST on the top row but it got a bit complicated after that.
I graduated from Leicester and first watched 1st div teams at Filbert St.
never became a fan but went to see the teams they were playing
I was looking forward to seeing Law and Charlton and for a bonus had this hairy Beatle-ish 17 yr old Beatle-ish character-also saw Jimmy Greaves who was the drinker then. George had hardly started , So great memories there
Oh and puzzle good too,
I could see something going on around the perimeter and got diverted by finding out that there was a scandal at Le Mans in 1966 when one team tried to engineer a tied finish. I followed that by looking up what happened in the FA Cup in 1966 (overshadowed by a rather more memorable Cup Final in that year!), and then gave up.
The puzzle itself was excellent. Some great surfaces and lovely cluing as usual from this setter. RHEE and DARKBORN were new to me but clearly clued so not a problem.
Many thanks to Hypnos for the fun and to Quirister for the review.
Not being a football follower I had the same problem in interpreting the Nina as PostMark@1 and Rabbit Dave@5, especially with the LE MANS bit. I had to enter DARKBORN and RHEE from wordplay and I spent a long time trying to figure out the not so simple parsing of AGE GROUP, my last in.
I associate EREBUS more with the volcano in Antarctica, the site of the Air NZ tragedy in the late 70’s, than with the ‘underworld location’ from which it obviously takes its name.
Thanks to Hypnos for an enjoyable puzzle which taught me a few things and to Quirister
It being Tuesday we were on the lookout for a theme or nina and we spotted that something was afoot but didn’t think to link top with bottom then left with right; we only saw ‘your 1 time FA cup’ (left + bottom) and ‘first tie Le Mans’ (top + right) so couldn’t understand it.
But none of that was necessary to solve the puzzle. although we’re not sure how many younger sovers would know of Singman RHEE or even IAN SMITH.
We guessed DARKBORN from the wordplay and confirmed it by googling. EREBUS took a while for the penny to drop as we kept thinking of Dis or Hel for the underworld, as did MCADAM since we’d forgotten the spelling wasn’t the same as in the macadam named after him.
We’ll go with PostMark and nominate CORDON BLEU and PARSEC as favourites.
Thanks, Hypnos and Quirister.
Pride comes before a fall. Just as I was feeling pleased with myself for finishing this unaided, I find I have missed an obvious Nina. Lovely puzzle, though.
Missed the Nina, after reminding myself to keep an eye out n seeing RITIMEFA_UP emerge.. then became immersed in other issue n completed without even looking how it was developing.. doh.. happy that BLEU is the most usual follower of CORDON as I was nowhere close to parsing.. always forget about YAHOO until the last possible moment.. very much liked MCADAM.. for man in garden… AHEAD n RHEE for the “just follow the instructions” .. not heard of RHEE but was able to easily fill in I.Smith..
Thanks Hypnos n Quirister
Well, I read a lot of fantasy, and I hadn’t heard of DARKBORN, either. I don’t anything about football, either so the Nina was lost on me.