Play along with this themed offering from Chalmie.
The theme of today's puzzle is PLAY, with PLAY, PLAYWRIGHT or PLAYER appearing in at least 11 clues, and answers included TREE, OTHELLO, SOPHOCLES and PEGGY ASHCROFT. In addition KEAN and SHAW formed parts of solutions.
I don't think this was a puzzle for the younger generation with COASTERS, PEGGY ASHCROFT and KEEGAN making an appearance, but for a Baby Boomer like myself, it was fine, even if the Coasters were before my time.
There was a good mix of clues, and if some of the surfaces were a bit nonsensical (although they scanned fine), that was to be expected, given the limitations a theme puts on setters.
Thanks, Chalmie.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RESUME |
Carry on Australian bird series which was put back (6)
|
|
<=(EMU ("Australian bird") + Ser. (series)) [which was put back] |
||
| 4 | EPISODES |
Attacks pies, does badly (8)
|
|
*(pies does) [anag:badly] |
||
| 9 | PIPER |
Half a pill for every player (5)
|
|
[half a] PI(ll) + PER ("for every") |
||
| 10 | PYGMALION |
Diminutive cat not unknown around a play (9)
|
|
PYGM(y) ("diminutive", not Y ("unknown")) + LION ("cat") around A The George Bernard Shaw play that was adapted for My Fair Lady. |
||
| 11 | UXORIAL |
Like wife buxom, naked, and ready for some Arabs (7)
|
|
(b)UXO(m) [naked] and RIAL (unit of currency in Iran, Yemen, Oman etc, so "ready for some Arabs") |
||
| 12 | YANKEES |
Campaign for vote against return for baseball players (7)
|
|
[return] <= (SEEK ("campaign for") + NAY ("vote against")) The New York Yankees are a baseball team. |
||
| 13 | BALL |
Labour reverse course with Liberal and co-operate to play this (4)
|
|
<=LAB (Labour) [reverse course] with L (Liberal) If you play ball, you co-operate. |
||
| 14 | COASTERS |
Most of 10 across arranged for group singing “Yakety-Yak” (8)
|
|
[most of] TE(n) ACROSS [anag:arranged] For the benefit of the younger generation, the Coasters were an American vocal group of the late 50s, who are still around today, although with different group members, and their most well-known hit was "Yakety-Yak" |
||
| 17 | SOY SAUCE |
Condiment South African butcher’s missing, oddly after bishop leaves apology (3,5)
|
|
SA (South African) + (b)U(t)C(h)E(r) ['s missing oddly] after RR (Right Reverend, so "bishop") leaves SO(rr)Y ("apology") |
||
| 19 | TREE |
Maybe pine for Beerbohm? (4)
|
|
Double definition, the second a reference to Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852-1917), an English actor and theatre director. |
||
| 22 |
See 20
|
|
| 24 | OTHELLO |
Play game (7)
|
|
Double definition, the Shakespeare play and a board game. |
||
| 25 | RECONVERT |
With difficulty, cover rent and do another makeover (9)
|
|
*(cover rent) [anag:with difficulty] |
||
| 26 | OGIVE |
Pointed arch with no play (5)
|
|
O (no, as in "zero") + GIVE ("play) |
||
| 27 | APERIENT |
Pain 19 treated with mild laxative (8)
|
|
*(pain tree) [anag:treated], TREE being the solution to "19" across. |
||
| 28 | KEEGAN |
Old football player, say, grabbed by a much older player (6)
|
|
e.g. ("say") grabbed by (Edmund) KEAN ("a much older player") The "old football player" is Kevin Keegan, of Liverpool and England fame, and the "much older player" is Edmund Kean (1787-1833), an English Shakespearean actor. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | REPLUMBS |
Puts in new pipes with bumpers left off (8)
|
|
*(bumpers l) [anag:off] where L = left |
||
| 2 | SOPHOCLES |
Playwright’s shop close to collapse (9)
|
|
*(shop close) [anag:to collapse] |
||
| 3 | MARGIN |
Initially, Ricky Gervais featured in the most important side (6)
|
|
[initially] R(icky) G(ervais) featured in MAIN ("the most important") |
||
| 5 | PEGGY ASHCROFT |
Player gets lively chap to fry eggs (5,8)
|
|
*(chap to fry eggs) [anag:lively] Dame Peggy Ashcroft (1907-1991) was an English actor of stage and screen, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1985 for A Passage to India. |
||
| 6 | SHAWNEE |
Playwright born a Native American (7)
|
|
(George Bernard) SHAW ("playwright") + NEE ("born") |
||
| 7 | DRIVE |
Medical man setter has shot in play (5)
|
|
Dr. (doctor, so "medical man") + I'VE ("setter has") |
||
| 8 | SANEST |
Extremely reasonable hospital is in Versailles (6)
|
|
San. (sanatorium, so "hospital") + EST ("is in Versailles" i.e. the French for "is") |
||
| 10 | PULMONARY VEIN |
Blood flowing here ruins play – mourn 40% of investment (9,4)
|
|
*(play mourn inve) [anag:ruins] where INVE is [40% of] INVE(stment) |
||
| 15 | STROLLING |
Stone doing his usual thing walking along (9)
|
|
St. (stone) + ROLLING ("doing his usual thing", i.e. a rolling stone, as in the band or the proverb) You could argue that most stones don't roll very often, so "rolling" is not "their usual thing". They tend to just stay in one place most of the time, until disturbed. |
||
| 16 | MELODEON |
Play this poem about fruit contrariwise (8)
|
|
ODE ("poem") in (rather than about, indicated by contrariwise) MELON ("fruit") |
||
| 18 | YOU AND I |
We get upset finding a eulogy oddly missing (3,3,1)
|
|
[upset] <=(f)I(n)D(i)N(g) A (e)U(l)O(g)Y [oddly missing] |
||
| 20, 22 | SCORE A CENTURY |
Every hundred years, 20 successfully play (5,1,7)
|
|
SCORE (20) A CENTURY ("every hundred years") |
||
| 21 | CHROME |
Browser starts to chew hawthorns to the north of city (6)
|
|
[starts to] C(hew) H(awthorns) to the north of ROME ("city") |
||
| 23 | NACRE |
New area for mollusc production (5)
|
|
N (new) + ACRE (measurement of "area"), which is produced by a mollusc. |
Thanks Loonapick, I had every solution understood apart from 24A which I did not know was a board game. The cross letters made the play quite obvious.
I was born in Newcastle and was mortally offended (just kidding!) that you didn’t mention that club in your 28A comment.
Sorry Peter. I always associate Keegan with Liverpool despite his famous “I would love it…” rant as The Magpies manager.
Loonapick, that season broke my heart. Twelve points clear at Christmas…
KEAN a bit confusing as in Roy so thanks for blog.
I saw Kev playing at Portman Road. I thing “Toon”may have won that one.
Fun puzzle Thanks all.
With a new word in MELODEON (which I also couldn’t parse properly), a few not common words in OTHELLO (in the ‘game’ sense) and OGIVE and a bit of parsing which escaped me (I knew the ‘old’ but not ‘much older player’) in KEEGAN, this took a bit of working out, even with the theme to help. The COASTERS were a bit before my time too, so they had to go in from wordplay.
Favourite was the GIVE for ‘play’ in OGIVE.
Thanks to Chalmie and loonapick
Chalmie at his playful best! Well, Loonapick, this Generation X-er had no problem with the answers you mention (thanks to my parents’ tastes) and as a Liverpool fan from my youth, Keegan was fine too. Football aside, that player’s perm speaks volumes to anyone who lived through the 70s. It was TREE which did for me (properly old!)
But what a great puzzle and I loved the theme. So many ticks with OTHELLO my all-time favourite play but I think I liked YOU AND I best.
Thanks to Chalmie And Loonapick for a fine blog.
Thanks all. I’d agree that inanimate stones don’t usually roll, but then they don’t have genders either. “His usual thing” was meant to indicate a human Stone.
Thanks for popping in Chalmie. I thought instantly of papa as the rolling stone, Mick’s one too, naturally, but his usual thing is more strutting than strolling. Super clue.
Hello Chalmie, did you suppress a guffaw when compiling 11ac? It was my COD, just as 20d over there in the Grain.
*Graun
Ong’ara @ 9
Not exactly. I did congratulate myself on a well-crafted distracting surface.
More generally, I’d slightly disagree about Loonapick’s choice of “nonsensical” to describe some of my surfaces. I consider them “surreal”, which is why one regularly encounters animals acting extraordinarily anthropomorphically in my puzzles.
Ok sir.
Chalmie – thanks for dropping in – I agree with your comment about a Rolling Stone.
One person’s nonsense is another’s surrealism, I suppose. Nonsense wasn’t intended as a criticism. Lear and Carroll did OK with nonsense.
Thanks for dropping in Chalmie. I enjoyed this but didn’t finish it until my breakfast coffee this morning. I had to trawl through a list of players to get KEEGAN but the rest fitted OK.
Thanks for the blog Loonapick.
Thanks Chalmie for an entertaining crossword. Favourites were PYGMALION, COASTERS, and YOU AND I. I missed OGIVE, APERIENT, and MELODEON. I like “surreal” surfaces as long as they are readable (as all the surfaces were in this puzzle.) Thanks Loonapick for the blog.
Loonapick @13
Though I’m a great admirer of Lear and Carroll, I fear a number of solvers might complain were I to be as free and easy with the limits of the English language as they.
I bunged in unparsed Reagan at 28 from the crossers, being an old player.
Late to the feast… but none the less very enjoyable… the theme helped a lot for Kean, Pygmalion, n Tree… Keegan years at NUFC were magical if heart breaking (Peter@3… my son was smitten also)… I like some whimsy in a surface.. my fave was 11ac… made me smile
Thanks Chalmie n Loonapick
Thanks Chalmie and loonapick
Only got to this one on the weekend and struggled for longer than usual for this setter’s crosswords. Ended up making the error by inexplicably entering BILL instead of BALL – picking the wrong party to reverse and failing to make sense of any parsing of it. Remembered the song ‘Yakety-Yak’, but would never have worked out the name of the group who sang it without looking it up. There were several other answers that required external help to find or confirm them – KEEGAN / KEAN, MELODEON, OGIVE (had heard of the word, but had to guess that it was to do with an arch), TREE (didn’t know his middle name) and PEGGY ASHCROFT.
Finished in the SE corner with OGIVE, KEEGAN and MELODEON.