Guardian 28,585 / Vulcan

by

Vulcan starts the week with a reasonably straightforward puzzle.

A typical Monday medley, with several double / cryptic definitions and some neat anagrams. I liked the surfaces of 16ac and 3dn.

Thanks to Vulcan for the puzzle.

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

 

Across

1 Fully commit to making a splash? (4,3,6)
TAKE THE PLUNGE
Double / cryptic? definition

10 Old countryman sick, having broken blood vessel (7)
VILLEIN
ILL (sick) in (having broken) VEIN (blood vessel)

11 Fashionable to travel round a windy city (7)
CHICAGO
CHIC (fashionable) + GO (travel) round A

12 Girl caught by colonel lying (5)
NELLY
Contained in coloNEL LYing

13 Challenge not extremely skilful (9)
COMPETENT
COMPETE (challenge) + N[o]T (outside letters – extremely)

14 Nothing heard from American prisons (5)
NICKS
Sounds like (heard from) ‘nix’ (American for nothing) – Collins gives it as US and Canadian informal sentence substitute but Chambers has (only) ‘Colloquial German and Dutch for German nichts nothing’: I think I’ve only ever come across it in the ‘Oklahoma!’ song, ‘I’m just a girl who can’t say no’ (‘just when I ought to say nix’)

16 Asian pianist playing to entertain a king (9)
PAKISTANI
An anagram (playing) of PIANIST round (entertaining) A K (king)

18 American power breaks transmitter: one hangs up (9)
SUSPENDER
US (American) + P (power) in SENDER (transmitter)

19 Copious beer gets right to the heart (5)
LARGE
LAGER (beer) with the R (right) moved to the middle (heart)

20 Desperate ham pleads for the bright lights (9)
HEADLAMPS
An anagram (desperate) of HAM PLEADS

23 Starters of soup unusually served hot in cold dish (5)
SUSHI
Initial letters (starters) of Soup Unusually Served Hot In

24 Not exact, but so far to travel (2,1,4)
OF A SORT
An anagram (travel) of SO FAR TO

25 Stowing silver, 1,000kg carrying capacity (7)
TONNAGE
TONNE (1,000kg) round AG (silver)

26 Wave to ship for a ride (6,7)
ROLLER COASTER
ROLLER (wave) + COASTER) (ship)

 

Down

2 Players need these for maximum clearance (3,6)
ALL BLACKS
I think this is a cryptic definition, referring to the end of a chess or draughts game – and the ALL BLACKS are the New Zealand men’s international rugby union team – but I can’t see fully how it works Edit: please see comment 2: many thanks, Mike

3 Lament for one buried in cathedral (5)
ELEGY
EG (for one) in ELY (cathedral – there have been objections in the past to this style of definition)

4 Pass Charlie what’s laid on in the bathroom (1,3,1)
H AND C
HAND (pass) + C (Charlie – NATO alphabet)

5 Implant that leads the field (9)
PACEMAKER
Double definition

6 Remarkably alive, runs all round (9)
UNIVERSAL
An anagram (remarkably) of ALIVE RUNS

7 Good to do nothing? Topping (5)
GLAZE
G (good) + LAZE (to do nothing)

8 One wouldn’t spend a day teaching here (7,6)
EVENING SCHOOL
Cryptic definition – I don’t remember ever coming across this phrase: both Collins and Chambers have only Night School or Evening Class, both familiar to me

9 Inconsiderate to move freight in this form? (13)
CONTAINERISED
An anagram (to move) of INCONSIDERATE

15 Rustle some sheep, say? You scrubber! (5,4)
STEEL WOOL
Sounds like steal (rustle) + WOOL (some sheep, say?)

16 One must take steps to activate this (9)
PEDOMETER
Cryptic definition

17 Industry arose, organised with speed (9)
AEROSPACE
An anagram (organised) of AROSE + PACE (speed)

21 Site of massacre, Missouri style? (5)
ALAMO
À LA (in the style of) MO (Missouri)

22 Apply oneself in serious contest (3-2)
SET-TO
Double definition
(My apologies for the previous omission of this clue – thanks to Moth @22)

23 Confesses being no good in MI6 (5)
SINGS
NG (no good) in SIS (Special Intelligence Service – MI6)

121 comments on “Guardian 28,585 / Vulcan”

  1. I enjoyed this, particularly the long anagram of CONTAINERISED and the clue for HEADLAMPS. Like Eileen I didn’t understand ALL BLACKS. Thanks (forever remembered as T Hanks now) to V & E.

  3. Agree with Eileen, I was slightly confused by 8 d , only ever thought of Evening classes or Night School. Fastest Guardian cryptic I have ever completed! Encouraging, thanks to Vulcan .

  4. Thank you, Eileen, eagerly awaited what i had missed in the ALL BLACKS clue. Guess we’ll have to wait.

    Having written out the ham pleads anagram, was interested to see that the first possibility I spotted was LAMPSHADE.

    Favourite today was the surprising anagram and nice surface in CONTAINERISED.

    Many thanks both, nice week all.

  6. A gentle start to the week but some nice clues. I agree with Eileen that EVENING SCHOOL doesn’t sound right somehow. My stab at ALL BLACKS was only black squares are left when the crossword is completed but Eileen’s makes more sense. The 13 letter anagram was very neat.

    Ta Vulcan & Eileen

  9. Mike @2; it is indeed a snooker reference, though to be strictly accurate, each of (all) the reds have to be followed by a black, and then the colours in the required order: yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black.

  10. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen!

    Mike@2

    My understanding was (I don’t play this sport. I just vaguely recall the rules): Balls of various colors are potted in the ascending order of their points and the last ones to be potted are black. So when all blacks are potted, your score is maximum.
    What you say seems different. I need to correct myself.

  12. Is “H AND C” a commonly used phrase? Can’t say I’ve ever heard hot & cold referred to in that way.

    Apart from that and the dubious EVENING SCHOOL, straightforward but enjoyable.

  13. Thanks Mike@2. That makes sense. My first thought for 3dn was Yorik but it’s not spelt like that! Agreed that Evening School is not usual. However this was a good Monday solve. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen

  15. It’s Monday, it’s Vulcan; straightforward but entertaining.

    Thanks Mike @2, I thought this was a reference to card players but it’s obviously snooker. I liked SUSPENDER, CONTAINERISED (good anagram) and ALAMO.

    Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

  18. Like most I was snookered by the All Blacks, so thanks Mike @2, and for further info to Monkey @9 also. Like Drofle @1 shall always think of a certain actor hereafter whilst expressing gratitude.

  20. Haven’t heard nix for many a decade (superseded by zip and zilch), but it was in common use back then, and there was a play in our junior high anthology called Nix Nought Nothing, which I’m sure hasn’t surfaced from that day to this, 60 years or so… amazing what bubbles up.

  21. I’m another who was surprised by H AND C so thanks for the link Eileen. ALL BLACKS was my stand out clue – delightful melange of rugby and snooker – and I also had ticks for HEADLAMPS, ELEGY and CONTAINERISED (fabulous anagram – I suspect it may have popped up before but I’ve never seen it). I also liked the anagrams for AEROSPACE and PAKISTANI and the construction of VILLEIN. Apart from EVENING SCHOOL which was a bit meh, a good Monday morning.

    Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

  22. Coming out of lurkdom to ask what happened to 22d. I think I have the answer (paper solver here), but I was hoping to check.

  23. Enjoyed this – good start to the week.

    Liked VILLEIN – lovely word – and also thought ELEGY was neat. Also liked NICKS, STEEL WOOL

    Despite spending many hours watching snooker and seeing the first ever 147 scored live on TV in the championships (many years ago) I did not get 2dn

    Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen

  24. I could not parse ALL BLACKS (I know zilch/NIX about snooker), or SINGS (never heard of SIS for MI6).

    Favorite: COMPETENT.

    New: VILLEIN.

    Thanks, both.

  25. Eileen @17 Thanks for that. Although at the risk of being pedantic, the first of those definitions (for ‘H&C’) is fair enough, as it might be written that way for a hotel listing, etc. But I struggle to see the circumstances where it might be written ‘H and C’. But as I say, I might be being a bit picky there!

  28. I give a happy sigh when I see Vulcan – I know I have a good chance of solving it. Steel wool made me laugh out loud.

  29. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen. A nice Monday morning puzzle. I agree with you on your favourites, Eileen, and would also highlight the impressive anagram for CONTAINERISED.

    ALL BLACKS works fine for me, as someone who used to play snooker a fair bit.

    William @4 – same here, I initially wrote in LAMPSHADE for 20a, which works if you include ‘for’ in the definition. Though it obviously doesn’t work with the crossers!

  30. Thank you. I realise I was a bit curt in my first post – not good! I do want to thank all the bloggers and commentators on here. You have been a total boon to me since my husband (and solving partner) died last year from hospital acquired Covid. I don’t think I would actually have given up on the crosswords (too central to both of us), but it’s a relief to have somewhere to check my thoughts, and parse the ones I just can’t see (like All Blacks today, which I ‘solved’ but couldn’t parse).

  31. Steve69 @24 – it’s a bit old-fashioned but was used back in the days when domestic plumbing was a bit more basic, and H and C on tap couldn’t be taken for granted. You come across it in PG Wodehouse occasionally – hopefully essexboy will be along in a bit with a reference…

  32. Hi Moth @30 – no problem at all.

    [15² was a boon to me, too, years ago, in similar circumstances. I hope you’ll stop lurking now. 😉 ]

  33. I thought it unfortunate that lampshade also worked for 20ac and fit the clue reasonably; headlamps fits the definition better but made “for” in the clue redundant.

  34. I’ve learnt a lot lurking here 🙂 When I occasionally fancy a crossword, I pick out an old Nutmeg (she seems fairest and most entertaining). But I’m expanding.
    This was straightforward and the first time I’ve completed the cryptic on the day!

    The long anagram was a surprise and the clue for EVENING SCHOOL made me smile once the penny dropped that I forgave its unconventionalness.

    LAMPSHADE tripped me up too until the crossers intervened.

    VILLEIN was new but clued forgivingly in compensation.

    Thanks both.

  36. Congratulations pdp11 the first of many I’m sure. Also welcome Moth, I’m sorry for your loss.

    Echo comments above, the long anagram was excellent, cryptic defs which raised a smile. ALL BLACKS was the standout for me today.

    My only quibble was LARGE, to me the wordplay seems to indicate an additional R.

    I think it might be better as Copious beer right to the heart.

    Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

  38. [Fiona Anne@23 Cliff Thorburn in the world championships in 1983? Holidaying in the Isle of Wight and very pregnant at the time, which is why I remember. Still have a soft spot for CT, despite his “grinding” play.]

  39. Crossbar@38

    [Yes that was it – I remember that the players on the next table stopped play and came round the screen between the two tables to watch.]

  40. ELEGY… cathedral – there have been objections in the past to this style of definition

    This type of definition is close enough for me to metonymy and synecdoche – two common literary devices.

  41. Crossbar@38, Fiona Anne@39
    [Was one of those Kirk Stevens, the glamour boy of snooker and fellow Canadian, who peered around?

    CT had a lot of charm but I’m not sure it was enough to offset his soporific snooker 🙂
    ]

  44. Thanks Vulcan & Eileen, that was a nicely contained rise to the day.
    I also had ‘shade’ before I saw the lights.

  45. [pdp11 @41
    I can’t remember who it was now, but it was all long hair and frilly colourful shirts in those days. Didn’t KS usually wear a white or pale suit. 😀 ]

  46. When I was young, a long time ago, en suite rooms were a luxury and so many establishment advertised ‘ H and C in all rooms’ meaning that there was a sink but no bathroom.

  47. widdersbel @31: Your wish is my command.

    “Its inhabitants live in commodious houses, standing in their own grounds, and enjoy so many luxuries – such as gravel soil, main drainage, electric light, telephone, baths (h. and c.), and company’s own water – that you might be pardoned for imagining life to be so ideal for them that no possible improvement could be added to their lot.”

    (from The Clicking of Cuthbert)

    As an alternative to Wodehouse, one could always try Screwfix.com.

    Thanks Vulcan and Eileen. After my pedantry on Friday, I was going to complain about the extraneous ‘to’ in 23d – then realised it was in my imagination!

  49. An easy but very enjoyable crossword, with only ELEGY holding me up to any extent – ‘for one’=EG was very well disguised in the surface. A raised eyebrow at EVENING SCHOOL as others have mentioned, and I’m used to seeing hot and cold running water with an ampersand, but if it’s in PG Wodehouse it must be ok.

    I thought the cryptic definition for PEDOMETER was spot on, and I was hugely impressed by the CONTAINERISED anagram, though I solved it from the definition and the last two crossers; it still deserved a “wow!”. I like Blah’s improvement @36 to the clue for LARGE.

    Many thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.

  51. [Crossbar@45: yes, KS was the Ice Cream Kid in his white suit, and scored a 147 of his own in 1984.]
    No, I didn’t spot the maximum clearance either, and it took all the crossers before I realised what CONTAINERISED was. I was busy writing in evening class before I saw that it didn’t fit: ‘school’ may be in dictionaries but it isn’t the usual term.

  52. My favourite was ELEGY which I thought was very good. Eileen: re ELY = cathedral, “there have been objections in the past to this style of definition” – probably only from muffin 🙂 ! Most people seem quite happy with it.

    I also liked STEEL WOOL. I wondered if anyone was going to object to the “you”. I thought it was an interesting variation on the answer addressing us in the first person (eg “Person of recognised art, like Pasquale? I’m hot! (5)” for RADON, Pasquale 28,493).

    Many thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

  53. [Bill Werbeniuk was one of the players from the match being played on the next table who came to congratulate Cliff. A fellow Canadian, of not inconsiderable girth, he was known for his impressive alcohol consumption, before, during and after matches. Worth a read of his Wikipedia entry. ]

  54. Eileen@42 – did you also have in mind that you think Ely when you hear see?

    Thanks for the blog, and to Vulcan for the puzzle.

  55. [JerryG @48 You’re quite right of course, but I think the Crucible one is the one which most people remember. Must be quite galling for Steve Davis. ]

  57. Thanks Eileen for explaining EG in ELEGY. Not a version of ‘for example’ that I have come across before.
    Unusually for me, I filled in all but three of the across clues on the first pass which made for a very fast solve. Most welcome after a dismal attempt at the Everyman yesterday.
    VILLEIN was dragged from the recesses of my memory.

  59. EVENING SCHOOL is very common here, the left side of the Atlantic. Did anyone who looked it up in dictionaries try doing a Google search for it? You would have got different results from me because of the way Google works, but none the less it might have been informative.

  60. [Dryll @53 thanks – Big Bill, the jovial giant! I remember that his copious alcohol intake was medicinal. I was pleased to read on wiki that he “was reported to have successfully claimed the cost of 6 pints of lager before every match as a tax deductible expense.” 🙂 ]

  62. pdp11 @61, I believe that his complaint was that he had the tremors which the lager negated. Having played a lot of snooker, 2 pints I played like Steve Davis, one more pint and it all unravelled.

  63. DuncT @54

    I probably did – but I see I omitted the slash between see and hear (inserted now).

    And you could be right, Lord Jim @52. I just thought I’d try to forestall any more discussion. 😉

  64. Thanks both,

    OED has examples of ‘nix’ meaning ‘nothing’ going back to 1781. I think of a ‘nick’ as a police station where although people may be held in cells, the establishment itself does not have the status of a prison. However OED defines it as a ‘prison or lock up esp. at a police station’ and that it is originally Australian.

    [As I recall, Bill W drank the beer to control the shakes and complained that he only did it because the snooker authorities would not let him take beta-blockers.]

  65. Pleasant diversion with some very good clues. I saw the snooker reference in ALL BLACKS – clever (though as Monkey @9 points out a full clearance requires the colours as well). Commendations for HEADLAMPS (I had crossers, so LAMPSHADE never occurred to me) and CONTAINERISED (setters seem to be vying for the longest single word to single word anagram).

    I’m one of those (very few, it seems) who quibble at ELEGY. Not a cardinal sin, because the solution is such a short word. But metonymy schmetonymy. Yes, this magnificent building dominates the tiny city, but ‘cathedral’ doesn’t really clue ELY, just as ‘tower’ doesn’t clue Blackpool. If the setter had used ‘cathedral’ to indicate another small settlement whose main point of interest was such an edifice – St Asaph or Dunblane, say – which would be equally logical, there would be metaphorical riots in the virtual streets!

    Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen

  66. Gervase @65. See what you’ve done? Eileen was just congratulating herself on having forestalled the usual “metonymy schmetonymy” discussion that always seems to be prompted by this crossword staple! I remember thinking while solving this clue that it would be nice to see some other cathedral getting a share of the action, and in fact Évry Cathedral would have matched the crossers nicely: ‘All of corpse finally buried in Parisian metonym?’ perhaps. Hmm, maybe a little tricky for a Monday.

  69. VILLEIN needed confirmation but otherwise very straightforward but good fun. ALL BLACKS just pipped TOWER OF STRENGTH as COTD for me.
    Thanks both.

  71. Huntsman @69

    TOWER OF STRENGTH: Oops! – wrong puzzle. 🙂

    Gervase @70 – that takes more thinking about!

  74. I’m surprised that no-one has mentioned that the All Blacks came close to scoring 147 against the USA on Saturday.

  75. Re All Blacks.
    It’s not just a matter of potting the colours in order finishing with black.
    A maximum break consists of potting all fifteen reds followed each time by a black, then potting the colours in the order yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and finally black, to give a total of 147.
    In the 1960s, two extra balls – orange and purple were added to give a higher total , but Snooker Plus never really caught on.

  76. I regularly visit 15² for assistance in parsing clues and to read the entertaining and enlightening posts by many like-minded individuals, but this is the first time I have commented. Even for a Monday, this was quite a straightforward solve – I think a record time for me. I also had LAMPSHADE for HEADLAMPS which made me doubt EVENING SCHOOL, which I agree does not sound quite right. Last in was CONTAINERISED, a lovely anagram. Favourite was ALAMO. Never seen H AND C used in this way before. Thank you Vulcan for the puzzle and Eileen for the commentary, and everyone else for your regular contributions. 🙂

  77. As our resident Chicagoan, I can’t not comment when my city gets a shout-out here. And I guess my comment will be this: We are called “the Windy City” even though we aren’t especially windy by most meteorological standards. While the wind can whip in, supposedly the real source of the nickname was the fact that the politicians and other city boosters had a hard time shutting up!

    (But this morning the nickname was well earned–the weather is horrible today, and in addition to high winds it’s been raining cats and dogs.)

    Back on topic, the puzzle was the first one in a while that I could call a true write-in. I guess it helps that I didn’t get to it until mid-morning, so my brain was fully awake.

  78. When Bill Werbeniuk attempted to lean over the snooker table to play a shot, his trousers split. At which point he claimed that it was the first time there had been three pinks on the table simultaneously.

    Thanks Eileen and Vulcan.

  79. @mrpenney, I know it from Doris Day singing that song in Calamity Jane, some of which I saw just the other day on TV.

  80. Interestingly the maximum clearance from one visit to the table in snooker is 155. 147 is realistically what is called a ‘total clearance’.

  82. [HoofItYouDonkey @80. Has the score of 155 ever been achieved? It requires that the player comes to the table after a foul shot by their opponent, leaving them snookered on all 15 reds and therefore entitled to strike and pot any ball instead of the red, followed by the black. Then all 15 reds, each with a black, then the colours in sequence to finish. But the 147 is always referred to as a *maximum*, for example here at the World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association’s website.]

  83. @80: Technically, you can get 162 – repeated fouls to put yourself 159 behind, then a free ball after an opponent’s foul (for 4) + black + total clearance for 155 as you intimated to tie – and then win the toss and pot the tie-breaking black. Which would of course never happen.

    Re all the LAMPSHADE options, the first thing that came to me was HEADPALMS! I did a facepalm once I’d got it right!

    Also I stand to be corrected by any American solvers, but doesn’t ‘nix’ also mean ‘reject’ or ‘deny’ – as in “He nixed the deal” or the famous Variety headline “Sticks Nix Hick Pix”?

    Either I’m getting better or the Mondays are getting easier …

  85. [essexboy: thanks for that. It’s obviously not an official match – there’s not even a referee! And the video starts at the point where the player is already snookered, so we never see the alleged foul shot or see how the black ends up easily pottable from a cue ball that is snookered on all 15 reds. Looks like a set up to me.]

  87. A few further thoughts on cathedral = ELY etc. I accept that you wouldn’t use “Ely” to refer to Ely Cathedral without any context. Saying “My favourite building is Ely” doesn’t really make sense unless “cathedral” has already been mentioned. But if someone asks “Which is your favourite cathedral?” and you say “Ely”, the meaning is clear.

    It seems to me that the setter, by using “cathedral” in the clue, is providing the required context. They are effectively saying “Name a cathedral for the purposes of the answer”, and the solver responds with “Ely”. Which is why it works (in my opinion).

    So perhaps this means that this is not exactly metonymy, in which you can of course refer simply to the Crown, the White House, and so on.

  88. [sh @85: I understand your suspicions, especially as we don’t see the original foul, but I wouldn’t call the first black (= red) easily pottable. He starts off snookered behind the yellow which is not unusual. The only way he can get to the black is by coming off the lip of the middle pocket, which for me would be a fluke but perhaps not for Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. If it’s genuine, it would be the first 155 captured on camera, but Jamie Cope did it in a witnessed practice frame in 2005, at least according to the Graun.]

  89. Of course, theoretically the minimum you can score from a total clearance is 44, but we all know that, don’t we?

  90. Lord Jim @87: As the only poster today to mutter darkly about ELEGY I have to say (to quote Galileo, who probably never actually said it) Eppur si muove! (or rather ‘non muove’). The device isn’t strictly kosher (I seem to be very Yiddish today). But it’s not something I would go to the barricades over – it’s acceptable because it occurs very infrequently and always indicates ELY!

    But it does remind me of a device which used to pop up fairly frequently: the use of ‘in [a territory]’ to define ‘a specific location in [a territory]’, eg ‘in Yorkshire’ to define ‘Halifax’. This always received jeers on Fifteensquared (though not from everyone). It was obvious what was meant, but the syntax didn’t really work. It seems to have disappeared – at least I haven’t seen it for a long time. Whether this is because of criticism, or because the serial offenders are no longer setting, I don’t know!

    [BTW I look forward to meeting you on Saturday]

  92. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
    You saved me from c omplaining, Gervase – it’s sloppy and muddled language.
    There’s a “see” elsewhere today – much mor acceptable.

  93. Apologies to those who came here for the crossword rather than snooker.

    [essexboy @88. What other reason could there be for not showing the foul that leads up to the free ball situation? Surely everyone would want to see that, so why don’t they show it? I remain sceptical.

    HoofItYouDonkey @89. To clear the table at one break (i.e. a total clearance) requires potting 15 reds and 15 colours, followed by the colours in sequence. Lowest value colour is yellow, so 15 reds and yellows is 45. Plus 27 for the six colours, that’s a total of 72.

    OK, in theory you could pot all 15 reds with your break off shot, then yellow, then colours for 44, but this would involve such strange behaviour from the cue ball, among others, that I would struggle to believe it even if essexboy found a clip on YouTube.]

  94. Talking of headlamps and lampshade, I was considering ‘pacemaker’ for the answer to 16dn before glancing at 5dn to find it was the answer to that clue! What an odd feeling.

  96. Sheffield Hatter @93 it could never happen, hence the ‘theoretically’.
    I once set it ad a question in a golf club quiz and it caused uproar.

  97. Thanks for the blog , nice example of a well clued accessible puzzle.

    Snooker trivia – Jamie Burnett has an official break greater than 147 after a free ball. may have been 149 ?? It was not 155.

  98. sh@93 et al: I came here for the crossword, I know nothing about snooker and don’t watch it on TV – and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation on this site about 2d ALL BLACKS. So no apology needed, that’s one of the things that makes this site so much fun.

    I really liked the excellent anagram at 9d, so that was a favourite clue, even though I think CONTAINERISED is an execrable word.

    Thanks Vulcan for the fun and Eileen for the superb blog.

  99. cellomaniac @98: long time since I’ve corresponded with you as you tend to be a late poster but your comment brought to mind a word I’ve always thought to be even uglier: canisterisation! Nice to see your occasional posts here and on GD.

  100. sheffield hatter@66
    When it last cropped up I started thinking of clues for other sees.
    Crazy about member of crew? We’ll see (4.3.5)
    and, using a see in the wordplay, not as the definition,
    See without whiff of American night time visitor? (7)

  102. Pino @ 100
    Crazy about member of crew? We’ll see (4,3,5) – I love it!
    SPOILER ALERT – Gervase @70!

    See without whiff of American night time visitor? (7)
    I’ll have to leave my subconscious to work on this – time for bed, I think. 😉

  103. Excellent puzzle. The snooker allusion twigged immediately and got the ALL, but had to wait for the BLACKS to drop. This and the Quiptic really were top drawer fun today and pitched perfectly.

    Thank you so much Vulcan – appreciated.

    The blogger too. Thanks Eileen.

  104. Thanks to the people here who spotted the snooker reference in ALL BLACKS. It totally eluded me.

    Regarding “nix”, I recall seeing it in many comedy routines using pig-latin, rendered as “ixnay”; for example Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstain: “ixnay on the ottenray”.

  105. [ PM@99, thanks for your thoughts. I usually do the crossword with my lunch or afternoon coffee, so even if I finish it on the same day (here in the colonies), it’s evening or nighttime in the UK, by which time everything has been said. I do lurk, however, and if the comments are voluminous I always look out for yours, along with essexboy, Roz, Maiden Bartok, and of course Eileen, among others. ]

  106. Gervase: sorry, only just seen your comment @90. We’ll have to agree to disagree on the Ely point! Regarding “in Yorkshire” for “Halifax”, I seem to remember that Araucaria used to do this, but like you I’m not keen on it.

    [Yes, looking forward to the weekend and hope to see you there.]

  107. “Sticks Nix Hick Pix” is a famous headline printed in Variety, a newspaper covering Hollywood and the entertainment industry, on July 17, 1935, over an article about the reaction of rural audiences to movies about rural life.
    So says Wikipedia which will be right, though I remembered Hicks Nix Sticks Pix which I prefer.

  108. Also no I come to think of it, nixie plonk meaning nothing is an expression I know from my youth in the north of England.

  109. [Pino/Eileen: “See without whiff of American night time visitor? (7)”

    I remember being totally foxed by that one when Pino and I last exchanged ‘sees’ a few months ago. I’ve just got it – or rather I guessed the solution a while ago from the definition, but was unable to parse without googling, and even then the name of the ‘see’ only rang the faintest of bells. But congratulations on a fiendish clue! Perhaps Eileen has an encyclopedic knowledge of C of E dioceses and therefore solved and parsed without aids?

    In case anyone would like some easier ones and didn’t see my suggestions last time round, here they are again:

    See more bananas (4)
    See and hear authentic Greek character (5)
    Crushed ice? Er… let’s see (9) ]

  110. Hi essexboy @109, if you’re still there – I’ve only just seen my email.

    I’d forgotten all about Pino’s clue – inspiration didn’t come overnight (and I still can’t see it!).

    I don’t know about an encyclopaedic knowledge but, as an alternative to counting sheep, I do sometimes try to drop off by counting the number of cathedrals I’ve visited – which is why your three came more readily – especially the third!

  111. Eileen – I thought the third might come quickly!

    I expect Pino will reveal all at some point (he’s also posted the clue on GD) so in the meantime I will just say that I would be quite surprised if the cathedral relating to his clue figured on your list, but that familiarity with Thomas the Tank Engine might help!

  112. Potential spoiler below Eileen

    Got all your three straight away EB and Pino’s first jumped out to me as a Blackadder fan, his second I had an answer from night time visitor but couldn’t parse it not knowing the diocese, given your hint I resorted to Wikipedia’s list of diocese and to my complete surprise it’s there – I wonder if that’s where Awdry got the name from.

  114. Oh, of course – that night time visitor!

    ‘Night visitor’ immediately called Amahl to mind – of course, he wasn’t one of them but these ideas, once there, are hard to dismiss. And I did know of the diocese – and the Awdry connecton – but, as essexboy suspected, it’s not one I’ve visited.

    Many thanks, Pino!

  115. Glad that those who tried succeeded in the end. Thanks to Eileen, essexboy, Blah and Roz.
    Once “see” was clear as the definition I think I would have got the first from the enumeration. I did try to drag in a reference to the fact that the Bishop’s title is the embodiment of the maxim that “cleanliness is next to godliness” but failed.
    Out of curiosity I looked up where Sodor is/was. Wiki says that it derives from the Old Norse word for the “southern isles” and refers to the isles to the west of Scotland and beyond to the Isle of Man, the inclusion of which in the see’s title is tautological. They belonged to Norway until 1266.

  116. Thanks for the entertainment Pino @115 and MrEssexboy @109.
    I think you should have the honour of putting the answers on, people have had long enough now to think about it.

  117. [Roz @116, you’re quite right, I think I should put people out of their misery. The answers to my three clues @109 are of course YORK, DERBY and SOUTHWARK respectively. Pino has now given the solution to his ‘stinker’ on the General Discussion page – which I must say surprised me greatly, as all this time I was convinced it was INCUBUS.]

  118. MrEssexboy I think you took a bit of a risk with your middle clue. Some people will claim that they pronounce the E in true and the H in rho.

  119. Roz @118 – I knew you’d pick me up on that!

    Interestingly (to me, at any rate, and at this late stage in the proceedings the number of other people I’ll be irritating is mercifully limited), the pronunciation of Truro is given as /’trʊərəʊ/, which means that ‘truer rho’ would be a closer homophone than ‘true rho’. That could be remedied by tweaking the clue: ‘See and hear more authentic Greek character’.

    However, it’s still not exact, because of the ‘lax u’ /&#650/ in Truro (cf. ‘foot’) as opposed to the /u/ sound in true/truer (cf. ‘food’). I’ll just have to put it down as a homoiophone and take my chances. 😉

    As for the ‘h’ in rho, that’s (yet another!) interesting point, I believe that an initial ρ in Ancient Greek was always written with a ‘rough breathing’ sign, reflecting an aspirated or ‘breathy’ pronunciation. But to any 21st century English speaker who complains about that aspect of the clue, I say ‘hroobarb’!

  121. I forgot about how people say Truro, suspect it is different in the SW. I always tell myself to stay out of the homophone debates but I do not always listen to myself.
    Managed to avoid the prints/ prince discussion, I do say them differently, tongue in a different place because of the t.
    PDM had a good idea using sonograms, can record them and expand the scale and measure all sorts of things for different speakers and different words. It ia all physics in the end.

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