A mixed bag from Gozo, mostly easy clues but some hard ones. Thank you Gozo.
I can see some girl’s names hidden in the unchecked rows CRESSIDA, MARIELLA, IMOGENE and ELISE. Perhaps there are more.
UPDATE: Gozo kindly emailed me to say the theme of today’s grid is girls’ names. The grid contains the forenames of his granddaughters, which solvers cannot be expected to know, and so he asked me to tell you that you will find: ELSIE MARIELLA ROSE IMOGEN FLORA GRACE CRESSIDA EVE. There is no reason you have to stop there, if you can find more girls’ names then all well and good!
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BURGER |
German citizen’s meaty snack (6)
|
| 4 | ACCREDIT |
Guarantee Bill with loan (8)
|
| AC (account, bill) with CREDIT (loan) | ||
| 9 | RHYMES |
Spoke of Frost’s poems (6)
|
| sounds like (spoke of) “rimes” (frost) | ||
| 10 | ALL CLEAR |
Regular daily local repairs – the panic’s over (3,5)
|
| every other letter (regularly) of dAiLy LoCaL rEpAiRs | ||
| 12 | ALLISONS |
1961 UK Eurovision duo giving Everyone, My Boys (8)
|
| ALL (everyone) I (my?) SONS (boys) – The Allisons, who represented England in the 1961 Eurovision song contest and came second. I can’t explain why “I” and “my” are equivalent. | ||
| 13 | RIFLED |
Plundered centre of Uxbridge – then ran off (6)
|
| uxbRIdge (centre of) then FLED (ran off) | ||
| 15 | DAIS |
Welshmen’s platform (4)
|
| DAI is a Welsh male name, so a plural of such | ||
| 16 | ORANGEADES |
More than one cordial aged senora stirred (10)
|
| anagram (stirred)of AGED SENORA | ||
| 19 | RAT-A-TAT-TAT |
Postman’s knock? (3-1-3-3)
|
| cryptic definition? | ||
| 20 | AFAR |
Nadal returns from a distance (4)
|
| RAFA (Rafa Nadal perhaps) reversed (returns) | ||
| 23 | NEAR TO |
Not far away from some fine art object (4,2)
|
| found inside (some of) fiNE ART Object | ||
| 25 | DEWDROPS |
Beads expected, it’s said, by falls (8)
|
| DEW sounds like (it’s said) “due” (expected) then DROPS (falls) | ||
| 27 | MULL OVER |
Think about island deliveries (4,4)
|
| MULL (the Isle of Mull) then OVER (6 deliveries, in cricket) | ||
| 28 | XANADU |
Musical seen in Texan ad, unusually (6)
|
| found inside (seen in) teXAN AD Unusually – any one of a number of musicals with this name | ||
| 29 | KEROSENE |
Oil treatment for sore knee (8)
|
| anagram (treatment for) SORE KNEE | ||
| 30 | ASCEND |
Dances around on the up? (6)
|
| anagram (around) of DANCES | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BARMAID |
A local lass (7)
|
| cryptic definition | ||
| 2 | ROYAL MINT |
Bread maker represented normality (5,4)
|
| anagram (represented) of NORMALITY – bread is slang for money | ||
| 3 | EVER SO |
Greatly exaggerated at the start on the left-hand page (4,2)
|
| first letter (at the start) of Exaggerated then VERSO (on the left hand page) | ||
| 5 | COLE |
Cabbage and King (4)
|
| double definition | ||
| 6 | RECLINER |
Comfy chair from ruin, we’re told, on cruise ship (8)
|
| REC sounds like (we’re told) “wreck” (ruin) then LINER (cruise ship) | ||
| 7 | DWELL |
Live and prosper, losing nothing (5)
|
| Do WELL (prosper) missing O (nothing) | ||
| 8 | TIRADES |
Siamese attacks reported, bringing strings of invectives (7)
|
| sounds like (reported) “Thai raids” (Siamese attacks) | ||
| 11 | INGRATE |
He won’t appreciate being by the fire (7)
|
| IN GRATE (being by the fire) | ||
| 14 | ENCASES |
Wraps biro holders, dropping bit of paper (7)
|
| pEN CASES (biro holders) missing Paper (first letter, a bit of) | ||
| 17 | DEFLORATE |
Past blooming, damage to red leaf (9)
|
| anagram (damage) of TO RED LEAF | ||
| 18 | STATIONS |
Info about leading industrialist working at railway buildings (8)
|
| STATS (info) contains (about) Industrialist (first letter, leading) ON (working) | ||
| 19 | RUN AMOK |
Go berserk and take the Reds back. All right (3,4)
|
| R (recipe, take) then MAN U (Manchester United, “The Reds”) reversed (back) and OK (all right) | ||
| 21 | RESCUED |
Prompted again to keep shilling that’s saved (7)
|
| RECUED (prompted again) contains (to keep) S (shilling) | ||
| 22 | IDEALS |
Negotiate breaking one’s standards (6)
|
| DEAL (negotiate) inside (breaking) I’S (one’s) | ||
| 24 | ADLER |
This psychotherapist takes on poor Leonard (5)
|
| an anagram (poor) of ADLER (this psychotherapist, the solution) with ON gives LEONARD – Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler (1870-1937) | ||
| 26 | SEWN |
Joined by a thread from all quarters (4)
|
| S E W N (South, East…all the quarters of the compass) |
I agree with PeeDee’s summary. All solved except for 12a which was before my time and I didn’t equate ‘my’ with ‘I’. Also, I thought the citizen part of 1a was ‘burgher’.
I didn’t spot the names so thanks for that, PeeDee. Just a minor oversight in the blog for 13a where I’m sure you meant FLED for ‘ran’.
I did like ADLER, ROYAL MINT and DWELL.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee.
Well spotted Dianne, according to Chambers a citizen is a BURGHER nor a BURGER. There is no homophone indicator that I can see and it is not an obviously cryptic definition. I will have a look in some more dictionaries to see if there is an alternative spelling for burgher.
Further to comment @2 – a Hamburger was originally both a German citizen and a meaty snack, but the abbreviation to ‘burger only applies to the snack.
Thanks again, PeeDee. Yes, I could see neither suggestion of a homophone nor burger as citizen though my check was admittedly cursory.
The ALLISONS were before my time as well and listening to their 1961 Eurovision entry, “Are You Sure?”, it’s certainly of another era – no criticism intended. Same query as PeeDee and Diane @1 about I for ‘My’ but the BURGER / “burgher” discrepancy passed me by.
Saw the girl’s names, plus a few more (probably just chance) within the answers but don’t know what they mean.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee
The German word for citizen is burger.
Yes, Chris, I guess I was hasty there.
Thanks for that Chris. I have updated the blog.
Elise not Elsie I think but couldn’t see Grace??
Thanks Gozoand PeeDee
Oldham@9: Specifically looking for GRACE, I found her in the unchecked letters in the top row: burGeR AcCrEdit.
Ah thanks PB
Gee, too bad Gozo doesn’t have a granddaughter named Nina! 😉
Thanks to Gozo for a fun puzzle and to PeeDee for the blog.
Thanks Gozo for your usual well-crafted crossword. DWELL, TIRADES, and SEWN were favourites. I was stumped by ADLER and guessed ALLISONS but could not see how “my” translates to “i”. Never thought to search for names; that adds a nice layer to the fun. Thaks PeeDee for the write-up.
Sorry, but we weren’t too impressed with this. We get the impression that fitting in so many girls’ names has consrained the grid fill so that we have entries such as 12ac – OK, the Allisons were around for quite a long time after 1961 but expecting solvers under, say, 50 to know who represented the UK at Eurovision that year is hardly fair. And we thought some clues were barely cryptic, for example 19ac and 1dn. On the other hand we didn’t really understand 24dn and only got the answer from the definition.
Thanks, though, to setter and blogger.
allan@14, I think 24d is an anagram of “Adler” and “on” giving Leonard, anagrind being poor. I think they call these reverse clues.
I had never heard of the Allisons either, but it was possible to guess the answer from the cluing and a couple of crossers, then look them up on Wikipedia to confirm.
I used to automatically pass over a Gozo puzzle (too hard for me), but this is the second one that I have found quite doable, and it is a nice tribute to his granddaughters, so thanks Gozo for the fun and PeeDee for pointing that out.
allan_c @14 – this type of clue is often called a compound anagram. They are not very common in the standard cryptics but occur more often in the barred grids. They are a particular speciality of Azed, who always puts one or two such clues in every puzzle. If you are interested in how they work there is a discussion on how they work in last Sundays’ Azed blog here. Clues 20 across and 25 down.
cellomaniac@15 and PeeDee@16 – we are familiar with reverse/compound anagrams ; it’s just that we thought this one particularly abstruse.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Found this a little more accessible than normal from this setter, although needed to check on the BURGER, ALLISONS and the psychotherapist, ADLER. All was not correct though having gone with EVEN SO (parsing as EVEN, the left hand page having even numbering and the S and O from ‘initially at the Start Of’ – goes close but doesn’t work in hindsight). Bah !
Also thought that the cds at 1d and 19a were particularly weak.
Completely missed the girl’s name theme. Finished in the NE corner with DWELL, ACCREDIT and COLE the last few in.
Re 12ac, surely “Everyone” can be a clue for All-i? Which completes the parsing.