Guardian Cryptic 28,712 by Paul

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28712.

A very enjoyable crossword from Paul, with keystone clue 12A DRUMMER; I leave it to you to identify the rock bands the drummers backed (with 13A Buddy RICH as the odd man out, from a previous generation).

ACROSS
9 TAIWANESE
Asian swallow flying west across India gradually disappears (9)
An envelope (‘across’) of I (‘India’) plus WANES (‘gradually disappears’) in TAE, a reversal (‘flying west’ in an across light) of EAT (‘swallow’).
10 RINGO
OO12 (5)
A charade of RING (‘O’) plus ‘O’.
11 WREATHE
Gales etc back towards the front — wind! (7)
WEATHER (‘gales etc’) with the final letter moved up (‘back towards the front’).
12 DRUMMER
Stranger at back of band? (7)
A charade of D (‘back of banD‘) plus RUMMER (more strange, ‘stranger’), with an attempt at an &lit definition, although ‘stranger’ hardly applies.
13 RICH
Absurd 12 (4)
Double definition, with Buddy RICH, the jazz drummer.
14 MOUNT SINAI
Tunisian built on second peninsular peak (5,5)
A charade of MO (‘second’) plus UNTSINAI, an anagram (‘built’) of ‘Tunisian’.
16 CARVERY
Grant entertains retired minister in restaurant (7)
An envelope (‘entertains’) of VER, a reversal (‘retired’) of REV (‘minister’) in CARY (‘Grant’).
17, 3 CHARLIE WATTS
12‘s possible reason for high amount of power? (7,5)
A charade of CHARLIE (cocaine, ‘possible reason for high’) plus WATTS (physical units, ‘amount of power’).
19 PRETTY GOOD
Fair, fair love in the Lord (6,4)
A charade of PRETTY (‘fair’) plus GOOD, an envelope (‘in’) of O (‘love’) in GOD (‘the Lord’).
22 ONUS
First spent, extra cash for duty (4)
[b]ONUS (‘extra cash’) minus the first letter (‘first spent’).
24 LINKMAN
TV connector, zero switches, piece behind back of clock (7)
A charade of LIN, a reversal (‘switches’) of NIL (‘zero’) plus K (‘back of clock’) plus MAN (chess ‘piece’).
25 PLACEBO
Opponent originally chasing tie in lead — which has no real effect (7)
A charade of PLACEB, an envelope (‘in’) of LACE (‘tie’) in PB (chemical symbol, ‘lead’); plus O (‘Opponent originally’), with ‘chasing’ indicating the order of the particles.
26 NACHO
Mixture of hot and cold on a chip (5)
An anagram (‘mixture’) of H (‘hot’) plus C (‘cold’) plus ‘on a’.
27 ESOTERICA
I create works including very specialised stuff (9)
An envelope (‘including’) of SO (‘very’) in ETERICA, an anagram (‘works’) of ‘I create’.
DOWN
1 STEWART COPELAND
12 3 replaced? No replacement! (7,8)
An anagram (‘replacement’) of WATTS (‘3’, answer to 3D) plus ‘replaced no’.
2 SILENCER
Because round leg not quite right, one’s attached to arm (8)
A charade of SILENCE, an envelope (’round’) of ‘le[g]’ minus its last letter (‘not quite’) in SINCE (‘because’); plus R (‘right’).
3
See 17 across
4 CEREMONY
First of contenders, or enemy beaten — formality (8)
An anagram (‘beaten’) of C (‘first of Contenders’) plus ‘or enemy’.
5 TENDON
Band ultimately entering part of joint? (6)
An envelope (‘entering’) of D (‘banD ultimately’) in TENON (and mortise,’part of joint’), with an &lit definition.
6 TROUSSEAU
Initially tight on artist, match kit (9)
A charade of T (‘initially Tight’) plus ROUSSEAU (Henri, Douanier – or others – ‘artist’), with a slightly cryptic definition.
7 GNOMON
Diminutive figure briefly working, bit of an old timer (6)
A charade of GNOM[e] (‘diminutive figure’) minus its last letter (‘briefly’) plus ON (‘working’), with a cryptic definition, for the finger that casts a shadow in a sundial.
8 FOUR-DIMENSIONAL
Partners after the Guardian’s money entering loan, if poorly represented in time? (4-11)
An envelope (‘entering’) of OUR (‘the Guardian’s’) plus DIME (‘money’) plus NS (‘bridge ‘partners’) in FIONAL, an anagram (‘poorly’) of ‘loan if’. After some hesitation, I plumped for including ‘represented’ in the definition.
15 KEITH MOON
Picture finally framed by buddies on display behind 12 (5,4)
An envelope (‘framed by’) of E (‘picturE finally’) in KITH (and kin, ‘buddies’) plus MOON (‘display behind’), for the drummer of The Who.
17 CROMPTON
Children’s author in study penning playful affair on troublemakers, primarily (8)
An envelope (‘penning’) of ROMP (‘playful affair’) plus T (‘Troublemakers primarily’) in CON (‘study’), for Richmal CROMPTON, author best known for the ‘Just William’ series.
18 LINGERIE
Rule about 21 underwear (8)
An envelope (‘about’) of GERI (Halliwell, GINGER (’21’) Spice) in LINE (‘rule’).
20 EUNUCH
Palace guard Newcastle United centre half after eight unbelievable headers (6)
First letters of ‘Eight Unbelievable’) and ‘Newcastle United Centre Half’.
21, 23 GINGER BAKER
12, one cooking something spicy? (6,5)
Definition and literal interpretation.
23
See 21

picture of the completed grid

77 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,712 by Paul”

  1. Thanks PeterO.
    A puzzle that was right up my street. A lovely tribute within it to Charlie Watts, the Wembley Whammer who kept the back beat for The Rolling Stones for such a long time, and for whom, as Paul says in 1d, there can be no replacement (yes I know it was necessary to say that so we had the anagrind to derive the drummer for The Police, but it was still a wonderful accolade). The treasure hunt gave us RINGO Starr (The Beatles), GINGER BAKER (Cream) and KEITH MOON (The Who). Yes, I agree PeterO, Buddy RICH at 13a was a little out of synch in this company. The link between GINGER and Spice to give us GERI in LINGERIE at 18d gave me a big smile. I also loved TROUSSEAU at 6d – “match kit” indeed!
    A terrific puzzle – many many thanks to Paul.

  2. Getting DRUMMER as FOI helped enormously – I wonder if it was designed that way since it then turned out to be a matter of thinking of some names and looking for places to insert them. PeterO is right that “stranger” rather spoils the &littedness of 12a, although as a HUGE generalization I’d suggest drummers tend to be the least well known band members, so it works at a big stretch.

    However, that does not mean the whole thing was a piece of cake: some clues required quite a bit of thought post-entry to get the whole wordplay. On the other hand, “match kit” (TROUSSEAU) and “tv connector” (LINKMAN) were very clever definitions but seem to me to be only gettable from the wordplay. I did like RINGO.

    Re: LINKMAN. I was for a while thinking of lineman, one of whose meanings is an “electrical connector” – someone who connects electrical equipment: close but no cigar.

  3. Like DrWO @2, I got DRUMMER first, though I did hesitate a bit (as PeterO and DrWO say) at the thought that the drummer was a stranger to the band. But I got Charlie soon after to confirm, and then Ringo became obvious. So I went on a search for more drummers – I knew Keith would be there somewhere. I don’t agree that the other drummers would see Buddy RICH as out of synch. Charlie’s first love was jazz and I think I remember reading Charlie was a big Buddy fan – as, I think was Ginger. Indeed, I suspect a lot of rock drummers were. The anagram for the Police drummer was fantastic. PRETTY GOOD was, er, pretty good too.
    All that said, I did find some of the parsing elsewhere a bit convoluted.
    Thanks, Paul and PeterO for parsing assistance.

  4. What a brilliant crossword though I needed help with parsing (thanks PeterO) TAIWANESE and WREATHE and LINKMAN and LINGERIE, all of which are great clues when you see them. And the joy extended to RINGO and FOUR-DIMENSIONAL and PLACEBO and MOUNT SINAI and …

    Such a great start to the morning. Thanks Paul.

  5. I didnt even try to get the gateway clue at first , starting at the bottom until I got LINGERIE gave GERI and led to first themer
    I thought this was very good with all the cross-referencing justified or it would be too easy.
    No obscurities in sight so uptick from me.
    Looking forward to part 2 with Art Blakey, Tony Williams and Elvin Jones
    Thanks Peter and Paul.

  6. I’m almost ashamed that I had the General Knowledge to parse 18d, but I plead in mitigation M’lud that there is a connection to Formula 1.

  7. A helpful theme as others have pointed out – which is a good thing as some of the parsing was quite chewy but it all fell out in the end. I’ve heard of Buddy RICH but can claim no familiarity; I recognise the others and have enjoyed their work. Shame Bonzo couldn’t fit in the grid somewhere but you can’t have everything! In 9a I guess the Asian swallow is a relative of the African and European swallows – which gives me the excuse to post a link to one of the most famous of swallow debates …

    Dr W @2: I also flirted with lineman but suspect their electrical connections are on top of pylons rather than at the back of sets and that thinking got me to linkman which sounds a bit more like a job. Of sorts.
    PeterO, I think you’re right to include ‘represented’ in the definition for FOUR DIMENSIONAL. Paul ended the clue with a question mark and I can’t see anything in the parse that requires that so wondered if it is acknowledgment that 4D is ‘represented in time over and above the three physical dimensions?’

    Thanks Paul and PeterO

  8. Generally great: TENON exceptionally fine; FOUR-DIMENSIONAL awful. The surface is typically Pauline nonsense, and the definition – what is it? Time is one of the four dimensions, but other than that I see no connection.

    Thanks Paul for fine entertainment and PeterO for a few explanations.

  10. Thank you PeterO for making sense of TAIWANESE which had me baffled.
    I wonder if drummer as a stranger may be a sly Spinal Tap reference as they got through such a number that they must have been unclear who was playing with them at any given time.
    I was so befuddled this morning that not only was RINGO my last in but I spent a good while wondering whom Grant Cary might be!
    This was great although I did wonder if it is fair to say that a placebo has no real effect, sadly my brain not up to the philosophical wrangling to opine confidently either way. Thanks Paul for a smashing start to the day.

  12. I really enjoy tackling Paul’s crosswords, even though I can’t always finish them. Like various others, I solved 12A first – and then got a tad worried as I’m no expert on drummers – but fortunately they were all names even I’d heard of!
    TROUSSEAU and RINGO were a delight, as was the splendid anagram in 1D.
    As always with Paul, I couldn’t completely parse everything, so thanks to Peter O for his help – plus a drumroll to the awesome Setter himself for a very enjoyable start to my day ?

  13. Ah. That final ? in my comment at 12 was supposed to be a drum. Evidently Emojis don’t work on this. Hey ho

  14. Once I got DRUMMER I guessed Keith Moon was going to feature, but it took me a while to remember that Brummie used the identical wordplay for his second name only yesterday.

  15. I had no problem marking DRUMMER as an &lit. They’re not the ones at the front and are hence often strangers. Getting this one early on helped.
    LINGERIE actually had me wondering whether Geri actually played drums in the Spice Girls.
    yesyes @4… What no Bill Bruford or Alan White?
    Favourites were CHARLIE WATTS (for “reason for high”), COPELAND for cleverly using one drummer’s name in the anagram of another, and CROMPTON of whose works I still have 5 books on my shelves from when I were a lad. It took me years before I realised that Richmal was actually a girl (shock horror).

  16. As with copmus @5, GERI Halliwell was my way in. If the Spice Girls had been the Stones, would she have been the drummer? Hmmm. I see her more as Mick, with Scary on drums and Mel C as Keef.

    Who knew RINGO was in the 00 programme?

    And we nearly had Glen Campbell at 24a.

    Thanks Paul and Peter

    [Wellbeck @13: let’s see if this will work 🥁 ]

  19. Great fun! A slow start until DRUMMER, then the theme helped.
    Thanks to Peter O for explaining some of the convoluted parsing, to Gazzh@11 for the Buddy RICH link and to Paul for the entertainment.

  20. I am afraid that once I got 12a I googled “famous drummers”, although in the end only 1d was unfamiliar. Brilliant puzzle.

  21. @peterO — a minor typo in 25A — should be PLACE not PLACEB

    Otherwise thanks for a wonderful and difficult parsing and explanations of some tricky clues. There were several answers I was unsure of (or wrong).

  23. [Essexboy at 16: I have long-since come to the conclusion that you’re far more knowledgeable than I am in many areas. I shall now add emoji-wielding to that list…]

  25. Like others I got DRUMMER straight away though didn’t parse it till later, then got GINGER BAKER and started looking for other drummers.

    Got more than a few from the description and crosses before being able to work them out and still needed help parsing a few.

    But it was fun

    Thanks Paul and PeterO

  26. Thanks Paul & PeterO – had me beat for a while, spent time wondering whether CROMPTON & LINKMAN could be obscure ?mers, but I appreciated the clues related to time keeping.

  27. Another great Paul!
    I found this one much easier to solve than to parse.
    Thanks Peter & Paul.

  28. “Those that like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like”, and clearly it was for most.

    I don’t like puzzles with so many double entry solutions (irritating when solving on a smartphone, and as I spend a lot of time outside the UK it’s my default method). In fact I almost gave up after a first pass yielded little, and when I spotted DRUMMER my heart sank, as so many of them are indeed strangers, unlike the lead singers. But fortunately they were all familiar.

    Rant over. Ingenious puzzle. As others have remarked, the Spice Girl in the underwear, the apt clue for Mr Watts and the anagram for the Police batterista were particularly clever.

    My quibbles are that 4D at 8dn doesn’t have a proper definition, and does RICH mean absurd? I’ve always thought it implied hypocritical, and not necessarily nonsensical.

    Thanks to S&B

  29. Gervase @28: re RICH, the last two entries in the online Chambers help:

    18. Providing good opportunities for laughter, full of comic potential
    19. (of a remark, etc) outrageous, ridiculous (informal)

  30. Whew! Quite a challenge, as I couldn’t have named any drummer except Gene Krupa. It was a matter of deriving plausible names from crossers and fodder, which worked in the end but was not very satisfying.

  32. Tim C@31: “That’s a bit rich (coming from him)” is the usual expression including RICH when referring to a remark. ‘Ridiculous’ for its incongruity, not because it is intrinsically absurd.

  33. Worth watching Zack Starkey playing with the Who when JE was still with us
    N Gallagher playing guitar-his hilarious self-assessment
    “I’d be biggin meself up if I said i was average”
    “I only played lead in Oasis because the others were shite”

  34. I don’t usually comment here because I usually complete the puzzle later in the day after the party’s over. Could I suggest to Dave Ellison that time is not just one of the four dimensions but the *fourth* dimension, both as it’s often referred to and as the latest to be understood as such? And I think that four-dimensional is perfectly defined as ‘represented in time’. Imagine a sculpture with moving components whose appearance changed depending on when the observer was looking at it. So to describe it as four-dimensional captures the extra dimension as compared to the more usual static sculptures. I’ll leave discussion of space-time in physics to better-qualified commenters.
    Thank you to Paul and PeterO, and since I’m a very infrequent commenter, many thanks to all the setters and all the bloggers.

  36. [Essexboy, as ever I bow to your superior intellect. Besides, I’m always rubbish at those numerical clues…]

  37. Very strange experience this morning as although I got DRUMMER straight away, I just couldn’t spot any obvious clues pointing to anyone of that genre. In fact, on first pass I only had managed CEREMONY, CARVERY and EUNUCH. But I supposed KEITH MOON had to be lurking somewhere, and also the fiery GINGER BAKER, and this gradually and reluctantly yielded. A pity John Heisman, whom I once saw drumming for Colosseum and who was quite the best I ever experienced live, didn’t make a guest appearance. Or Def Leppard’s incredible one armed Tony Kenning…

  38. Harrummph! So, just think of some names of people who played drums, fit them to the enumerations, and then marvel at the rococo — bordering on the absurd — wordplay. One man’s meat and all that.

  39. Tough puzzle. I was surprised that I knew all of the drummers except Buddy Rich.

    Failed 9ac.

    Liked TROUSSEAU, RINGO.

    New for me: GNOMON; author Crompton, Richmal.

    Thanks, both.

  40. [Just came on to see what others thought.
    Oh dear, pserve_p2@38. Not much joie de vivre in this puzzle for you. Thankfully others shared my enjoyment of this one.
    I agree, PostMark@7, Shame Bonzo couldn’t fit in the grid somewhere but you can’t have everything! I was also sad about John Bonham going missing in more ways than one – my brother loves Led Zeppelin and plays great covers in his band – his Irish wolfhound is named Bonzo.
    I am adding my thanks to Gazzh@11, I saw a whole new side of Buddy Rich in that wonderful Muppets video you linked. Agree that jazz was a big influence on Charlie and probably other drummers too.
    I am groping here in terms of the “stranger” part of the DRUMMER which I have been thinking about all afternoon, but there used to be a thing where the groupies and fans were less interested in drummers because they were at the back of the stage so not so visible (or sexy), whereas the vocalist and lead guitarist were eminently more relatable. So I tend to agree with Tim C @15 They’re not the ones at the front and are hence often strangers. Though something of the same notion washed off on bass guitarists too I think.
    I smiled at the almost (Wichita) Lineman reference in your post, essexboy@16 And we nearly had Glen Campbell at 24a.
    wynsum@26, I loved the various subtleties in your post (“beat” and “time keeping”).
    copmus@33 – what you add always is of interest and always make me smile. Are you still up on Magnetic Island, Qld?
    Overall, I am glad I came back to the blog to read some of these later contributions.]

  41. Very enjoyable puzzle and much appreciated blog. I struggled with 9ac and regretfully typed Asian swallow into a search engine.

  42. [JinA @40: I grew up in rural Worcestershire and both Plant and Bonham lived fairly close by. When Bonzo died in 1980, three of my pals bunked off from Sixth Form to attend the relatively intimate funeral service. There was actually a local newspaper report of the event which referred to “… the slightly incongruous presence of three boys in school uniform.”]

  43. pserve_p2 @38 You’re not alone, except I just googled famous drummers, to get the themed clues over with. I’m not a fan of themes, whether I know the topic or not.

    As it happens I’d heard of them all, and actually RINGO was my way in and a very neat clue. It’s what gave me DRUMMER. What an awkward word RUMMER is.

    I liked TAIWANESE and WREATHE a lot, and the match kit definition for TROUSSEAU.

    Thanks Paul and PeterO

  44. Re ‘stranger at back of band’ I would just add that both RINGO and KEITH MOON were relative newcomers to their respective bands, though I’m not suggesting Paul had this in mind. In my opinion neither the Who nor the Beatles would have been so successful without those particular DRUMMERs.

  46. Isn’t a drummer somebody who hangs around with musicians? (Sorry Paul, I could not be bothered looking them all up on Google)

  47. Loved it. Searched for Gene Krupa Danny Barcelona and even Liam Genochy. Surprised Roger Taylor
    wasn’t there but hey ho some great musicians. And special thanks to Gazzh @11 for reminding us of the great Buddy/Muppets bash: a classic

  48. This has taken me all day and for most of it I thought Paul had defeated me for the first time in ages. I thought 12ac was drummer but for some reason wasn’t confident enough to start looking for specific names. But then lingerie lex to Ginger Spice led to Ginger Baker and I was off and running. Really enjoyed this so thanks to Paul and PeterO.

  50. That was easier to fill than to parse. It’s probably the first and last time I’m grateful to GERI, which was my way in too, having lead to GINGER then BAKER then DRUMMER,…

    Good fun once I got going.

    Thanks Paul and PeterO.

    [PM@42 – that really did make me lol.

    Since tlp was unhappy with the unclear definition for THOUSAND yesterday, he/she is going to be apoplectic about OO12]

  51. Postmark@42, and I always seemed to get caught/rumbled as a schoolboy whenever I tried to do something rather naughty and outrageous, or even incongruous (which wasn’t very often, either)….

  52. Thanks for the blog, great theme and great puzzle. I do not usually like jumping around the clues but it was worth it here.
    Gazzh @ 10 has a very original idea, Spinal Tap drummers had so many accidents the new one would always be a stranger for a while.
    Bronterre@34 you are quite correct. Any object ” represented in time ” has a four-dimensional world-line.

  53. Thanks both,

    Postmark @7 et al. Space-time is only one of many possible 4D spaces so the question mark is justified, I think.

  54. Two more things to add, I actually heard Keith Moon live , just about, at the Isle of Wight festival 1969. Bob Dylan, The Who etc. I was aged MINUS eight months.

    Second and more important , Widdersbel has a splendid new puzzle, the link is on General Discussion @ 58?? or close. Really worth the effort.

  57. Martin @45, I also think the RICH drummer is more likely to be Jeff rather than Buddy as all the drummer’s in the theme are of british bands

  60. Roz @54 I was lucky enough to see The Who at Charlton in 1974 (I think), Moon and Entwhistle were extraordinary.
    The whole day, including The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, cost £4!!

  61. [And I was lucky enough to see one of the only two performances of Donizetti’s rarely performed ‘Belisario’ when, by chance, I happened to be in his hometown of Bergamo. Just saying… 🙂 ]

  62. Dave@56 , traditionally an object will have three co-ordinates , x y and z , this is Euclidean space . If we add a time co-ordinate ( actually ict ) then it has a four-dimensional world-line in Minkowski space-time. Obviously the clue cannot go into this detail but is surely clear enough.

  63. [ HYD @ 60, you were very lucky, I was too young to see all these bands when they themselves were young. I have inherited all their albums on original vinyl pressings. ]

  64. Technical question here. Like others, I enjoyed the GERI -GINGER device, but isn’t it one step removed in the same way that indirect anagrams are, the latter being so objected to by many?

  65. Dr WhatsOn @64: An indirect anagram requires the solver to think of a synonym and then shuffle the letters to fit into the solution – which is not unreasonably considered a step too far. This is just an example of a linked clue, where one solution depends on another. This did require us to go from DRUMMER to GINGER (BAKER) and then to GERI, but there was no further shuffling required.

  66. Very enjoyable. I thought the theme would be up my street, but had to resort to googling famous drummers to remind myself of Stewart Copeland, despite The Police being at their peak during my late teens. For reasons I cannot begin to describe, I spent ages trying to shoehorn Tony, or Anthony, Chapman into that slot. He apparently played very briefly with the Stones, though not live, before being replaced by Charlie Watts in 1963. Not sure if that was intended misdirection, but it sold me completely either way. Also spent ages trying to convince myself that MOON was the absurd drummer. Which he was, obviously, but it would have been an atrocious clue.

    Great fun, thanks Paul. But no Karl Burns ??

  67. Gervase@65 I would have expressed it as DRUMMER to GINGER BAKER to GINGER SPICE to GERI HALLIWELL to GERI. So put that way, there are more steps, but none of them as cognitively taxing as an anagram. So maybe it’s just a matter of what kind of difficulty an individual prefers.

  68. Dr Whatson@64 – I thought it was Ok for the same reason as Gervase and in fact I reverse-parsed Geri from LINGERIE and only then was able to work out what GINGER had to be – as I said earlier, not at my sharpest this morning. But I doubt I would have been able to do backing out that for an indirect anagram.
    [Bronterre@34: thanks for your comment which added an extra dimension to the debate – only last weekend I passed by the Tinguely museum and like your example a lot. I also wonder if Ballard’s sound sculptures from Vermilion Sands would count somehow.]

  69. My thanks to Paul and PeterO. PLACEBO (at 25), the rock band, was known for its DRUMMER (12) Steve Hewitt. Roz @54, my unborn son heard KEITH MOON backing The Who at Newcastle City Hall in 1967 – bouncing his sticks into the stalls, as was his wont. Lots of other gear smashed, as per. Happy Days.

  70. Gazzh @ 11 ….. I’d like to join the appreciation of the clip. Absolutely amazing – not been excited by drummers until I saw the Drummers of Burundi at the Broadgate centre on lunchtime ages ago! The hairs on my arms stood up when they struck up in the underground corridors, marched around the centre’s passages and then emerged to climb the steps and occupy the “ice skating rink” (in winter) , most with their drums balanced on their heads.

    Buddy Rich could not be more different, but what entertainment he provided in that Muppet show!
    Fantastic!

  71. This was a good one and took me two goes to do it. Unaccountably forgot GERI was GINGER!
    Thanks both

  72. Great story Steve@ 69 , I used to get told lots of stories about my nine months being carried around everywhere.

  73. My 7 year old stepson had the pleasure of driving Mr Moon’s Rolls Royce whilst sat on the drummer’s lap – so accelerator and brake for Keith and huge steering wheel for young Nick. No swimming pools were involved, just a public highway. Circa 1971

  74. Interesting to see the “display behind” device being used on two successive occasions (Brummie on Tuesday).

  75. Thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, thanks to PeterO for the blog.

    Thanks to Gazzh@11 for the classic clip of Buddy Rich on the Muppet Show, that made my morning

    I am coming late to the blog and my thanks to Paul for the crossword amcome with a caveat. A few complained that they were looking out for the standard Ginger Baker, Keith Moon. I didn’t mind this too much but think you missed a truck by not finding a place for a female drummer to squeeze in, say Sheila E or Sue Hadjopolous might have been fun to clue and solve. Just a minor quibble which barely anyone will read.

  76. In 12a, d is taken from the back of the band, and the drummer, who is no stranger, is usually at the back of the band. This, I believe, may be the &lit.

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